A Western Christmas Homecoming. Lynna Banning

      “And tomorrow I will have to pretend to be Lolly Maguire, a saloon girl.”

      “Yeah,” Rand said. He shot her a glance. “Think you can manage it?”

      Oh, my, Alice thought. What would someone called Lolly Maguire say to a man? Especially one in a saloon?

      “I will try,” she said. “I might turn out to be such a convincing Lolly Maguire you may be quite smitten!”

      Instantly she dropped the spoon onto her tin plate with a clank.

       Where had that thought come from?

      Rand gave her a long look and without a word poured a mug of coffee and set it on the ground near her elbow.

      “Smitten, huh? Alice,” he said with a chuckle, “it’s the miners you’re supposed to charm, not me.”

       Chapter Seven

      When they reached Silver City they reined up on the hill overlooking the canvas structures and flimsy-looking buildings of the town spread below them. “It’s a mining camp, like I told you,” Rand said. “Looks kinda impermanent.”

      “It looks like a sea of gray canvas.” Alice pointed to a large green-gray canvas structure with a white-painted wooden cross over the entrance. “Even the church is a tent!”

      Rand turned to her. “Are you ready for this?”

      “Yes, I am ready.” Her heart thumped under her plaid shirt as she followed Rand’s bay, guiding her mare down to Silver City. The narrow road into what passed for a town was oozy with thick mud that squished under their horses’ hooves.

      They picked their way down the tent-clogged street until they reached the two-story red-painted Excelsior Hotel, which, thank God, was made of wood. But red? Such a bold color for a hotel!

      Next door to the hotel was another wooden building, the Golden Nugget saloon. That seemed strange in a town named for its silver mine. There must be other wooden buildings, but all she could see were tents and more tents. Big ones. Little ones. Some more ragged than others.

      Oh, poor Dottie. Could her sister really have been happy here in this temporary-looking place?

      The desk clerk at the hotel, a bent gray-haired man with thick spectacles and a wrinkled shirt that had once been white, flipped open the register and stood poised with his pen.

      “Name?” he said in a weary voice.

      “George Oliver.”

      “This your wife, Mr. Oliver?”

      Rand turned to her. “This is Miss Lolly Maguire.”

      “Separate rooms, then,” the clerk muttered.

      Rand laid his hand across the register. “One room. Miss Maguire is a well-known entertainer, and I work as her bodyguard. Where she goes, I go.”

      The clerk’s salt-and-pepper eyebrows waggled. “Even to her hotel room?”

      “Our hotel room,” Rand said evenly. “Like I said, Miss Maguire doesn’t go anywhere without her bodyguard. Where she goes—”

      “I go,” the clerk finished. “Oh, well.” He sighed. “It’s not the first time two crazy people came through town.”

      “We’re not going ‘through’ town. Miss Maguire is staying. As am I.”

      The graying eyebrows lowered into a frown. “That’ll be two dollars a night, Mister Oliver. In advance.”

      Rand slapped a fistful of silver dollars onto the counter, and the clerk pounced on them. “Let’s see, now...” He counted them with his forefinger and slid them off into his palm. “That’ll get you five nights at the Excelsior.”

      “Six,” Rand challenged. “You miscounted.”

      There was a long minute during which no one spoke. Finally the clerk heaved another sigh. “All right, six nights.” He snatched a key from the row of hooks on the wall behind him and laid it in Rand’s outstretched palm. “Second floor, third door on your left. Number seven.”

      The small room overlooked the street below and beyond that was a view of the hills surrounding the town. Two narrow beds were shoved together against one wall, and a tall oak armoire and a white-painted chest of drawers sat against the other. Rand started to stow the saddlebags in the armoire, but Alice stopped him.

      “Wait. I want my saloon girl dress.”

      “Now?”

      “Yes, now. I need to hang it up. And I will need a bath before...before I make my debut.”

      Rand went back downstairs to order her bath, and while he was gone Alice watched the goings-on in the street below. Horses. Wagons. Filthy-looking miners covered with white dust slogged through the mud. Only one or two women. And no children. The town felt raw. Unfinished.

      But it was certainly busy. Seething would be a more accurate term. Everyone looked like they were in a hurry, even on this scorching October day, and they all walked with their heads down, as if thinking intently about something.

      Rand returned ten minutes later, along with a Mexican man lugging a metal bathtub and two giggling girls who dumped in bucket after bucket of steaming water. When they were finished, they left folded towels and a bar of sweet-smelling soap beside the tub.

      Alice eyed the tub of steaming water and then noticed that Rand was eyeing it, too. “Isn’t there something you need to do, Rand? Visit the barbershop or the sheriff or something?”

      “Nope. I’m staying right here. Like I said, I’m not letting you out of my sight.”

      “Well, I hardly think—”

      “Alice, don’t think. My orders are to protect you and find your sister’s killer, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do. The killer could be anybody, so I’m sticking close.”

      “But, Rand, I want to take a bath!”

      “Good idea. I’ll turn my back.”

      She gave him a long look, then studied the steaming tub that beckoned. This was highly improper, sharing a room with Rand, and now... She gulped. Now she would be taking a bath with him standing right there? This was the most scandalous thing she’d ever done in her life!

      But instinctively she knew he wouldn’t be talked out of staying, so she shrugged, shook out the petticoat and the corset and lacy camisole she’d brought in her saddlebag and hung them up to air with her red dress. Then, with a surreptitious glance at Rand she began to unbutton her denim riding skirt.

      “Rand?”

      “Yeah?”

      “I am waiting for you to turn around.”

      “Oh. Yeah.” He pivoted toward the window and stood with his back to her.

      Rand didn’t watch her, exactly. But he could sure hear her. Every little splash and sigh set his imagination on fire, and finally he cracked. He half turned away from the window, and out of the corner of his eye he caught a glimpse of the bathtub. And her.

      Big mistake. Big damn mistake.

      By the time she finished smoothing that cake of soap all over her skin he was rock-hard. Miss Lolly-Alice was changing his mind about everything—librarians, Pinkerton assignments, even celibacy. When she reached for a towel to dry herself off, he knew he had to escape.

      “Alice,” he said, his voice hoarse. “I’m going to talk to the sheriff after all. Don’t let anyone in, even someone who wants to take away the bathtub.”

      “The bathwater is still warm, Rand. Wouldn’t you like to use it?