by Chloe Garner
The corner of Rhoda’s mouth turned up, revealing the faintest of dimples.
“You’re a tough nut, Sarah.”
“Been called worse.”
“I bet you have. I’d still like to be friends.”
“Seein’ as you ain’t got much selection, I won’t hold that against you,” Sarah said. Rhoda laughed and turned to walk back up the hill.
“Let’s go see what’s for dinner.”
Sarah shook her head and followed after the determined little woman.
“Like your hat, by the way,” Rhoda said without looking back. “Where can I get one?”
“Ordered mine special out of Jeremiah,” Sarah said. “Granger can pro’bly get you one, if you ask.”
Rhoda nodded.
“Gonna need some boots, too.”
––—
They sat down at the table, Rhoda next to Jimmy, Kayla next to Sarah, the two ends of the table empty as Thomas sat across from Lise and Sunny.
“How long is Wade going to have to be at the build site?” Kayla asked as the staff started bringing in plates of food.
“Until Sarah gets everything done,” Jimmy answered. “Too many valuables to just leave sitting.”
“I could take a shift down there,” Thomas said. Jimmy leaned forward to look down the table at his brother.
“You gonna shoot a man for trying to steal a box of silverware?”
“Done it over absenta,” Thomas answered. “You think it’s going to be different with silver?”
“You shot someone?” Rhoda asked. The table’s attention went directly at Thomas, who shrugged.
“That ain’t an answer,” Sarah said.
“I knew what would happen,” Thomas said. Jimmy sat back in his seat.
“It’s different, pulling the trigger.”
“No one is going to try to steal a box of silverware while a Lawson is sitting there with a gun, even if it’s me,” Thomas said.
“Have you ever shot anyone?” Kayla asked.
“A few times,” Thomas said.
“All honorable kills,” Jimmy said. “Nothing cold-blooded, always when someone was shooting at him first.”
“There’s nothing wrong with that,” Kayla said.
“No, there ain’t,” Sarah agreed. “The world needs men what can end a man’s life in the calm, though, same as the heat.”
“That’s what Petey is for,” Jimmy said.
“Take that back,” Lise said.
Jimmy just looked at her benignly and continued to eat.
“So,” Rhoda said, turning her petite body to address Jimmy. “Sarah tells me you’ve been dipping in foreign parts. Care to answer?”
He almost choked
Almost.
Sarah couldn’t help but smile.
“Weren’t what I meant to happen, telling you,” she said quietly, without hiding the smile.
Rhoda shrugged, putting both hands on the table, palms down.
“If there are things that everyone knows but me, we may as well talk about them in front of everyone. I don’t like being the last one to know important things.”
Jimmy touched his mouth with his napkin and sat up.
“No one cared but Sarah,” he said. “And now she doesn’t care, either.”
He looked at her hard, and she gave him an ambivalent response, sipping soup off her spoon nonchalantly.
“I’m not sure this is dinner table conversation,” Kayla said.
“I think I agree,” Thomas said.
“I want you to look me in the eye, Jimmy Lawson, and tell me that you would never, ever stray from the woman you marry. Ever.”
Jimmy was a hard man. Rhoda was tough, Sarah had to give her that, but Jimmy was hard.
“I can’t promise that,” he said.
“Really?” she asked, defiant.
“Really,” he answered. “So long as I loved her and she loved me...” He put his hand to his throat, rubbing the skin to the side. Feeling strangled. Sarah tipped her head. Rhoda was putting pressure on him. She’d never seen anyone else make him uncomfortable like that.
“Men stray,” Sunny said. Sarah thought it was the first time she’d heard the woman’s voice. It was husky and dry, the kind of voice that the men at school had found erotic. “So long as they come back and know their place, we make it work.”
“That isn’t right,” Kayla said. “We both took vows. I didn’t mean them any more than Wade did.”
“You think Wade hasn’t been with other women since you’ve been married?” Lise asked.
“No,” Kayla said, her voice strong. Sarah was proud of the confidence in her tone. “He hasn’t.”
“May I be excused?” Thomas asked, standing.
“Sit,” Jimmy growled.
“What do you think, Sarah?” Kayla asked. Sarah looked at Jimmy.
“I think if a man I condescended to wed took another woman to his bed, I’d make sure he lacked the anatomy to do it again.”
Rhoda clapped.
“I knew I liked you.”
“Please, may I be excused?” Thomas asked again.
“You aren’t abandoning me to this,” Jimmy said.
“Men are dogs,” Lise said. “You just make them heel.”
“That what you do with Little Peter?” Sarah asked. She couldn’t believe she’d stooped that low, but it was satisfying, picking at the beautiful woman. Lise made an elaborate motion with her neck to turn to look at Sarah.
“It doesn’t matter to me who he sleeps with,” she said. “It’s so... barbaric to think that it even matters. I’m his wife, and when it comes down to it, he will do what I say.”
Sarah let that one sit for a moment.
So did everyone else.
“That isn’t how it works, Lise,” Jimmy finally said. “Peter Lawson does what I say.”
Lise froze. Sarah thought she heard Sunny snort into her soup.
“So you think that cheating is okay?” Kayla pressed Jimmy.
“It’s not something I intend to discuss,” Jimmy said. Sarah winced, mentally. Kayla was a bridge too far. She’d probably meant it innocently enough, just continuing the conversation, but she didn’t get to talk to Jimmy like that.
“It’s a valid question,” Rhoda said. Sarah saw the muscle in Jimmy’s jaw flex. He didn’t routinely let himself get drawn into this much conversation at the dinner table, and his temper was brewing. She wasn’t sure how much further she would have pressed him, herself, and she was curious where Rhoda would quit.
Jimmy gave her a stony look.
She stared him down. Sarah sat back in her chair, just watching.
“You’re enjoying this,” Jimmy said.
“Immensely,” she answered.
“That’s as far as it goes,” he said. “The next person at this table to mention sex is excused.”
“Sex,” Thomas said.
“Shut up,” Jimmy said. Thomas turned his face down to his soup. Rhoda gave Jimmy another full three seconds of quiet, intense attention, then resumed her meal.
“I’d like to see the new buildings,” Kayla said. “It will be nice to have new people in town.”
“New folk every day,” Sarah said. “They just ain’t your type.”
“Yeah,” Kayla said with humor. “They don’t wear dresses.”
“Shouldn’t expect too many women in this lot,” Sarah said.
“No?” Kayla asked. “Women have money, too.”
“The people who do business with Jimmy are mostly men,” Rhoda said. “The boys’ club.”
“Money talks,” Jimmy said. “Gender has nothing to do with it.”
“You mean sex,” Kayla said with a snort, then she waved her hands. “I’m sorry. I just gonna banish myself before I get myself into real trouble. Can I get dinner in my room?”
She spoke to the man standing at the doorway to the kitchen. He gave her a nod and she left happily enough. Jimmy watched her, eyebrows up, then shook his head.
�
�No accounting for taste.”
“Be nice to her,” Sarah said. “Worth more than the lot of you.”
She wasn’t sure she could guess the meaning of the look she got from Rhoda, but she didn’t care.
“Excuse me,” someone said softly. “Miss Todd, your visitor is here.”
She wadded her napkin in one hand and then the other, then followed the man into the front room where the builder that Clarence had indicated was waiting. She spoke to him for a few minutes and gave him a stack of money, then returned to the dining room.
The conversation didn’t seem to have moved on very much without her, though the course had changed.
“Everything okay?” Rhoda asked.
“Fine,” Sarah said. “There’s a problem with men killing each other down at the camp. I’m scoutin’ for information on it.”
“Thought you had that one figured out,” Jimmy said. “Wade’s been chafing at having to watch the guy.”
She shrugged.
“The one I caught is a sociopath. Dunno if he done it or not, but I’m shippin’ him out either way.”
“It’s a lot of men to police,” Thomas said.
“No more than we had, back before,” Jimmy said. Sarah shook her head.
“It ain’t the number that makes ‘em tricky. It’s how hard they is to find, when they ain’t wantin’ to be found.”
“Transients,” Rhoda said. “We had our issues with them, growing up, as well. They can get away with a lot.”
“Not a lot of difference between them and the bandits,” Sarah said. “Need to get ‘em planted someplace with a bit of money in their pockets if we’re gonna turn it around.”
“Working on it, Sarah,” Jimmy said.
“They’re killin’ each other, Jimmy. Over bits of food and socks.”
“I understand that.”
They ate in silence for a minute.
“Dunno why you keep invitin’ me for dinner. Don’t seem to like anything I have to say.”
“Not my idea,” Jimmy muttered.
“I’m finding the entire evening very enlightening,” Rhoda said.
“Can we start the next course?” Thomas asked.
“I’m looking forward to it being over,” Lise said. “None of the food is any good, anyway.”
“Ain’t the food’s fault, if I recall,” Sarah said, looking down the table at Lise. The golden woman glowered at her, then pushed her plate away.
“I’m ready for the next course, please,” she said. Sarah let one of the staff take her plate and watched as Jimmy and Rhoda tipped their heads in toward each other to speak quietly. She turned away, finding that Thomas was watching her. He gave her a little smile and she frowned at him. She didn’t need patronizing, thank you very much.
“So what do you think of Lawrence?” Lise asked Rhoda as the next dishes arrived.
“I think the hobflower bloom here is amazing. Nothing like what we had back home. They were pretty weak, but the cold is hard on them. Here, it’s like this is where they were born to be.”
“I hate hobflowers,” Sarah said. “Get into everything.”
“Definitely overrated,” Lise said. “You get one flower once a year, only after the most destructive storm the world has ever seen, and everyone’s supposed to throw a party. We have much more dignified plants at home.”
“They’re survivors,” Rhoda said. “They come back every single year, no matter how tough it’s been, and the put up a cluster of flowers, maybe the prettiest thing the desert is going to see all year long. All due respect to Sarah, but I think they’re incredible.”
“You obviously ain’t been the one sweepin’ ‘em out your porch,” Sarah said.
“No, my little sister got most of the broom duties,” Rhoda said with a smile, then laughed at something Jimmy had said to her. Sarah ignored this and resumed her meal. Rhoda laughed again and Sarah caught Jimmy as he quickly looked away from her. She rolled her eyes.
“Couple’a teenagers,” she muttered under her breath. Thomas was watching her again. She glared him back down into his plate.
The rest of dinner passed quietly enough. Sarah put out a couple of barbs for Lise, who returned fire without much enthusiasm, and then they were sitting, drinking wine and finishing a dessert that had had altogether too much sugar in it.
“Can I see you in my study?” Jimmy asked, standing and looking down at Rhoda. She raised her eyebrows at him then smirked.
“Of course.”
“I’m going upstairs,” Thomas said, standing. Sunny and Lise weren’t far behind him. Sarah made to get her stuff together to go, but Jimmy paused in the doorway to his office.
“I still need to talk to you before you go,” he said to her, then closed the door. She gave it a good, long glare, then went to sit in the front room where one of the women brought her a cup of tea.
At least there was that. It was good gremlin, fresh, unlike what Sarah kept at home.
She sat for maybe twenty minutes, then Rhoda came out of Jimmy’s office and went upstairs. Jimmy stood in the doorway watching Sarah.
“Just a minute, and then I’ll let you go,” he said. Sarah looked after Rhoda. The woman’s lipstick had been smeared most of the way across her face and her pristine hair hadn’t been anymore.
“Uh huh,” Sarah said. Jimmy didn’t acknowledge the look or the comment, just standing out of the way so that Sarah could come in and sit down.
“How is Second Street going?” he asked, taking his seat.
Sarah crossed her arms.
“So we’re gonna pretend like you didn’t just keep me waiting so you could sneak one in with your pretty girl, there?”
“I have no intention of discussing anything of the kind,” Jimmy said. “We can work together or we can’t. I don’t have any reason to be concerned with anything you think of my life outside of our business.”
Sarah nodded slowly.
“I see. Suits me fine. Means it’s long past time you stopped invitin’ me here for social calls. I ain’t social by nature, and if we’re done bein’ friends, I ain’t got no reason to be here after dark. And you ain’t got no reason to be on my porch waitin’ for me when I get home from doin’ stuff what I’m actually supposed to be doin’. You’re a terrible distraction and you don’t add much to nothin’ I do.”
“That seems fair,” Jimmy said. “Tell me about construction.”
“We start the buildin’s tomorrow, after the roofs go up on the houses.”
“Need them to go at the same time.”
Sarah shook her head.
“Ain’t possible. Clarence can’t be in two places at the same time, and I ain’t got what it takes to put up buildin’s.”
“Did plenty of it before,” Jimmy said.
“Not like this, I didn’t,” Sarah answered.
“Is it going to be done in time?” Jimmy asked. “I want you at the train station greeting people in the morning, day after tomorrow. We go straight from there to the tour of town, getting them settled into their lodgings, and then we go up to the mine.”
“No, you ain’t got the moon in mind at all, with that plan,” Sarah said, shaking her head.
“I need everything on the outside of those buildings done by day after tomorrow, first thing,” Jimmy said. “We can get the interiors on the less-important buildings finished by that evening, but the interiors on anything they might see fit to use while they’re here needs to be done, as well. I don’t want any of the laborers in view while we’re touring. Just the real locals, doing their normal thing. And I need you to re-open the tavern. Tomorrow morning.”
She pressed her mouth shut. He waited and she nodded.
“I can’t promise we’ll make it,” she said. “I won’t know until we get there. But we’ll try. And I’ll talk to Willie and Paulie in the morning.”
He nodded. She continued.
“I’m gonna go start getting men out to the homesteads to work on barn-raisin’,” she said. “We got the men,
and while they ain’t the most useful lot for such things, the homesteaders need any hands they can get.”
“So long as you aren’t distracted from getting the town finished for the investors,” he said. This plucked a chord, and she opened her mouth.
“And just what are you gonna be doin’ tomorrow, Jimmy Lawson, that you can’t be out helpin’ me get this all under control?”
He folded his hands in front of him, looking at her with plain, empty eyes. She knew that look. Knew it like death and like sunset. It was closed, the look he gave everyone, everyone who challenged him, who bothered him, who got in his way. She knew he wouldn’t answer, and it made her angry. He didn’t get to treat her like that. Not her. Not just because some petite woman with a big mouth had decided to forgive him for moving to the end of civilization, had decided to follow him. Decided to follow him when Sarah hadn’t.
She gritted her teeth, willing him to answer her. To say something. The mask stayed on. Empty eyes, the mouth that hinted just ever so slightly, ever so patronizingly toward humor. Like looking at insects wrestling.
She could take him on, in a physical confrontation. Weren’t many around who could say it, but she knew his weaknesses, knew his thought patterns, knew where he would be slow and where he would be quick. She could put a knife to the underside of his chin any time she wanted to, and he’d never stop her. The infuriating part is that he wouldn’t even try. He knew she wouldn’t put a blade through his skin, a bullet in his flesh, not for anything. Sure she’d break his nose, but only when he baited her. He’d known what he was doing.
He’d known what he was doing, baiting her. It was the first time it had occurred to her. He’d baited her on purpose, to make her hit him, while his brothers buried Pete.
Damned bastard.
He was a good man.
A good man with a good woman to stand beside him.
And he didn’t need her any more. Not like he had. Not like they’d been. Now she was just another appendage. Something to be used, even injured, at need, and ignored otherwise. He would take care of her like he would his own body, but if sacrifices had to be made, he would make them.
And she wasn’t a Lawson.
“Dammit, Jimmy,” she said. His eyebrows went up a fraction and she stood.
“I’ll do what I can do. No more. I’m gonna make sure that the homesteaders get their barns up as fast as they can, ‘cause plantin’ season is comin’, and that’s all those folks have.”