A Texas Hill Country Christmas by William W. Johnstone Page A

sounding genuinely puzzled.
    â€œWell, you put away a considerable amount of whiskey last night,” Chance pointed out.
    After the confrontation with Oliver Hudson and the brief meeting with Evelyn Channing, Porter, Ace, and Chance had spent some time in one of Austin’s saloons, Porter knocking back glasses of whiskey while the Jensen brothers stuck to coffee. Under the circumstances, they had figured it might be a good idea to keep an eye on Porter. They had just met the hombre and had no responsibility for him, of course, but Ace felt sorry for him and knew that Chance did, too.
    There was nothing like love to make a man act like a full-blown idiot. Unrequited love, which was apparently the case with Porter, was even worse.
    He had kept raving about how he was going to follow Evelyn to Fredericksburg and stop her from marrying Oliver Hudson. It would be a grand, romantic gesture, he proclaimed, and when he did, she would see how much he loved her and realize that she should have been with him all along.
    As gently as possible, Ace and Chance had tried to talk him out of that crazy idea, but they weren’t able to get through to him. Finally, in sheer frustration, Ace had said bluntly, “You show up at the wedding and try that speak-now-or-forever-hold-your-peace business, Hudson’s liable to put a bullet in you.”
    â€œI know that,” Porter had said as he poured another drink. “That’s why you two young cavaliers will be accompanying me.”
    â€œYou want us to come along and protect you?” Chance had asked. “Sort of like bodyguards?”
    â€œBoth of you wear revolvers. And I suspect you’re quite capable with them, because I know from the earlier altercation that you’re no strangers to violence.”
    â€œWe’ve run into our share of trouble,” Ace had said with a frown, “but we’re not hired guns.”
    â€œAnyway,” Chance had added, “you don’t appear to be all that flush. You couldn’t afford to hire us.”
    â€œI thought I would prevail upon you to come with me as friends.” A thoughtful expression had appeared on Porter’s thin face. “Although . . . I do work in a bank and have access to a considerable amount of funds . . .”
    â€œStop that,” Ace had said sharply. “You start talking like that and we’ll just leave you right here.”
    â€œWe’ve run across some shady characters before,” Chance had said. “We throw in with an embezzler and we’re liable to wind up behind bars.”
    A shudder had run through both brothers at the thought of that prospect.
    â€œWe don’t intend to be locked up,” Ace had said in a tone of finality.
    Porter hadn’t said anything more about getting money from the bank where he worked, but he hadn’t backed off from his determination to win Evelyn away from Hudson. That was the way it had been left when Ace and Chance walked him back to the house where he was living. Ace had hoped that when Porter woke up this morning, he would be hungover and would have forgotten the events of the previous evening.
    Obviously, that wasn’t the case. From the looks of it, Porter was one of those fellows who could get staggering drunk and then be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed the next morning.
    Porter sipped the coffee the waitress brought him and said, “It’s lucky I remembered you mentioning the hotel where you’re staying, or else I might not have been able to find you in a place the size of Austin.”
    â€œYeah,” Ace said dryly. “Lucky.”
    â€œI’ve already been out and about this morning, doing some investigating. Evelyn has tendered her resignation at the café where she works. She’s taking the stage to Fredericksburg this afternoon, so we’ve no time to waste.”
    â€œHow do you know that?” Chance asked.
    â€œI talked to the clerk at the stage line