Forget Me Not Read Free Page B

large household.” Josephine tried to sound as if she knew what she was doing, but she had no experience seeking employment.
    The woman at the hotel counter stared at her as if Josephine were an oddity. A thickset bulldog with a smashed face sat next to the proprietress’s skirt. She was certainly not the Adalyn Hart who ran the Line House in Rawhide’s Wild Tales of Revenge in Sienna. This woman’s name was Effie Grass.
    Regrouping her rambling thoughts, Josephine hastily went on. “I have an eye for fashion and extensive knowledge in the harmony of colors in dress.” Then, to send her point home, she declared, “Rich colors are for brunettes or dark hair, delicate colors are for light hair or blond complexions.”
    â€œYou don’t say?” Effie’s blouse and skirt were sparrow brown. A poor match next to her salt-and-pepper coiffure of two braids pinned high on her crown.
    At least Josephine had triggered Effie’s interest, which had been bouncing back and forth between Josephine and the runny-nosed dog. She plunged on while she had the opening. “I’m a master at archery. I’ve held the position of Lady Paramount at the Manhattan Archery Club. I won the title in the Columbia round, successfully parlaying twenty-one out of twenty-four arrows in the bull’s-eye mark.”
    â€œHmm.”
    Josephine forced a smile on her lips. She’d gone from “You don’t say?” to “Hmm.” Not exactly encouraging.Perhaps she should have taken Sheriff Tuttle’s offer of five dollars to see her through until he could contact the railroad. But it was a matter of principle for Josephine. For the first time in her life, she was on her own. Despite things being dire, she didn’t want to spoil her independence with a handout. She just had to get a job in Sienna to tide her over. She was an educated woman with perfect decorum. Somebody would surely find her invaluable . . . at least for a week.
    â€œHoney, that’s awfully interesting, but I just can’t use you.” Reaching down, Effie patted the bulldog’s flat head. He licked her hand with his drooling tongue.
    Josephine took the defeat by swallowing the lump in her throat. She wasn’t skilled at being aggressive. She had never had to be. Everything she’d ever wanted had always come to her because she’d had the money to buy it.
    â€œThank you just the same,” she said quietly.
    Josephine exited the Line House hotel’s lobby, stepping outside and squinting her eyes against the late-afternoon sun. She’d already tried the Bar Grub eatery; she’d bypassed the livery and the Walkingbars saloon. She was in serious need of a job, but she wasn’t cheap. She’d rather take the money from the sheriff before she dressed up like a floozy and served alcoholic refreshments to rowdy men.
    Unbidden, the image of that man in the sheriff’s office filled her head. He looked tough and hardened by a life on the range that seemed to demand a lot from a cowboy. She’d gleaned that much from the Beadle’s. Men out West had to be as strong as leather. He certainly had been. The bulk of his power had been in his torso, where the muscles across his chest filled out the shoulders of his coat. Open to her view was his blue plaid vest and a pistol with a pearl-like handle which rode in a holster belt lashed around his hips. He was a brawny man, given to few words in alady’s company. Just like Rawhide Abilene. When he’d moved, the big spurs on his boots made a sound like tin bells.
    Josephine carried on to her final destination: the general store. She looked down as she walked, noticing spears of grass had pushed up through the boardwalk. From the larger cracks, yellow-petaled flowers rose to bloom. In the city, the sidewalks were brick and unaccepting of nature’s wildly sewn seeds. Here the slats of sagging wood buffered her heels and, in