8. Suspects and Suppers

"Easy there, take a deep breath", Trooper said to me as I tried to console me, which may have seemed impossible because, much to my embarressment, I had begun to cry pitifully on his shoulder, my tears soaking through his shirt.

"I.....I just don't know what I'm gonna do!" I cried

"Everything was riding on.............her,"

"And.....and now I.....I don't....I mean," I stuttered as I try to find the words that best suited my problem but none came to mind.

"Ya know, you are getting my very best shirt wet with those tears of yours," he suddenly stated.

In a moment of disbelief and shear innocence, my head flew from his shoulder and our eyes meet. My cheeks flared with embarressment and my mouth opened with several apologies until I took a closer look at him.

His smile grew wide and I knew I had done been had.

"You.........you.....how could you......I," I said, and then for the most unknown reason, I busted out laughing. He soon joined in and there the two of us were, cracking up and laughing we looked like two drunk loonies.

I managed to get ahold of myself first and said,

"I can never thank you enough,"

Well, I'm just the emotional handyman around here, don't ya know?" He replied, giving me another wide grin.

"Seriously what am I gonna do?" I said.

"How about we fix you up back at the hotel and we can talk over dinner?"

I stared at him until his face turned a faint pink.

"You, you mean like a date?" I said in disbelief.

"Oh no, well, not really, I mean I wasn't hinting or anything I just thought you might want to talk it over, but maybe not with a stranger, which I am so I guess....I don't know?" He said, all in one breath.

"Never mind what it is, I'd be happy to go," I replied.

"Good, but we better explain to Josie," He said, helping me up.

"Josie" I called, clearing my throat and taking the hankerchief Trooper had offered, began to dab my eyes.

"Yes?" Josie said, sticking her head in the doorway before allowing the rest of her slim figure to be shown.

Handing the hankerchief back to Trooper, who gave me a mock disgusted look before stuffing it in his pocket, I turned to Josie and said,

"I'm gonna need some time to think this over, all over it, so I will stop by later this week,"

"Well, that'll be fine miss but I think I out to be telling you something......" She said, fiddling with her apron.

"I was searching through some of Ms. Lewis's old papers and I come across this," She finished and held at a piece of crisp, yellowed paper in her hand.

 I took it and studied it. The first thing I noticed was the date it was written, June 7th, 1845. And then I saw it was a will. Her will, and my name was all over it. Sure, I was only a toddler when she wrote it but how did she know I would be the one who would be left? The one who would have to inherit all her possessions? And turned out, My Great-Aunt Margaret was a bit more well-off than she had put on. Much, much more well off. So much in fact, that when I showed the paper to Trooper, his eyes bulged and he grabbed the paper and brought it closer to his face, then turned to me.

"She left you how much?"

"Can't you read?" I said sarcastically.

"Sure I can read but come on!" "Who wants to count all those zero's?!"

Handing the paper back to Josie, I said,

Thank you for showing me, but I still need time to think." "I will be back in a couple days if that's alright,"

"Sure," Josie said, and with that she led us out of the house and showed us the door.

"Miss," Josie called before I stepped off the porch.

I signaled Trooper to go ahead and ready the team as I waited for her to come closer.

"Miss, I...."

"Please, I have a feeling we are going to be seeing a lot of each other, call me Tara"

"Alright, Tara"

"I wanted to tell you that........Ms. Lewis's thought very highly of you, more than you may ever know,"

"What do you mean?"

Taking a quick glance at Trooper before continuing, she said, "I'll explain when you come by again,"

 And with that, she flew back into the house and slammed the door.

Trooper stared at the door, before turning to help me onto the buckboard.

"What was that all about?" he asked.

"Oh, she justs wants to tell me something next week," I said, trying to sound uncaring, when in fact, I was quite worried. The way she seemed to study and spy on Trooper was beginning to worry me. Was there something she knew that I didn't?

Trooper dropped me off at the hotel and said he would be back around 7pm to pick me up for our meal.

I nodded my head absentmindedly as his tipped his hat and left.

Was I being paranoid about Trooper and why Josie seemed suspicious of him? Was he in trouble? With the law? Or was it something he is planning on doing?

My mind went crazy with the ideas as I made my way to my room. Opening the door, I threw my handbag on the bed and began to get ready for this evening.

~~~~ A few hours later~~~~

~~~~~From Trooper's POV~~~~~

I pulled the buckboard to a stop when I reached the front of the hotel she was staying at. I was about to desend when I caught a glimpse of a figure coming out of the shadows on the hotel porch.  

It was Tara. She wore a deep red dress with a black hat that had red feathers. The dress flowed down her slim figure and reached about 2 inches about her ankles, almost covering her black high-heels. She wore a pair of ruby earrings that swung from her ears, bring my attention to her auburn hair was swept up in a fashionable style, with two stray strands of hair framing her face.

It was then that I realized I was just standing there staring, and my face turned a deep shade that match Tara's dress.

~~~~Tara's POV~~~~

He had been staring at me for quite some time before he seemed to realize what he was doing and his face turned bright red. I smiled and let him finally help me up onto the buckboard.