She stepped away from him and gave a stiff nod.
“Very well, guess. But the odds of guessing correctly ten times in a row are—”
“I’ll take ten guesses, Mr. Jister,” Roman said to the egg man, blatantly ignoring Theodosia’s scholarly warning. “And when I win, I want that Winchester.” He pointed to the fancily engraved rifle.
Mr. Jister nodded and pushed the basket of eggs closer to the edge of the table. “Y’can do anything to the eggs ’cept break ’em. When you’ve picked ten, we’ll crack ’em and see how good y’guessed. First wrong guess we come to, we quit breakin’ ’em.”
For the next fifteen minutes, Roman rolled the eggs between his palms, smelled them, shook them, held them up to the sun, and even listened to them. Finally, he separated ten from the rest. “These are all boiled,” he announced.
“Well, now, let’s just see about that.” Over a wooden bowl, Mr. Jister began to crack the eggs.
Roman smiled when the first four proved to be boiled. The fifth was likewise boiled, and he tossed Theodosia a smug look.
She returned it when the sixth egg sluiced from its shell in a thick and glistening stream.
“Cain’t have the Winchester,” Mr. Jister said. “But here’s a lemon drop.”
Roman handed the candy to Theodosia. “I want ten more chances,” he said, dropping another dime onto the table. Quickly, he picked ten more eggs, and this time he decided they were all raw.
The first egg Mr. Jister cracked was boiled. “Y’want to try again?”
Roman shook his head and took Theodosia’s arm. “I didn’t win, but it was fun to guess.Fun,Miss Worth. Got that? Now, let’s go get some dessert.”
“Wait,” she said, noticing a young boy approach the table. “May I stay and watch this game for a while, Mr. Montana? I… It is truly diverting. I might even try my hand at it.” She smiled.
He didn’t miss the excitement in her smile and eyes and believed she was finally understanding the meaning of fun. “All right. I’ll go buy dessert and bring it back here. Good luck. And if you win, get me that Winchester.” Flashing her a crooked grin, he left to buy the food.
Theodosia returned her attention to the little boy.
He slid three dimes toward the game man. “This is all the money I got, and I want a bottle o’ that fancy parfume fer my mama. Today’s her birthday.”
Mr. Jister pocketed the three dimes. “Y’gotta win the perfume, kid. Go on and start guessin’.”
Sweat broke out on the boy’s freckled forehead as he began handling the eggs. His hands shaking, he finally chose thirty eggs and circled his thin arms around them to keep them from rolling off the table. “These is all raw.”
One by one, Mr. Jister broke the eggs. The first six were raw, the seventh boiled. “Y’ain’t gettin’ no perfume, kid,” he said, and laughed. “What y’get is a lemon drop.”
The boy’s eyes filled with tears. Head hung low, he trudged away from the table.
Moved to pity, Theodosia neared the table.
“Well now, little lady,” Mr. Jister drawled, his gaze roaming over her breasts. “Y’want to try? Lot’s o’ nice things to win.” He turned toward the enticing display of prizes, and as he gestured toward them, he saw the little boy standing by the rack. The child held a bottle of the perfume. “Hey, kid, put that back!”
“But—but I saved fer weeks to get that thirty cents! Today’s my mama’s birth—”
“Y’think I give a damn about when your mama was born?” Give me that bottle, or I’ll—”
“I would like to play,” Theodosia blurted, loath to hear the man’s threat.
He snatched the perfume from the boy, then shoved him away. After placing the bottle back on the rack, he returned to the table. “How many guesses do y’want, little darlin’?”
Bristling over the endearment the game man had called her, Theodosia watched as tears rolled down the boy’s cheeks. “How many eggs do you have, Mr. Jister?”
While his eyes widened, he licked his lips. “Two crates that’s got two hunnerd eggs apiece in ’em.”
She opened her reticule and withdrew two gold coins. “I will guess at all four hundred eggs. Will this be enough?”
One of the townsman stepped forward. “Ma’am,” he said gently, staring at the gleaming gold pieces, “it’s impossible to make four hundred right guesses. Are you sure you want to risk so much money?”
