Free Anna Finch and the Hired Gun by Kathleen Y'Barbo Page A

behind an overly crowded trolley, Anna had already begun to review her notes from that afternoon’s chance meeting.
    “Divine appointment,” she whispered. Surely only the Lord could have arranged such a fortuitous meeting. How the tale that dispelled the lies told about Wyatt Earp would find its way to the page of a newspaper was another miracle only He could manage.
    As for the other unplanned meeting of the day, the one with the man whose blood Anna had accidentally drawn, perhaps she might be allowed an opportunity to right that wrong as well.

This is funny.
    —
Doc Holliday’s reported last words
    From the looks of the activity outside the Beck home, preparations for tonight’s event for Governor and Mrs. Grant proceeded on schedule. In a few hours the stately house would be full of guests. Jeb had seen the list and approved the plan for keeping Denver’s elite safe and secure, including changing the hired help’s garb from Roman togas to a more dignified suit that allowed the three dozen men on duty to hide their guns and still appear part of the staff.
    Hank probably wouldn’t take well to Jeb sticking his nose into the business Hank would soon be paid to handle, but for now Jeb was still the man to whom Daniel turned when he needed something impossible done well and fast. Money never changed hands between them, as it would with Hank, so Jeb called the things he did for Daniel favors rather than Pinkerton work.
    “Uncle Jeb!”
    He looked up toward the familiar voice and found Charlotte Beck waving from the window above the parlor.
    “You’d better not let your pa or Gennie catch you behaving like a heathen, Charlie,” he called. “What are you now, twelve? Thirteen?”
    Daniel’s daughter affected an indignant expression. “Don’t pretend you don’t know I’ll be sixteen soon,” she said. “Very soon.”
    “Can’t be.” He shook his head. “I told you a long time ago I’d not settle for you growing up.”
    “Too bad.” She tossed her curls. “Guess what? Tonight I’m to join the adults at the reception. Isn’t that a daisy?”
    “It is indeed. Now get on back inside. I’ll see you when you’re ready for your big debut.”
    Charlotte blew him a kiss and slipped away from the window, leaving lace curtains swaying in her wake.
    “That one’s a handful,” he said under his breath as he slipped through the kitchen door of the Beck home.
    Tova, Daniel’s housekeeper, had already poured him a cup of hot coffee and set it in his usual spot at the table.
    “Can’t tarry tonight.” He kissed her cheek and reached for the mug. “I’m on the clock.”
    “Hey, now.” Elias, Daniel’s houseman and longtime friend, looked up from his newspaper and shook his head. “If my woman needs kissin’, I’m the one’s gonna do it. You got enough to worry about with Pinkerton business anyway, especially given who showed up ’round here this mornin’. So just leave her t’me.”
    “Yes sir.” Jeb saluted with his free hand. “And about that, what’s your—”
    “Your woman, is it?” The Norwegian woman’s
harrumph
let both men know exactly what she thought of that. “He calls me such a thing and yet when it comes to marrying me …” Her words faded to muttering, which didn’t seem to surprise Elias at all. Rather, heseemed to delight in it. Tova’s scrubbing became a symphony of pots, pans, and spoons clanging together.
    Jeb set aside the questions he’d intended to ask Elias about Edwin Beck and turned his attention to stirring up the pot of trouble already brewing between these two. “When’re the two of you getting hitched, Elias?” Jeb asked over the noise. “This engagement’s gone on for how long, Tova? Two years?”
    “Three, come Christmas,” Elias said, “but who’s counting?”
    “I am,” Tova said. “But until that man gives up those awful cigars, he’ll not be marrying me.”
    Elias placed his copy of the
Denver Times
between himself and Tova. “I’ve