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two who’d stayed at the train station with the marshal, they must need a third to fill their room. “I’m rooming with a girl who was injured during the train robbery, Delta Smith.”
    The older woman nodded. She’d already heard bits and pieces of the story. As a good waitress, she’d learned years ago to put the pieces together in her mind without taking the time to ask questions. “And the third girl?” she asked.
    “Audrey.” Jennie remembered hearing the tall redhead’s name. “I’m afraid I don’t know her last name. She stayed behind with Delta.”
    “Audrey will be fine. I’m sure we’ll find out later. Now, you go on in and make yourself comfortable while I get everything ready.”
    Jennie hadn’t eaten all day, but the thought of True waiting alone down by the depot made her force the hunger pains aside. “Do you think I might help with preparing the room? Then, when Delta gets here, we can put her straight to bed. She’s lost a great deal of blood.”
    Mrs. Gray nodded slowly. “Of course. I’ll send a meal up for three.” She looked at Jennie with a direct honesty. “That was very thoughtful. You’ll be an asset to Clifton House, Miss Munday.”
    “I hope to be.” Jennie followed the old woman up the stairs, feeling a slight twinge of guilt for lying. “As soon as the room’s ready, I’d like to run back down to the station and check on Delta.”
    “Of course.” Mrs. Gray opened the first door. “This room’s a little larger than the others. I think you and your friends will be most comfortable in here.”
    Jennie held her smile as Mrs. Gray directed girls to make up the three beds immediately.
    While the girls worked, Jennie moved to the tall window. She watched the evening shadows fall across the depot a hundred yards away.
    She’d be safe here at the Clifton House, maybe as safe as she’d always been in her parents’ home. But safety weighed lightly against her need to help True. To do so, she had to get back to the depot and somehow avoid Marshal Austin McCormick.
     

Chapter 5
    T he pale light of a winter sunset reflected through the windows of the depot and danced in beams of dust around the ticket office. One of the railroad employees had stoked the Franklin stove and stacked blankets atop a bench for Delta to lie on. Nothing seems more silent than a depot after the last train leaves, and that night’s quiet was broken only by the marshal’s pacing as they waited.
    Austin pulled on his gunbelt more out of habit than the need to relieve his hips of the weight of his Colt Peacemaker. “Doctor’ll be here in a minute, miss,” he said to the redheaded woman guarding the patient, then nodded at the slight blonde cuddled amid the blankets. She didn’t seem in any great pain, but Austin had learned from years of handling wounded that the injury’s seriousness and the amount of complaining were not always related.
    “Thank you, Marshal,” answered the tall woman. “In all the commotion, after the robbery attempt, I didn’t show my upbringing and properly introduce myself. Name’s Audrey Gates of the Flatwater, Missouri, Gates.”
    Austin couldn’t hide his smile. He always wondered about folks who introduced themselves by their heritage. She was a fine-looking woman, though. Not the type to be courted with flowers and pretty words. More the sort some farmer would marry to help with the chores and rear a half dozen children. He admired this Audrey Gates, though, for her bold beauty and her loyalty to her friend. Loyalty was one trait he’d found in short supply among the few women he’d known, almost as rare as honesty.
    His smile was all the encouragement Audrey needed to continue, “And this poor victim is my dearest friend, Delta Smith. She grew up not more than three miles from me, but I was several rows ahead of her in school.”
    “Rows?” Austin questioned.
    “We may have only had one room, but we had eight rows. Every year a student moved over one,