A well-polished grandfather clock in one corner ticked off the long minutes. The judge had a law book open on the right side of his desk. He consulted it frequently.
Then came the surprise. The judge looked up and said, “I’m granting your request. The people on your list will become equal owners of the mine.” He pushed his glasses up on his nose and called for his court clerk to come into the office. He spent a minute having his clerk read the will and the list of names into the court record, then said simply: “Good day, gentlemen.”
Outside the county courthouse, Fargo stood with Hank, Walt, and Jim. The sun had gone behind the mountains, casting the valley and the town into shadows. It was still hot, but there was the promise of a cool evening in the air.
“That judge was a right friendly gent,” Jim said. “Figured he’d invite us all for a drink.”
“Yeah.” Walt laughed. “With poison in it.”
Fargo laughed too, but then got right back to work.
“Get everyone ready and guards posted,” Fargo said to them. “When Brant and his daughter hear about this, they may try a full-out attack on the mine. If they can blow up the mine opening or shut you down in some way, then they can tunnel into the vein and claim it as theirs. Be ready. Both aboveground and below. For the first time, we’re ahead of them, and they’re not going to like that.”
“Let them come,” Hank said. “Thanks to your idea, every man working the mine has a real reason to fight. I doubt Brant’s men do. And that’s going to make a difference.”
“I have no doubt about that,” Fargo said.
“What are you going to do?” Walt asked.
“Get a good night’s sleep, first off,” Fargo said, smiling. “Don’t worry—I’ll be around. I’m going to be like a kid with a stick poking at a beehive when it comes to Brant. I have a score to settle.”
“If you need any help, you know where we’ll be,” Hank said. “And as long as you’re here helping us, we’ll keep paying you the same price Cain was paying you.”
“No need,” Fargo said. “Save your money. You have to split it a lot of ways. And besides, I tend to work alone. But thanks.”
“Thank you,” Hank said. He shook Fargo’s hand and then the three of them headed back to their mine.
Fargo turned and headed for the Wallace Hotel. Anne had gone back ahead of him after the judge had declared the will official. This time he went in the hotel entrance, nodding at the desk clerk before climbing the stairs to his room. Before he could put the key in the door, a soft voice came from down the hall.
“Where do you think you’re going, mister?” Anne poked her head out her door and smiled at him.
“I was hoping to get cleaned up, then a little dinner with a beautiful woman, a short love-making session, and a long night’s sleep. Do you know anyone who might want to help me with all that?”
Anne laughed. “I sure do. This way.” She stuck her arm out the door and gestured that he should come to her.
She swung open the door as he neared, showing him that she was standing there completely naked.
The sight took his breath away. She was one of the most beautiful women he had ever known.
He stopped for a moment just to stare, then stepped inside, afraid to even try a comment.
She pointed to the large tub in the corner. “I just happened to be getting ready for a bath and figured you might want to join me.”
“I could use a bath, but you probably hadn’t noticed,” he said.
She laughed. “Now that you mention it—” She looked into his lake blue eyes for a moment, then kissed him solidly on the lips.
He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and pulled her close, feeling her breasts push into him. It felt really good being back here with her.
She pushed him away and then slowly worked to take off his shirt. When she saw his bandages, she gasped.
“Are you sure you’re all right?”
“Let’s check,” he said. “I could use your help trimming some of the stitches the doc used on me.”
Carefully, with her help, he pulled off the bandage on his shoulder. Under it, the hole where the bullet had gone in looked red, but not swollen with any infection. It looked like the doctor had done a good job on that one.
She turned him around and carefully pulled off the bandage in back. That hole was slightly larger from what the doc had told him. Exit wounds usually were.
“How’s it look?” he asked her.
“Painful,” she said. “But healing. Trimming the ends of the stitching won’t hurt you, and a bath might even help them a little, make sure they’re clean. Do you have a fresh shirt to wear?”
“One,” he said.
“We’ll send the rest of your things to the laundry tomorrow. You need to keep clean shirts on these wounds until they finish healing.”
“Thank you, nurse,” he said, turning around and kissing her. “Anyone ever tell you that you have a great bedside manner?”
“And I thought it was just the uniform,” she said.
He laughed. “That helps, I have to admit.”
She helped him out of his boots and trousers, then into the tub.
It took him a moment to settle in to the hot water, but once he was in, he could feel the aches and tiredness in his muscles slowly draining away. There was sure something to be said about hot baths. At least after a few days like he had just had.
She scrubbed him down with a rough sponge like he was a horse, being careful around his wounds and then using only her soft hands on his private parts.
He tried to wash her as well, especially those hidden areas between her legs, but she kept moving his hands away, telling him to wait his turn.
Finally, when she was done scrubbing off a layer of his skin, she told him to lie back and enjoy the moment.
She moved to the other end of the large, narrow tub and sat up on the end, her feet still touching his, her legs open so that he could see her most intimate parts. If this wasn’t heaven, he didn’t know what could beat it.
Slowly, not missing an inch, she used the sponge to wash herself. She started with her neck, then worked down her arms, bending down every so often to dip the sponge in the water.
He watched her breasts move as she moved. He watched the soapy water run down her body, over her breasts, down her stomach, and through the fine brown hair between her legs. He was mesmerized following the water, staring at her every movement.
He was as hard as he ever remembered being, and it took every ounce of willpower he had not to take her right then.
She seemed to spend extra time on her breasts, moving them around, soaping them again, rubbing them.
Never, in all his life, had he felt so aroused by simply watching a woman. He never wanted the moment to end.
She had the look of intense lust that he had come to recognize. Her eyes were slits, not really seeing anything, her face filled with a smile of contentment.
She let out a low moan and looked at him.
He reached for her and she slipped down into the water, moving quickly to impale herself on his thick rod. As her warm slickness settled over him, she sighed and then shuddered, reaching a peak all on her own, without him even having to move.
He held her for a moment as her shuddering eased. Then he started moving under her, sloshing the water slowly back and forth in long, rolling waves.
She joined in his movements perfectly, holding him while being careful to not touch his wounds.
Faster and faster they went, the waves on the water becoming like those on an angry lake in a violent storm.
