“You’re not married, then.”
“No, I’m not, Mr….”
“Oh.” Sam gave a little shake of his head. “I didn’t mean to be rude. I’m Sam Two Wolves.”
Hannah shifted the Winchester to her left hand and held out her right. “I’m pleased to meet you, Mr. Two Wolves.”
“Make it Sam,” he told her as he took her hand.
“Thank you so much for helping my father. I always worry every time he leaves the house to come to the marshal’s office. You never know what’s going to happen.”
“No, you sure don’t,” Sam agreed, still holding her hand. He realized that and let go.
Matt leaned forward and said dryly, “I’m Matt Bodine, by the way.”
Hannah turned toward him. “Thank you, too, Mr. Bodine. Exactly what happened? There was so much commotion I couldn’t really tell what was going on.”
Coleman came out of the office coiling Sam’s rope. As he handed it over, he said, “I’ll tell you what happened. Those ornery varmints attacked old Pete Hilliard because he wouldn’t take their blasted Confederate money.” Coleman snorted. “I’ve got a hunch this is the first time they’ve ever been out of the mountains of Tennessee.”
“What are you going to do with them?” Hannah asked.
“That’ll be up to the judge. Attempted murder’s a pretty serious charge, though. It could be they’ll wind up in the state prison.” Coleman looked at Matt and Sam. “Again, I’m obliged to you boys. If there’s anything I can do to repay you for your help…”
“We just planned to pick up some supplies,” Matt said. “Reckon we’ll go on over to Mr. Hilliard’s store and see about doin’ that.”
“But we could stay a few days,” Sam added. “We’ve been on the trail for quite a while. Our horses could probably use the rest.”
Matt’s eyebrows lifted. “You think so?” He knew good and well why Sam was suddenly so interested in staying a spell in Cottonwood, and her name was Hannah Coleman.
That was all right with Matt, other than the fact that they couldn’t get a drink here.
Or could they? All they had to go by was the word of Calvin Bickford and Ambrose Porter. The two so-called “special marshals” hadn’t seemed to be lying, but despite his relative youth, Matt was old enough to know better than to take everything at face value.
“Say, Marshal,” he went on, “we heard there’s a new law here in Kansas that says no more liquor.”
Coleman nodded. “That’s right. Governor signed it into law a while back.”
“Does that just apply to whiskey, or—”
“Whiskey, beer, wine, anything with alcohol in it. It’s illegal to sell any of it or have it in your possession.”
“So there’s no place here in Cottonwood where a man can get a real drink?” Matt asked as if he couldn’t believe it.
“I’m afraid not. I reckon that means you fellas will be in even more of a hurry to move on—”
“Not at all,” Sam broke in. He smiled at Hannah. “It really doesn’t matter to us.”
Matt wanted to tell his blood brother to speak for himself, but instead he just shrugged and said, “I reckon we can take it or leave it.”
It was true that Sam wasn’t much of a drinker to start with. He had seen how badly liquor affected his father’s people. Matt was more inclined to tip an elbow, but he could live without it for a while, he supposed. Sam would get over being smitten with Hannah Coleman as soon as he realized that he would have to be ready to settle down in order to get anywhere with a girl like her.
Coleman sighed and said, “I’m glad to hear that somebody around here feels that way about booze. When the governor got the legislature to pass that law, I don’t reckon he knew just how much of a hornets’ nest he’d be stirring up.”
“Folks haven’t taken kindly to it?” Matt asked.
“That’s putting it mildly. Governor St. John had to send out special deputies to try to enforce the ban, and they’ve wound up getting in shoot-outs with saloon owners and people who try to smuggle in the stuff and just average folks who want to take a drink.”
Matt and Sam glanced at each other, but didn’t say anything about having witnessed one such gun battle earlier that very day.
“On top of that, local badge-toters like me have had to close down the saloons in our towns, and that’s caused a lot of hard feelings, too,” Coleman went on.
“Someone tried to shoot Dad from an alley a few nights ago,” Hannah said. “I’m sure it had something to do with that ban on liquor and the way he ordered all the saloons in town to close.”
“Now, we don’t know that,” Coleman said with a shake of his head.
“Why else would anyone try to bushwhack you like that?”
Coleman shrugged. “Lawmen always have enemies.”
“There hadn’t been any real trouble in town for months,” Hannah insisted. “Not until that new law went into effect.”
“Well, maybe not, but we still don’t need to jump to conclusions.” Coleman turned to Matt and Sam again. “But you young fellas don’t want to stand around listening to my problems. Tell you what. Since I can’t buy you a drink to
