The Unexpected Partner

Chapter 15

"Why did I ever give Shane this idea?" Claire asked herself. The past four weeks, the saloon had been having performers come every Friday night. There were four different plays done by a group of actors that Claire had found. The actors would do a different performance every week and many men would come in to watch it, some coming in from out of town.

Claire felt good about her idea being a success, but she didn't realize how hard it would be to clean up the mess. It was still worth it because ever since they started doing these performances, the saloon started to make more money on Fridays than the rest of the week combined.

After spending an hour cleaning, the work was still not done. She looked up at the ceiling and then checked her pocket watch, 1:00am. "Kill meeee!" She prayed figuratively, thinking about going up the stairs to Shane's bedroom to ask him for help. She decided against it and started to clean faster.

Out of nowhere, someone knocked on the saloon door. Who could that be? She wondered, feeling nervous that anyone would come here this late. Maybe they think it's open?

The knocking continued, causing her to walk closer to the door with caution. Once she opened the main door and reached the double doors, she heard another knock. "Who is it?"

The sound of a man talking quietly could be heard. "I need water. Please."

Claire could hear the pain in his voice. It might be a drifter, she thought, feeling bad for him because he was thirsty and probably did not have any money to provide for himself.

Contemplating whether she should open the door, she remembered Shane's words: You must never open the door when the saloon is closed for business. Never! On the other hand, she remembered her father's words: Claire, it's your duty to always help those who can't help themselves.

She went against Shane's words and opened the door to see a young man. Claire had to squeeze her nose to stop the stench from reaching her nostrils. The man smelled horrible! He looked like he had not showered in a month, wearing nothing but dirty rags and socks.

Without even thinking about it, she decided to let him in as she turned her back to the man while saying, "Stay right there, I will get you a glass of water."

She thought it was strange that the man chose not to say anything, but she didn't want to judge him. It was rewarding for her to help the ones who could not help themselves and she believed that giving this man water would be a way to do that.

After filling the glass, she turned around to give it to him but dropped it when she saw what was in front of her.

The glass shattered on the floor as she looked in fear at the man and his pistol that was pointed at her. There were no other words to describe her but frozen. She was frozen in place.

The man smirked and tilted his head. "Haven't you ever been taught to not let strangers through the door?"

Her heartbeat started to accelerate.

"When I heard there was a stupid boy working at A's Saloon, I thought to myself this was the perfect time to rob the damn place." He laughed cynically, shook his pistol in his hand and said, "Open your money box."

When Claire continued to stand still, trying to make herself believe this was a bad dream and that she would wake up soon, the man got angry.

"Hurry!" He barked at her.

This shook Claire back to reality as she quickly went to the bottom shelf behind the counter and got the money box. She grabbed the key from her pocket, the key that Shane had recently started trusting her with.