JUNE 12, 1861

Ted closed the bank and headed over to the hotel. As he was walking across the street he starred at the saloon. It was closed. How long would it be closed, he wondered? Some of the men were getting upset. They needed a place to get away, unwind and have a drink. Of course there was the bordello, but the men Ted was thinking about were the ones who were married or who had gals that didn't like them going into the bordello.

Ted walked into the hotel and as he was about to go into the kitchen, he heard Walter's angry voice. "I don't believe Dean had the audacity to ask you to come work at the bordello. I should go and give him a piece of my mind."

"No, don't do that. I think he was trying to be helpful. He knows I would much rather sing then cook." Desiree sighs as she began kneading dough for biscuits. "But I'd rather work in a saloon then a bordello."

"I wish I could open the saloon, Desiree, but I just don't have the time to run it. I've been thinking that if I don't get a buyer real soon though that I might just hire someone to run it that way you could go back to singing there as much as you want."

"Really?"

"Really." Walter was grabbed and hugged.

"Oh Walter that sounds wonderful." Desiree gave him a big squeeze and then backed up and gave him a big smile.

"Anything to see you smile." Walter stated and grinned at her.

Meanwhile in the dining room, Ted cleared his throat rather loudly and entered the kitchen.

Walter and Desiree greeted Ted. "I'm reporting for duty." Ted stated.

"Good, Marta has already left. There wasn't anybody out there and I thought I could take orders if anybody came in before you got here." Walter explained.

"There isn't anybody out there now either." Ted decided to go back into the dining room and wait until someone came in. While he was waiting he thought about the saloon. He had some money saved up. He could probably buy it or at least put a down payment on it and finance the rest with Walter. He wouldn't mind being an owner of the saloon. But he would rather have a partner because he could do the bookkeeping, and someone else could run the place.

As Ted was trying to think of someone who might want to be his partner, a couple of people entered, so he had to abandon his thoughts in order to attend to business. Ike and Noah sat down, and Ted took their order.

As Noah had his back towards the dining room entrance he didn't see the pretty lady enter, but Ike did. He thought she was beautiful. He wondered who she was for he had never seen her in town before. But before he could ask Noah who she was, she was gone.