(Via:Here.)
She reddened deeply—the outcome of wrath as well as discomfiture—and brushed aside his comment. "Why, I cannot feasibly stay alone in a hotel full of men!"
A sequel to scene 11
He approached the desk clerk—with an economy of movement intermingled with a lithe grace. Comprehending she was staring brusquely—Agathe immersed herself with smoothing out one of the wrinkles in her crumpled skirts. "Louis, you say?" The clerk cleared his throat. "Checkin' up on him again, eh? Heard tell there was a spot of tumult down in Tucson a while back, but….."
"Has he ever been here, or not?" Gabriel barges in (on) piercingly. "Naw, he ain't showed up yet. Paid ahead for the front bedroom for tonight, though. Right here. Mr. 'n' Mrs. Louis, one night only."
Agathe panted and rose to her feet—blotches of high color staining her cheeks. Crossing the plain board floor with sheepish determination—she addressed the clerk. "I believe you have made an error, sir! I am miss Agathe. A room was to be booked in my name. A single room."
The clerk opened his cakehole to inveigh—analyzed her valorous frame of mind, and looked again. A hush unfolded out as he ran a finger over the smudged page of the registration book again. There was filth beneath the chipped edge of his nail.
"Sorry ma'am. Mr. 'n' Mrs. Louis, and Reverand Melloway is all I got listed here, 'cept for a patent-medicine salesman and the fellows from the stage. That's it."
"But….. there must be some elucidation."
"An anxious bridegroom, indisputable," Gabriel burbled dryly. His gaze flickered over her small but womanly figure.
"And who can blame him?"
She reddened deeply—the outcome of wrath as well as discomfiture—and brushed aside his comment. "Why, I cannot feasibly stay alone in a hotel full of men!"
Neither of the men responded—and she recalled with nostalgia the wheezy widow who had been her partner as far as Santa Clarita yesterday. How heartening it would be to see that whopping bulk toddle through the doorway now! "Perhaps you could recommend some lady who would bear with my company, or even put me up for the night if imperative."
Lucifers danced in the pellucid gray of Gabriel's eyes—and he grinned brazenly. The clerk followed suit, and she frowned at them both. "I see nothing humorous in my request! Unavoidably it's not unreasonable under the state of affairs."