Nora Roberts: Lawless

“Perhaps you’d begin by loading my supplies.”

Leaving him to it, Sarah turned back to Liza. “Miss Cody.” “Liza, please.”

“Liza, I wonder if you might have any tea, and I would dearly love some fresh eggs.”

“Don’t get much call for tea, but we’ve got some in the back.” Liza opened the door to the rear storeroom. Three fat-bellied puppies ran out. “John Cody, you little monster. I told you to keep these pups outside.” Laughing, Sarah crouched down to greet them.

“Oh, they’re adorable.”

“One’s adorable, maybe,” Liza muttered. As usual, her young brother was nowhere in sight when she needed him. “Three’s unmanageable. Just last night they chewed through a sack of meal. Pop finds out, he’ll take a strap to Johnny.”

A brown mutt with a black circle around his left eye jumped into Sarah’s lap. And captured her heart. “You’re a charmer, aren’t you?” She laughed as he bathed her face.

“A nuisance is more like it.”

“Will you sell one?”

“Sell?” Liza stretched to reach the tea on a high shelf. “My pop’d pay you to take one.”

“Really?” With the brown pup cradled in her arms, Sarah stood again. “I’d love to have one. I could use the company.”

Liza added the tea and eggs to Sarah’s total. “You want that one, you take it right along.” She grinned when the pup licked Sarah’s face again. “He certainly seems taken with you.”

“I’ll take very good care of him.” Balancing the dog, she took out the money to pay her bill. “Thank you for everything.”

Liza counted out the coins before she placed them in the cash drawer and took out Sarah’s change. Pop would be pleased, she thought. Not only because of the pup, but because Miss Conway was a cash customer. Liza was pleased because Sarah was young and pretty and would surely know everything there was to know about the latest fashions.

“It’s been nice meeting you, Miss Conway.”

“Sarah.”

Liza smiled again and walked with Sarah to the door. “Maybe I’ll ride out and see you, if you don’t mind.”

“I’d love it. Any time at all.”

Abruptly Liza lifted a hand to pat her hair. “Good morning, Mr. Carlson.”

“Liza, you’re looking pretty as ever.” She blushed and fluttered, though Carlson’s eyes were on Sarah. “Samuel Carlson, this is Sarah Conway.”

“Delighted.” Carlson’s smile made his pale, handsome face even more attractive. It deepened the already-brilliant blue of his eyes. When he lifted Sarah’s hand to his lips in a smooth, cavalier gesture, she was doubly glad she’d come into town.

Apparently Lone Bluff had some gentlemen after all. Samuel Carlson was slim and well dressed in a beautiful black riding coat and a spotless white shirt.

His trim mustache was the same rich brown as his well-groomed hair. He had, as a gentleman swept off his hat at the introduction. It was a truly fine hat, Sarah thought, black like his coat, with a silver chain for a band.

“My deepest sympathies for your loss, Miss Conway.

Your father was a fine man and a good friend.”

“Thank you. It’s been comforting for me to learn he was well thought of.”

The daughter was certainly a pretty addition to a dust hole like Lone Bluff, he thought. “Word around town is that you’ll be staying with us for a while.” He reached over to scratch the puppy’s ears and was rewarded with a low growl.

“Hush, now.” Sarah smiled an apology. “Yes, I’ve decided to stay. At least for the time being.”

“I hope you’ll let me know if there’s anything I can do to help.” He smiled again. “Undoubtedly life here isn’t what you’re used to.”

The way he said it made it clear that it was a compliment. Mr. Carlson was obviously a man of the world, and of some means. “Thank you.” She handed the puppy to Lucius and was gratified when Carlson assisted her into the wagon. “It was a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Carlson.”

“The pleasure was mine, Miss Conway.”

“Goodbye, Liza. I hope you’ll come and visit soon.” Sarah settled the puppy on her lap. She considered it just her bad luck that she glanced across the street at that moment. Jake was there, one hand hooked in his pocket, leaning against a post, watching. With an icy nod, she acknowledged him, then stared straight ahead as Lucius clucked to the horses.

When the wagon pulled away, the men studied each other. There was no nod of acknowledgment. They simply watched, cool and cautious, across the dusty road.

Sarah felt positively triumphant. As she stored her supplies, the puppy circled her legs, apparently every bit as pleased as she with the arrangement. Her nights wouldn’t be nearly so lonely now, with the dog for company. She’d met people, was perhaps even on the way to making friends. Her cupboard was full, and Lucius had been kind enough to show her how to fire up the old cookstove.

Tonight, after supper, she was going to write to Lucilla and Mother Superior. She would read another page or two from her father’s journal before she curled up under the freshly aired blanket.

Jake Redman be damned, she thought as she bent to tickle the pup’s belly. She was making it.

With a glass of whiskey at his fingertips, Jake watched Carlotta work the room. She sure was something. Her hair was the color of gold nuggets plucked from a riverbed, and her lips were as red as the velvet drapes that hung in her private room.

She was wearing red tonight, something tight that glittered as it covered her long, curvy body and clung to her smooth white breasts. Her shoulders were bare. Jake had always thought that a woman’s shoulders were enough to drive a man to distraction.

He thought of Sarah, standing ankle-deep in a stream with water glistening on her skin. He took another gulp of whiskey.

Carlotta’s girls were dressed to kill, as well. The men in the Silver Star were getting their money’s worth. The piano rang out, and the whiskey and the laughter poured.

The way he figured it, Carlotta ran one of the best houses in Arizona. Maybe one of the best west of the Mississippi. The whiskey wasn’t watered much, and the girls weren’t bad. A man could almost believe they enjoyed their work. As for Carlotta, Jake figured she enjoyed it just fine.

Money came first with her. He knew, because she’d once had enough to drink to tell him that she took a healthy cut of all her girls’ pay. If the man one of her girls was with decided to slip her a little extra, that was just fine with Carlotta. She took a cut of that, as well.

She had dreams of moving her business to San Francisco and buying a place with crystal chandeliers, gilt mirrors and red carpets. Carlotta favored red. But for now, like the rest of them, Carlotta was stuck in Lone Bluff.

Tipping back more whiskey, Jake watched her. She moved like a queen, her full red lips always smiling, her cool blue eyes always watching. She was making sure her girls were persuading the men to buy them plenty of drinks. What the bartender served the working girls was hardly more than colored water, but the men paid, and paid happily, before they moved along to one of the narrow rooms upstairs.

Hell of a business, Jake thought as he helped himself to one of the cigars Carlotta provided for her paying customers. She had them shipped all the way from Cuba, and they had a fine, rich taste. Jake had no doubt she added to the price of her whiskey and her girls to pay for them. Business was business.

One of the girls sidled over to light the cigar for him. He just shook his head at the invitation. She was warm and ripe and smelled like a bouquet of roses. For the life of him he couldn’t figure out why he wasn’t interested.

“You’re going to hurt the girls’ feelings.” Perfume trailing behind her, Carlotta joined Jake at the table. “Don’t you see anything you like?”