NOVEMBER 26, 1861

Ted was glad that Walter was letting Marta and Devany live in the house behind the hotel. He was getting tired of living at the hotel himself, but what could he do about it. He could move into the boarding house, and that would be a little different but not by much. It would still just be a one-room living quarters.

He was saving his money in order to build his own house. He looked over the saloon figures again. At this rate, he wouldn’t be able to afford his own home any time soon. They just seemed to be barely breaking even each month. He knew the reason mainly was because of the bordello. The bordello had a couple of pretty girls to look at, and the saloon, well, they only had Desiree and that was mostly on the weekends.

All week Richard had been trying to convince him to put an ad in the paper to hire some saloon girls, but Ted really didn’t want to. After what had happened with Jacy and that drunk, he didn’t want to submit any girls to such an incident. But he also knew that a couple of girls could liven up the place and profits would pick up. His brain was having an ongoing war; weighing the pros and cons of hiring some ladies.

He looked up from his lunch and saw Tyler standing at the front desk saying something to Jennie. He wondered why a woman would want to be a bounty hunter. She was taking a lot of risk tracking down murderous outlaws. After she walked out, he shut his book, finished eating and then went back into the kitchen. The supper crowd would be arriving soon.

Tyler stood outside the hotel for a few minutes. Jennie had been semi courteous to her, but she could still tell that her old friend was still angry with her. But maybe she was breaking down and soon she might forgive her. Tyler could hole up in this little town a while longer. Jedidiah had already paid her, so she could take off hunting for Rick Collins right now if she wanted to, but she was still hoping that Jennie would become her friend once again.

She headed over to the jail. She would look through the wanted posters. Having a photogenic memory came in pretty handy when hunting outlaws. Every town she stayed in, she would study the wanted posters, memorizing the pictures and facts about them, so that if she spotted them on the trial, she would know it.