Longarm and the Colorado gundown

_{“Aw, rivalry between small towns like these is pretty common. Why, I’ve seen things get s’ bad they started shooting at each other. And county seats? Lordy, you wouldn’t believe what some folks will do t’ get a county seat. Or hold onta one. Town over in Kansas, the people from one town snuck in one night an’ raided the courthouse. Carried off records, files, maps, benches, plat books, everything but the building itself. Come t’ think of it, they took some parts o’ that too. Folks woke up the next morning an’ discovered their county seat was twenty miles away. Never got it back neither, not so far as I heard. The ones that stole it forced an election an’ managed to keep it once they had it.” “That’s crazy,” Leah said.}

_{“Sure it is. Which is what I’m telling you. Folks can be crazy sometimes. So don’t get caught in the middle of some rivalry between two little towns when each of ’em wants you to think theirs is the only one worth looking at. Could be the both of ’em will do just fine.”}

_{“That certainly wasn’t the impression I got from the people in Glory. They were quite positive Snowshoe won’t get its railroad and that I should avoid investing here.” Longarm shrugged. “Makes no never mind t’ me either way,” he told her quite honestly. “My business only has t’ do with right and wrong, thank goodness. I don’t have to care a damn thing about profit or loss.”}

_{“Lucky you.”}

_{“I do agree, ma’am.”}

_{They heard a tapping at the door. Leah was still busy brushing her hair. “Do you want to get it, Longarm?”}

_{“I will if you want me to,” he said. “But it’ll break the kid’s heart if I do.”}

_{Leah laughed. “We wouldn’t want to be responsible for that, would we?” She set her brush aside, glanced down to make sure that the front of her gown was drawn modestly closed—her previous tough talk on the subject aside—and went to open the door so the bellboy could bring their coffee and champagne in.}

_{The look in the kid’s eyes when he saw Leah with her hair just brushed and flowing loose and gleaming made Longarm glad that he hadn’t gone to the door. Leah was the kind of woman dreams were built on. And no doubt this youngster had just received a lifetime supply of ’em. No harm in that, Longarm figured.}

_{“Your supper will be up real soon, ma’am,” the boy managed in a cracking voice. He looked like he was fixing to swoon dead away. “I won’t let nothing get cold, I promise.”}

_{“I shall trust you to take care of everything,” she said in her sultry, throaty voice. “Everything, yes?”}