A saloonkeeper protecting the virtue of a prospector’s granddaughter.
How quaint.
How noble.
How stupid.
But it told him something. He had been right in everything he had been thinking. Scully was totally taken in by Lacey’s pretended innocence.
Barret watched as Scully exited the restaurant. Scully’s involvement with Lacey complicated an already difficult situation. He need tread lightly in dealing with Lacey because of Scully, and Lacey would need to tread just as lightly if she expected to claim her grandfather’s strike without her unwanted protector following at her heels.
Barret considered that thought. It appeared he could be in for a long siege.
Unless…
Barret frowned.
Unless he could find a better way.
Lacey walked across the saloon floor toward the staircase to the second floor where her room awaited her. It had been a difficult morning at the restaurant—the most trying so far because of the incident with Jud Hall and Scully. She recalled the silence that had followed Scully’s departure from the restaurant, then the gradual hum of speculative conversation that had ensued. She was glad it was over. She was anxious to reach the silence of her room, but she knew she would first meet another brief, revealing silence—the one her appearance always elicited when she walked through the saloon doors.
Lacey knew that silence was one of the reasons Scully was so adamant about her taking a room at Mary McInnes’s boarding house. She also knew it was the reason he had arranged for the dilapidated outside entrance to the saloon’s second floor, previously unusable, to be repaired.
Lacey nodded at a few familiar faces in passing, then climbed the staircase, head high. She would be glad when the outer staircase was finished, actually more for Scully’s sake than her own. It would relieve some of his stress. Yet she knew Scully would not be truly satisfied until she had severed all connection with the saloon and its patrons.
Lacey considered that possibility seriously for the first time. Her room above the Gold Nugget was the only home that remained for her. It was her haven. It was the place where she had recuperated from the most traumatic experience of her life. In it, she had known she was safe because Scully was nearby. She felt the same way now, but she was becoming acutely aware of the disservice she did to Scully in insisting that she stay.
Gasping with surprise when Scully stepped unexpectedly into sight at the top of the stairs, Lacey did not protest when he took her arm and said with an expression that suffered no protest, “I need to talk to you.”
Lacey turned toward Scully when he ushered her into her room, leaving the door ajar as he turned toward her to ask, “Did you tell Sadie you won’t be back to work at the restaurant again?” “No.”
Scully did not look pleased.
“I’m not going to quit, Scully.”
“Yes, you are.”
“No, I’m not.”
Scully’s chest began an angry heaving. He said tightly, “You tried and did your best, but working at the restaurant was a bad idea in the first place.”
“It isn’t.”
“You saw what happened this morning.”
“I could’ve handled it, Scully.”
“Really.”
“I could have! Sadie warned me about Jud. He causes trouble every now and then, but he’s always been manageable in the past.”
“In the past…before you started working there.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You have a mirror, Lacey.”
“I don’t understand.”
Scully paused a moment, then grasped Lacey by the shoulders and turned her toward the washstand mirror. He held her facing her reflection as he demanded, “What do you see when you look at yourself, Lacey?”
“Scully…”
“Tell me.”
Lacey frowned as she studied her image, then said, “I see a young woman with blond hair and blue eyes whose hairdo needs repairing and who looks confused.”
Standing behind her, Scully stared at her reflection as he said, “I’ll tell you what I see…what every man in that restaurant saw this morning. I see a young woman whose fair hair and womanly figure catches a man’s attention even before he gets a closer look that stops him in his tracks.”
“Scully…” Lacey gave a short, embarrassed laugh. “That’s ridiculous.”
“Is it? Look at yourself more closely. Is there another woman in this town who looks as good as you do?”
“Of course there is!”
“Who?”
Momentarily taken aback, Lacey stuttered, “There’s…ah-ah…Noelle Leach, the blacksmith’s daughter. She’s a natural beauty.”
“Right, and she smells like horses.”
“Scully!”
“Go ahead, name another.”
“There’s Rita Johnson, the apothecary’s niece. I haven’t met her personally, but I’ve seen her, and she’s lovely.”
“Lovely? She’s also so snobbish and impressed with herself that she repulses any man who might think of looking her way.”
“You’re not being fair.” Lacey shook off Scully’s grip and turned back toward him with a touch of irritation. “What difference does that all make, anyway?”
“What I’m trying to tell you, Lacey, is that you’re different from the women in this town. You’re kind and innocent, and too friendly for your own good. You trust people too much. You don’t seem to realize that some of the men who look at you in that restaurant don’t have the best of intentions.”
“Oh, pooh!”
Scully’s expression darkened. “Take Gould, for instance.”
“Barret?”
“He can’t be trusted.”
“How can you say that? He’s a lawyer.”
“Is that supposed to prove something?”
“He’s educated, and dedicated to serving the law.”
“Is he?”
“He’s also a member in good standing of Reverend Sykes’s church.”
“Oh, so that’s supposed to mean something?”
“Of course it does!”
“Lacey, Reverend Sykes arrived in town only a few weeks before you. He doesn’t know the townsfolk any better than you do.”
“Scully…”
“But even Reverend Sykes accepts that people aren’t always what they represent themselves to be. And as far as our town lawyer is concerned, I’ve seen too many peculiar things happen over the years after some poor fellows wandered into town and went to Barret Gould for advice. He isn’t to be trusted, Lacey.”
“No one else in Weaver seems to feel that way.”
“I’m in a unique position in Weaver, Lacey. I see people come and go that the respectable members of the community don’t give a second glance.”
“I can’t believe that.”
“You