The Whippoorwill Trilogy - Sharon Sala Page 0,201

the violence of the moment. When they grabbed the man up and began dragging him out of the room, most of the others went back to their beds, while a few followed the vigilantes.

When Eulis saw that they were gone, he relaxed his stance and sat down on the side of the bed.

“What are they going to do with him?” Letty asked.

“Most likely hang him,” Eulis said.

“Good Lord,” Letty muttered, and dropped onto her cot with a thump. She stared down at her boots, uncertain whether to take them off or leave them on, just in case there was more trouble later.

“It’s no more than he deserves,” Eulis said. “People got to protect themselves the best way they know how in places like this. Claim jumpin’ is as serious here as horse stealin’. You can’t let a back shooter get away with murder.” Then he turned around and looked at her. “Go back to sleep. I’ll stay awake for a bit to make sure everything has settled down.”

Letty nodded and stretched out on her cot, but she didn’t close her eyes. Instead, she found herself looking at the back of Eulis’s head and the hard set of his shoulders as he sat between her and the world, and it occurred to her that, not since her father, had anyone ever cared enough about her to look after her welfare. She didn’t know whether Eulis was doing it out of duty, or because he cared, and right now she didn’t much care. It felt good—real good—to know that he was there.

“Eulis.”

“Hunh?”

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

Letty frowned. “I don’t know… just thank you, okay?”

“Okay,” he said, and then smiled to himself as he heard her hit the bed with a flop.

A few minutes passed.

The room and the men finally settled down, though a few, like Eulis had decided that caution was needed, and they sat up on their cots with their guns at the ready.

Eulis was so busy watching the door to make sure there were no more surprises coming through it, that he missed seeing the man staring at them from the other side of the room. But if he had, he would have been none too happy to know that Boston Jones, the gambler who’d been one of the passengers on the stagecoach on which they’d been riding, was once again, back in their lives. Boston was surprised to see them here and more than curious as to what had happened to them. If it hadn’t been for the woman speaking up, he wouldn’t have recognized either one of them, but her voice had been unmistakable. Only there were noticeable differences about them from the first time they’d met.

The preacher was leaner and there was a hard expression on his face that hadn’t been there before. The woman was thinner, too, and wearing men’s clothing. But the thing he noticed most was that they seemed to have switched power. Before, Sister Leticia had been bossy, constantly ordering the preacher around, but now it was just the reverse. Right now the preacher was on guard with his rifle across his lap and the woman had gone back to bed, obviously trusting him to take care of them both.

Boston stretched his legs out on the cot, locked his hands behind his head, and leaned back until he was resting against the wall. He sat that way for a while, listening to a couple of men talking quietly in the back while the man next to him snored. Soon, he began to grow sleepy again. He stood up, straightened his bed clothes, and then lay back down. One more time, he glanced across the room to where the preacher and his woman were sleeping, and realized the preacher was lying down and already asleep.

Boston frowned. Ordinarily, he wasn’t so unobservant. He swiped a hand over his face then felt beneath his bedroll, making sure his handgun was handy and closed his eyes. When he opened them next, it was morning.

Someone yelled “breakfast”. Within moments, all of the sleepers were rousing, anxious not to miss the meal that came with the cost of the room. Letty got up quickly and made a quick run to the outhouse, leaving Eulis to see to their belongings. He rolled up their bedrolls and stacked them on top of their bags, then carried his rifle with him as he took a quick trip outside, himself and took a piss behind a tree by the inn. By the time he came