"Old...? Oh, Mr. Priest. Oh, yes, he's in there with his new secretary, Miss Forde." She didn't know why she'd added that detail, it just sort of blurted out.
"Oh! Yeah. Miss Forde. I remember seein' her yesterday. I don't know why she's wastin' her time being a secretary. She's got all the fixins' to be a regular vixen."
He laughed at his bon mot.
She backed up another step "Sorry, I... I'll get out of your way" she offered, reaching the top of the stairs.
"Wait, lil' lady," he said, reaching her with two steps. "Wonder if you could do Big Jim Henry a favor." He looked toward the door with a sly grin. "That old codger wants to see me. He said, "early". Could you stick your head back in there and tell him that I'm waitin' out here? I don't know how the old fossil would take to me barging in there."
"Hey little lady," Big Jim said in his unique way of making everything he said sound nasty. "You're in an awful hurry, ain't ya?"
Sally didn't like Henry: she hadn't liked him that time at the meeting and she didn't like him now, he was scary and she felt vulnerable trapped on the stairs like this and started to back up.
"Is that old mouthpiece in the office?" he asked, thick thumb pointed in the door's direction.
"Old...? Oh, Mr Priest. Oh, yes, he's in their with his new secretary, Miss Forde." She didn't know why she'd added that detail, it just sort of blurted out.
She backed up another step "Sorry, I... I'll get out of your way" she offered, reaching the top of the stairs.
Unbeknownst to those in the room, the horrifyingly brutal security man from the mine, Big Jim Henry, was lumbering his way up the stairs from the saloon floor and heading for his morning meeting with Priest.
Sally, thinking still of Mr Priest and the strange Circe-like power that Florence Patterson Forde held over him, didn't look where she was going and, turning onto the top of the staircase, smacked straight into Henry, that horrible man from the business meeting with the horrifying visage and the careless hands.
"Ooof! Oh... oh I'm sorry!" the slight waif-like girl stammered, falling back a little from the big, bald brute who towered over her.
"Hey little lady," Big Jim said in his unique way of making everything he said sound nasty. "You're in an awful hurry, ain't ya?"
He smiled and nodded his head toward the saloon's office door, now soundly shut thanks to Flo. He smiled slowly.
"Is that old mouthpiece in the office?" he asked, thick thumb pointed in the door's direction.
Big Jim had no use for lawyers or judges or anyone else in a position of authority.
"Thank you." She had been pretty sure that Pythias would understand, and she was also certain that Barnabas would as well. "I'll try to get his name, and his age as well." She really didn't want to know more, and she certainly didn't care for a bunch of sentiment on his marker.
As she was headed for the stairs, Barnabas came into the kitchen, and she gave him a quick hug. "I'm going upstairs quickly, then we can have supper."
At the door to the sick-room, she nodded to the man standing guard and handed him a couple of cookies. "Supper is soon, so don't ruin your appetite!"
Giving him a quick wink, she knocked lightly on the door, then opened it and stepped inside. "I was wondering if anyone here would like some snickerdoodles?"
"No, Ma'am, nobody needs ta be fergotten." Pythiuas said, "I kin get 'er done right quick like. All I'd be needin' is the name fer the fella. There's a good amount a lumber out by the barn. some inside, so I'll find a right proper piece. I kin g'wan out and lay him ta rest once't supper's served up."
He wasn't sure if the body had been buried, but he would ride out and make sure. The dead needed to be tended to, no matter who or what they were, at least that was how Pythias Moden looked at it. It wouldn't take all that long to get the hole dug, filled in, and some rocks piled up to mark the spot. The marker would take a bit longer to carve out and get placed.
"No, not where the patient could be brought to the hospital, I agree, Emeline, though the ambulance could be available if there's no other way to bring whoever in for treatment. But to have an ambulance to race out to distant places with a doctor or a nurse on board to start treatment on the way to the hospital, that could save life and limb!" Speed clarified.
"Makes sense to me, and a good use for a wagon, now would we be able to find one out there covered with a hard top, like the ones the army had. That's the question. A canvas top would need replacing. Not sure how often, but it sure would need repair or replacement long before a hard top would, and the thing'd be ready in all kinds a weather."
"Well then, let's just see if we can get a meeting with the Town Council and see what they have to say on this." Speed added as both men looked at Em.\
In the kitchen, the small team was working with efficiency, and soon enough, there were several dozen cookies ready to be taken to the bunkhouse, but Emeline asked Pythias to stay back.
"Could you do me a favor?" she asked the man, sure he'd be willing to do anything she asked, except maybe this. "Could you carve a marker for that man's grave?" There was certainly plenty of scrap wood around the place. "I'll see if I can get his name. I know it's an odd thing to request, but no one...well, not many, deserve to be completely forgotten."
And it would spare some of her Humanity, help her recover from the horrid events of the day.
"That's a great idea!" Emeline agreed, "And something else that Addy might be able to help with, all we'd need is an enclosed wagon with extra shocks, right? Well, and a mattress, of course, and if it's dedicated and just stored here, we can stock it with blankets and such, too."
Whitefish had been a good lesson for them. "In town, I don't think an ambulance would be needed so much, but for the outlaying ranches, the mines and lumber mills...having something ready to go on a moment's notice would be valuable. So, yes, let's talk to the council, get this going, and maybe we can do something at the fair as a fundraiser?"
"I was not there, nor was I a part of Tom Love's plans for anyone; all I know is what I've heard to this point." Angie said in trying to distance herself from what facts there were, so far as she was concerned, which were few and hearsay."Were you told to take the baby from his mother? And, if so. why? That will be the big question. And your brother, was he supposed to shoot Misses Pike? Or just take the baby by force."
"I just don't understand how you were going to save the baby? Was Tom Love's plan to kill the baby and Misses Pike, or was that your brother's job? You see, these things have to be ferreted out before a judgment can be made about any of this. Was Tom going to do all of the shooting, and of whom?"
Angie paused, this was all a bit much for the girl she suspected. But whatever she knew, it could clear up a lot of facts that were a bit murky at the moment. "Perhaps you should rest now, maybe think about the snickerdoodles and supper that are on the way. We can talk later after we've both had something to eat."
