"I need this."
"A hatbox? You don"t have a hat."
"But I will when my head is biggest."
Sabrina"s hand came to her mouth. Jessie did not look at her, but Sabrina could see that she was fighting laughter as well.
"Why does Clancy have a hatbox?" Hannah arrived and wished to know.
"Clancy," Jessie addressed her youngest daughter, ignoring Hannah for the moment. "You may have that, but nothing else."
61 "What if I need something?" the child argued. "I don"t want to hear about it-not for a week." Clancy looked stubborn but turned to Hannah. "How many is that?"
"How many days?" Hannah clarified.
The women left Hannah counting on one hand and Clancy still frowning. If they stayed, they were both going to laugh.
"So this is where you work."
Sabrina heard the male voice behind her and turned to find the man from the alley.
"Can I help you?" Sabrina asked.
"I hope so. I"m Bret Toben, by the way."
"Sabrina Matthews," she told him, her voice not overly friendly. "What can I get you?"
Several replies sprang to Bret"s lips, but he squelched them all. "Tobacco, please."
Sabrina had not done this herself and started to go to find Jessie, but Bret"s voice stopped her.
"She keeps it right here."
"I know where it is," Sabrina explained, "but I don"t know how to cut it."
"I buy the whole twist," Bret said, lifting one down from the rack. "And Jessie charges me a nickle."
Bret held the coin out to Sabrina, and she took it. She ignored the fact that he let his fingers linger as long as he dared and went behind the counter to the cash register.
"h.e.l.lo, Bret," Jessie said suddenly. "Is Bri taking care of you?" "Bri?" Bret said, looking at that lady. "You didn"t tell me about your nickname."
"I don"t think we"re going to have that many conversations," Sabrina said, not unkindly.
62 "Is it me or the fact that I own a saloon?"
"Does it matter?" Sabrina asked.
"It might," Bret hedged, even as he knew she was right.
Jessie smiled at Bret, who was much too used to attention from women. He caught the smile and gave one in return. He would have enjoyed the challenge of getting a few more words from Sabrina but decided to head on his way. Tipping his hat in a way he knew was charming, he bid the ladies goodbye.
"So tell me," Jessie asked as soon as he was gone, "is it him or the saloon?"
"Both, I suppose. I can tell he"s not my type."
"I wonder who is your type," Jessie said, voicing her thoughts aloud.
Sabrina could have told her that was the last thing she wondered about, but she had no time. Clancy showed up, clearly put out, having been told by her sister that she couldn"t need anything for seven days!
Mt.
Old Ivan Lamour died.
The words, coming near the end of the workday, were not easy to hear, but they meant that an apartment had opened up in town. Sabrina did not want to cause anyone at Jeanette"s to worry, but this was something she had to check on. Jessie had warned her that the location on Willow Street was not the best, but Sabrina said she still wanted to look. And this time she found the building without incident. She knocked on two doors before someone answered, and that woman directed her to yet one more door.
"Do you have an empty apartment for rent?" Sabrina wasted no time asking the man who opened the last door.
Pale, watery eyes looked her up and down, clearly surprised, but Butch Sandgren was not about to pa.s.s up a paying customer. And she was young and pretty.
63 "This way," Butch said after a moment, and led the way around the back. He had done nothing with the place since the body had been taken away. His plans did not include much, so he had no issues with showing it as it was.
Sabrina had seen worse certainly, but not by much. Her own place in the bordello had been better.
"How much?" she asked, thinking it needed far more than cleaning.
Butch named a price that sent Sabrina to the door.
"Thank you for showing me the apartment," she said, but Butch"s voice stopped her.
"I could lower it some."
"How much?" Sabrina asked, also planning to ask about paint and the stairs outside.
The two d.i.c.kered for several minutes, Sabrina having to give in some, but Butch certain he was giving in more.
"I would like to move in right away," Sabrina said, "but I also want the repairs started right away."
"How am I supposed to paint if you"re in here?" Butch asked. "I"ll do the painting myself if you buy the paint. But the stairs have to be started right away. And this lock-" Sabrina went to the door. "I want that fixed no later than tomorrow evening."
Butch could not believe he was agreeing to all of this, but she kept looking at him expectantly, and her voice was very nice. "All right," Butch said. "But I want my rent today."
"I was thinking I would pay the first month as soon as the stairs were fixed."
This plan did not sit well with the landlord, and more d.i.c.kering ensued. Nevertheless Sabrina left well pleased, hurrying back across town to Jeanette"s to tell that household her good news.
"But Bri," Jeanette said when she found her voice. "We"re in no 64 hurry to have you move out. Why don"t you take a little more time finding a place?"
"Thank you, Jeanette, but I think it will suit me very well, and the price is good."
"Bri," Heather had to speak up as well. "That section of town can be very rough, especially after dark."
"I"ll be careful," Sabrina a.s.sured her, smiling at her caring.
The women were not done. They tried through supper to talk Sabrina out of the move, but she had made up her mind. And that was not the end of it. In the morning at the store, Sabrina mentioned to Jessie that she had taken Ivan Lamour"s apartment, and her reaction was the same.
"You rented it?" Jessie asked in surprise. "It"s not in the best part of town."
"But it"s affordable, and I"ll be careful," she repeated herself, confident that she could do it.
Jessie was on the verge of telling her who some of her neighbors would be, prost.i.tutes and the like, but a customer needed her. She forgot about it until things were so slow that Sabrina was asking if she could leave early, having already picked out and paid for the paint she was going to use. Jessie stood at the door of the mercantile store, broom in hand, wondering if she should have said mbre.
"Becky!" Sabrina said, coming around the corner of the building and finding her sitting on the bottom step.
"Is this the place?" the cook demanded.
"It is. Come up and see it."
"Bri." Becky stopped her with a hand to her shoulder, her voice soft and serious. "I"m here for one reason, maybe two."
"All right."
"I"m here to talk you out of this, and if that doesn"t work, I"m here to clean."
65Sabrina had to smile.
"It does need work, Becky," Sabrina explained gently, "but I"m pleased to have found it, and I want to be able to take care of myself, which means finding a cheap place."
Becky nodded, seeing that she was not going to change her mind. Becky had known that she wouldn"t but was glad she"d tried. Following Sabrina up the stairs, she resigned herself to whatever came next.
"h.e.l.lo, Rylan," Jeanette said when that man ended up at her door that evening. "Come in."
"Is this a bad time?" Rylan asked, having planned to just check on Theta, but Jeanette looked slightly distracted.
"As a matter of fact, your timing is perfect. Can you help Timothy lift a bed into the wagon?"
"Certainly. In the back?"
Before Rylan knew it, he was on the heavy end of a bedframe, lifting without a problem, and hoping Timothy was not taking too much on himself. Timothy a.s.sured him that he could take it from there, but the mute appeal in Jeanette"s eyes was impossible for Rylan to ignore.
"Why don"t I go along and help you on the other end, Timothy?"
"Oh, you don"t have to do that, Pastor."
"My evening is suddenly free," Rylan said, climbing aboard with a swift change of plans.
Timothy didn"t argue but put the team into motion and headed toward Sabrina"s new apartment on Willow Street.
"How does this look?" Sabrina asked, having painted one wall on the living room end of the apartment. The bedroom was separate, 66 but the rest of the apartment, living room, kitchen, and dining area, was one square room.
"It looks good," Becky complimented, "but I don"t know how you"re going to stand to sleep in here with that smell. You"d better come back to Jeanette"s tonight."
Sabrina laughed at Becky"s thinly veiled attempt to get her away from the apartment. The two had cleaned for hours before Becky had gone back to Jeanette"s for a few hours to work on supper, muttering all the time about Sabrina not having enough furniture or even a decent bed to sleep on. The one that had been left was not something Sabrina was willing to lie on, and the women had dismantled it, carted it out, and thrown it away.
"I think I hear the wagon," Becky suddenly said.
"What wagon?"
"Timothy is bringing a few things," Becky said before disappearing out the door and calling down to Timothy to be careful of the stairs.
Sabrina was in the midst of cleaning up her paint supplies when she realized someone had come in. She turned to find Rylan Jarvik filling the doorway.
"I don"t think we"ve officially met," that man said, his voice deep. He came toward Sabrina, his hand out. "I"m Rylan."
"It"s nice to meet you," Sabrina said automatically, realizing he was even larger than she first realized and the hand that took hers was gigantic.
"I didn"t get your name," Rylan began, but Becky was suddenly there.
"Now, Bri, where do you want this little chest?"
"What is this for?" Sabrina asked.
"Watch that wall, Timothy," Becky said, taking charge. "She just painted."
For some reason, Sabrina was embarra.s.sed. There was something about Rylan Jarvik that fl.u.s.tered her. Maybe it was the way she"d first seen him at the livery, or the way she hadn"t heard a word of 67 his sermon, but whatever the cause, it made her want to duck away the moment she saw him.
"I"m going to help Timothy with the bed," Rylan was saying. "What wall do you want it on?"
Sabrina had no idea. She hadn"t thought that far and now stared at him without saying anything. Rylan didn"t know what was hard about the question, but when she didn"t answer, he simply went back down the stairs to help the other man.
"What"s the matter?" Becky asked.
"I think I"m just surprised," Sabrina answered when she found her voice.
"Watch that step, Timothy," Sabrina heard Rylan say from outside. She turned to Becky.
"I have to run down to see the landlOrd. Just put things where they make sense to you."
"All right. I"ll take care of it."
Sabrina waited only until the men were out of the way before escaping. It was true that she did need to ask Mr. Sandgren about the repairs on the stairway, but she also hoped Rylan Jarvik would be gone when she returned.
"Do you call her Sabrina or Bri?" Rylan asked Jeanette a few hours later.
"Bri."
"And she was living here until today?"
"Yes. She took us by surprise," Jeanette admitted, a frown on her face. She was working to accept Sabrina"s move, but it was proving difficult. "I told her she could take her time and look for a place, but then she rented from Sandgren."