by Merry Farmer
“I don’t think so,” Bebe said, shifting to the top of the shattered bureau. “You could probably salvage it.” She squatted and reached to retrieve the top.
“Yes, I’m sure we could refurbish it,” Julia agreed with enthusiasm. “It’s not so very broken.”
“No?” Sam all but barked. He hooked the toe of his boot in one of the splintered bits of wood that hadn’t peeled away from the rest of the bureau and snapped it. “Are you sure?”
“Oh, dear.” Julia sighed and dropped her shoulders. “I’m so sorry. I’ll find some way to make it up to you.”
The way she glanced up at him, eyes bright with true regret, brought all sorts of ways that she could make it up to him to Sam’s mind. None of them were appropriate when her new best friend was there in the room with them. Maybe he could figure out a way to send Bebe on her way, then to whisk Julia down to their bed before—
“Ooh! What’s this?” Bebe stood, a yellowed piece of paper in her hands.
“Oh!” Julia hopped across to stand by her friend’s side, cheeks pink. She darted an apologetic glance up to Sam before reading the paper over Bebe’s shoulder.
Then she gasped. Both women gasped.
Julia snapped her eyes up to meet Sam’s. “It’s a treasure map!”
Chapter 6
Julia’s heart pounded as she read the words on the paper Bebe held. She could hardly believe what they were saying. It was as if she had stepped into her very own dime novel.
“Let me see that,” Sam said with a frown, holding out his hand.
Bebe handed the paper over, her eyes wide and her cheeks pink.
“It’s not an actual treasure map,” Julia said as Sam looked the paper over. “But it is directions to a treasure of some sort.”
“The loot is hidden in the saloon,” Sam read aloud. His expression turned stark and serious. “It’s close to the train station, easy to sneak in and out without being seen. Transferred from payroll sacks to an old flour sack. Send One-Eyed Betty back to fetch it later. Ten thousand dollars.”
“Ten thousand dollars?” Julia gasped. She rocked back and gripped the side of the room’s small bed to keep her balance.
“Have you ever heard of anything like it?” Bebe wrung her hands. Her face had gone pale, but her cheeks were splashed with color.
“No,” Sam answered. His eyes scanned the paper once more. “And frankly, it irks me that some criminal is using my saloon to hide his ill-gotten gains.”
“Ten thousand dollars’ worth,” Julia said. She blinked, then glanced around the room. “I wonder where it is?”
“Do you think it was hidden in the bureau?” Bebe asked, the spark returning to her eyes. “Maybe we should search.”
“Yes, we should,” Julia agreed. Excitement zipped through her. She and Bebe exchanged a look, then dove toward the shattered bureau. “You grab that side. If we work together, we can pull the back off.”
“Good idea.” Bebe nodded and reached for the bureau.
“Whoa, whoa, hold on.” Sam stopped them, closing a hand around Julia’s upper arm and gently pulling her back. “You’re not going to go tearing apart the furniture because of some strange note.”
Julia straightened and turned to study him. “You’re right.” She nodded. “He probably wouldn’t have hid it in the bureau anyhow. It’s more likely that he stashed it under the floorboards.”
“Or behind the wall,” Bebe suggested.
“Oh! You might be right.” She glanced from Bebe to Sam. “We’re going to need a hammer of some sort.”
“No.” Sam held up his hands, the note still in one of them. “No, we’re not.”
“But how are we supposed to find the robber’s loot without tools?”
Sam blew out a breath and pursed his lips. The way he looked at her—as if he weren’t quite sure what to do with her but might enjoy trying to figure it out—sent shivers through Julia that were as exciting as the possibility of searching for treasure.
“The first thing we’re going to do,” Sam said, sparing a glance for Bebe but focusing mostly on Julia, “is take this to Trey. He’s the sheriff. He’ll know what to do about—” He stopped, frowning.
“What?” Julia took a half step closer to him, gripping his arm. “Have you remembered something? Were there dastardly criminals in the saloon recently?”
“Do you remember what they looked like? Were they terrible and dangerous?” Bebe asked, clutching her hands to her chest.
“Did they have One-Eyed Betty with them at the time?” Julia went on. “Is she a woman of ill-repute? I bet she’s a woman of ill-repute,” she said to Bebe. “Back when she was entertaining, my Cousin Roberta knew a woman with only one eye. That woman lost her eye when the cow-poke she was having congress with hung his spurs on her bedstead before—”
Sam cleared his throat loudly enough to stop her story. “Trey just left to get ready for his honeymoon,” he said.
“Oh,” Julia and Bebe said in unison.
“That’s so sweet,” Julia added.
“It’s about time Sheriff Knighton took his new bride off for a honeymoon,” Bebe said. “They’ve been married quite some time now.”
“Have they? Is she nice? I haven’t met her yet. What’s her name?”
“Talia. She’s—”
“Ladies,” Sam interrupted them once again. “Let’s take this downstairs. We might still be able to catch Trey before he leaves.”
“Good idea,” Julia said, pushing the conversation about the sheriff’s wife to the back of her mind. She headed for the door to the narrow, upstairs hallway. “And then we can come back and hunt for the loot.”
“What do we do when we find it?” Bebe asked, stepping around the wrecked bureau to follow her.
“If we find it, we return it to the authorities,” Sam said, bringing up the rear of their procession.
“But how will they know who it belongs to?” Bebe asked. “The note doesn’t say which bank they robbed.”
“It was payroll,” Julia corrected her as they reached the stairs. “That means it was a train robbery, not a bank robbery.”
“You know, you’re right,” Bebe said. “Just like in Dirk Destry’s Revenge.”
“Exactly.” Julia smiled from ear-to-ear, pleased to learn that once again, she and Bebe had such common interests.
“Like what?” Sam asked, clomping down the stairs behind them.
“It’s a book,” Julia explained to him as they reached the main floor of the saloon. She let Bebe go forward, holding back so that she could take Sam’s hand as they headed toward the bar. “Dirk Destry is a notorious train robber, and Marshall Beauregard Crenshaw was tasked with apprehending him.”
“It was ever so exciting. There were Indians and a runaway wagon and identical twins and everything,” Bebe added, although judging by the pained expression Sam now wore, Julia wasn’t sure he was in the mood to have a book explained to him. He looked more like he was in a mood to lie down with a cool cloth over his eyes.
“We’ll find the loot, and then we’ll return it to the authorities,” Julia said in as soothing a manner as she could, patting his hand. “It’s the right thing to do.”
Sam looked at her, the corner of his mouth twitching. “Under no circumstances will you go looking for that loot without me.”
“So you’re going to search with us?” Julia’s spirits soared at the prospect of Sam searching with her. As far as she was concerned, hunting down robber’s treasure was the perfect way to grow closer to her new husband.
Sam let out a sigh as they reached the bar. He put the yellowed paper down and rubbed his face. “Yeah, I’ll search with you. Although I have no idea where anyone would stash treasure around here. The saloon isn’t that old. There aren’t a lot of loose boards or worn places in the bricks.”
“The whole town is only about ten years old,” Bebe agreed.
“Oh.” Julia blinked and crossed her arms to think. “I hadn’t considered that. Someone wo
uld have had to work very hard to create a space to stash that much loot.”
“We don’t know how much it is,” Sam sighed. “We don’t even know if this is the saloon where it’s hidden.”
“But it must be,” Julia argued. “We found the note here.”
“Where else would it be?” Bebe agreed. “The Silver Dollar is the only saloon in town, even though my papa keeps saying he—oh!” Her eyes went wide and her cheeks pinked as she glanced toward the saloon door.
The door had just opened, letting in a ray of afternoon sunlight and Hubert Strong.
“Oh,” Julia echoed, drawing the sound out. She burst into a grin.
“Bebe.” Hubert stopped and blinked at the sight of his sweetheart, then he too smiled. He swept quickly across the room to her, taking her hands. “What are you doing here?”
“I came to help Julia,” Bebe replied. She stared up at Hubert with stars in her eyes, the rest of the world clearly disappearing for her.
Julia pressed a hand to her heart at the sweetness of the moment. She glanced to Sam, feeling the same tenderness for him that she saw displayed in front of her. Sam shifted his weight from one foot to the other, looking rather nervous. Until he peeked sideways at Julia, a flickering grin spreading across his lips. Julia’s heart swelled. Of course she couldn't expect Sam to love her the way Bebe and Hubert were in love, not so soon after meeting and marrying. But she was confident that in time, their love story would be just as grand.
“Are you certain a saloon is the best place for you to be making social calls?” Hubert went on, looking at Bebe as though no one else were in the room.
“Oh, it’s all right,” Bebe answered with a giggle. “Julia has plans to make the place sophisticated and respectable.”
Sam made a choked noise. Julia grinned at him and shifted to take his hand, squeezing it in both of hers.
Hubert blinked, as if just realizing there were other people in the room, and nodded to Sam. “I’m much obliged to you for creating a haven where Bebe and I can be together.”
“Now hold on just a second there,” Sam said. He tried to tug his hand away from Julia, but she held fast. He pressed his lips together, but didn’t try to pull away a second time. Instead, he turned back to Bebe and Hubert. “I can’t go letting the two of you use my saloon as some sort of lovers’ sanctuary.”
Julia gasped. “What a magnificent idea.” She let go of Sam’s hand and rushed to stand between the young lovers. “Bebe, your family doesn’t approve of you courting Hubert. Hubert, you won’t be in a position to declare yourself until you make your fortune. But in the meantime, the two of you can meet here to spend time together in secret.” She clapped her hands over her thumping heart. “Oh, it’s the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard of, except for the time that my Uncle Grover gave my Aunt Winifred a real pig’s heart for Valentine’s Day. Only that turned out not to be so romantic after all when Aunt Winifred screamed and threw it at him.”
Silence followed her brief story. Behind the bar, Chan snorted into laughter. Julia caught Sam rolling his eyes out of the corner of her eye. Maybe she should have kept the story to herself. But it didn’t matter. Hubert and Bebe brightened, their eyes locked on each other.
“I’m willing to use the saloon as a safe haven if you are,” Hubert said.
“And there are all sorts of private rooms upstairs,” Bebe added. “Where we could be alone.” Her cheeks went from pink to bright scarlet, and she lowered her head, glancing up at Hubert through her lashes. Hubert turned a lurid shade of red.
“No,” Sam said. “Nuh-uh. The two of you are not going to go canoodling under my roof.”
“Sam!” Julia exclaimed in a rush of indignation. “They wouldn’t be canoodling. Bebe and Hubert are sweet, respectable people.” She ignored the fact that at that moment, both Bebe and Hubert looked a little more contrite than strictly respectable people should at the suggestion.
“You can’t be sure,” Sam said, his voice tight. He glanced Hubert and Bebe’s way, face going pink, then leaned in closer to her. “Sweetheart, you know as well as I do how canoodling can end up happening before you know it.”
Julia both smiled and blushed down to the roots of her hair. “You called me sweetheart again.”
Sam let out a breath and squeezed his eyes shut. Julia supposed she deserved it. She had reacted to the wrong part of his statement while ignoring what he was really getting after.
“What if we only sat at one of the tables and talked from time to time,” Bebe suggested, blue eyes brimming with hope. “It’s so difficult for the two of us to find any time just to sit with each other at all.”
“She’s right.” Hubert turned to Sam. “I would be in your debt if you just gave a us a place where we could visit with each other.”
“That’s not too much to ask, is it?” Julia grabbed Sam’s arm again and batted her eyelashes at him.
For one brief moment, he looked at her as though he might give in. Then he let out a breath and shook his head. “I can’t do it,” Sam said, looking from Julia to Hubert. “I’m sorry, but this saloon is my livelihood. I depend on keeping my business to get by in life.”
“But what does that have to do with Bebe and Hubert meeting here?” Julia asked, truly confused. As far as she saw things, the saloon was the ideal solution to her new friends’ problems and the perfect way for her to be able to help them.
Sam pivoted toward her, taking both of her hands and addressing her seriously. “I know you can’t see it, but it’s important for me to remain completely impartial in all things about town.”
“I don’t understand.” Julia’s shoulders sank and her spirits with them.
Sam clenched his jaw and stared up at the ceiling for a moment before taking a breath. “Bebe’s father doesn’t approve of Hubert courting her.”
“I know, but what does that matter?” Julia’s chest squeezed with the injustice of the situation.
“It matters because Rex Bonneville is the second richest man in these parts,” Sam went on. “That might not mean much to you, and I don’t much care for the man myself—sorry, Bebe.”
“I understand.” Bebe lowered her head.
“But whatever I think of Rex,” Sam went on, “he’s an influential man. I depend on his business and the business of his friends to stay open. I can’t afford to cross him by harboring his daughter’s romantic disobedience.”
Disappointment turned into downright frustration in Julia. She pulled her hands out of Sam’s and took a step back, planting her fists on her hips. “Are you telling me, Sam Standish, that you’re putting money before love?”
“I’m telling you, sweetheart, that we can’t afford to cross a man as important as Rex Bonneville.”
“Don’t you sweetheart me,” Julia said, shaking a finger at him. She huffed out a breath and shook her head. “I thought that you fancied yourself a wild and dangerous frontier man. I thought that you were the sort to laugh in the face of trouble and pour danger another drink.”
Sam blinked and flinched, his brow flying up at the statement.
Julia ignored his almost comical reaction and pushed on. “But I guess it turns out that you’re nothing more than a tame old dog, unwilling to go out of your way to help desperate young people after all.”
“She’s got you there,” Chan chimed in from the other side of the bar. “You really aren’t one for trouble, if you can avoid it.”
Sam grumbled and sent Chan a sharp look. “I would advise that you stay out of this one.” He turned to Julia. “Just like I would advise you to stick to your own business for the time being.”
Julia opened her mouth to argue with him, but Sam cut her off with, “Don’t you have a pile of train-robber’s loot to look for?”
All thoughts blew suddenly out of Julia’s mind as the excitement she’d felt minutes before rolled back in. She closed her mouth and crossed her arms. “I do have loot to hunt for.”
“But this is perfect,” Bebe said. She s
hifted to stand by Hubert’s side instead of facing him. “We can help you search for the loot and spend time with each other while we do.” She turned to Sam. “That way, even if my papa does find out the two of us are together—and you can believe me when I say that I don’t plan to tell him that I’m spending time at the saloon, with Hubert or not—we can tell him that my real purpose was to come help Julia settle into town, and that Hubert was only here as an afterthought.”
The idea was brilliant as far as Julia was concerned. She put on a sunny smile and turned to Sam. “See? It’s the perfect situation.” Sam suddenly looked as worn and wary as a soldier coming home from battle. She saw that a different sort of tactic was needed, and slid closer to him, looping her arm through his and gazing up at him with what she hoped came off as moon-eyes. “And if Hubert is here to entertain Bebe, that means that the two of us will have more time together. More private time together.”
Behind the bar, Chan burst into rollicking laughter. Sam sent him a scowl before turning back to Julia. He let out a long sigh, his expression softening into a worn-out smile. “All right. You win. This time. I’ll let Bebe and Hubert use the saloon to visit. Only to visit,” he said, turning to give Hubert a warning look.
“Yes, sir. Absolutely, sir,” Hubert said, then beamed at Bebe.
“And in the meantime, we can look for the loot together,” Julia finished, feeling as though everything were coming out exactly how it needed to.
Chapter 7
After the week he’d had, Sam was looking forward to a peaceful Sunday morning of sleeping late with his new bride curled by his side. He wouldn’t have said no to some early-morning marital activity either. But as soon as the sun sent its first beams through his newly curtained windows, Julia was awake and squirming around. Not in the good way.
“Why are you getting up?” he asked, rolling over as she climbed past him to get out of bed.