He stepped out onto the boardwalk, carefully looked all around him, as was his habit, and then headed for the cafe, preferring that over the hotel dining room. He took a seat one table over from Miss Sally Reynolds. They were the only customers in the cafe, the lunch hour over. He felt eyes on him and looked up into her hazel eyes. He smiled at her.
“Pleasant day,” Buck said.
“Very,” Sally replied. “Now that school is out for the summer, it’s especially so.”
“I regret that I don’t have more formal education,” Buck said. “The War Between the States put a halt to that.”
“It’s never too late to learn, sir.”
“You’re a schoolteacher?”
“Yes, I am. And you…?”
“Drifter, ma’am.”
“I…don’t think so,” the young woman said, meeting his gaze.
Buck smiled. “Oh? And why do you say that?”
“Just a guess.”
“What grades do you teach?”
“Sixth, seventh, and eighth. Why do you wear two guns?”
“Habit.”
“Most of the men I’ve seen out here have difficulty mastering one gun,” Sally said. “My first day out here I saw a man shoot his big toe off trying to quick-draw. I tried very hard not to laugh, but he looked so foolish.”
Buck again smiled. “I would imagine so. But I should imagine the man minus the toe failed to find the humor in it.”
“I’m sure.”
Conversation waned as the waitress brought their lunches. Buck just couldn’t think of a way to get the talk going again.
Deputy Rogers entered the cafe, sat down at the counter, and ordered coffee.
Rogers glared at Sally as she said to Buck, “Will you be in Bury long?”
“All depends, ma’am.”
“Lady of your quality shouldn’t oughta be talkin’ to no bounty hunter, Miz Reynolds,” Rogers said. “Ain’t fittin’.”
Buck slowly chewed a bite of beef.
“Mr. Rogers,” Sally said. “The gentleman and I are merely exchanging pleasantries over lunch. I was addressing the gentleman, not you.”
Rogers flushed, placed his coffee mug on the counter, and abruptly left the cafe.
“Deputy Rogers doesn’t like me very much,” Buck said.
“Why?” Sally asked bluntly.
“Because…I probably make him feel somewhat insecure.”
“A very interesting statement from a man who professes to have little formal education, Mr….?”
“West, ma’am. Buck West.”
“Sally Reynolds. Western names are very quaint. Is Buck your Christian first name?”
“No, ma’am. But it might as well be. Been called that all my life.”
“Are you a bounty hunter, Mr. West?”
“Bounty hunter, cowhand, gunhand, trapper. Whatever I can make a living at. You’re from the east of the Mississippi River, ma’am?”
“New Hampshire. I came out here last year after replying to an advertisement in a local paper. The pay is much better out here than back home.”
“I…sort of know where New Hampshire is. I would imagine living is much more civilized back there.”
“To say the least, Mr. West. And also much duller.”
Hang around a little longer, Sally, Buck thought. You haven’t seen lively yet. “Would you walk with me, Miss Reynolds?” Buck blurted. “And please don’t think I’m being too forward.”
“I would love to walk with you, Mr. West.”
The sun was high in the afternoon sky and Sally opened her parasol.
“Do you ride, Miss Reynolds?” Buck asked.
“Oh, yes. But I have yet to see a sidesaddle in Bury.”
“They ain’t too common a sight out here.”
“Ain’t is completely unacceptable in formal writing and speech, Mr. West. But I think you know that.”
“Yes, ma’am. Sorry.”
She tilted her head, smiling, looking at him, a twinkle in her eyes. As they walked, Buck’s spurs jingled. “Which line of employment are you currently pursuing, Mr. West?”
“Beg pardon, ma’am?”
“Bounty hunter, cowhand, gunhand, or trapper?”
“I’m lookin’ for a killer named Smoke Jensen. Thirty thousand dollar reward for him.”
“Quite a sum of money. I’ve seen the wanted posters around town. What, exactly, did this Jensen do?”
“Killed a lot of people, ma’am. He’s a fast gun for hire, so I’m told.”
“Faster than you, Mr. West?”
“I hope not.”
She laughed at that.
A group of hard-riding cowboys took that time to burst into town, whooping and hollering and kicking up clouds of dust as they spurred their horses, sliding to a stop in front of one of the saloons.
Buck pulled Sally into a doorway and shielded her from the dust and flying clods.
When the dust had settled, Buck stepped aside and Sally stepped once more onto the boardwalk. “Those are men from the PSR Ranch,” she said. “Rowdies and ruffians, for the most part.”
“PSR?” Buck asked, knowing full well what the letters stood for.
“Potter, Stratton, Richards. It’s the biggest ranch in the state, so I’m told.”
“How do they get their cattle to market?” Buck asked. “I know they don’t drive them over the Divide.”
“They haven’t made any big drives yet. I understand that so far they’ve sold them to people in this area. Leesburg, Salmon, Lemhi. Small communities within a fifty-to seventy-mile radius. The big drive is scheduled for late next spring. They’ll be using a hundred or more cowboys.”
“Quite an undertaking.”
“Oh, yes.”
A door opened behind them. A very pretty lady emerged from the dress shop. “Sally,” she said. She gave Buck a cool glance and walked on down the boardwalk.
“That is, ah, Mr. Richards’s mistress, Buck. Her name is Jane.”
Buck had just seen his sister for the first time in almost ten years.
7
“You have an odd look in your eyes, Buck,” Sally said.
“I never have gotten used to being snubbed, I suppose. But I suppose I should have, by now. But to be snubbed by a common whore irritates me.”
“She may be a whore, but she isn’t common,” Sally corrected that. “I’m told she speaks three languages very fluently; her home is the showcase of the state; and her carriage was built and brought over from France.”
“Oh?” Now where in the devil did Janey learn three languages? he thought. She quit school in the eighth grade.
“Here she comes now,” Sally said.
It was a grand carriage, all right. The coachman was a black man, all gussied up in a military-looking outfit. Four tough-looking riders accompanied the carriage. Two to the front, two to the back.
As the carriage passed, Buck removed his hat and bowed gallantly.
Even from the boardwalk, Sally could see the woman in the carriage flush with anger and jerk her head to the front. Sally suppressed a giggle.
“Oh, you made her mad, Buck.”
“She’ll get over it, I reckon.” Buck remembered the time, back before the war, when he had rocked the family outhouse—with his sister in it. She’d chased him all over the farm, throwing rocks at him.
“That funny look is back in your eyes, Buck. What are you thinking?”
“My own sister,” he said.
“Does Jane remind you of her?”
“Not really. I haven’t seen the sister I remember in a long time. I’ll probably never see that girl again.”
Sally touched his arm. “Oh, Buck. Why do you say that?”
“There is nothing to return to, Sally. Everything and everyone is gone.”
He took her elbow and they began to walk toward the edge of town. They had not gone half a block before the sounds of hooves drumming on the hard-packed dirt came to them. Two of the bodyguards that had been with Jane reined up in the street, turning their horses to face Buck and Sally.
Buck gently but firmly pushed Sally to one side. “Stand clear,” he said in a low voice. “Trouble ahead.”