West slowly shook his head. “I grew up in town.”
Julia laughed. “I should have known. Don’t worry about me protecting myself. When Claude Kroll tried to kiss me at a barn dance, I flipped him onto his back and broke his arm. The broken arm wasn’t intentional, but he learned his lesson, and the other boys did, too.”
West, at a loss for words, simply nodded at the petite woman and reached above his head to pull down his traveling case. He hesitated for a moment, wondering if Julia would break his arm if he attempted to help her. Still, he decided she was his partner and wife, and he pulled her bag down also.
“Thank you,” Julia said in a melodious voice that made his heart beat faster. This woman would drive him insane before the case was over, he knew it for a fact.
When Julia stepped off the train in Cheyenne, she stopped for a moment to glance at her surroundings. The town appeared the way she expected a western town to be right down to men riding horses down the middle of the street wearing cowboy hats and six-guns. It was a far cry from the streets of Milwaukee or even Denver, and Julia thought she’d like the west.
Julia turned to West when she heard him drop her carpetbag next to her. “This town is as rustic as I expected. I think I’m going to enjoy this adventure. I mean case.”
“If you think this is an adventure, wait until we get to the small town where the priest has set up his church. I understand it’s little more than a stage-stop, and you’ll think Cheyenne is a huge city in comparison.”
“Come now, it can’t be that bad.”
West just shrugged. “If it helps you to get some idea, the place is called Smiley. It’s named after the man who runs the stage-stop. There’s a saloon, a small hotel and café, a general store owned by Smiley, and a questionable boarding house.”
“Questionable?” Julia asked.
West stared at his boots for a moment before saying, “Some of the rooms are rented by the hour.”
“I understand, but what confuses me is why a new church was built in such a small town? Do you suppose they have many parishioners?”
“I don’t know. I suppose there are ranches in the area, but how many we’ll have to wait and see. There must be a reason. Perhaps we’ll learn more in the information that I hope is waiting for us. Are you ready to head to the hotel? I could use a steak and a soft bed.”
Julia didn’t move, and West looked at her.
“What’s wrong,” he asked.
“The hotel. Are we supposed to say we’re married while here or not?”
“Of course, that is part of our undercover identities. We’re a married couple on our way to visit relatives or something. I’ll answer any questions that come up,” West assured her.
“All right,” Julia said, “but as a married couple, the hotel will give us a room with one bed. How are we supposed to sleep?”
West groaned. “I’ll sleep on the floor. I’ve slept on the ground many times while on a case; the floor will be better than that.”
“That wouldn’t be fair. We’re both working this case together. We should share the difficulties. We can take turns sleeping on the floor,” Julia insisted.
West shrugged and nodded, “All right, if you insist.” He knew he’d never let Julia sleep on the floor, but the prudent thing now seemed to be to agree with her.
West picked up their bags again, and Julia followed him to the hotel. With luck, the information they needed would be waiting for them when they checked in, and they could begin the investigation in earnest.
Chapter 6
Julia settled into the hotel room and watched as a young maid filled a large copper tub with hot water.
West said, “I’ll be gone for an hour to give you time for a bath and whatever else you need to do. I’m going to see if there are any telegrams for us.”
Julia smiled, and before she could say thank you, West hurried from the room. West strode down the hall, the stairs, and out the hotel’s front doors before he lost his battle to return and kiss the beautiful woman he just left in his, no their, hotel room.
West grumbled as he walked to the telegraph office. How could Archie force them to get married? If they were unmarried and just using marriage as part of their cover, he could share a room with her and see her as only a fellow agent. That wasn’t the case. They were married, but there were limitations in their agreement. Julia was a beautiful woman, but marriage was never on his horizon. Marriage was for men who wanted to settle down into a dull routine like his brother-in-law, wasn’t it? Of course, then why did he feel drawn to Julia, to his wife, when he didn’t want a wife? West tried his best to shake the thoughts from his head before entering the telegraph office.
Pulling open the door to the small office and stepping inside, West said, “Good morning,” to the bespectacled elderly gentleman behind the desk. “Do you have any telegrams for West Lange or for me and my wife, Julia?”
The man grinned at West and answered, “I sure do. Wondered when you’d get here. I have four of them. Two came in yesterday and two this morning.”
West took the four yellow papers and scanned them. He quickly wrote an answer and paid for the telegrams to be sent to Denver immediately.
Wishing the elderly telegrapher a good day, West hurried from the office and headed
