Free MM01 - Valley of Fire by Peggy Webb

straight-backed kitchen chair, but Rick intercepted. He carried two chairs across the room to where Velma and Clyde were sitting. He and Martha Ann sat down side by side.
    “Clyde, turn up that preacher. Can you two hear all right?”
    “Great,” Rick said.
    “We'll watch something else if you want to,” Clyde said. “There's not much on tonight though.”
    “I like games.” Rick winked at Martha Ann. “Especially baseball,” he said to Clyde.
    For the next two hours they sat on the hard chairs watching the two television screens with Clyde and Velma. The best Rick could tell the Dodgers hit a homerun somewhere around Revelation, the Cardinals struck out in the middle of Ezekiel, and fourteen sinners got saved in the bottom of the sixth inning. It was an incredible evening.
    When the two clocks struck ten, Velma and Clyde looked at each other and winked. Velma disappeared briefly, then came back and announced, “Bedtime.”
    “That sounds great,” Martha Ann said. “It has been a very long day.”
    “For me too.” Rick stood up and stretched. “A soft bed will feel great.”
    “You two follow me, and I'll show you to your room.”
    Room ? Martha Ann thought. She looked at Rick, and he shrugged his shoulders as if to say, Beats me .
    The ranch house consisted of the front room, which served as kitchen, dining, and living area, and two small bedrooms separated by a tiny hall.
    Velma opened a door and swept her arm grandly through the air. “Here it is. Just like mine.” She grinned at them. “I believe in giving my guests all the comforts of home.”
    The bedroom was identical to the one Martha Ann had seen earlier. Exotic curtains were draped around the bed and over the walls, and scented candles were already lit and burning in every corner of the room.
    Martha Ann felt her stomach tighten. One bedroom. She should have realized earlier how small the house was. She should have known it couldn't possibly have two guest bedrooms. She guessed she'd been too tired or too hot or too hungry to notice.
    She swung her gaze to Rick. He was taking it all in stride. In fact, he was even smiling. Saints preserve her. What would she do?
    Velma was watching her expectantly. She felt compelled to say something. “It's lovely, Velma. Thank you.”
    “I knew you'd like it... you two traveling together, and all.” She began to back out of the room. “Well, you two have a good night's sleep.”
    The door clicked shut behind her.
     o0o
    Clyde was waiting in the hall.
    “How did it go, Velma? Did they like it?”
    “The best I could tell, they did. Are you sure everything's in place?”
    “Right where it ought to be. I had to make a few substitutions though. It's an old recipe, and you can't find the ear of a bison anymore.”
    “What did you use?”
    “Remember that old heifer that got sick on the range and died last week?”
    “Yes.”
    “The buzzards hadn't gotten to the ears yet. I used one of them.”
    “I'm just dying to know how everything's going in there.”
    “We might be able to hear if we pressed our ears up against the wall.”
    “Clyde! I'm shocked at you. Some things are private matters.” She smoothed her hands over her hips and patted her wig. “Let's go, honey. I believe in letting things take their natural course.”
    Clyde and Velma linked arms and went down the hall to their own bedroom, secure in the knowledge that love was taking its natural course—thanks to a little assistance from them.
     o0o
    Inside the guest bedroom Rick and Martha Ann were squared off on opposite sides of the bed.
    “Quit looking so pleased,” she said.
    “Who? Me? I didn't plan this.”
    “But I'll bet you're perfectly willing to take advantage of the situation.”
    “It takes two, sweetheart.”
    Martha Ann ignored that comment. She glanced toward the hard floor. “I suppose one of us could make a pallet down there.”
    “I’ll sleep on the floor, Mrs. O'Grady. You take the bed.”
    She chewed her lower