Trouble by Any Name by A.T. Butler

Author:A.T. Butler [Butler, A.T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: James Mountain Media

Chapter Seven

The next morning, Jacob woke early, spent some time cleaning his gun, and made his way down to the hotel lobby. He had a few loose ends to tie up in San Adrian today, the first being to ask a favor from Mrs. Finch.

“Good morning, Mr. Payne,” she said, greeting him with a smile. He eyed today’s hat—a narrow gray thing, with a small veil and purple- and green-dyed feathers sticking almost straight up. “Will you be checking out today?”

“Not just yet, Mrs. Finch. I think my business will wrap up later today, but I’ll hold on to the room, just in case.”

“All right. Well, then, since you’ll be our guest a little bit longer, can I offer you some coffee?”

“Coffee would be great. But there’s also one other thing you can do for me, ma’am.”

“I’m happy to help if I can.”

“It’s a small thing, I hope—I don’t want to interrupt your day. Do you think you could see your way to coming down to the livery this afternoon? Or, probably better, the street in front of the livery? Say around one o’clock?”

Mrs. Finch looked confused as she poured the coffee for him. “You need me at the livery? I don’t understand . . . I thought your business was with Sheriff Horne. The livery is at the opposite end of town from the jail.”

“I don’t want to say too much,” Jacob said. “It’s better if you don’t know what to expect. You’ll see why when you get there.”

She nodded hesitantly, still puzzled. “If we don’t have any guests checking in at that time, I’ll be there.”

“Thank you, ma’am. And thank you for the coffee. Can I get breakfast at Ed’s saloon, too?”

She shook her head. “No. Sometimes Mrs. Baker has bread left over from the night before, but you won’t get much more than that till lunch, I’m afraid. My offer to supply you with jerky and biscuits still stands, though.”

“Thank you. I’d like that.”

When Mrs. Finch left to go prepare Jacob’s lunch, he wandered out to the boardwalk in front of the hotel. There were still almost no people out in the street. He needed to do something about that. He stepped back inside.

“Mrs. Finch,” he said as she returned. “If you happen to talk to any of your neighbors this morning, could you invite them to the livery as well?”

She frowned, and a hint of fear tugged at her face. “I . . . I don’t understand, Mr. Payne. Are you trying to draw a crowd? Is something exciting going to happen?” The way she said the word exciting made him believe she meant it as anything but.

“Hopefully,” he replied. “You’ll see when you get there.”

When he left the hotel, Jacob spotted Maggie Winthrop coming out of the telegraph office about a block over on the other side of the street. As she stepped off the wooden walkway, the train of her black dress caught on a loose corner and she stopped, bent down, and freed herself.

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