Page 82 of The Saloon Girl's Only Shot
It was a busy night that ended when the second bottle ran out.
Several men groused about being kicked out, wanting to continue drinking.
“P.J., you got anything?” one asked as they were all putting on jackets and hats.
“I’m down to my personal reserve, boys, and that’s personal. I’m going to have to start keeping it in a safe in the cellar, like Owen, so I don’t get robbed.”
“You got a safe in the cellar, Owen?” someone asked.
“I have a strongbox that Virgil ordered for the camp. Don’t get excited, it’s only got a single piece of paper in it. My receipt for a debt I recently paid off.” He flicked a pithy look at Elmer.
Elmer curled his lip and filed out with the rest of them.
Owen locked the door and turned the sign while Temperance gathered empty glasses.
The customers had been grateful and generous, some paying a whole dollar for their drink and offering the balance to Temperance. She had earned upwards of three dollars on top of her regular wage for a short night’s work.
She should have been thrilled, but she was morose as she recorded the intake into the ledger book.
“That was good fortune, wasn’t it?” Owen said as he came to the bar.
“In what way?”
“What do you mean, ‘in what way?’ We were the only saloon doing business tonight. Even Dudley has run out of his tonsil varnish. Leave that,” he said of the ledger book. “It can wait until morning.”
“I want to go see Jane tomorrow. When you go to the mercantile, use what you made tonight to settle your account there. It should be fourteen dollars and twenty-two cents.” She didn’t ask him if he would remember. He always did, down to the penny. “If he asks you for more than that, it needs a second look.”
“Come with me. Bring the book and sort out any discrepancy while we’re there.”
“Are you going to hire him?” Her stomach writhed as though filled with a nest of snakes.
“Felix? I’ll think about hiring him once Marigold has confirmed he’s really her uncle,” he said without inflection.
“You think he’s lying?”
“No, but I’d be a fool not to check.”
At least he was consistent. She closed the book and left the parlor to go change and ready for bed. Owen came in after dousing the lights.
“I’m going to ask Jane and Mr. Fritz if I can live with her,” Temperance blurted.
Owen paused in removing his clothes. “I’ll build you your own bed if you want one. Now that the ceiling is done over the parlor, I can put in a ladder to a loft. I wanted something for when partners are in town anyway. It will only take a few days. You can’t be walking across town in a blizzard in the middle of the night.”
“I’ll still do your books, but I won’t work here at night. The men aren’t coming here to talk to me, anyway. They’re coming because they like what you’ve built.”
“What are you going to do then? Work for Fritz?”
“If he’ll have me.”
“You’ll work in a saloon for him, but not for me?” he asked with disbelief. “What will it take? Your own room out the back? I’ll build it as soon as the weather allows.”
“No, you won’t, Owen, because once the snow melts, you’ll go to camp, and what will I do then?” she asked shakily. The inevitability of his abandonment was looming like a funnel cloud, roiling with tornadoes that had yet to touch down and destroy her life, but they absolutely would. It was only a matter of time. “You’ll hand the running of this place to Felix and his niece because that makes sense. There won’t be any point in asking me to do your books when they sound perfectly capable of it.”
“I haven’t even decided whether to hire him, and you’re leaving because I might?”
“Whether you hire Felix or someone else, you’re leaving in the spring, Owen. What happens to me then? Do I sleep with the next man who comes along? I can’t...” She rubbed where her breastbone felt as though it was being sawed in half. “I can’t rely on you. That’s what I tried to explain the other day. I know why you don’t want me to rely on you, and now I realize I can’t.” What hurt even more was realizing, “I can’t keep thinking my father will look after me, either. Going home won’t help. This is what I’m finally seeing. No one wants to look after me. I have to look after myself.”
“Temperance.” His voice was agonized.