Page 45 of The Saloon Girl's Only Shot
“Good luck,” he choked. “We pay laborers at camp two dollars a day for backbreaking work, sunup to sundown.”
“If you set the hours Mr. Fritz does, I’ll be working sundown to sunup,” she retorted.
“How does a dollar a day sound? Plus, whatever you make in tips. I’ll supply the food if you cook it for both of us.”
She pursed her mouth, then slid her gaze to his. “Where would I sleep?”
“Here.”
“Alone?” She narrowed her eyes.
“No.” He frowned. “I’m not going to pay for a room at the corral when I own a perfectly good building.”
“I mean will I have my own room?” she pressed.
“I’ll put in bunks,” he decided.
“Top or bottom? Oh, don’t,” she added quickly, blushing and looking away before he could assure her that he was comfortable in either position.
He smirked.
“As soon as I’m able to afford a ticket home, I’m leaving,” she warned.
There would be six feet of snow on the ground for the next five months. He accepted that condition with a shrug of unconcern.
She worried her lip some more.
“If we can afford it once we’re open, we could ask Jane if she wants to work here,” he suggested. What the hell. She seemed nice and Fritz was a terrible employer, given how he’d treated Temperance.
That was the final hook Temperance needed.
“I’d like that.” A smile broke across her face, then fell. “She’s probably wondering if I’m dead in the street. I should go find her.”
“We have a deal?” He offered his hand.
She slid off the table and set her hand in his. With a solemn nod and a single pump of his hand, she said, “Deal.”
Chapter 13
Despite wanting to find Jane, Temperance waited with Owen for Elmer’s return.
She shouldn’t be so surprised that Owen couldn’t read or write. Her desire to become a teacher had been motivated by her awareness of how many children, especially girls, were not afforded basic education, let alone the higher learning she took for granted.
It was obviously a touchy subject for him so she didn’t question him further about it. Rather, she felt honored that he was willing to entrust her with watching his finances. Given that duty, she refused to allow Elmer to pull the wool over Owen’s eyes with the registration. She didn’t trust that man to tell her the weather when she was standing in it.
Elmer proved what a snake he was when he found them in the wagon house and pretended to be surprised at the household items packed into the undertaker’s wagon. Owen was standing in the bed of the wagon, having pulled back the canvas that covered it.
“Ah. You’ve found the housewares.” Elmer rolled open the door then pulled it shut to block the wind. “I packed everything out here because people usually like to furnish their home in their own way.” He cleared his throat, looking very culpable.
“I was hoping there’d be a velvet divan for my drawing room,” Owen said facetiously. “But I can make do with what’s here. Is Katherine after you to build a house for her and the baby? I’m sure she’ll have strong ideas of her own, and not want the undertaker’s cast-offs.”
“I keep telling her we’d be better off staying with my parents.” Elmer gave the back of his head an anxious scratch, dislodging his bowler hat and quickly replacing it. “We’re comfortable there. Mother could help with the baby.”
Temperance had to wonder if Katherine Greenly described her situation as “comfortable.” And, given Ivy Greenly’s protectiveness of her dalmatian, Temperance thought she already had a baby, but that was for Elmer to work out between his wife and his mother.
“Is that a hip bath?” Temperance asked as she spotted the large tin object that looked like a cross between a chair and an overturned hat. “Do you think he washed the bodies in it?”
“Have you ever tried to bend a corpse?” Owen asked. “No, I imagine it was his. Now you’re here, you can help me put all this back in the house,” Owen said to Elmer. “I did buy the wagon house and its contents with the rest, didn’t I?”