everything going wrong at once. Actually, she wasn't used to anything going wrong, ever. Nanny had always seen that everything in their lives went smoothly. There hadn't been much she could do about Evie's parentage or Daniel's limp, but beyond that they had lived relatively uneventful lives.
And now they were almost broke, she might be pregnant, and Daniel—her best friend—was turning rebellious. The simplest thing to do would be to break down and cry.
Before she could do so, the heavens did it for her. Rain crashed against the hotel's tin roof, and they both ran to the window to see their first Texas storm.
"My word, it moved in fast." Evie watched the thick clouds scudding across the sky. Rain plastered the windows and sent gullies down the dirt streets, falling faster than the ruts could carry it off.
"We're going to get wet if we go to the cafe to eat," Daniel said gloomily.
"I don't suppose you've heard any word about a place to live, have you?" Unable to bear the gray gloom, Evie turned from the window to pick up a book. She'd had all the trunks carried up, and they now filled an entire corner of the room, spilling books and paints and all the accoutrements of fine living.
"Mr. Averill says I can make a bed in the back of the shop if I want. That will give us enough money for you to stay here for a couple more weeks. Maybe the lawyer will be back by then."
"If you stay there, then I'll stay with my students. That will give us enough to scrape by on for a month, if we can stand a month of soup and crackers. I wish there were some discreet way of selling some of my clothes but there isn't even a dressmaker in town." Actually Evie did have an idea about how to sell some of her evening gowns, but she wasn't about to mention it to Daniel.
"Maybe you can persuade the school board to pay your salary monthly instead of quarterly. With free rooms, we could eat a little better, and you wouldn't have to sell anything."
Evie had contemplated that idea, but she suspected it would lead to talking to Jace Harding and then word would get to Tyler that they were short of cash, and she wasn't about to have that happen. She would sell all her clothes first.
"We'll see," she replied evasively.
They read until the rain let up enough to venture out. By that time it was almost dark. Evie offered to bring soup back for Daniel, but he insisted on accompanying her. He couldn't offer much protection, but Nanny had brought him up to behave like a gentleman, even if he never could be a whole one. And gentlemen didn't allow ladies to walk the streets at night unescorted.
The boardwalk was wet and slippery as they started out for the cafe. Oil lamps flickered in several windows along the way, but the hotel was in the town's business district, and most everyone had gone home. The saloon in the other direction was conducting a noisy business, but the rain had kept even their customers home to a great extent. The music was loud but the laughter was not.
The early gloom depressed their spirits as much as the bowls of potato soup that constituted their supper. Evie tried to keep their spirits up by commenting it was good that they didn't have beans again, but Daniel growled that it could at least have been beef, and the conversation died after that.
Rain had begun to fall again when they left the cafe. Daniel's cane slipped on the slick surface of bare wood, but he caught himself and remained upright. Evie could have gone to the hotel twice as fast on her own, but Daniel's mood was so bad that she couldn't do that to him. She expressed fear of the shadows and clutched his arm when a drunk down the road staggered out of the saloon cursing someone still inside. Daniel straightened and walked a little faster.
Perhaps it was her fault then, that he slipped on the steps down to the cross street. He was hurrying to impress her, and this time when the cane slipped and his foot went out from under him, he couldn't make the adjustment. He staggered, grabbed for support, and went stumbling sideways down the stairs into the mud.
Evie screamed as he pitched forward, but she screamed even louder a moment later at a snapping