Unending Devotion (Michigan Brides #1)(3)

Several kerosene lamps hung from the ceiling and cast a smoky dim light over two long tables half filled with big burly men holding forks poised above their tin plates heaped high with beans, fried potatoes, and salt pork. A dozen pairs of eyes were fixed upon her.

She gave them a nod. “Evening.” Then her gaze found what she sought—the proprietor or perhaps his wife—coming through the door from the kitchen carrying a steaming coffeepot in each hand.

“My, my, my. What do we have here?” The husky woman stopped short. Her face was as red as raw beef, likely heated from the six-hole range Lily glimpsed in the kitchen.

“Evening,” Lily said, this time to the woman.

The way everyone was staring at her, she might have believed she was the first young woman they’d ever seen—if she hadn’t known better. The fact was, there were too many women like Edith who lived and worked in the lumber towns. Lily knew she was rare, only in that she wasn’t up on the table dancing in her skimpies.

“I’m checking to see if you have any rooms available for lease.”

“If there aren’t any, don’t you worry,” one of the men said. “I can make a spot for you in mine.”

A chorus of guffaws rounded the tables, but Lily didn’t bother to acknowledge the crude comment. After the past several months of living in various lumber towns, she was used to the depravation of the men.

The big woman ambled to the closest table and thumped the coffeepots down, sloshing some of the dark liquid onto the oilskin table covering that looked like it already had plenty of spills. “Now, boys, you know Mr. Heller and I run a good Christian establishment here. My husband and I won’t put up with any nonsense under this roof.”

“But if the girl needs a bed,” the man continued, “I’m just doing my Christian duty by offering to share.”

“You don’t get her in your room,” another man growled. “If anybody gets the girl, it’s gonna be me.”

“I think you’ve just been itching for a fight all day, ain’t you, Jimmy?” The first man pushed back from the table and rose to his feet.

“Boys, now don’t you upset dinner.” Mrs. Heller crossed her thick arms across her grease-splattered apron. “I won’t stand for it.”

But Jimmy was already rising. Before Lily could think to move, he’d come toward her and grabbed her. Within seconds she found herself in a tug-of-war between the two shanty boys.

“Let go of me!” she demanded, but they were too busy yelling at each other to notice.

Mrs. Heller abandoned the coffeepots and charged toward the men. She pulled a thick wooden spoon from her deep apron pocket and wielded it in front of her. “Boys, enough! This is just enough of this nonsense! If you don’t stop, you’ll force me to give you a whoppin’ with my spoon.” But they didn’t pay attention to her either.

For an instant, alarm shattered the usual calmness of Lily’s spirit. Maybe she’d been wrong to disregard Oren’s hesitation when she’d first insisted he take her along during his itinerant picture taking among the lumber camps.

“Those towns are loaded with danger,” he’d muttered. “They’re infested with graybacks and deadbeats. And if one doesn’t get you, the other will.”

So far she’d avoided both the lice and any encounters with rowdy men. But there were plenty of shanty boys who had referred to Harrison as “Hell’s Waiting Room.” What if they’d been right?

“Take your hands off the young lady.” A stern voice rose above the clatter.

The two men ceased their struggle, and silence fell over the room.

A broad-shouldered muscular man had abandoned his plate and risen from the bench. An unruly lock of blond hair fell across his forehead above dark green eyes. There was something commanding about his expression.

“I don’t think this is any way to treat a guest,” he said, “do you?”

None of the men said anything, but the two holding her made no move to unhand her.

“Connell’s right.” Mrs. Heller huffed. Her face was a shade redder than it had been before—if that were possible. “This one looks like she’s a decent God-fearing girl. And even if she’s not—”

“Oh, you can rest assured that I am,” Lily said quickly, struggling to free her arms from the tight grip of the men.

Mrs. Heller pointed her spoon at the two men. “I’ve a mind to write home to your mamas about your foolishness. And you know as well as I do, my letters would bring those poor women to tears.”

One of the men released her, but the other—Jimmy—just gave a short laugh, revealing a black space where he was missing a top front tooth on one side with only half of a jagged tooth on the other. His fingers dug into her arm, and his smile was hard with the lust she’d seen often enough.

But she’d never worried about the boys before. Oren had always been there to scare them away.

She glanced at the door. He was probably still across the street chatting with a couple of local business owners about the lumber camps in the area. Maybe she shouldn’t have been in such a hurry to get inside and get warmed up. Oren was always warning that her impatience was going to get her into trouble eventually.

He would come looking for her before too long—of that she had no doubt. She could only pray it was sooner rather than later.