“I’ll leave you here, ma’am,” Anderson said when they stepped inside.
“Thank you.” Sally walked over to the desk and smiled as she saw the clerk, his head drooped forward, snoring rather loudly. She tapped the little bell, and the
“Mrs. Jensen,” he said. “What a pleasant surprise. You will be taking a room with us?”
“Yes, I just arrived on the train, and Smoke isn’t expecting me until tomorrow. I do hope you have an available room.”
“Indeed we do.” The clerk turned the register around so she could sign it.
Picking up the pen, Sally saw a name on the line just above hers. “Tamara Gooding McKenzie! That has to be Tamara Gooding. Is she here?”
“Mrs. McKenzie? Yes, she checked in at about six this evening,” the clerk said. “She came in on the afternoon coach from Gothic.”
“Tamara is an old and dear friend of mine. Please do not let her leave tomorrow without seeing me.”
“I will tell her you are here.” The clerk handed a key to Sally.
As she climbed the stairs, she got a reminder that the elevation in Big Rock was over seven thousand feet. Having lived there as long as she had, she was used to the elevation. But she had been gone for six weeks, all the while at sea level, so she would need to get reacquainted with the altitude.
The hotel room contained a double bed, a dresser, a stand with a water pitcher and basin, and one chair. There was also a small stove which had already been prepared with wood and kindling. Sally took one of the matches from a box on the dresser, struck it, then got the fire going.
Within minutes the room was warm and cozy so that when she slipped under the covers of the bed, she didn’t even mind that the sheets were cold and damp. She fell asleep quickly.
As was his routine, especially during roundup time, Smoke Jensen was up before dawn. He stood in the doorway of the cookhouse. Even though he was in silhouette, it was easy to identify him. He had shoulders as wide as an ax handle, strong arms, flat stomach, and stood just over six feet tall.
For the six weeks Sally had been absent Smoke had been taking all his meals in the cookhouse, eating at a private table where he was occasionally joined by Pearlie or Cal. They believed, as did Smoke, that as they would be working closely with the cowboys, they should eat with them.
It was early enough that none of the other cowboys were awake yet. Pearlie and Cal had been with Smoke long enough to know his schedule, so they were having their breakfast with him at his table, as they discussed the roundup.
“We’ve got cattle scattered from hither to yon,” Pearlie said. “It’s goin’ to take two, maybe three weeks to get ’em all rounded up, branded, and ready to drive into Big Rock to the railhead.”
“Miss Sally gets back today, don’t she?” Cal asked.
“Don’t say that in front of her,” Smoke said.
“Don’t say what?”
“Don’t say, ‘don’t she.’ It is, doesn’t she.”
“Oh, yeah, her bein’ a schoolteacher an’ all, I sometimes forget what store she sets by talkin’ good English.”
Smoke laughed.
“What?”
“Never mind. You are incorrigible, and I would merely be casting pearls before swine.”
“Smoke, I tell you the truth, sometimes you don’t make no sense a-tall,” Cal said.
“Miss Sally does get in today though, doesn’t she?” Pearlie asked.
“Yes. I’ll be going into town to pick her up this morning,” Smoke said.
At breakfast in the dining room of the hotel, Sally and Tamara sat across the table from each other. They had been classmates at Vassar and later taught together. This was the first time they had seen each other in a long time.
“Yes, I knew you were living here,” Tamara said, “but I didn’t want to bother you with my troubles.”
Sally reached her hand across the table to lay it on Tamara’s hand. “Tamara, we are friends. Friends are never a bother. Now, please, tell me what is going on with you.”
“Shortly after you and Smoke Jensen were married, I married a man named Ian McKenzie.”
“Did he live in Bury?”
“No. I left Bury and went to Denver to take a position there. That’s where I met Ian. He was a lawyer, and a wonderful man.”
“Was?”
“He took cholera and died two years ago,” Tamara said.
“Oh, I’m so sorry.”
“Yes, it was awful. I miss him so. But, to make matters worse, I found out his law partner had been cheating
