The Blacksmith’s Bravery Read Free

hiring a woman for this business. Crackbrained.

    The next day, Vashti served lunch to three patrons. Bitsy wouldn’t be back until the following afternoon, but there was barely enough work to keep Vashti busy, even though Augie had cooked a scrumptious roast beef dinner. The restaurant business was mighty slow now that the days were getting shorter. People were trying to get things ready for the coming winter and not thinking about eating in town.
    When Oscar Runnels, Doc Kincaid, and Parnell Oxley had finished their meals and sauntered out of the Spur & Saddle, Vashti whisked their dishes into the kitchen and had them washed, dried, and put away before Augie had covered the stew pot and put the leftover lemon meringue in the pie safe. Augie walked over to the corner shelf where he and Bitsy kept the cash box. He opened the cover and stared down into it.
    â€œThings are getting tight, aren’t they?” Vashti asked.
    â€œA mite.” Augie slapped the lid shut. “We’ve been through hard times before.”
    â€œStill, you have to buy enough food for twenty, in case they come, and if nobody shows up, it goes to waste.”
    â€œMrs. Thistle wants four pies for the boardinghouse.” Augie pulled his sifter out of the flour barrel. “Guess I’ll get started.”
    The boardinghouse down the street, owned by schoolmarm Isabel Fennel, was feeding more people than the Spur & Saddle. Terrence and Rilla Thistle, who ran the place, could count on their boarders. The stagecoach drivers and messengers usually slept and ate at the Fennel House, and sometimes passengers from the stagecoaches did, too. A few would wander out in the evening for dinner at the Spur & Saddle, but most of the Moores’ customers were townsfolk who wanted a change of pace. Some of them probably came to help Augie and Bitsy. The Sunday chicken dinner was still the big event of the week at the Spur & Saddle, but that didn’t generate enough to support the Moores and their two hired girls.
    â€œI’m going out for a minute.” Vashti took off her apron and hung it up. “Do you need anything?”
    â€œNo, I don’t think so.”
    Augie sounded so glum that Vashti reached the decision she’d been chewing on for twenty-four hours. She’d take Griff Bane up on his offer and sit in his office two hours a day. If she sold eight tickets a week, she could give Bitsy two dollars for her board. And she could still help out at the supper hour, when the Spur & Saddle generally got more traffic than at noon. That would square what she should be paying for her room. Right now, she was living for free with the Moores, but her friend Goldie had started paying them every week for room and board when she began working at the Paragon Emporium. Vashti hoped in time she could do the same.
    She went up to her room and put on a hat and shawl. She didn’t want Griffin to think she wasn’t proper enough to deal with his customers. Since she’d trusted in Christ, she’d stopped serving drinks to cowboys and poker players. Bitsy’s decision last summer to turn her saloon into a family restaurant had made that part easy. Vashti felt cleaner now—almost decent again. But she knew some folks still pegged her as a barmaid. As a last thought, she wiped off most of the lip rouge she’d put on that morning.
    She hurried down the stairs and across the empty dining room. Outside, the sun felt good on her shoulders, and the shawl was almost too much. She slowed down and took ladylike steps as she crossed the street and headed for the Wells Fargo. Reaching the office, she stopped and pulled in a deep breath. The door was closed. She knocked and then tried the latch. Locked. That figured. Griffin was probably down at the livery stable or the smithy. She’d go find him.
    She held the ends of her shawl close as she turned. The poster on the wall caught her eye again, and she gasped. That man. That