Chapter 2

It was a couple days before Anna could gather herself enough to return to the saloon. When she did, she had Clint by her side for support. The girls were very understanding, as was Sam the barkeep.

“You just take your time, Anna. Me and the other girls can keep the place running till you are ready to return,” Sam said.

“That’s just it, Sam ... I’m not sure I can come back. I mean, I might be able to serve drinks downstairs here, but I don’t think I can go back up there anymore,” she said looking up the staircase.

“What are you saying Anna, are you quitting the saloon?”

“Well it wouldn’t be fair to the other girls if I took all the work down here and left them to deal with the pawing and groping upstairs. Besides, there’s a fair amount of it that goes on down here too! I think I need to take some time off, and think about what I want and get past what happened. I love you all, and I loved working here, but after what happened...”

“I understand, Anna. We will miss you around here, but we will be okay. Of course you are welcome to stop by and say hi anytime, and I want you to promise that if you ever want to come back, you will,” Sam said.

“Thanks Sam. I will stop by and if I do decide to come back someday, I will be sure to let you know,” Anna said, giving him a kiss on the cheek.

She left the saloon with Clint and they walked in silence back to the boarding house. As they climbed the steps of the porch, Clint spoke.

“Anna tomorrow I have to run to San Antonio for some supplies for Miss Kitty. Want to come with me? I think a change of scenery will do you some good. We will be gone for a couple days, but I think it would do you good to get outta town for a spell.”

“I’d love to go with you, Clint. And now that I don’t have to work at the saloon anymore, I can.”

“Good. We’ll leave at first light. It’ll take the full day for us to get there,” he said.

“I’ll be ready,” she said.

The next day Clint pulled up front with the buckboard a little before daybreak, when it was just getting light enough to see. He helped Anna up on the wagon, and then took a seat himself. A slap of the reigns and they were off.

The horses pulled the wagon easily and they made pretty good time. Ann had packed a lunch for them and around noontime, they stopped along the trail to rest a bit and to eat lunch. They pulled up under the shadow of a big oak tree and let the horses graze while they ate themselves.

Anna had brought an old blanket that she laid out for their picnic lunch. They sat and ate the lunch that she packed, and then laid back on the blanket to rest a bit and let their lunch settle before moving on. After about an hours rest, Clint sat up. “Well, we’d better get going if we want to get to San Antonio by nightfall.”

He helped Anna get back up into the wagon and they headed on down the trail. It was a long, hot, dusty ride, but they made San Antonio just after sundown. They stopped at a little hotel on the outskirts of town.

“We can get a room here for the night. Tomorrow, we’ll pick up the supplies as soon as the store opens and head straight back. I’d like to get back home tomorrow evening,” Clint said.

“That’d be fine,” Anna agreed.

Clint went inside to make the arrangements, and then returned to the wagon a few minutes later.

“They only had one room left, Anna, so you take it and I’ll bunk with the horses for tonight.”

“Don’t be silly, Clint. I can’t let you sleep in the stable with the horses. You can sleep in the room with me ... after all, it isn’t like we just met or anything!” Anna said, looking down shyly and blushing a bit.

“Yeah. We haven’t had a minute to ourselves since I rode into town!” Clint said. “And now that we are so far away from anyone we know...”

“Yes,” Anna said, smiling coyly.

“Well, we will have to go in as a married couple – otherwise they won’t let us stay together in the same room.”

“Why Clint Roberts! Are you proposing to me?” she said, giggling.

“Is that what it’s going to take to sleep in a bed tonight?” he asked, playing along.

“Well, I don’t know ... I am a lady now, you know! I’ve given up on my sinful ways!” Anna said, with a sparkle in her eyes.

“Yes, I know ... and a right pretty one too!” he said.

“Okay, that got you a bed for the night!” she said, kissing his cheek.

“Well if that got me a bed...”

“Clint!” she said, feigning shock. “Sugar, you don’t gotta ask...” she said, taking his hand. He helped her down off the wagon and they went in together to secure the room. Once they had the room and he had settled her in it, he went to put the horses away for the night in the stable behind the hotel. Then Clint came back into the room to find Anna already in bed waiting for him.

“Come here cowboy!” she said, pulling the covers back for him. Clint smiled and proceeded to get undressed. He slid into bed next to her and she wrapped her arms around her beau and they kissed and cuddled, enjoying each other as they hadn’t in a long while.

Exhausted from the long ride on the rough buckboard, the two fell asleep in each other’s arms, happy to be together and alone at long last.

The next morning came earlier than either would have liked. Clint was the first to arise, and dressed quietly so as not to wake Anna any earlier than necessary. He slipped out the door and went down to hitch up the horses to the wagon. When he was finished, he went back upstairs to wake his traveling companion. Anna was already awake and dressed when Clint got back to the room.

“I see you are awake, sleepyhead!” he said.

“Well I did sleep very well last night, thanks to someone keeping me warm and safe!” she said, smiling.

“My pleasure ma’am! Are you ready to get a bite to eat?”

“Yes, I’m starved!”

“Let’s go then. After breakfast we need to get down to the general store and get the supplies so we can get started back home.” They went downstairs and ate a good breakfast knowing that they wouldn’t eat well again until late that evening.

Anna packed them a lunch that they could eat on the way home like they had done yesterday. Then they rode down to the general store and began the process of loading the wagon.

Loading up the supplies went smoothly, although it took longer than Clint would have liked. He was anxious to get started back home. He didn’t like being this far away from the boarding house and the other girls.

He was responsible for all the girls, not just Anna, and he wanted to get back so he could watch over them too. He took his job and his responsibility seriously, and being a full days ride away from home made him “twitchy”.

Once the wagon was loaded, Clint and Anna headed out of town. The ride back was a little slower because of the loaded wagon, but they still made decent time. They stopped for lunch under the same old oak that they had lunch under on the way to San Antonio and arrived back in front of The Yellow Rose.

They pulled the wagon around back and unloaded the supplies, storing them in the boarding houses’ large pantry until they could be put away properly. Once the wagon was unloaded and the horses put back in the stable and fed, Clint and Anna had a chance to relax in the living room for awhile before turning in to bed. Anna had gone into the bathroom upstairs to prepare for bed when Miss Kitty called for Clint downstairs.

“You called for me Miss Kitty?” Clint asked, coming downstairs.

“Yes, Clint. Come with me into the office. We need to talk,” she said, leading the way to her office. Once inside, she shut the door. “Clint, I didn’t want to say anything in front of Anna because I didn’t want to worry her, but while you two were gone, a couple of the McClintock boys were in town sniffing around and trying to find out what happened to their brother Billy.

Now these McClintock’s are not ones to give up easily. They’ll be back and when they find out that you were with Billy when he fell out the window ... well there’s bound to be some trouble.

“I see. Well there’s not much I can do about it. Billy is gone and the McClintock boys will just have to accept that. It was an accident – even the sheriff said so. He was upstairs attacking Anna. I did what I had to do.

I didn’t throw him out that window. I just hit him square on the nose and he backed into the window. The sheriff took my statement and said it was an accident. And if anything Billy is to blame for attacking Anna in the first place!”

“You don’t have to sell me, Clint. I know you didn’t mean to kill Billy. But I’m not the one you got to convince.”

“Yeah, I suppose. Well, I’ll keep my eyes peeled for them. And if they show up, I’ll just have to explain.”

“Be careful Clint. Those McClintock boys are a might irritable!”

Clint left Miss Kitty’s office, mulling over what she had said. Clint would have to keep an eye out for these brothers. He went on upstairs and went to bed, tired but glad to be in his own bed again.

The next morning, he rose like usual and took the girls – minus Anna – to the saloon. It was strange not to be walking with her and all the other girls felt the same. Without Anna, their little group was missing something, and the feeling of loss was evident to all of them. No one spoke of it until they got to the saloon.

Clint dropped the girls off, said his howdy to Sam, and turned to leave the saloon. He got back to the boarding house and was about to begin chopping some wood in the back yard when he heard a commotion from out front. He came through the house and just as he was about to step out the front door, Miss Kitty stopped him.

“Clint, don’t go out there! The McClintock boys are outside waiting for you. They say they want to talk to you, but their idea of talking always leads to someone getting hurt.”

“Well I can’t just hole up in here and let them stay outside shouting and raising hell in front of your boarding house, Miss Kitty. I gotta go out and face them and try to talk some sense into them.”

“Clint Roberts don’t you dare set foot out there!” a voice from behind him said. It was Anna – she had come downstairs upon hearing all the noise and Miss Kitty talking.

“You are NOT going out there to face those troublemakers. That’s what they want you to do. There are three McClintock brothers left and they are all out there looking for the one who killed their baby brother.”

“But I didn’t kill Billy ... he fell out the window on his own! And if he hadn’t been upstairs there doing what he was in the first place...”

“That’s poor comfort when you are shot full of holes, Clint. I have plans for you mister, and they don’t include burying you!”

“Well I have to do something!” he said, and he turned to go outside.

“Clint!” Anna screamed again “Stop! please! I love you!”

Clint stopped upon hearing those words, but started for the door again. He went outside and down the steps to face the three McClintock brothers.

“Are you the one that pushed our brother out the saloon window?” one of them asked.

“I didn’t push him. I hit him in the face because he was all over Anna and she needed me to get him off of her. But I didn’t push him.”

“That don’t make no nevermind. You hit him and he fell out the window. The way I see it, you killed him. So we are here for you.”

They took up a stance, ready for a fight when the upstairs window opened, and Miss Kitty leaned out the window with a rifle in hand. Next, the sheriff and the deputy came around the sides of the house and stood there ready. Lastly, Sam from the saloon came up behind the boys toting his bar shotgun.

With the three boys seriously outgunned at this point, they relaxed their posturing. As they stood there facing each other, the door to the boarding house opened up and Gramps, the old man boarder that kept to himself and was rarely seen outside, came shuffling slowly up to the McClintock boys.