They had supper that night with Mr. and Mrs. Higgins in their quarters, eating at the little dining table in the outer room. Mrs. Higgins fixed chicken and dumplings, and topped it off with a peach cobbler she’d made out of canned peaches. Longarm pronounced it as maybe the finest meal he had ever had. And in a way it was, given the situation and the setting. Mrs. Higgins said, “Oh, how you do take on.” But she pinked with pleasure and made sure his coffee cup stayed full.
Later he got her aside and talked about Rita Ann’s plight. He said, “The poor girl is going around dressed like a street beggar or somebody about to go into a nunnery. That sure ain’t calculated to lift her spirits. I know ya’ll ain’t of a size, but is they any chance you might have something she could cut down to fit her? I’d be more than glad to pay.”
Mrs. Higgins said, “Let me think a minute.” She wrinkled her brow for a time. Then she said, “You know, there was a Spanish woman through here a few years back. Spanish, not Mexican. She had to get off the coach on account of not feeling well. Had a world of luggage. If I remember right there was one case got left, and I think it had some gowns in it and maybe even some clean linen. We notified the company but they was never a word said or a claim put in. Now if I can just remember where I stored that valise.”
While she was thinking, Longarm brought up the possibility of Rita Ann getting a bath. Mrs. Higgins just waved her hand. “Ain’t nothin’ to that. We got a cistern on top of the station here, and it feeds water down into a little bathroom I got there at the back. Got a Sears and Roebuck galvanized tub. And the water won’t need heatin’. Lord knows, it nearly gets up to boilin’ during the day. Tell you what, you and the mister go out and have a drink. You send Rita Ann on back to me and we’ll get something worked out.”
She stopped him as he was starting to turn away and said, with a twinkle in her eye, “Gettin’ sweet on the girl, are you?”
He gave her a wink. “Sylvia, I been sweet on all the girls nearly all my life.”
“Well you send her on in here. We’ll see what we can do.”
He and Higgins got themselves a drink at the bar, and then went and sat at the long table in the common room. Higgins, as if Longarm had led him to a great discovery, was drinking whiskey along with him. He said wonderingly, “Why, I don’t know whatever come over me to think that rum was so fine. Somebody must of sold me a bill of goods.” He held up his glass of cheap whiskey. “Now this is the real stuff, yessir, and I am much obliged for you straightening me out. Took a marshal of the federal government to do it, by golly, but it got done.”
Longarm had had an extremely difficult time getting Higgins to take twenty dollars in payment for his food and lodging. He’d finally fallen back on the lie that the government required him to pay for any services he received from civilians and that it was a breach of regulations if he didn’t. Now he was faced with getting the stationkeeper to take another twenty for what Mrs. Higgins was doing for Rita Ann. His argument was that she had become his employee and as such, came under the regulations. After some argument Higgins finally accepted the additional money. Longarm said, “Remember, Herman, I’ll be riding free. The law allows me to do that. And you did send that telegram for me. It all works out pretty square all around.”
Higgins refilled their glasses and said, “You found that doctor, I take it?”
“Yeah. Name is Peabody.”
“What’d you think?”
Longarm rubbed his jaw. “I ain’t sure. He was slumped down on the ground and he looked kind of short and fat and mighty drunk. But then he stood up and he was bigger than I thought. Also, he don’t talk so drunk. Course I have known hombres like that. Could drink whiskey until it was leaking out their ears and you’d never be able to tell it. But he kept looking younger the more I looked at him. I can’t figure it.” He suddenly laughed. “Told me to put goose grease on my feet.”
Herman said, “Goose grease? Would chicken fat do as well?”
“He said that too, but my feet ain’t feeling all that bad. I guess he’s a doctor. He’s mighty well spoken. Talks highfalutin as hell.”
“I taken notice of that my own self. But I reckon he is going to have to sleep down there with them Mexicans. We ain’t exactly set up for nightshirt company.”
Longarm looked around. “I can sling my sleeping roll anywhere in here. If that is all right with you.”
“That’s mighty all right with me, Marshal. Onliest thang is I don’t know where to put Miss Rita Ann.”
Longarm said, “Well, I seen a divan in your front room. She ain’t very big. Couldn’t you give her a blanket and let her bed down on that?”
Higgins nodded. “Why, I don’t see why not. ‘Specially since she is connected to you.”
“I’d be obliged.”
Longarm calculated that they had been out in the common room drinking whiskey for about two hours when the door to the private quarters opened and Rita Ann came through followed by Mrs. Higgins. Longarm took a long look and said, “Well, now, that is more like it.”
The dress Rita Ann was wearing was of definite Spanish origin, but it fit her like it had been made for her. It was light blue and of some light, sleek material. It fit snugly around her waist and hips, and then flared out to a ruffled hem at the bottom. The bodice was a deep V cut, and the bosom of the dress was high, to lift Rita Ann’s breasts so they looked bigger and more erect. Longarm stared at the V of white, very lightly tanned skin with just the hint of Rita Ann’s breasts bulging into the opening. She had taken her hair down, and he saw it was a sleek, golden brown that caught the highlights from the kerosene lamps and threw them back.
Mrs. Higgins said, “Don’t she look purty!”
Mr. Higgins said, “Why, I can’t believe it’s the same girl.”
Rita Ann giggled. She said, “I’m just grateful to have a bath and be wearing clean underwear. Mrs. Higgins, I ain’t ever going to be able to thank you.”
Sylvia gave her a pat on the shoulder. “I never done nothin’, Rita Ann. And them clothes have just been laying around here doing nobody no good.” She said to Longarm, “There’s another dress and a skirt and blouse. This was just the dressiest of the bunch, so we thought we’d give you boys a treat.”
“It sure worked,” Longarm said. To Rita Ann he said, “Sure makes a difference.”
