“What can we do to help?” Rafe asked.
“There’s about three fellers blocking the steps up to the diner. Good folks can’t get in for their supper. I told them to get, even pulled a pistol on them, but they’re either too drunk or too stupid to move.” She paused. “I considered shooting one of them in the leg, but I figured that would make it harder for him to get out of my way. I shot at the ground instead, but that didn’t do a darned thing to scare them off. Don’t think they’re much afraid of bullets.”
Trust Miss Danforth to go shooting to attempt to scare off men twice her size. Rafe counted them lucky she hadn’t stuck a bullet in one of their limbs. Instead, she was here, scowling in all her impatience.
He wasn’t getting home for supper just yet.
Jackson was already shrugging into his jacket. Rafe grabbed his hat, and together they followed Miss Danforth out the door.
The sun was hanging low in the sky, a sign for the saloons in Perseverance to start to come to life. Rafe lent a practiced eye to each one as they passed, but there was nothing amiss this early in the evening. As they passed Watson’s, he wondered how the lady who’d found herself married to him was faring. She’d need to have a backbone of steel to withstand some of the men who frequented the establishment. Watson didn’t put up with fights or rowdy drunkards, but his clientele was still as rough as every other saloon in town.
“Still there.” Miss Danforth glared at the men in front of the diner. “Lazy lunks. Probably hoping Jenny will give them something for free to get them to leave.”
Rafe assessed the situation. The three men looked like miners from up in the mountains. Clothing streaked with dirt and untrimmed beards gave that away. Two sat on the steps, one behind the other, and the third leaned on the railing.
“Where’s Billy?” Rafe asked Jackson.
“Will,” the larger man corrected him.
Rafe fought the urge to roll his eyes. The younger man had every right to decide what he’d be called, and just after his bride arrived, he’d decided Will was more appropriate. But it was going to take some time before Rafe would remember it. “Fine. Where’s Will? He ought to have chased them off by now.”
“Off serving a warrant.”
Rafe raised an eyebrow at Jackson. “Alone?”
The other man shrugged. “Hawk didn’t seem to think it was much risk. And it pays better than Mrs. Garner pays him to scare off the drunks. Will’s been desperate to make some more money, what with that baby and all.”
“Darn shame, that little thing left by his mother,” Miss Danforth said. She made a disapproving noise with her tongue.
When he found out about the baby, Rafe could barely wrap his mind around Billy Morrell being a father. He still couldn’t, in fact. Billy—Will—was just barely out of boyhood himself. Or so Rafe thought. He realized he actually had no inkling of how old the kid was.
“Right,” he said. “Ready to get this over with? I’ve got a beef stew waiting for me at home.”
Jackson grinned, whether because of the thought of beef stew or because he looked forward to the task at hand, Rafe didn’t know. Jackson was one of the least offensive men in town, but something about him—whether it was his stature or the way he carried himself after spending years in the Army—intimidated most men bent on ill will.
“Time to move along, gentlemen,” Jackson said, approaching the group.
Miss Danforth watched gleefully from the side, a hand on one of the pistols she wore as if she’d happily take it out and start shooting if they asked her to.
“We’ve every right to sit here,” the man at the top of the steps said. “We’re waiting on our supper.”
“If you’re a paying customer, go inside. If not, then get.” Rafe didn’t have the patience to lobby words back and forth with anyone at the moment. Not when he could be at home with Hannah and his supper.
“Tell you what,” the fellow sitting on the bottom step said. “Get us each a plate, and we’ll be on our way.”
“You got money?” Rafe asked, already knowing the answer.
“I got a couple pennies,” the same man said, causing the others to laugh.
Rafe sighed inwardly. This wasn’t going to happen quickly. He hoped Hannah would keep his plate warm.
Chapter Fourteen
Itwasnearlydarkoutside when Hannah peered out the front window for at least the fifth time that evening. From the main road off to the right, the sounds of men calling to one another sounded louder than normal.
Hannah stepped back, closed the window, and drew the curtains shut. There was no use looking out the window. It wouldn’t make Rafe arrive any faster.
She turned around and considered the supper that was waiting for them. It wasn’t abnormal for him to arrive home late, considering the nature of his work. But he usually came home for supper and left again, if he knew it would be a late night.
