“Yes?”
“Alone. I was making sure we’re alone.”
“Ah. You might have just asked.”
She gave him the disdainful look he deserved. “And if we weren’t alone? Don’t you think the question might have raised an eyebrow?”
“I concede to your superior logic. We can talk over there.” He cocked his head to indicate the buggy that Ben had recently brought inside and unhitched. “I know you’re skittish around Buttercup, and God knows, she’s jealous of you. I’ll just put her in the stall.”
Phoebe waited until Remington joined her before she asked, “You were pulling my leg about Buttercup, weren’t you?”
Straight-faced, he said, “Ask her yourself.”
Phoebe waved his answer away and came to the purpose of her visit. “I think I saw him. Mr. Shoulders, I mean. I can’t be sure, not completely, and yet if it didn’t feel as if I were, I wouldn’t be telling you now.” She doubted that Remington was aware that his easy way of standing, loose and limber, had vanished. He was alert in a manner he had not been before; his dark eyes had sharpened and narrowed their focus, and his finely molded features were set in a fashion that made them impenetrable.
“Where?” he asked.
“In town.”
“Wherein town?”
His tone was not merely impatient, but mildly belittling, as if she should have known to tell him that at the outset. Her nostrils pinched as she sucked in a breath and prepared to match his tenor, but at the last moment, an element of common sense prevailed and she answered evenly and with dignity. “He was walking out of the saloon. The Songbird, I think.”
“That’s it. There’s only the one saloon.”
“Oh, I didn’t realize. I didn’t see his face, but I don’t think that would have helped identify him just then. He turned toward the depot end of town, which put his back to me. He paused, and I confess, I stopped as well. It just struck me suddenly, the way he stood there, and all I could do was stare.”
“So you didn’t call attention to yourself?”
“No, but I reached for my gun before I remembered that it’s likely still in his possession.” When his face darkened, she smirked. “You are an easy mark, Remington Frost, and that you believed me for even a single moment is not flattering.”
“This is serious, Phoebe.”
“I know it is, but he’s not suddenly going to appear on Twin Star land, and there’s every chance that he left town since he eventually began walking in the direction of the station. There’s nothing to be done right now.”
He rolled right over her explanation. “Tell me what you saw that made you think he was Mr. Shoulders.”
“I don’t know if I can describe it. He wasn’t wearing the duster, so it wasn’t that. There was something about the way he hunched his shoulders, I think. It stretched his vest across his back. This isn’t something I could have seen when I was with him, yet I was put in mind of how he sat in the saddle, his shoulders pushed forward. It was not even something of which I was aware at the time, but then I saw it and it touched a memory. He turned, only briefly, but just enough for me to glimpse a quarter profile. First, there was the angle of his hat. It was so familiar. The hand that I couldsee had its thumb hooked in the waistband of his trousers, but more importantly, it rested above his gun and holster. Deputy Armstrong asked me that night if I recalled the gun, but I didn’t, and there was nothing I could tell him. I still don’t know what type of gun he was carrying, but I know now it had an ivory handle. Iknowit.”
She fell silent, waiting for him to challenge her. When he didn’t, she forgave him for his earlier misstep. “It sounds fantastical, I know. I can’t explain it. I think there must be tiny seeds in my brain that began to sprout images when I saw him. Do you think that’s possible?”
“Do you believe Mr. Shoulders is sunlight and water?”
“Hardly.”
“Then you probably don’t have seeds.”
“I didn’t mean it quite so literal.”
His smile was gentle. “I know.”
She flushed. “Oh, you were having me on.”
“A little.” He let that rest for a moment and then said, “I was in here when Ben came back with the buggy and took care of the horses. He didn’t say anything. Did you ask him not to?”
“I didn’t tell him.”
“I don’t think I understand. Wasn’t he with you when this happened? He would have noticed something was wrong; furthermore, he would have asked you about it.”
