“You can have a woman if you don’t mind my cousin Hermione,” Dan said.
“The boys pimp out their sister?”
“Don’t let them fool you,” Dan said. “Hermione is the one in charge.”
“Really? I heard she was the baby of the litter.”
“She’s also the only one with any brains.”
“What about you?” Lancaster asked. “You seem to have some brains.”
“I’m only a cousin,” Dan said. “Thank God.”
“So Hermione whores herself out?”
“Don’t let the smiles fool you,” Dan said. “Any one of them will do anything to make a dollar.”
Lancaster took another measured swallow.
“You want another?”
“No, this is good. So tell me, why would anyone actually come here? I mean, why would they purposely head here?”
“Here? To town?” Dan shrugged. “Beats me. Maybe they’d go to one of the ranches, but here?”
“Maybe,” Lancaster said, “I should meet your cousin Hermione.”
George turned to see who was coming down the stairs—not that it was any great mystery.
Hermione Dickson crossed to the desk and stared at her brother, whose smile seemed to freeze.
“Who’s the man who just rode in?”
“Henry says his name is Lancaster.”
“What did he want?”
“A room.”
Hermione was not a large person. In fact, all of her brothers were physically larger than her, but they were cowed by her intelligence and the force of her personality.
“That’s all?”
“That’s all he asked for.”
Hermione looked inward and said, “It don’t make sense. He must be here for somethin’.”
“Well,” her brother said, “we got all night to find out what.”
Thirty-eight
Lancaster nursed his beer.
Dan just stood behind the bar and watched.
“You ever get any other customers?”
“Sure,” Dan said. “Some of the ranch hands come in once in a while, but there are a couple of saloons in Audley, more in Seligman.”
“That’s a long ride.”
“Some of the ranches are halfway between here and Audley. Just as long a ride either way. More beer and women there.”
That made coming to Peach Springs even more of a mystery. Maybe he was in the wrong place. Maybe there was another town with peach in the name. He posed the question to Dan.
“Not that I know of,” the bartender said. “Not in Arizona, anyway.”
“Why do you stay here?” Lancaster asked.
“Why?” Dan spread his arms. “I own all this. If I go someplace else, I won’t own nothin’.”
“I guess you have a point there.”
“Besides,” Dan added, “Hermione won’t let me go, and I’m as afraid of her as her brothers are. Maybe more, because I don’t think she’d hesitate to kill me.”
“I’m gettin’ more and more curious to meet this woman.”
“Oh, I’m sure you will,” Dan said. “She’s probably been watchin’ you from on high.”
“On high?”
“Second floor of the hotel, front,” Dan said. “Hermione made sure she has the best room in the hotel.”
“Down the hall from me?”
“Probably.”
Lancaster pushed the beer mug away with a third of it still there.
“Somethin’ wrong?” Dan asked.
“I’ve had enough,” Lancaster said. “Since we’re bein’ so clear and honest with each other, Dan, let me ask you a question.”
“Go ahead,” Dan said, leaning his elbows on the bar. “Bartenders are good at answering questions.”
“Well, maybe more than one,” Lancaster said. “Have there been any other strangers in town in the past—oh, month or so?”
“Nope,” Dan said. “None.”
“You answered that one real quick.”
“I think I’d notice if any strangers came to town.”
“Yeah, I guess you would.”
“Are you here lookin’ for somebody?”
“I am looking for somebody,” Lancaster said, “and I thought they might have passed through here.”
“Why?” Dan asked. “Why would anybody come here?”
“For the beef stew?”
At that point the batwings opened and one of the brothers came in. At the moment, Lancaster didn’t know which one it was.
“Hello, George.”
“Dan.”
“What are you doin’ here?” Dan asked. “Why aren’t you at the hotel?”
“No customers,” George said. “So Hermione sent me over.”
Dan gave Lancaster a “See, I told you so” look.
“Does she want me?” Dan asked. “Or our guest?”
George frowned at Dan and asked, “Why would she want to see you?”
Thirty-nine
Lancaster followed George back to the hotel and up to the second floor. Sam gave him a smile along the way. Going up the stairs, he remembered Dan telling him not to be fooled by their smiles.
He noticed that none of the brothers wore guns, so he didn’t feel threatened. He didn’t see any reason not to follow George up to Hermione’s room. After all, she was in charge, and he probably should have been talking to her the whole time.
George led him down the hallway, past his room, to the door at the end of the hall. There they stopped, and George knocked.
“Come in,” a woman’s voice said.
George opened the door.
Lancaster was about to get his first look at Hermione Dickson, who seemed to be in charge of the entire town—all three buildings—of Peach Springs, Arizona.
“Hermione?” George said. His voice quavered just a bit. “Mr. Lancaster is here.”
“Get out, George,” the woman said.
“Yes, Hermione.” George gave Lancaster a look, then turned and went back up the hall.
“Come on in, Lancaster,” Hermione said.
He walked in the door and saw her standing by the window. She was a tall, rawboned woman with short red hair, wearing a plain cotton dress that obviously had nothing underneath it. The kindest thing you could say about her was that she was a handsome woman. Not what you’d expect to find in a whorehouse or a saloon. He supposed if a man came to town looking for a woman, and Hermione was what he got, he could make it work.
“Close the door, please,” she said.
He did.
“I been watchin’ you since you came to town,” she said.
“That a fact?”
“Oh yeah. You spent some time talkin’ to my cousin Dan.”
“He’s a bartender,” Lancaster said. “That’s what you do with a bartender, you talk to him.”
She stood framed in the window, the light coming in from behind her, making her dress almost transparent. She had to be aware of that, but she didn’t have the body to give it the desired effect.
She folded her arms beneath her small breasts.
“Why did you come to Peach Springs, Lancaster?”
“I’m told men come here for the food, and the, uh, female companionship.”
“You got a good look at me, right?” she asked, dropping her arms to her sides. “You think men come here for me? You didn’t come here for me.”
Lancaster gave it some quick thought. He had not seen a gun since he arrived, and certainly no one had made any kind of threatening move toward him. The entire town was made up of one woman, her four brothers, and their cousin—who seemed to be the smartest of the men. And he said he hadn’t seen a stranger in town in over a month.
“Okay,” Lancaster said, “okay, Hermione—uh, Miss Dickson.”
“Hermione’s good,” she said. “Just Hermione.”
He wondered why, with a name like that, she didn’t have some sort of nickname.
“Hermione, I’m looking for a man named Adderly,” he said. “I was told he was coming here to meet a man, named Cardiff.”