Chapter 3 The Newcomers

Queenstown, Missouri

June 1980

He slowed to a stop, and with a jerk of the head, he flipped a lock of dark hair out of his eyes and studied the group's movement.

It was possible, and he supposed, that the appearance of the afternoon scene in the backward little town was cause for much excitement, but he hoped it was something more worthy of attention than that.

Lord knew he could use a little excitement at the moment, and he was busy with his supplies when he caught the eye of a cowhand leaning against the weathered clipboard of the store and moved closer.

"What's happening with the ladies?" The man turned a beady gaze on him, spat onto the planking of the boardwalk, and shrugged, "New folks came in."

Summer raised an eyebrow, "That, so?" He shifted his eyes back to the crowd.

"I reckon that's the one bringing them dancing girls," he mused, squinting at the gathering crowd as if to see better.

"That answers nothing," He frowned at the man as he hissed and walked away, leaving Mister Summer on the spot.

After loading the sacks of flour, he headed back to the store, noticing that it wasn't just women gathering at the stage now a few men had stopped by to look, hell, before long, the entire town might be in attendance.

Summer thought, hating that he was feeling a mite of curiosity. A little boy in a shabby, red vest raced by, and Summer nabbed him by the scruff of his collar, "Hold up!" he said, laughing as the little boy skidded to a halt in the dirt.

"Hey mister, git offa me!" the little boy squirmed beneath Summer's grip, his collar around his ears, "Whaddya want?"

"What's going on over there?" Summer asked. "I don't know, a couple of city folk is all duded up real slick, and Miss Dippy told me to get my Momma they's fancy rigging they got on."

Summer put him back on the ground, and the little boy shrugged his clothes back into place. "That's it? fancy clothes and the whole goddamn town flocks to see them?"

The boy looked back at the gathering group, "Why not? ain't much else doing," he said, then added, "See ya," and ran off like a shot.

Summer glanced after him, then back to the gathering, which now seemed to be moving; whoever it was wanted to get someplace, and the mob was moving with them, he smiled cynically to himself.

I bet they were surprised to find themselves celebrities just for showing up. Well, it didn't matter to him anyway, he decided to stroll back to the store, and they weren't anyplace near Georgia.

Half an hour later, Summer could not help but stare at the stunning light brown-haired woman, with dazzling blue eyes, in a dark blue traveling suit who entered Mrs. Secrets boardinghouse; He was sitting in an armchair near the front desk, waiting for Old Avalon to come back with his pay when she entered, gracing the room with both beauty and an elegant smile.

'She had to be the one who drew the crowd earlier.' He thought, for she was exceptionally well dressed and was followed by a gentleman whom Summer hoped to heaven wasn't her husband, if only to maintain his faith in the rightness of all things.

Mrs. Secrets' straight face stood tense and inhospitable behind the front desk, somehow exuding both awe and disapproval simultaneously. "Can I help you?" she barked at the newcomers.

"Are you the proprietress?" the beauty asked in a voice that was meek to his hearing.

At the sound of it, Summer felt something wither inside of him-his confidence or his optimism, or perhaps both, she was just as pretty as a fucking picture.

"Yes, I am," Mrs. Secrets' sour air of displeasure looked to have taken a beating in the face of beauty's apparent breeding, and she attempted a gruesome smile. Summer wondered what on Earth could have brought such a beautiful noble to a filthy, little slum-like Queenstown, and ironic isn't it? A slum called Queenstown.

"We require two rooms, the cleanest you have will do" beauty pulled off her gloves a finger at a time with excellent snapping efficiency.

"Every one of em's clean," Mrs. Secrets said peevishly, taking a card from beneath the desk. "I'll set you up in my best rooms, and I run clean house here."

"I'm sure you do," beauty concurred in a tone that warned to Summer's ear that the place had better be clean. "Do you have someone to take our bags up?"

Mrs. Secrets finished filling out the check-in card with painstaking slowness and turned it to beauty for her signature. "I'll get 'em up there," she promised. "Rooms 3 and 4, upstairs to the left, privy' to the right, second door, which you'll find clean as well."

"Very good," the cultured voice said, effectively ending the topic of discussion by tone alone. "I'll appreciate you having the bags taken up directly as I would like to freshen up for supper. Could you recommend a reputable establishment where we could dine?"

Mrs. Secrets' expression screwed up uncertainty at this question."You want to eat?"

"That's correct" her lips curved in a forced, though pretty smile.

Mrs. Secrets pursed her lips. "There's only one place in town for the likes of you," She spouted out. "Roosevelt's place, out the door, to the left."

It was beauty turned to perplexed, Summer noted with a private smile, but she didn't ask what manner of evil her ladylike senses should be on the lookout for.

"Roosevelt's then," She said with a nod.

"That'll be cash upfront now," Mrs. Secrets added as if their fine clothes and high-class demeanor weren't fooling her.

"Now just a-" Mrs. Secrets piped up, but beauty cut her off.

"Pay her," she instructed. "But the implications m..." She sighed and shook her head.

"Just pay her, Mr. Flynn; what difference does it make?"

Mrs. Secrets glanced at the card in her hand. "Thank you, Miss..."

"McCarthy," She replied.

"I appreciate your understanding, Miss McCarthy."

Miss McCarthy waved her hand in dismissal and headed for the stairs. Before he knew what he was about, Summer stood and cleared his throat. Beauty, as he preferred to think of the lady, turned and fixed dark-lashes blue eyes on him. he felt the blood stall in his veins.

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