“Stay close,” she saw him say. “There are so many people here, if we lose sight of each other, it’ll be hard to find you.”
The elation she felt died in an instant. Maybe he was just holding on so he wouldn’t lose her, as he said. If he lost her in the crowd, she couldn’t hear him calling out to her, so was that why he kept reaching for her hand?
She blew out a breath as he started walking. Not knowing where he was taking her, she followed along, gripping his hand as they wove their way through the multitude of people on the sidewalks.
They stopped in front of the telegraph office. He opened the door and ushered her inside before heading to the counter to speak with the clerk. Their exchange was so lengthy and back and forth, she lost track of the conversation and finally looked away.
Long minutes later, Clay took her hand and led them back outside. A worn bench sat underneath the windows. Motioning for her to sit, he waited until she had before taking a seat beside her.
He looked tired, she noticed, when he removed his hat, running his fingers through his hair before wiping his face on the sleeve of his shirt. The small wince he made told her he was still hurt. Those bandits had kicked him good, and even though he'd not said a word about it on their walk through the forest, she knew he was in pain. But he’d never complained. Not once, and had spent every second since the ordeal at the stagecoach looking after her and making sure she was as comfortable as she could be given the circumstances.
The tiny smile he gave her when he looked her way eased some of the fatigue she was feeling as well. Neither of them had eaten since the evening before, when they’d shared the jerky the Indian had given them.
She turned her face up to Clay and was about to ask where he thought the Indian had gone when he said, “We might be stuck here a while.”
She blinked at him. He repeated the phrase, thinking she hadn’t caught what he said, but her non-reaction was due to what he said, not that she didn’t understand him. Were they stuck here? “What do you mean?”
He blew out a breath and hooked a thumb behind him to the telegraph office. “Those bandits stole all the money I had, so I can’t send a telegraph. But even if I did, it still wouldn’t do much good as the lines are down the further north they go, which means someone would have to set out on horseback to get the message to Silver Falls, as the telegraph won’t go that far.”
Her shoulder fell. She didn’t catch every word, but she understood enough of them to know he was right. That old telegraph line went down every year. Heavy snows dragged the tree limbs down, and they would fall on the lines somewhere. It wasn’t anything new, but it rarely happened this early in autumn. “What do we do then?”
He looked back out over the town and was quiet for a long while. When he turned his head to her, he smiled. “I guess I need to find a job here to make some money. I’m used to lying my head down anywhere I can find a smooth surface, but I can’t have you sleeping on this old bench every night.”
He stood and held out his hand to her. Her heart stuttered. The expression on his face made that outstretched hand seem like more than it was, but she reached for it without question. His smile grew when she took it, and despite telling herself a man like him would never want a girl like her, her heart whispered that maybe he would.
Finding odd jobs to do was as easy as asking anyone he saw struggling with something if they needed help. He’d been doing it since he was old enough to pick up a hammer, and in a town as large as this one, work would be easy to find.
Finding an odd job that paid well would be the hard part.
He headed towards the edge of town. Every livery stable he’d ever worked in had a tack room or two, and even though they weren’t designed for comfort, they gave you somewhere safe to lay your head at night. He’d never make enough money to afford a hotel room in this town, so they’d have to compromise their comfort for a short while.
His plan seemed to fall apart when the first livery stable owner said he didn’t need any help, but luckily, the town was big enough that there were two competing stables. The owner of the second was a thin, older man named Liam. His wiry red hair was streaked with gray and looked wild and untamed. His accent sounded similar to Ewan Campbell’s, but something about it told him the man wasn’t from Scotland but somewhere close.
It took nearly twenty minutes of haggling to get an agreement out of him, and the sun was going down by the time they were shown to the tack room at the back of the stable.
Daisy had remained quiet through all the conversations they’d had, and he wasn’t even sure she’d been paying them much attention. When he led her into the tack room, he was surprised to see a small cot up against the wall. Apparently, he wasn’t the only person Liam hired to work for room and board.
“It’s not the best accommodations, but it's dry.”
Daisy looked around the small space before sitting down on the cot. Dark circles were forming under her eyes, and her hair was a mess of falling-down curls. The moment he made enough money, he’d take her over to the bathhouse and let her get cleaned up all proper like, but for now, all he could do was feed her and make sure she had somewhere soft to sleep.
“The stable owner’s name is Liam,” he said, talking slowly enough she could understand him. “He’s going to advance me some money to get us something to eat. Do you want to eat now or later?”
“Now,” she said, raising a hand to her hair before fumbling with her dangling curls. He looked around the room and found a mirror above a table along the opposite wall.
He grabbed it and handed it to her before stooping down to see her face. “Why don’t you freshen up, and I’ll go see if I can rustle us up something to eat.” He looked around the small room again. “We can eat in here if you’d like.”
“Okay.”
He headed to the door and looked at her before leaving. “Don’t go anywhere. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” He hurried out front and found Liam. After a brief conversation, he had cash in hand and was heading across town to a restaurant that adjoined one of the many hotels in town.
It took longer than he liked for them to fix two plates of food and longer still before they’d allow him to take their dishes out of the restaurant with the promise he’d bring them back before dark, but his aggravation died the moment he saw Daisy’s face light up when he opened to door to the tack room. “I had them give us double portions.”
Daisy smiled as he handed her a plate. When she sat down on the cot, he gave her the silverware and set his own meal on the small table by the wall before dragging it closer to where Daisy sat.
The old ladder-back chair in the room creaked when he sat down in it, and he hoped it would hold his weight as he settled in to eat. Neither said a word as they tucked into the food, and it wasn’t until both their plates were clean, the juices sopped up with the remaining biscuits, that he straightened and sighed. “I’m not sure I’ll be able to move for the next week after that.”
Daisy gave him a big grin after wiping her mouth. “Best meal I’ve had in two days.”
