“Another man?” Could it be Hardesty?
“Aye. It is a popular horse. Four legs and some hair. I don’t understand.” She nodded toward the back of the main room. There was another set of stairs with a door that he’d wager led to a hallway of doors. “You’ll find Ross up there.”
“Which room?”
“The first on the right,” she said, confirming his suspicions. “If you wait for me, I’m the first room on the left.”
“I just need Ross.”
The men at the gaming table were now openly watching, their expressions assessing. Matt put his arm around Willa and started for the stairs.
“It will cost you if you pork that girl under my roof,” the woman called.
Matt ignored her.
“She won’t be as much fun as I am,” the woman called. That earned comment from the cardplayers.
“Aye, Sally is a good one.”
“So you say, Sal.”
“I’d take what he has on his arm already.” This was said by a greasy-haired character of indeterminate age.
“Well, they’d best keep quiet. You know my girls don’t like to have their beauty sleep disturbed this time of the morning.”
Everyone cackled at that.
Willa inched closer to Matt. “Why is it women are always offering themselves to you?” She sounded cranky. “And what did she mean by saying ‘pork’?” Willa asked.
Matt grinned. “Treating you like my wife.”
“Like your wife—? Oh.”
The stairs were rickety. Matt felt them shake with every step. However, if Ross could walk up them, he was certain he could.
“Did you find that woman attractive?” Willa asked.
Matt stopped. “What woman?”
“The one down there.”
“Willa, of course not.” He opened the door and was relieved when he could finally close it behind them.
There was a short, narrow hallway with four doors to either side and a window on the far end. Blinding sunshine bounced off the dirty panes of glass. All was very quiet as if the occupants were sleeping after a hard night’s work. There certainly wasn’t the sound of two men talking. Could Hardesty have left already and the barmaid not told him? She had appeared perverse enough to be humored by such a trick.
Matt wasn’t certain that Willa understood completely where they were, and he wanted to keep it that way.
Before looking for Ross’s room, Matt walked to the window, wanting to know where he was. The window faced the wall of another building. There was a narrow space of perhaps a foot between the two buildings.
He started to turn, ready to take on Ross, when he heard a smart rap on Ross’s door. Willa had taken it upon herself to knock. He hurried to her. “Could you wait for me? And why bother knocking?”
“I was being polite.” There was a clip to her tone.
Matt frowned. “Are you angry?”
“No, why should I be?” More clipped tones. She stared at the door as if she could bore a hole through it with her eyes; her chin was set at that angle women adopted when they were spitting mad.
“Youareangry.”
