The Whippoorwill Trilogy - Sharon Sala Page 0,245

with food and ammunition, as well as a good horse. A man needs a good horse. Never know when you might need to go somewhere.”

The man’s mouth dropped. Again Letty saw unshed tears in his eyes. He looked at Letty, then at Eulis, then down at the coffee cup he still held in his hands. Letty saw him take a deep breath and then raise his head.

“I’d be staying here with you folks?”

“No,” Eulis said. “We’re building us a house near town. I reckon if we don’t move onto the site soon, we’ll never get it finished.”

“You trust me to do this?”

“I reckon I do,” Eulis said.

“What’s to keep me from stealing some of your gold and riding off with it?”

“I reckon the same thing that made you stop them men who was shootin’ at my feet.”

“Maybe I just had a headache that day. Maybe I just didn’t want to hear the noise,” he said.

“No sir,” Eulis said.

The stranger glanced at Letty. “I appreciate what you’re saying. God knows I do. But I need to remind you to think about your wife. I haven’t been around decent folk in so long that I don’t know how to act.”

Letty snorted lightly.

“Me, either,” she said, and got up to refill his coffee again.

Eulis grinned.

“Umm, my wife here has had a few obstacles in her life as well.”

Letty’s snort was a little bit louder.

“I worked at the White Dove… and I wasn’t scrubbing floors.” When she smiled at Eulis, she was unaware that her affections for him shown all over her face. Then she turned around and offered the man her hand. “Leticia Potter. But you can call me Letty.”

There was a moment of hesitation, and then the man pushed his chair back and stood.

“My name is Robert Lee Slade. Some people call me Robert Lee.” He hesitated for a moment, and then reluctantly added. “And some call me the Cherokee Kid.”

It was to Letty’s credit that she didn’t falter when she shook his hand. She’d seen a man who called himself the Cherokee Kid draw down on a gambler who was cheating, shoot him through the heart, then sit back down and ask for a new deck of cards. But he was a far cry from looking like the man standing before her. Maybe one day they’d learn how he’d come to these hard times, and maybe they wouldn’t.

For now, it seemed his arrival could be the answer to their problems, and that his presence would also put an end to her worries about Eulis’ well-being.

“Pleased to meet you,” Letty said, and then smoothed her hands down the front of her shirt before adding, “I feel it’s only right to tell you the same thing that I told the other men who work for us.”

“And that was?” Robert Lee asked.

“That if you so much as harm a hair on my Eulis’ head, I will hunt you down like a dog, nail your balls to a tree, and scatter what’s left of you to the wolves.”

For the first time since his arrival, Robert Lee looked—really looked—at the woman who’d just fed him. And in that moment, there was a tiny part of him that envied Eulis Potter for the woman who’d claimed his heart.

“Fair enough,” he said.

“All right then,” Letty said, and glanced toward the door. “You can move now, T-Bone.”

The pup stood, eyed the stranger one more time, then turned and trotted away, leaving the doorway empty.

A week had passed since Robert Lee’s arrival into their lives. His coming had lifted the weight of Eulis’ responsibilities so dramatically that he was now actually sleeping through the night. Before, he hadn’t had one calm moment since the day Letty had found that gold, although he’d hidden the worst of his fears from Letty, or so he’d thought.

But she had known. She’d been lying beside him every night since their marriage. She’d felt the tension in his body and the way he’d tossed and turned. The burden of being rich was more than either of them could have imagined, even though their lifestyle had yet to reflect the gold and currency piling up in the Denver City bank in their name.

Now, Robert Lee’s arrival afforded them the perfect opportunity for change. Having given up their cabin, they were residing in Denver City’s only hotel, second floor, last room on the left, at the end of the hall.

Their new house finally had windows, but the furniture they’d ordered months ago had yet to arrive, and