"Upstairs in the hotel. He took a pistol ball in the side but the doc says he'll be all right if he'll just rest awhile. He rode in by himself, and we had a devil of a time persuading those bigots at the hotel that he was entitled to a room, but when I told them he worked with Pecos Martin, they came around."
Tyler barely stood still for this explanation. He was on the way to the impressive edifice with the sign proclaiming "hotel" before Daniel had all the words out. Evie heard it, however, and she gave Daniel a fulsome look.
"Now everybody in town will know he's Pecos Martin. How are we going to explain that?"
Daniel looked defensive. "I couldn't leave Ben to sleep in the stable, and I'm not as good at making up stories as you are. What can it hurt if they know who he is?"
Because that wasn't who he was, but Evie couldn't tell Daniel that. She just prayed that Tyler Monteigne had the swiftness and accuracy with a gun that Pecos Martin was proclaimed to have. She'd read enough dime novels to know what happened to notorious gunslingers, and she threw the man walking away an anxious glance.
She really didn't want to see a showdown.
Chapter 9
By the time Daniel and Evie reached Ben's room, Tyler was already there. They could hear his shouts even as they hurried down the hall.
"Who the damn hell did you think you were? General Sherman? You could have got yourself killed back there and for what? A bunch of rednecks who can't tell the difference between a fox and a hen?"
They couldn't hear Ben's reply, but it wasn't necessary. All Evie's feathers were bristling, and she shoved into the room without invitation, nearly knocking Tyler from his feet with the swing of the door.
She didn't apologize as he jumped clear. She launched into him with all flags flying. "Ben was trying to save us and maybe even you, you stupid fool. If you can't appreciate that, then get out and leave him to someone who can."
Ben grinned and winked at Daniel. "Now, Miss Evie, lay off the boy. Anybody can see he can't be both pretty and smart. Besides, the sun always bakes his brains when he leaves his hat off."
Daniel snickered, and Evie smiled back at the man in the bed. Tyler glared at them all and stalked out. He didn't bother slamming the door, but the echo of his boots carried all the way down the stairs.
Ben stopped laughing. "You'd better go see to him Miss Evie, or he's likely to ride right out of here and not look back. He's got a burr up his rump you don't know nothin' about."
"That isn't all he's going to have up his rump if I have anything to say about it." Gathering up her sadly disheveled skirt, Evie swung out of the room with the determination of a soldier marching off to war.
She caught Tyler leading the horses to a building with a falling sign on which the word "livery" could still be distinguished. Ben had been wrong about Tyler riding out without looking back. No doubt he meant to water the horses first.
"What was the meaning of that scene?" she demanded as she caught up with him.
Tyler sent her a stony look and reappropriated his hat. Jamming it back on his head, he replied curtly, "It's none of your business."
"Well, it seems to me if we're paying you by the day to act like a donkey, we ought to be entitled to some explanation."
"Jackass. The word is jackass. Did you have to look these things up in the dictionary and memorize them?" Tyler handed the man coming out of the livery a greenback and started unfastening his saddlebags.
"I can say donkey if I choose. It's no skin off your nose if I choose to speak like a lady. And you're evading the point." Evie was aware the stable hand was giving her odd looks, but she could survive odd looks. She wasn't at all certain that she could survive Tyler Monteigne. The sight of those broad shoulders easily taking the weight of the saddlebags as he swung them over was giving her heart palpitations.
"You sound like a schoolteacher, and you're damned right I'm evading the point." Tyler headed back toward the hotel with Evie trailing right behind.
From the corner of his eye he could see a tall man walking their way, and it didn't