Was she warming to him? He remembered their first meeting in the San Antonio mercantile before she’d known he was a McCutcheon. Across the street at the telegraph office, Fred Billingsworth stepped outside. He’d been demoted from his position as mayor of Rio Wells after the Shellston affair a few months back. The spherical man reminded Dustin of a circus bear, with large sweat rings under his arms and his dark cotton trousers pulled tightly around his middle. He withdrew a folded handkerchief from the front pocket of his rumpled shirt and wiped his forehead, all the while grimacing up at the sun. “Our old mayor,” he said quietly to Noah. “Fred Billingsworth.” “Old mayor? He looks pretty young to me.” Dustin shot Noah a look of irritation. “Old as in demoted from his post. Now he’s just a clerk until we have a new election. He answers to the head of the town council, Deputy Miller, and just about anyone who feels the need to boss him around.”
