Goodman, Tom Hunter, and Mrs. Thompson, with Mrs. Thompson serving as president of the board. It was a bold move for a woman to have the deciding vote, but it seemed only fitting in view of what her husband had attempted. In many ways, the Grit Settlement Association was framed and formed on his ideas. During this time, Hawkins reluctantly took his leave. Longarm wrote him a letter stating that he had served honorably for a week as an auxiliary deputy United States marshal and that George Hawkins was entitled to all emoluments and courtesies due that rank.
Hawkins looked at the paper. He said, “What’s an emolument?”
Longarm shook his head. “I don’t know, but they always put that word in them kind of documents. As far as I know, it means you get the cream with the milk. But if you ever do run across an emolument, I wish you’d get in touch with me and let me know.”
They shook hands, and Hawkins departed. Longarm doubted that he would ever see the man again, but then that was the way with so much of his work. He met people and became so close to them under the intense pressure and danger of situations, and then it was all over with and everyone went their own way. Just as he now was anxiously looking forward to finishing up and leaving Grit and leaving Texas and getting back home to Denver.
His work was finally done and he would be going the next day. That night, he sat in his room on the side of his bed, thinking and having one last drink and smoking a cigarillo. He thought about Billy Vail and what he had told him about the circus. Well, he had been right. This was the damnedest bunch of lions and tigers he had ever seen. He hadn’t been sure how he was going to tame them without a whip and a chair.
Since he was fixing to go to bed, he wasn’t wearing any clothes. He had the lamp trimmed down low because it was just before he was to extinguish it. Longarm guessed it was going on midnight. He would pick up his train the next day somewhere around noon, so there was no rush. As long as he was out of Grit by nine o’clock, he’d have plenty of time to catch the little rattle-banger that ran between Junction and Brady.
As he was sitting there thinking back over the past time and all that had happened, there came a very light tap at his door. Without thinking, he said, “Come in.”
The door opened slowly and Mrs. Thompson came softly into the room. Longarm was so startled, he almost stood up. She was wearing a pale pink nightgown of very sheer material. He could see that she had fixed her hair and put on some rouge and touched up her lips and eyes. It was clearly obvious what she had come for.
He made no attempt to hide his nakedness. He said, “Mrs. Thompson, are you sure about this?”
She moved toward him, holding out her hand to touch his face as she did. She said, “Yes. Very sure. I’ve held myself alone and without long enough.”
Longarm said, “I know you set a great deal of store by your husband.”
“Yes,” she said, “and I still do. But this is different. You did a wonderful thing here. What you did for these people, the help you gave them, the peace that you brought back to this area, the prosperity.”
Longarm said, his voice going husky, “Well, I don’t need any thanks, ma’am. It’s my job.”
“This is not thanks. This is what I want to do, that is, if you want to.”
“Oh, ma’am. Yes, I want to very much. I’m just surprised, that’s all. You’ve kind of taken me off guard.”
She said, “Let me get in the bed.”
Longarm scooted back on the bed to make room for her, but before she moved forward, she lifted her nightgown over her head and then stood there for a moment. The sight made the breath catch in Longarm’s throat. She was not some young shapely girl who, in spite of her looks, had not had the experience that radiated from Mrs. Thompson’s mature body. There was a fullness about it, a voluptuousness and experience that could only come with maturity. Her breasts were full and round. They hung a little, but then they had been used. Her hips were wider than they would have been ten years before, and her belly was rounder, but the way the lamplight glanced off the sheen of her skin and the high points of her body caused Longarm’s breath to come faster and faster. He fastened his eyes on the vee of black, rich pubic hair that was almost at the level of his eyes. He let his gaze travel up to her breasts, to her face, and then to her hair. He held out his hand. She reached and took it, and he pulled her to him. They came slowly together.
For half an hour, they made slow, preparatory, teasing, flattering love play. Then, when she was ready, Longarm brought her to climax with finger and tongue and penis. He held her while she shuddered and screamed softly into his neck. She had her legs locked around his hips and with strong pulls, she drove him deeper into herself. In three or four rhythmic plunges, he erupted and filled her with semen in a long, slow, star-bursting cascade of tingling satisfaction. When it was over, he collapsed on her for a moment and then rolled to the side and lay next to her.
Neither one of them spoke for a few long moments. Finally she said, “Well, first Milton ruins me for other men, and now you come along. What am I supposed to do?”
Longarm said, “Just judging from what I’ve seen of him, Robert Goodman appears to be a good man.” He realized what he had said and then laughed. “I guess he would have to be a good man, wouldn’t he?”
“I’ve been watching him. He’s interesting, he’s steady, he’s not too imaginative, but I think I could always depend on him.”
Longarm said, “I think so. I think he’s the kind of man who would wear well, like Tom Hunter.”
She turned her head toward him. “Or like you?”
He shook his head. “No, ma’am. I’m not here for the long haul. It just ain’t in the cards for me.”
“You could never marry?”
Longarm said, “I don’t see how. It would be unfair to both parties. It would be unfair to the woman because I’d be gone all the time, and it would be unfair to me because I might be thinking of her at the wrong time and be just that fraction of a second too slow. No, ma’am, I’m here to do a job and then I’ll go someplace else to do a job.” He turned and propped his head on his elbow. “But I won’t soon forget this night. Ma’am, you’re a wonderful, lovely woman. You give a man great pleasure. I’d say that if I wanted or if I had to choose one woman to sleep with for the rest of my life, your name would be well up near the top of the list.”
She smiled in the dim glow of the lantern. She said, “And I’m sure that’s quite a list. But I am complimented and I thank you for everything that you did. You’re leaving in the morning?”
