As the lunchtime crowd began to thin out Clara watched a calm Stanley make his way down the stairs and motion to his men to go on outside. She took a deep breath and whispered "Good Ridence!" to herself as she watched Stanley, Cole and Charlie slowley mount up and ride out of town without causing any trouble. She thought this was odd, but she counted her blessings knowing that Lily must have convinced Stanley that she didn't know anything, however, this made Clara even more uneasy so she thought she would go back up to check on her new boss and see if she was allright.
"Llily, are you in there" She asked as she quietly knocked on the door.
"Yes Clara come on in," Lily answered from the chair near the window "would you kindly have a seat with me for a moment, I do believe I could use a drink, how about you join me?"
"I'd love to Miss Lily," Clara slowley sat down with her in front of the window and the ladies just sat in silence for a few minutes while taking in their new reality. Then the girl mustered up the voice to carefully say, "Lil, I sure am glad that there was no trouble. Do ya think they'll be back?"
"It's only a matter a time Clara, I think I've managed to buy us some though, hopefully enough till Leo gets back. But I'm tellin' ya, I may not have any fingernails left by then!" Lily stated as the girls nervously began to chuckle.
"If'n ya don' mind Mamm, may I please suggest that we get some temporary help until Leo gets here, just-n-case he's runnin' a might late or they come back sooner than expected?" Clara asked nervously.
"That would probably be the best way to be prepared I would imagine, who'd ya got in mind Clara, anybody in particular?"
"Well, I would like fer ya to get to know the young man I've been seein' lately, his name is Laney and he is quiet, honest, smart, kind and I could say he can shoot better than anyone I've ever seen. He is over at the livery workin' on his saddle, that's what his trade was before the war. Please, Lil would ya just talk to him, I'd be happy ta fetch him over to meet with you?" Clara asked excitedly.
"I'd say yer a pretty good judge of character Clara and I don't have much ta choose from at the moment so I'd be happy if'n you'd ask him to come and talk to me about working for me here at the bar for a bit. Do ya think he's planning on stayin' for a while?"
"He said he was looking for work over at the livery, but I'm sure he'd be glad to help us once he know's your situation" Clara said excitedly.
"You'd better let me talk to him about what's goin' on Clara, you jus run a fetch him fer me, I'll handle the rest Sugar." Lily smiled, she was happy with the options opening up to her now even though she did have one more ace in the hole with Dodson. She'd hoped that she would be speaking to him as well, after all he was a friend of Leo's. "Now, why don't ya run and fetch that man a yers so we can have a palaver. Oh, and Clara, This is all jus between you and me, do you understand? I don't need anyone else ta know my business." Lily gave her a look like Clara had seen from Lou before.
"Oh yes Mamm, Miss Lily you can count on me" Clara replied. "I'll be right back with Laney." Clara hurried out the door and down the stairs.
Lily went downstairs to check on the bar and it's customers and to go about business as usual. Constantly looking over her shoulder just in case. Nobody had any idea that she had anything to be nervous about. She actually began to relax and enjoy the rest of her day. She met with Laney and was very impressed with her friends choice. She agreed to hire him temporarily until her partner had returned from Prescott. She never mentioned Leo's name during this conversation so she had no idea what fate had in store for her later. But she felt better and safer for the time being.
Now, evening was about to begin and the bar was just beginning to fill up with patrons, "Hey, Dodsaon, how are ya?" Lily met him at the bar to buy him a drink. "How about we have us a little talk, I believe I may have a proposition fer ya."