Longarm was sitting at the head of the table, and she sat down to his right and rested her elbow on the table and her head in her hand. “Where did you get those scratches all over you?” she asked.
He was about to take a bite of chicken, and he paused with his mouth open and looked at her. “Oh, I’ve been wrestling with a wildcat,” he said. “Where else would I get them?” He put the chicken in his mouth and began to eat.
She said, “I guess I’d better doctor those before they get dirt in them or something.”
Longarm said, “It would probably be best to just wait. I would imagine that I’m about to gather up some more.”
Pauline laughed. “I don’t know what comes over me. I just get so carried away.”
Longarm shook his head. “I ain’t complaining. I ain’t complaining about this chicken either. It’s not too dry. How come you’re not eating?”
“I ate earlier. I figured you were tied up with some sort of marshal’s business, so I got that out of the way. I knew you’d show up sooner or later.”
He gave her a smile. “Pretty sure of yourself, aren’t you?”
“I know you’ve been gone for a good long while, and I know, most of the time, you get pretty hungry while out on the trail.”
He had seen her the evening before, but only to stop by to arrange his visit tonight. There had been no chance to tell her of his chase and capture of the horse and cattle thieves. Now, he gave her a short, condensed version of the hard trip.
“I swear, Pauline, that there were times that I’d have even swapped you for some of this chicken, and that’s saying a whole bunch.” He reached out, poured himself a half glass of whiskey, and downed part of it. “And there were a few times when I would have swapped this here whiskey for water.”
“Now I am amazed,” she said. “You must have had a hell of a time.”
The way she was sitting, her silk lounging robe gaping open at the top, he could see her almost perfect breasts, small and yet seemingly plump, sharp-pointed with tips of raspberry and full rosettes of a darkish hue. For a moment, he could not take his eyes from the sight, and he could feel a stirring coming from in his pants. She noticed his eyes, and gave a quick laugh and then straightened up.
“Oh, no, not yet,” she said. “I ain’t ready for you to get all roused up. I want your best effort.”
“I had a good rest this afternoon and I’ve got plenty stored up.”
“I hope you’re going to be in town for a while now. You come and go so fast, sometimes I think I just made you UP.”
He frowned. “I hope I’m going to be here for a little while, but I’ve got the damnedest situation going on that you’ve ever heard.”
“What?”
He began to tell her about the wanted posters that were being put out on his head around New Mexico. He finished with: “Now ain’t that the damnedest thing you’ve ever heard? Wanted posters on a lawman?”
Pauline looked dismayed. “Custis, that’s scary. Somebody really doesn’t like you. Ten thousand dollars? Don’t you go near that place, somebody’ll shoot you in the back.”
“It’s a mystery to me and it’s a mystery that I intend to get to the bottom of. I’ve talked Billy Vail into sending a young deputy down there to try and get some information, but sooner or later I’m going to have to go down there myself and settle the matter. I don’t much care to be walking around with a price on my head.”
“Honey, this is awful. Listen, what are you going to do? Isn’t that illegal or something? How can they advertise to have someone killed?
Especially a lawman?”
Longarm said, “Well, I’m not a lawyer or any of that, but as near as I can make it out, putting up a notice like that makes you an accessory to murder or a co-conspirator. I know one thing. It’s got to be illegal. It’s damned sure uncomfortable for me.” Pauline shook her head, looking worried. “You must have made somebody awfully mad. Did you kill somebody named Nelson or put them in prison or something?”
Longarm shook his head. “Me and Billy Vail’s been over and over that. The best I can figure out, I don’t even know anybody by the name of Nelson.”
“Well, you poor baby. I … I don’t know what to think about something like this, but it makes me nervous.” She suddenly got up, went over to a drawer in the kitchen cabinet, and came out with a clean cloth. She came back to the table, took the bottle of whiskey, and soaked the cloth. After that, she began daubing at the scratches on his neck and back.
Longarm let out a yowl. “Damn it, woman. Quit wasting that whiskey like that, and quit wasting it on hurting me. That stuff ain’t supposed to make you hurt. It’s supposed to make you feel better.”
Pauline said, “Well, those were bothering me. I’ll try and be more gentle next time.”
“Why don’t we just trim your nails, like you would a horse’s hoof? Maybe we can even cut your fangs down a little bit.”
She leaned down and kissed him on the neck, and then whispered in his ear what she was going to do to him in a very few minutes.
He turned around so that their lips met. With their mouths barely touching, he said, “You can’t do that. I don’t think that’s possible.”
“You watch me. I’m going to drain you as dry as an old dead log.”
He said, “You’re not big enough to hold all what I’ve got.”
