alive if I’d been able to go with him to take that mail coach. I was carrying our baby, though, our boy, Ed.”
She picked up one of the bottles of t. “Ed’s in a private school back in Missouri right now, you know. So is my other baby, Pearl. That’s the beautiful girl I got from Cole. She’s dark, like me. Thank God, she didn’t turn out to be blonde and look like a floozie.”
Belle resumed her nervous pacing. “They’re why I’ve got to keep busy, Windy. You know, it costs a lot of money to keep both of them in the best schools there are.”
“Sure. I can see that, Belle,” Longarm replied. “And I know you’ve had bad luck with this job, coming up shorthanded the way you are.”
“Now, if Jim Reed was still alive, it wouldn’t bother me a bit.”
Belle took another drink. “You know, Windy, I guess one reason why I want you to be with us on this job is that you remind me so much of Jim. If your hair was just a little bit longer, and you didn’t wear your mustache so big…”
Longarm cut in, “If Jim Reed was going out on a job, would he have been fool enough to partner up with somebody carrying the sort of grudge against him that Floyd’s got against me?”
“No. Jim would get rid of Floyd.”
“I draw the line at that, Belle. The only time I throw down on a man is if it’s him or me.”
“I didn’t mean that the way you took it. But you don’t have to worry about Floyd, Windy, I keep telling you that. He’s not calling the shots, I am.”
Longarm frowned thoughtfully. “You said it’s a big job. I don’t know this country real well, but I can’t think of a small town around here where you’d find a whole lot of loose money. Are you sure you’re not aiming too high? I wouldn’t want to get caught up in a squeeze like the James boys did in Northfield.”
“Hell, some dirty skunk tipped off the local law in Northfield.”
Belle took another swallow from the bottle she was still carrying around as she paced. “That’s one thing we don’t have to worry about here. Even if somebody did pass on a tip, the local law wouldn’t do anything about it.”
Longarm studied the smug expression that had crept onto Belle’s face. Then he asked, “Are you telling me you’ve got the marshal or the sheriff paid off, wherever it is your bunch will hit?”
“How do you think I got to be Belle Starr, the Bandit Queen? Listen, Windy, I pay off the law—or enough of it to be safe—in most of the towns just outside this part of the Nation.”
“Well, now.” Longarm acted as though Belle’s boast had impressed him. “That might change my mind about things.” Then, as though he still needed more persuasion, he went on, “But I’d still want to know more about it. Outside of Fort Smith, which I hear is a pretty good-sized place, I’d say there’s not a bank in any town hereabouts that’d carry enough cash to make a good payoff for five or six men.”
“What’s wrong with Fort Smith?” Belle asked.
For a moment Longarm was so astonished that he forgot to carry on with his acting. He stared at Belle, surprised. Then he caught himself up and shook his head. “I don’t know all that much about the place, but from what I’ve heard, it’s too big for five men to handle. Or fifty, if you come down to cases.”
“There are two big banks there,” Belle said. “Both of them are big enough to make it worth the trouble.”
“I don’t know, Belle.” Longarm shook his head. “Sounds pretty risky. Hell, there’s bound to be too many marshals and deputies in a place like that for you to have all of them bought off.”
“You’d be surprised if you knew how many I could make jump if I just said froggy,” Belle said with a smirk. She was confident, now, that she was going to succeed in bringing Longarm into her scheme, and she showed it. “Just because I’m a woman doesn’t mean I don’t know what I’m doing.”
“Oh, I won’t argue with that, Belle,” Longarm told her. “I’ll go this far, right now. You let me do a little thinking about it. And while I’m thinking, you do some talking with Floyd. If everything works out, I just might change my mind about throwing in with you on this job.”
“I thought you’d come around,” she said. “Let’s have a drink on it.”
She held out the bottle.
“I’ll drink with you, but I’ll go get my own whiskey, if it’s all the same to you. Corn liquor just hits my belly in the wrong place.”
Belle was miffed, but tried not to show it. She said, “That’s your choice, Windy. Go get your bottle.” Her voice dropped to a suggestive whisper. “I’ll wait until you come back.”
Footsteps grated on the hard ground outside and clumped on the porch. Longarm stifled a sigh of relief. It didn’t matter to him who was coming in; he wasn’t going to be caught by Belle.
Floyd said from the doorway, “Damn it, Belle, I couldn’t get to sleep for worrying about that job. Mckee, then Taylor. I’ve got the feeling our luck’s gone sour.”
Longarm spoke quickly. “You two’ll want to talk private, I can see that. Belle, we’ll have that drink later. I’ll get out of the way now, so you and Floyd can get things straightened out.”
Before Belle could object, Longarm was outside the house. He collected his gear from the barn. Taylor’s saddlebags caught his eye and he picked them up; there might, he thought, be something in them the girl would need when she awoke. With his bedroll, his Winchester, and the two pairs of saddlebags weighing him down, he walked the short distance to the cabin.
Susanna was still asleep when Longarm entered the cabin. He moved as quietly as possible to avoid rousing her. He let his saddlebags slide quietly to the floor in the corner beyond the stove and put his bedroll beside
