The railroader was glaring first at his pocket watch and then down the tracks in the direction of Glory. Apparently
the train that was to meet them was late in arriving at this end. Longarm wouldn’t have wanted to be in the shoes of that engine crew when the boss got done with them tonight. The man didn’t look at all happy about being kept waiting there.
“We made good time,” the wagon driver offered. ‘The train isn’t due for another fifteen, twenty minutes, sir.”
The boss gave the driver a nasty look that shut the poor man up right quick. Apparently that train was due when the boss damned well wanted it, not when the crew previously had been told to be there, Longarm guessed. Nice guy.
The wagon driver, who really had done an excellent job, quickly finished unloading the luggage from his rig, then climbed back onto his driving box and wheeled the team of small but tough little mules without waiting to give his animals a breather. He touched the brim of his cap and pulled away almost immediately, leaving the would-be train passengers standing alone in the mountain wilderness. Longarm would have been willing to place a sizable wager that most days the driver would have stayed until the train arrived. And that he wouldn’t be much more than out of sight from there before he stopped again and rested his team now.
“You don’t happen to see a, um, comfort facility close by, do you?” the lady whispered to him, probably distressed now that the wagon driver was gone and no one else there would likely know anything about the services the railroad line provided. Or failed to.
“I’ll look around.” Longarm walked up to the platform and checked. There were no signs in place there to show the way to any rest rooms, and certainly there were no outhouses visible. There was, however, a barely visible path beaten into the brush at trackside. Maybe that led to a sink or cat hole anyway. He went back and got the lady and guided her to the start of the path. “This way, ma’am.”
The path proved to be a disappointment, though. It led not to a latrine but to a barren patch of gravel beside the creek that had carved this canyon they were in.
“Sorry, ma’am. But at least there’s some brush between here an’ the platform. If you, uh, wanta put up with, um, primitive conditions.”
“I am afraid I have no choice, Mr. Longarm.” “Ma’am?” His confusion arose because he hadn’t told her his name. Nor, for that matter, had he been given hers.
“Forgive me if I’ve offended you. It was written on your cup.”
“Oh, yes.” He’d forgotten. The engraving. “Longarm from Jessica, with Love.” And a date that had only private meaning.
“Is it a pet name that I should avoid?” she asked.
“No, just a nickname my friends use. An’ you’re welcome to too.”
“Then so I shall, Mr. Longarm.”
“Not mister, just plain Longarm, okay?”
“As you wish. I am Leah Skelde.”
“Miss Skelde.” He bowed to her.
“Just plain Leah would be friendlier, Longarm.”
“My pleasure, Leah.” He bowed again.
“May I ask a favor of you, Longarm?”
“Anything within reason.”
“Then turn your back, please, while I make a dash for those bushes over there.”
He laughed. Now that she was speaking he liked her all the more. She acted like a lady, but could talk blunt and honest too. “I think that’s within reason, Leah.” He touched his Stetson to her and turned his back. He could hear her scurry away into the brush to relieve herself.
•There wasn’t anything to do but stare straight ahead, which happened to be in the direction of the mountain stream and the hillside opposite it. Leah took long enough peeing that Longarm got a very good look at that bit of empty country.
A mildly odd little bit it was too, once he thought about
it.
There was the fact that a path led down there to begin with. Not that it was much of a path, and it sure hadn’t
been used very often. Still, he could see where people had passed back and forth along it for no obvious purpose.
Yet when he looked closer he could see that there were some flat stones laid in the creek bed. Creating a sort of ford there? He couldn’t be sure.
And on the hillside opposite him there was a place that looked kind of like an avalanche chute, an area where it looked like rock had fallen, gouging the red earth bare like a footpath, except much, much too steep there for anything, even a goat, to walk. But much too narrow for it to be a winter avalanche zone. Those were always fairly broad and easily spotted from miles away. This was much smaller than that. And anyway, there wasn’t any rock scree nor fallen timbers at the base of the hillside to account for it being an avalanche site.
Odd, Longarm thought.
He might have suspected it was a path used by prospectors leaving the train at the end-of-track platform, except that it was so steep. Couldn’t be any sort of path, he concluded.
What it came right down to, he finally determined, was that he had no idea what in hell could’ve caused it. Or why.
He quit pondering it when he heard Leah’s footsteps approaching him from behind. She came up beside him and linked her arm into his.
“I’m impressed, Longarm. You didn’t peek even once.” Her veil was thrown back, and this time he could get a good look at her. The sight had been worth waiting for. She was even prettier than he’d thought.
“Reckon I’m a little too old t’ be satisfied with a glimpse o’ petticoat, Leah.”
Her smile turned into a grin, and that into a laugh. “Oh, Longarm. You can’t know.”
“Know what, Leah?”
“How hard it was for me to keep from laughing before. In that wagon. When you were riding so stem and serious and trying not to admit that you had a tent pole stuck behind your fly.”
“You ...T
“Have I shocked you, Longarm? I apologize. Sort of.” She gave him an impish grin and squeezed his elbow. “But I couldn’t not see a thing that huge, could I?”
“You aren’t....”
“Everything I seem to be? No. But I’m not everything I once was either.”
“Now I’m more confused than before,” he admitted.
“I only brought it up so I could explain, dear Longarm. You see, the gentleman on the coach may well have remembered me from before. And I did indeed use a great many names. And do a great many things that I probably shouldn’t have done. It is entirely possible that he has fucked me in the past, Longarm. Or wanted to and couldn’t afford me then, which is somewhat more likely since I don’t remember him at all. I was expensive, you see. I was the very best if I do say so myself. Now all of that is behind me. Now I am an investor and sometimes a saloon keeper and gaming-hall proprietor. But nobody, Longarm, nobody ever comes into my bed nowadays except by invitation.” She squeezed his elbow again. “You are a lovely man, Longarm. Consider yourself invited.”
“I dunno about bein’ a lovely man,” he said with a chuckle, “but I’d sure have t’ say that I’m a lucky one.” Leah smiled and came onto her tiptoes to give him a brief hint of what her invitation entailed. Her mouth found his, and her tongue darted and flickered. She tasted faintly of mint and perhaps other spices as well, and her scent was that of spring wildflowers. There was no way to -judge her figure, hidden as it was behind the padding of a gown stiff enough and heavy enough to withstand the rigors of hard travel. But her body was certainly plenty warm enough. Longarm’s erection was returning at double strength.