Bring them back

Chapter 7

After she sat down, too, she took a sip of the tea. It was a tad stale to her taste, but then again she liked her tea strong.

"Well, Miss Jenkins, thank you for the tea", Hosea stated and nodded towards the young woman. She nodded back. "And to come back to what I-"

"Excuse me, Hosea, but I have to stop you right there", Jenkins interrupted, earning shocked glances from the men.

Uhh, who am I to cut in on a man who is talking. Gross impertinence.
Jenkins put her cup down.

"Not to sound rude, but before we continue with your ... clay figurine or whatever, I'd like to know your names", she said, though still aware of her situation and ready to run she felt tiredness creeping up on her.

Remembering names was not one of her strong abilities. But since they were not many, there was a high chance of keeping the names in mind.
She already knew Hosea, John Marston and Arthur Morgan. The man who had checked out her globe was Bill Williamson.
Then there was a Mexican named Javier Escuella, a native-black man called Charles Smith and a black younger man going by Lenny Summers.

They sat and stared at her, sipping their tea. Each and every eye looked expectantly at her.

And while she knew that they deserved the opportunity to speak, to ask her, all she could think about was her seminar paper and how she'd failed that and all the work awaiting her.
It wasn't their fault, but Jenkins could not need any distractions now.

"Miss, you seem troubled." Hosea leaned closer to her.

She snapped out of her thoughts, her eyes shot at the older man, tentatively smiling at him. "This situation is a bit strange, don't you think?"

"Strange is a good word indeed."

"And it's also strange that you all are armed." Before she could stop herself, she'd already said it. Her voice calmer than she actually was.

Regret hit her hard as she saw the faces of the men harden, still lowering their eyes. What if they just shot her now and kept living in her house?

But then again, she had a job and people would miss her.

"Strange? Nah, it's strange yer not armed, Miss", Bill finally said, his fingers tapping the metal of his gun.

"I don't need a gun here. What do you use 'em for?"

"Ro-"

"Shut up, John."

"Why should I shut up?", John asked, voice rising in suppressed anger.

"Because you were about to scare her, you fool", Arthur scolded the other man, rolling his eyes. Sighing deeply he crossed his arms in front of his broad chest.

Jenkins took a sip of her tea, then put the big cup down onto the table, holding onto it. "I'm quite aware he was gon' say robbery. Don't be mistaken. I just..."

"Miss, we're not here to rob you, rest assured", Hosea chimed in. "And, if you allow me to be bold, we much rather hoped you would grant us shelter for tonight. You see, my old bones aren't what they used to be. Unlike this young folk here, I'm not keen on sleeping in cold weather."

"G-give you – sorry, what?"

Though, she should really not act that surprised. She had almost known that it would come like this. Being honest, where could these men go in the middle of the night? If they didn't want to freeze they needed to stay right here, in this house.

"Shelter, Miss."

An hour later the men were seated in her living room again while Jenkins had grabbed her laptop to look stuff up.
Different things went through her mind. What to do first?