your joshing.” Brie’s face was turning a bright red. She came over and kicked me in the shins.
Jake was watching us both, I swear he was smiling. I had forgotten that he slept behind the kitchen range. Brie and I ate most of our meals in the kitchen. It seems that my presence at the dinning room table intimidated some of our boarders. Probably because I was never without my twin .44’s.
Margaret had made up a platter for the two drunks that I had in Jail, I always fed them before they were released. I went and fed the livestock, then I came back and got the basket of food. I made sure I always had one hand free, I was ambidextrous.
They scoffed that food down like there was no tomorrow. Couldn’t blame them, Margaret was a good cook. I gave them back their guns. They were a couple of Harold Specter’s hands. You remember they were having a little difficulty with Evan Blythe last fall. Blythe is trying to run them off of their ranch. With the cold winter, things had sort of been in limbo.
Their names were Charles and Robert Ringer. This was the first night they had on the town all winter. Couldn’t blame them for blowing off steam. “I took your horses over to the livery, tell Henry I will be by and pay him for their keep.”
“Thanks a lot Marshal, you’ve always treated us right, if you ever need anything, my brother and me will be there with bells on.” Charles said, he was the oldest of the brothers Ringer.
“Well, one never knows, someday I might take you up on that.” I said, as I closed the Jail door behind them. I went back to my desk and started going through the mail, there was quite a bunch of it. It was over a month since we got the last mail.
I looked out of the window, a Chinook wind was blowing. I hoped it wasn’t an ill wind. You see as soon as the ground thawed, there would be a lot of funerals. Everyone who had died or been killed all winter was stored in the ice house. And of course one of them was Blythe’s kid. I knew I hadn’t seen the last of Blythe on that score.
In this batch of mail was a bunch of new wanted poster’s from the U. S. Marshal’s office in Helena. A few of the boys in them wanted poster’s I knew. Some of them were some pretty bad men.
One of them in particular caught my eye: Sam Benbow. I seen him in action one time. He was pure mean, and when he got drunk, he was worse than mean. I sat there staring at his picture for awhile, his eyes seemed to follow my every move. Crap, I knew what that meant. I got these premonitions from time to time and they always fulfilled my worse fears. I would be seeing him in the future.
I went through the rest of the mail, answering a few queries from other towns. Mostly if we had seen this guy or this woman. The time sort of got away from me, till Brie and Jake came in. Brie was wearing pants again. She sure liked them. I didn’t mind.
“It’s lunch time, and I want to eat somewhere different.” Brie said.
“Different? What? There’s only your place or the Chinese one, or the Mexican Café?” I said.
“How about the saloon, I hear they have a pretty good lunch?”
“The saloon, you sure? They don’t take kindly to good women going in saloons.” I said.
She got a pouty look on her face and said, “Well that’s what I want to do.”
“Alright, but all of the so called good women in town will be down on you.”
“Oh they’re just jealous because their husbands won’t let them wear pants and go in saloons.” She said, bending over to pet Jake. I know she just did that on purpose.
Funny thing about women, they always get what they wanted, one way or the other. Me, I always like that ‘other’ way.
The three of us, went to the saloon, Bayard Benoit, the bartender had long sense given up on protesting about me bringing Jake into the bar. But his eyes opened wide when he seen Brie. Not just because she was a ‘good’ woman, but because he couldn’t take his eyes off of her pants.
Evan Blythe and those two body guards of his were standing at the bar, they turned when we walked in, Blythe started to say something, I let my hands fall to my gun butts. His mouth snapped shut.
I took Brie and Jake to an empty table in the back corner. Then I went to the bar and said. “Bayard old boy, would you dish up three plates of your beef and beans, plus three beers, two in mugs and one in a bowl?”
“Sure Trego, no problem.” Then he turned to do so. Blythe must of got some sand back into his backbone, because he said, “You have your nerve bringing your wife in here and wearing pants to boot. It’s not seemly.”
“Well Evan, you could be right about it not being seemly. But times are changing. Here it is 1880 already. And since she’s my wife and not yours, I don’t see as you have much to say about it.” He bristled, the guy on his right said, “Boss take it easy, can’t you see he’s just itching for you to draw.”
Evan looked at him and said, “That’s why I hired you two, to take care of people like him.”
“Well Boss, no you didn’t. You sort of hired us as your flunkies. We shoot pretty good, but we’re not in his class. If you want someone to go up against him, you’re going to have to hire a real gunslinger.”
“What makes you think I haven’t?” Evan said, and then downed the last of his drink and stomped out. The two hired hands stood there, they didn’t follow him out. They looked at me and then one of them said, “We’re just cowboys, we hired on with him early last fall, just before you got here. We needed someplace to winter. I reckon we’ll drift and see if we can’t find a riding job.”
“I hear the Specter Ranch might be hiring. Anyway that’s what the Ringer brothers told me.”
“Thanks Trego, I know you could of plugged us a couple of times, but you didn’t. Thanks a lot.” They said.
Bayard came back with our food and drinks, I helped him haul it to our table. “What was Evan Blythe talking to you about?” Brie asked.
“He was some upset about you and your pants being in here. He thinks it isn’t seemly. But I told him you’re not his wife, but mine. And to mind his own business.”
The saloon was busy, more than usual. Must be due to the warm Chinook winds. They were all careful not to make eye contact with me, though they wanted to look at Brie. I couldn’t blame them any, I wanted to look at her also.
Jake finished his food and beer in short order. Then he hopped up on a vacant chair beside us. He sat looking around at everybody. Brie and I finished ours, then we talked a little. “Honey, do you think we can go somewhere, being cooped up all winter has given me the blues.” Brie said.
“As soon as the snow melts and the mud solidifies a might. I think we can. How far and where would you like to go?”
“Oh, just out and around, I haven’t been on a horse for months. I used to ride all of the time when I was a kid in Chicago.”
“Did you wear pants then?” I asked with a leer.
“No silly, a riding skirt. But these pants are a lot better, more freedom. You can do anything you want and they can’t see your underwear.”
“Hmmm, I didn’t think you were wearing
