“Number three?” Irma wrinkled her cute little nose. “I think I’ve heard about that compartment. Isn’t it called-“
“Yeah, the sweatbox.”
“Great,” she said. “We can work off all the wonderful food we’ll eat in the dining car.”
“I’m afraid that you’re not going to be allowed to join me in the firstclass dining car. It’s against the rules.”
Irma wasn’t pleased.
“We’ll be in Laramie in less than four hours,” Longarm said, wanting to console her.
“All right.” Irma sighed, slipped her arm through his, and forced a bloated smile because of her puffy lip. “Let’s board and not let anything spoil our short time together.”
As they walked back over to the boarding steps, the conductor took Irma’s ticket and said, “Second class goes right toward the rear, first class left toward the front.”
“Yeah, sure,” Longarm muttered.
“What happened to your lip, young lady?” Pete asked as he punched Irma’s ticket and returned it to her. “Did this big fella do that?”
It was meant as a joke, but neither Longarm nor Irma so much as cracked a smile.
“Next,” Pete said as he looked past them.
“Thank you,” said the pretty and familiar female voice.
Longarm slowly turned around, and there were Lady Caroline and Mrs. Addie waiting behind him.
“Good morning, Mr. Long.” Caroline directed her perfect smile at Irma. “I don’t believe we’ve been introduced.”
“My name is Irma. Who are you?”
“I’m Caroline.”
“Lady Caroline,” Mrs. Addie corrected. “And do you have a last name, Irma?”
“Sure.”
“And it is?”
“Stanton. Irma Eloise Stanton.”
“I am Mrs. Addie. That lip does look pretty swollen. Have you consulted a doctor?”
“Naw. It’ll be all right. Hurts when Custis kisses me too hard, but he’s worth the pain, aren’t cha.”
Longarm was mercifully spared further embarrassment because the locomotive engineer blasted his steam whistle and Pete called, “All aboard!”
“I hope we have a chance to get to know each other better,” Lady Caroline said to Irma with genuine warmth. “I’m sure that you are a very fascinating person.”
“Uh,” Longarm stammered, “that won’t be possible, I’m afraid.”
“Why not?”
“Irma gets off at Laramie.”
“I’d like to go all the way to Sacramento, though,” Irma said quickly. “I never been to California, but I hear it’s pretty and always warm.”
“We’re going to Sacramento,” Caroline said sweetly, “It would be nice if you could too.”
Irma shrugged even as Longarm grabbed her arm and practically threw her onto the train. “No money for a ticket that far.”
“Custis?” Caroline asked, looking concerned. “Is that poor girl all right?”
“Sure,” he replied. “She’s just … tired.”
“Oh.” Caroline looked relieved. “The girl probably just needs a nap.”
“Yes,” Longarm said as he excused himself and clambered into the train to direct Irma toward the second-class coach while he sought out his firstclass accommodations.
A few minutes later, when Longarm found compartment number three and opened the door, the heat inside struck him in the face like the heat off a blacksmith’s forge.
“Sonofabitch!” he swore. “It must be a hundred and ten in here! Pete!”
But the conductor was nowhere to be seen. Longarm felt the train lurch forward. He hesitated, then peeled off his coat and removed his tie before he stepped back inside, sweat running from every pore in his body. At least, Longarm rationalized, the compartment was spacious and the bed was just wide and long enough to accommodate himself and sweet, passionate Irma.
Longarm kicked off his boots, coat, and shirt, then flopped down on the bed with mounting anticipation. “Where is that girl?” he asked himself out loud.
Longarm lay sweating and waiting for about half an hour before there was a knock on his compartment door. “Custis?”
“Come on in!”
Irma opened the door and her eyes widened. “Whew! It’s really hot in here!”
“It’s warm, all right. But bearable. Why don’t you come inside and close the door?”
“I can’t.”
He sat up. “What does that mean?”
“Lady Caroline had invited me to join her.”
“What!”
“Custis, I’ve never had the … the privilege of meeting royalty before and I’m sure I won’t ever again. I want to talk to her.”
Longarm reached out and practically dragged Irma into his compartment. He closed the door behind her and said, “Listen, you won’t have a thing to say to that woman.”
“What makes you so damned sure of that?”
“I just know,” Longarm said.
“Well, she really sounded as if she wanted to talk to me. I’ll tell her the truth. I think she wants to meet a real frontier woman.”
“Which you are not.”
“Am too!” Irma pulled away from Longarm. “You just want me to stay here so we can sweat and hump ourselves to a frazzle. Lady Caroline is interested in my mind.”
“Oh, for crying out loud!” Longarm groaned. “I thought we were going to make love a dozen times going over the Laramie Mountains.”
“That’s before I met a real princess.”
“She’s no princess!”
Irma’s eyes flashed with anger, and sweat was beading on her upper lip, which Longarm found very sensual. He wanted her, and he’d paid for her ticket to Laramie and saved her from a beating, but he was too proud and too much the gentleman to remind her of these things.
“You want to go visit Lady Caroline, then you go right on ahead,” Longarm snapped.
“I will!”
And she did.
Longarm was furious. This was supposed to be a restful and luxurious trip out to Reno and it was turning into a misery. He found his handkerchief and mopped his brow, feeling salty sweat burn his eyes. He was going to lose weight, not gain it after three days in this miserable sweatbox.
Longarm must have dozed for a couple of hours, because he was suddenly awakened by a knock on his door. “Custis?”
“Go away, Irma. Have some tea and crumpets with the blue bloods.”
“You want to come and join us?”
“No.”
“Are you angry at me?”
“Yep.”
“Can I please come in?”
He almost said no a second time, but good sense saved him. “All right,” he said, “come in.”
Irma came into the compartment, looked at him, and said, “You’re all wet.”
“Yeah.”
“You need towels to dry off with.”
“I need more than towels.”
Irma began to unbutton her blouse. “I can see that.”
“What are you doing?”
“You know.”
“What about Lady Caroline?”
“I really like her, but Mrs. Addie is a pill. She doesn’t like me very much. So I excused myself and came to say goodbye.”
Longarm felt like a heel, but what was a man to do when a girl as pretty and passionate as Irma was already half undressed.
“We got an hour or two still before we get to Laramie,” she said with a coy smile. “But we’re going to be so wet and slick that we’ll probably keep sliding over the edge of that skinny little berth and falling on the floor. If I’m on the bottom and you’re big and hard inside me, I could get hurt.”
“I promise that won’t happen,” he said.
Irma was reassured enough to smile. “You’re a very nice man, Marshal Long. I sure wish I was traveling all the way to Reno with you.”
“Well, I do too,” he heard himself say, and realized that he meant it. “I think it would be best all the way around if we parted company in Laramie.”
She unbuttoned his pants and found his manhood. “Custis, I really am dead broke. Do you suppose I could borrow ten or twenty dollars?”
He could not refuse her. “Yeah.”