So he accepted the handkerchiefs gracefully, for all that he didn’t need them, and followed the manager to the elevator with a grim look, as if he was counting the seconds until he could finally be alone.
Even the elevator was a ridiculously posh affair, with a uniformed bellman and everything? because, naturally, it wouldn’t do to have the guests pushing their own buttons. The manager told Lex that he had been given the largest suite the hotel had. Lex smirked inwardly at the thought of what Jeremiah and Lorella would say when they heard about that. Even when he was losing, Lex was winning. And that took a really very special kind of skill.
When they reached the thirteenth floor at the top of the hotel, the manager took Lex to the door? the only one, in fact, on that floor? unlocked it and stepped aside for Lex to enter.
It took all of Lex’s self control not to react. Never in his entire life had he seen anything so splendidly luxurious. The suite was huge. The living room area was all polished wood, with a grand ornate fireplace and big, solid armchairs that looked as if they’d never been used before. A massive fruit basket, piled high with a veritable mountain of colourful fruits, sat on the gleaming coffee table. Nothing says ‘sorry your friend is dead’ like a bunch of ripe bananas…
‘Is it to your liking, sir?’ the manager asked.
‘It’s fine, thank you.’
‘The bathroom is through the door to your right. And on the left are the bedrooms…’ The manager trailed off apologetically for, of course, the second bedroom was now to remain unoccupied.
Lex turned his head away and clenched his teeth to make a muscle twitch in his jaw, as if he was struggling to contain his emotion.
‘I expect you’d like to be left alone now,’ the manager said hurriedly. ‘The entire top floor is devoted to this suite, so rest assured you won’t be bothered by anyone. And if there is anything that I, or anyone else in the hotel, can do for you, Mr Trent, day or night, then please don’t hesitate to let us know.’
‘You’re very kind,’ Lex replied.
The manager put down Lex’s suitcase and left the room, quietly drawing the door closed behind him. Lex crossed over and locked it, then waited until he heard the elevator doors slide shut. Only then did he allow a wide grin to spread across his face. He rushed into the bathroom and goggled at the bath, which was practically big enough to swim in. Then he ran to check out the bedrooms. Both had grand four-poster beds with chocolate mints on the pillows, little fridges that were stuffed full of complimentary drinks and snacks, and even a strange-looking thing that Lex assumed must be a trouser press. There was also a liquor trolley, complete with crystal-cut tumblers and a bucket of ice. If Lex had been a drinking man he would have poured himself a celebratory drink but, as he wasn’t, he made do with a celebratory bubble bath.
Lex loved baths and soap and being clean. So if there was a big bathtub going free then Lex was always likely to get in it and stay put well past the time that his fingers got all crinkly. He didn’t even care if it was a bit of a girly habit. He liked baths? if they had bubbles in ’em as well then so much the better? and he wasn’t going to apologise for it.
He’d been in the tub for about half an hour and was just topping it up with more hot water when the bathroom door opened and a cheerful voice said, ‘Fancy place, this, ain’t it?’
Lex almost drowned in his own bath water. For there in the doorway stood Jesse, hat tipped back on his head, a bottle of beer in his hand and a stupid grin on his face.
‘Oh my Gods, what are you doing here?’ Lex spluttered, utterly horrified. ‘I told you to stay out of sight on the ship!’
The cowboy shrugged. ‘Yeah, well, I only take orders from you when it suits me to, kid. Besides, we ain’t even playing a round right now. I’m an outdoorsy sorta bloke. I can’t stay cooped up on that ship for an entire week; I’ll go barmy.’
‘You didn’t even manage one afternoon!’ Lex snapped, grabbing a nearby towel and wrapping it around himself as he stood up in the bath. ‘Everyone thinks you’re dead! What if someone saw you coming here? Did you even think of that?’
‘Relax,’ Jesse replied. ‘I didn’t stroll through the streets. Her Ladyship transported me right here to the room. No one saw nothing.’
‘No one saw anything,’ Lex corrected, being deliberately obnoxious in his anger. ‘Haven’t you ever heard of a double negative before?’
‘Can’t rightly say that I have,’ Jesse replied, completely unruffled. ‘Say, I didn’t notice that liquor trolley there before.’ And, with that, he turned away from the bathroom and walked back into the lounge.
Scowling and grumbling to himself, Lex stepped out of the bath and hurriedly got dressed. When he went into the living room, the cowboy was sprawled on one of the armchairs drinking beer from one of the crystal-cut tumblers.
‘I made it quite clear to you before we started this thing that, if you agreed to take part, you were going to have to take orders from me. I told you that was a condition and you agreed to it before you put the Binding Bracelet on!’
‘Well, I guess I wasn’t exactly telling the Gods’ honest truth when I said that,’ Jesse replied with a shrug. ‘I was in prison, kid, and you were my ticket out. I would’ve said whatever the heck you wanted to hear to get myself outta that cell.’
Lex glared ferociously at the cowboy. ‘You… you’re a blaggard, that’s what you are!’
‘Yep. But you knew that before you picked me and you gone went and did it, anyway.’
Well, there was no arguing with that. Lex had known full well what Jesse was, almost from the very moment he saw him. That was precisely why he had wanted him as his companion, and probably would have done even if it hadn’t been for Dry Gulch House. There were ways to work around this. As long as Lex paid Jesse for each round they won then he could guarantee that the cowboy would at least try. And there was no denying that he had been useful in the first round. Right up until the end, anyway.
‘You can stay because it suits me that you do,’ Lex said eventually. ‘It means I won’t have to sneak back to the ship so that we can eat together. No one will know you’re here as long as you stay put in the room and we keep the door locked at all times. In the meantime you can make yourself useful and start teaching me how to be a cowboy.’
‘Yeah, about that-’ Jesse began.
‘If you go back on your word and refuse to do it then, Gods help me, you’ll be sorry!’ Lex snapped.
‘Settle down,’ Jesse replied mildly. ‘I’ll do it. I was just gonna tell you that it’ll never work. I mean, look at you. You’re a skinny city kid.’
‘I was brought up on a farm, actually,’ Lex said coldly. ‘Besides, I’m not asking you to teach me how to be a cowboy; I’m asking you to teach me how to fake it.’
‘I just don’t think it can be done, is all. But if you wanna take a stab at it then knock yourself out, by all means.’
‘I’m a fast learner,’ Lex replied. ‘Just you wait. I’ll show you.’
‘While we’re on the subject, I don’t think the Sword of Life is real, neither.’
‘Well, the sword is none of your concern,’ Lex replied. ‘All you have to do is get me into Dry Gulch House. And if you manage that then I’ll… I’ll give you a bonus payment of two hundred pieces of m-gold.’
Jesse narrowed his eyes suspiciously. ‘You’re making a lot of promises about rewards, kid, but I ain’t seen so much as a single dollar yet. How do I know you’re good for it?’