'Why's she going to Yuma?' Frank asked, hurrying after them.
'Go back and take care of your business and let me take care of mine,' Longarm ordered.
'But your business looks a whole lot more fun than mine!'
'Shoe our damned horses!' Longarm called over his shoulder as he marched Lucy to the hotel, avoiding the curious stares of everyone they passed.
'Marshal Long!' the proprietor of the Buckboard said in greeting as they entered the hotel. 'What a pleasure to see you and your... what?'
Longarm watched the man's smile of greeting evaporate, and then slowly reappear under the warmth of Lucy's smile. 'This is my prisoner, Mrs. Lucy Ortega. We need... a room.'
'One?' the man asked, eyes lifting in question.
'Yes, one,' Longarm said. 'I don't dare let her out of my sight.'
'What did she do, cause some man to walk into a wall and brain himself?'
'Don't be ridiculous, Marvin,' Longarm snapped. 'Lucy is under arrest for a far more serious charge than that.'
Marvin boldly measured Lucy until he felt Longarm's hot, disapproving eyes, and then he gathered his wits and said, 'I have a room on the second floor. Room Twenty-eight. Two single beds. I hope that will be suitable.'
'It will,' Longarm said. 'Give me the key.'
Marvin gave him the key, and Longarm didn't even bother to thank him as he led Lucy up the stairs and found their room.
'Spartan,' Lucy said when they moved inside, 'but at least it's clean.'
'And with two single beds,' Longarm said, pitching his saddlebags and bedroll onto the bed nearest the window.
'I need a bath,' Lucy said. 'I feel like I'll never be clean again.'
'I need one too,' he said, 'but even more, I need to get something to eat and drink.'
'First,' she insisted, 'the bath.'
Longarm thought that he probably ought to put his foot down hard and show her who was in charge here, but he was too tired to get into an argument, so he went back outside into the hallway and shouted down the stairs. 'Hey, Marvin! We need a hot bath up here right now!'
'Two?' came the reply.
Longarm knew that two baths would cost him a full dollar. 'No,' he yelled, 'one will do.' Longarm thought that he heard giggles from downstairs, but just when he had decided it was time to have a private word with the man, Marvin yelled, 'One bath, coming right up, Deputy Longarm!'
'I'm going to need you to remove these handcuffs,' Lucy said inside the room. 'Otherwise, I can't get my blouse off.'
When he hesitated, Lucy added, 'Come on! I can't bathe in my clothes.'
'Yeah, but...'
'You've seen a woman bathe before, haven't you?'
'Sure! But...'
'And you're an officer of the law, sworn to uphold federal law and not inflict yourself on prisoners in your custody, isn't that right?'
'Yeah, but...'
'And I can trust you to be honorable, can't I?' she asked as she began to unbutton her blouse.
'Well sure you can, but...'
'Then let's not waste any more precious energy worrying about proprieties,' she said abruptly. 'We've been sleeping together now for several nights and nothing has happened.'
'This is a little different, though,' he muttered.
'Why?'
''Cause I haven't had to be around you when you were taking a bath, dammit!'
'Aw,' she said, dismissing his concerns, 'just stretch out on the bed and close your eyes. Pretend that I'm your usual uncouth male prisoner. It'll be easy.'
'I dunno.'
'Sure it will be,' she said with a toss of her hair. 'Now please remove these handcuffs, because I sure can't bathe in my blouse.'
Longarm could see no way out of doing what she suggested. He'd never escorted a male prisoner who'd been so insistent about having a bath. Normally, they just dunked their head in a horse trough or piled into a river and let their personal cleanliness go at that. But he could see that it was clearly going to be a different thing with Lucy Ortega.
'All right,' he said, taking the key out of his pockets and then removing Lucy's handcuffs.
He was just about to warn her about not trying anything funny when there was a knock at the door and the call, 'Bathwater!'
