Matt smiled back at her and remembered that Lily Langtry had also asked him to call her by her first name.
“Well, now, I wouldn’t want it to get back to Mr. Frewen that I was rude to his sister-in-law. If you really want to be called Jennie, I will oblige you.”
“I do,” Jennie said. “Will we be taking the coach tonight?” she asked.
“No, ma’am, the first coach for Sussex doesn’t leave until eight o’clock tomorrow morning. I’ve got rooms for us here at the hotel.”
“I’m afraid I have a rather large traveling trunk,” Jennie Churchill said.
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll have it sent to the hotel,” Matt said.
For the entire conversation between Matt and his mother, Winnie had kept his eyes glued on the pistol at Matt’s side.
“Are you a real cowboy?” Winnie asked.
“I suppose that in a manner of speaking, you could say that I was a cowboy, in that I have punched a few cows in my day. But I don’t do that very much anymore, so you couldn’t rightly call me one. I tend to move around quite a bit.”
“Punched cows?” Winnie asked. He laughed; then, as if boxing, threw a punch. “You have punched cows?” he asked again.
Matt laughed with him. “I reckon that is a strange way of saying it, but when cowboys ride herd on cows, they use the term ‘punching cows.’”
“Uncle Moreton has cows, doesn’t he?”
“Yes.”
“Then while I am here, I shall want to ‘punch’ a cow.”
“I’m sure you will get the opportunity,” Matt said.
“Would there be a restaurant in the hotel, Matt?” Jennie asked. “We haven’t eaten since lunch, and I’m sure Winnie is hungry. I know that I am.”
“The hotel has a very good dining room,” Matt said.
“Would you take dinner with us?” Jennie asked.
“I would be honored to.”
“Will I get to see any wild Indians while I am here?” Winnie asked.
“I’m sure that while you are here, you will see some Indians.”
“Are they wild?”
“There is no such thing as a ‘wild’ Indian,” Matt said. “The Indians were living here with their own culture for thousands of years before the white man ever came.”
“I meant no disrespect, sir,” Winnie apologized.
Matt laughed at the boy’s excellent vocabulary. “Young man, I don’t think it would be in your nature to show disrespect to anyone.”
When they reached the hotel, Matt made arrangements for the trunk, then led Jennie and Winnie into the dining room.
Chapter Thirteen
“You’re sure he’ll be on the stagecoach coming from Medicine Bow?” Logan asked.
“I’m quite sure,” Teasdale said. “Mrs. Frewen told my wife that she was expecting her sister and nephew, so she convinced Frewen to send Jensen to Medicine Bow to meet them and take the coach back to Sussex with them.”
Logan nodded. “Good. We can not only get rid of him, we can make it look just like the coach was held up. Which it will be.”
“Remember, no harm is to come to Lady Churchill or her son,” Teasdale said.
“Why not? If they get kilt too, it would just make it seem even more like it wasn’t nothin’ but a stagecoach holdup.”
“No!” Teasdale said. “Nothing is to happen to the woman or her child. I must insist on that.”
“All right, nothing will happen to them. They’ll just have a little excitement they can talk about when they get back to England.”
“And, while I don’t want to tell you how to run your business, I would suggest that you don’t wear your yellow scarves for this.”
“Oh, don’t worry none about that,” Logan said. “We won’t be the ones doin’ it. I’ve got some friends that sort of specialize in holdin’ up stagecoaches.”
Back in Medicine Bow, Matt, Jennie and Winnie were taking their dinner at the dining room of the Railroad Hotel. “I’m quite sure I have never eaten buffalo,” Jennie said after they ordered their dinner. “What does it taste like?”
“It has a somewhat lighter and sweeter taste than beef,” Matt explained. “And it’s not as fat.”
“Have you ever shot your gun?” Winnie asked.
