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“It is. Much more people.”
He made sure his horse was secured to the post and took her arm. “Let’s go. We’ll get a room at the hotel and then find something to eat. I’m starving.”
They made their way through town and Aaron didn’t miss the looks thrown their way. He wasn’t sure if it was because he was back or the fact there was an Indian woman walking at his side. Either way, he didn’t like it.
He scowled at those openly staring and shouldered his way through the crowd until they made it to the hotel. Aaron reached for the door but it opened before he could touch it, Ben Atwater, laughing at something the man behind him said, stepping out onto the sidewalk in front of him. The moment Ben saw him, his laughter died and the look in his eyes turned murderous. Aaron never saw Ben raise his arm, nor saw his fist flying toward his face but the moment his back hit the wooden sidewalk, the voices around him raising, he knew his old friend had found out what he’d done to Betsey.
Ben grabbed two handfuls of his shirt, jerked him to his feet, and tossed him out into the street. “I’ve been waiting half the year to do that. You have no idea how glad I am to see you come home, Aaron. Now get up cause I’m gonna hurt ya real bad and I won’t kick a man while he’s down, not even you.”
Aaron blew out a breath and debated just staying down. The look on Ben’s face said he’d spent that half a year working out every way he’d like to kill him and a smart man would just lay here in the street and play dead. Unfortunately, he’d never been accused of being smart.
He stood up, righted his hat and swiped the back of his hand across his mouth. A bright swatch of red stained his hand. The bastard busted his lip. “Ben,” he said. Nodding his head in way of greeting. “Long time no see.”
“I’m going to smear your scrawny behind all the way to the other side of town and back.”
“It’s good to see you, too,” Aaron said. A small crowd had gathered, voices raised and a glance back up on the sidewalk told him it wasn’t his fight with Ben that was causing the ruckus. Morning Dove was pressed against one of the posts holding the roof up, several people touching her. “Hey, get away from her!” He ignored Ben and stepped past him, grabbing hold of Morning Dove’s arm and pulling her away from the others. “Y’all act like you’ve never seen a woman before.”
“Never seen an Indian woman,” someone yelled.
“Well, now you have.” He pulled her in close to his side and gave them each a look. Ben shifted and Aaron turned his focus back on him. He was staring at Morning Dove, his eyes running the length of her before settling on her face. “Can we finish this later? I promised her a hot meal and a place to lay her head down.”
Ben didn’t reply, just stood there staring at Morning Dove as if she were the most fascinating thing he’d ever seen. Aaron took his silence as a yes and guided her back to the sidewalk, pushing past those gathered and went inside. The scent of cooking meat filled the air and his stomach growled instantly. How long had it been since they’d eaten anything other than dried meat?
A woman he didn’t recognize walked their way and stopped a short distance in front of them. Like everyone else in town, she was staring at Morning Dove.
“Can we get a table?” Aaron asked when the woman did nothing but stand there and gape at them. “Preferably in the corner away from the windows.”
The woman snapped out of whatever trance she’d been in and looked him in the face. “A table?” She fidgeted a moment and said, “Wait right here.”
The woman hurried across the room and spoke to the man behind the hotel counter. They both turned wide eyes towardMorning Dove and Aaron felt that same heat he’d felt in every other town they passed through fill his veins. They were going to refuse to serve them.
The man behind the counter looked away, the woman blowing out a breath before heading back their way. She raised her chin a notch and found a spot on his shirt to look at and said, “The restaurant is full. You’ll have to try the stagecoach station.” She threw a glance Morning Dove’s way and the anger nearly choked him.
Every town they’d been through was exactly the same. They were eager to serve him but—the Indian would have to wait outside. Clenching his hands into fists, he tried to keep his tone calm. “There are at least six empty tables over there.”
She gave him a shrug and glanced over her shoulder to the man behind the counter before looking back at him. “I’m sorry. You’ll have to go elsewhere.”
Aaron bit his tongue and took four deep breaths. “Would I be correct to assume all the rooms are occupied as well?”
“Yes. We’re all booked up.”
He cursed under his breath, a litany of them on the tip of his tongue and had Morning Dove not tugged on his arm, he would have let them fly.
“We’re drawing a crowd.”
He looked behind them and sure enough, the gawkers on the sidewalk were all in the doorway, staring in as if they were hired entertainment. He scowled, took Morning Dove’s arm and led her back outside. People he’d never seen before moved out of their way, filling the edges of the sidewalk as they started back for his horse and he looked every one of them in the eye as he passed. Most had the decency to look away but a few of the men looked as if they wanted to say something. Luckily for him, they didn’t. His head already pounded from the knock to his skull Ben had given him. Getting into another tussle would only make his headache worse.
The stagecoach station was the only other place in town that served a hot meal for anyone looking for one but the thought of going in there and having anyone look at Morning Dove as if she were—less—made his skin crawl. He’d rather starve than put her through the humiliation again.
His mood was turning blacker by the moment and it wasn’t until he heard the music from the saloon spilling out onto the street that the anger coiling his stomach into a knot eased a bit. The crowd by the door was bigger than he’d ever seen it and the moment he wondered why, he heard it. Someone was singing. The voice was sweet and filled the air with a soft melody. By the time he reached his horse, that crowd of men was pushing closer to the door and a few of them were looking in through the single window that faced the street, all trying to peer inside.
“What do we do now?”
Morning Dove’s voice drew his attention. “I don’t know.” He blew out a breath, a voice in the back of his head whispering he knew where she would be welcome but going home was the last thing he wanted to do at the moment. He needed time to think. To try and come up with a decent excuse for acting like a horse’s ass a year ago. To find the right words to apologize to the man who’d raised him since he was ten. A man he’d looked up to as a kid and wanted to grow up and be just like.
He sure as hell messed that dream up. He was nothing like Noah. The man he’d called pa for the last twelve years was honorable, hard-working and loved with his whole heart. He’d taken them in and gave them everything they needed and had treated him and Sophie no different than he treated Nathaniel, his own natural born child.
Aaron blew out a breath. All he’d ever done once he was old enough to think he was somebody, was complain and bellyache about all the things Noah asked him to do. And he’d bucked at every word and suggestion Noah had given him and lashed out atthe one person who’d sat and listened to him bellyache about how terrible his life was.
