The lodge keeper nodded toward the partition. “The Kingston family is sleeping on the other side—husband, wife, and three youngsters, so you’ll have a chaperone.” He jerked his head in the opposite direction. “We had another unexpected arrival this evening, a Mr. Jones. He’s in the tent next door.”
Will frowned. “What do you know of him?”
The clerk bristled. “I don’t gossip about our guests.”
No, only about her hotel. Kate nodded to Will. “It’s fine, Lieutenant.” She turned to the lodge keeper. “How much?”
“Two dollars,” he said, dropping his load on the bed and sticking out his hand.
The Army was giving her three a month for Will’s men and their horses! “That’s robbery!” Kate cried.
Will slipped some coins into the fellow’s palm. “Half now. The remainder when Mrs. Tremaine assures me she had a good night’s rest.”
The man opened his mouth to protest, met Will’s gaze, and closed his mouth to snap a nod.
“Lights out in a half hour,” he informed Kate. “Necessaries are behind the tent. You can get breakfast at the lunch station tent nearest the geyser field.” He didn’t wait for any questions before stalking off.
Will glanced around the tent again. “You’re sure you’ll be all right here?”
Kate bent to press on the tick. Her hand barely made a dent, but something squeaked. She shuddered as she straightened. “It’s one night. I’ll survive.”
Still, he hesitated. “Maybe I should introduce myself to Mr. Jones.”
As if to gainsay him, a hearty snore rumbled from that direction.
“I’ll be fine,” Kate insisted. “Mrs. Kingston and her husband would no doubt come to my aid if anything should happen.” She shook her head. “Who would ever consider the Geyser Gateway rough accommodations compared to this?”
She had a better idea in the morning when she climbed stiffly from the bed. She didn’t appear to have any bites or welts, but she’d slept in her clothes for added protection from the cool night air and whatever was sharing the bed with her. The riding habit was wrinkled, but Kate shook out the skirt before buttoning up the long hem so she could walk.
The oldest Kingston girl offered her the use of a comb.
“Mama says this is the frontier, and we need to be kind to each other,” the twelve-year-old said as Kate winced her way through the snarls in her hair.
“You must stay at the Geyser Gateway,” Kate told her. “It’s in the Lower Geyser Basin. Beautiful geysers within an easy walk.”
She smiled. “That sounds nice, but the man who brought us here from Virginia City said we shouldn’t stay at the Geyser Gateway.” She leaned closer and lowered her voice. “It has bugs.” She straightened with a shudder.
“It most certainly does not,” Kate informed her. “And the beds are softer than this, with bedding supplied, and the food is excellent. And we charge eight dollars a week.”
She’d handed Miss Kingston back her comb, and the girl had hurried to return to her mother. By the narrow-eyed glance Mrs. Kingston sent her way through the gap in the partition, she appeared to have changed her mind about kindness. Well, who would take advice about lodging from a woman who slept in her clothes and had to borrow a comb?
And who would doubt the advice of a well-meaning stage driver as to accommodations elsewhere?
“They are slandering me,” she complained to Will after a meager breakfast of a cold baked potato and a slice of bread for the exorbitant price of a dollar at the lunch station tent. “They’re making up stories to keep the guests away from my hotel. It’s that group in Virginia City that keeps writing to me. I know it.”
“Your guests will have something to say about that,” Will predicted as they went to fetch their horses from the soldier station stables. “I’m sure you receive nothing but praise.”
“Not always,” she admitted. “As far as I know, no one ever took a complaint to the superintendent, but there’s no pleasing some people. Why I had a woman tell me I should arrange the geysers and paint pots in a more pleasing order, from shortest to tallest.”
He laughed. There—how could she not smile at so warm a sound?
“Captain Harris has already been asked why he doesn’t round up all the animals and put them in an enclosure so everyone has a chance to see them,” he said as he saddled her mount for her.
Kate stared at him. “He wouldn’t!”
“He wouldn’t,” Will assured her, cinching the saddle in place. “He has the utmost respect for the denizens of Yellowstone.”
She sighed. “Even those who run uncomfortable, shoddy tent hotels.”
“Oh, he’s none too pleased with some of the hotels,” Will told her, coming around to her side. “He was the one who put George Marshall on notice to clean up his hotel or forfeit his lease.”
“I think that’s one of the reasons Marshall and his wife sold out to the Yellowstone Park Association,” Kate said.
He took her by the waist, and, even though she knew the only reason was to put her up on the sidesaddle, her stomach fluttered as he lifted her.
“The Association is a force to be reckoned with,” he allowed, stepping back as she adjusted her skirt. “The big hotel at Mammoth is impressive.”
She tried not to take umbrage. “I haven’t had the pleasure. But even if it’s the shining jewel of the park, it’s miles from the other landmarks. The Geyser Gateway is more centrally located. I don’t know why Captain Harris would only renew my lease until spring.”
“From what I’ve seen, you have nothing to fear.” He went to mount his horse.
She wished she believed him. She and Toby had put all they had into the Geyser Gateway. If Captain Harris recommended to the Department of the Interior that she lose her lease, would the government compensate her for her improvements? Some people who had had claims in the area before it had been declared a park
