A swell of voices comes from outside, and the men at the card table begin to pack up their game.

"You're still pretty drunk, so why don't you sleep on it and we'll talk again tomorrow after the Ladies Auxiliary meeting. Why don't you go have a laydown."

"I know my own mind and I don't want-" a flood of half washed rowdy cattle hands push into the saloon.

"FLORIE! FLORIE! YOU PROMISED ME FIRST ROLL WHERE'S MY GIRL AT?" Florie and another woman come out of the back. Florie wears little more than a silk dressing gown and the other woman is in a full Cotillion dress. 

"Well alright, come on. You showed up early and everything." The man hustles to the back as the woman in the ball gown sweeps over to them. 

No, not a woman, that's the Mayor!

"Gentleman." He gives them a nod.

"Mayor." They say in unison back.

"I don't suppose you know where Sherriff Beau ran off to?"

"Can't say as we do Mayor. He ain't in the office?"

"Last time I saw him he was riding down the mountain, just after arranging to get your lovely bride a room. To which none of you fine young things have bothered to introduce me to yet."

Daniel stands up and with a grin announces, "May I present Miss Sarah Jane Miller. Sarah Jane, this is the Mayor of Last Leg, Frank Durrett."

Unsure of what to do she dumbly holds out her hand to shake as she would a lady. He takes it, turns it, and drops a kiss across the back of her knuckles like a man.

"I am quite pleased to make your acquaintance Miss Sarah Jane. I hear you've brought in all the latest fashion from Boston. I am quite looking forward to adding a few gowns to my formal collection." He twists in the way women learn to do that makes the dress he wears swirl around his legs. She wonders if he's got ladies' shoes or men's boots on under that thing. 

"Ye… yeah… you know… I think I have one that would look nice with your uh, figure?" With each passing moment, she is learning that there might be no place in the world quite like Last Leg Wyoming.

"Well, I do look forward to it. Now if you don't mind, I am really afraid I am going to have to borrow your fiancés for the evening. As our dear Sheriff is not to be found and the Garber boys are back from a cattle run early."

"I was just going for a lay down anyway." She says changing her mind all on her own. 

The sheriff pulls a small bag from his pocket and sets it on the table with a metallic jangle.

"If you will excuse me, boys, it appears I have dance partners all lined up this evening. So on behalf of the power vested in me by the Great City of Last Leg, I hereby deputize the lot of you. Don't let them burn nothing or kill nobody or anything of the sort."

No sooner does the Mayor walk away then one of the hands sweeps him into a reel.

The bag is opened and Deputy stars are passed around. 

"Thank you for a lovely evening, Miss Sarah Jane." One at a time beginning with Daniel they slip around the table and kiss her gently on the cheek, save for the twins who do so in unison. They wait at the bottom of the steps as she heads up, she makes it three whole steps before she misses one and falls flat on her face. She's never been a drinker and as the boys swarm around her helping her up, she wants to die from embarrassment. They pull her to her feet carefully.

"You alright Miss Sarah?" Luke asks.

"Maybe we can get Josie…" he glances over his shoulder back out at the room, "nevermind."

A fight breaks out across the bar and Daniel and Will peel off to go break it up. 

"Someone's got to go down to Mary's and keep an eye on things." The world's fastest game of roshambo passes between them and the twins rush down the stairs and out the door, leaving Luke and Adam to each take an arm and help her up the stairs.

"You really got that down huh. I don't know anybody who would have done that without a fight breakin out or orders being given."

"We're a team, Miss Sarah. We're just used to doin together. We all look out for each other and such. There ain't no use in fighting. It don’t get nothin done. We all got jobs and when we all work together it's easy."

"So you just got lucky tonight?" They open the door and help her into her room and onto the bed.

"No, see you took Beau's seat at the usual table, so Daniel and Will got to sit next to you. So they're out of the running. That's why they went off to break up the fight."

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Adam lights the lamp on her bedside table. 

"Then we just threw for who had to go do the thing we don't want to. Which means next time it will be Markus and Silas turn to take care of you."

She struggles to pull her foot into her lap to get her boots off. 

"I got it." Luke sinks to the floor and pulls her foot into his lap, then sets to work carefully popping the long line of buttons on her traveling boots. 

"Thank you. You're being very nice about this whole thing." She says softly, trying to stop the way her heart flutters at the warmth of his hands on her ankle.

"Don't mention it. Everybody's entitled to have a bit of a fit now and then. Hell, Beau had a fit that went and got him elected Sheriff four years ago. He's damn good at it too." 

Luke pulls the first of her boots free. His thumbs make contact with the underside of her soles, and push in, rubbing her feet. They've ached for so long, she had forgotten that they hurt, and she groans in delight. 

"Hey now, save something for the wedding night!" Adam laughs.

"I haven't decided who I want to marry yet." 

"Well, you don't have to choose." Luke finishes unbuttoning her other boot and pulling it free. "We're all crazy in love with you and we think that if you give us a chance, we can show you that it can work. Adam, can you get me the washbasin before you get her corset?"

Her heart trips a little faster as Adam does as he's told, putting the washbasin on the floor next to Luke just as he reaches up under her skirt and unclips her garter pulling her stockings down. 

Adam sits on the bed behind her and starts to unbutton her dress. She should stop them. This isn't how proper young ladies behave. Especially after giving them a lecture on how she was not, in fact, a whore. Luke washes her feet, rubbing the soreness out as he goes, turning her bones to jelly. 

Adam works the buttons of her dress free and begins to tug at her corset strings pulling them loose.

"Who was it who wanted to teach me to ride a horse?" She asks trying to sort the pieces of them apart into their individual persons.

"That was Daniel," Adam says from behind her so softly, it makes the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. "He's real good with animals."

"Oh. Well, who wanted to teach me to shoot?"

"That would be Beau. He wants to teach you to get in a proper fight too, but we didn't want to put that in the letter." Luke laughs. 

"Why do I need to know how to fight?"

Adam slips his hands under her arms. "Go on and stand up for me, so we can get this dress off ya." She stands and Luke pulls it down off her arms as Adam pushes from the back. Helping slide it down leaving her in her corset, chemise, and petticoat. 

"Hopefully you won't ever need to know. But won't it be nice to know if it ever comes up?"

It's a very hard point to argue with.

Luke folds her dress carefully, and sets it on the side chair, as Adam slips her corset off standing so close behind her he brushes against her back with every movement. He passes Luke the binder, and Luke puts that carefully away as well. 

Adam's hands are on her waist, and all she can think about is what it might be like to have Luke touching her as well. 

Adam pulls the ties of her petticoats free, and Luke slides them to the floor, urging her to step out of them. Once they're put up neatly, Luke comes to stand in front of her just as closely as Adam is behind. He holds that distance just a breath away as Adam begins to pull the pins out of her hair, letting it tumble down around her shoulders.

He runs his hands through it looking for more pins, before brushing her hair aside just enough to softly kiss the side of her neck.

Luke speaks in almost a whisper, "I know we're not what you expected Miss Sarah. But we really do love you and want to give you all the things we promised."

He takes her face in his hand and tilts her head down to kiss her forehead.

"You should get some sleep."

Adam steps away from where he stood beside her, and pulls the blankets back on the bed, as Luke pushes her gently down into it before Adam tucks her in. 

"We'll see you in the morning, Miss Sarah." They turn the lamp down and leave shutting the door behind them.

Any hope she had of sleeping any time soon is gone. Her skin is electric, and her whole body wound tight enough to snap.  She's even drunk enough that the little voice that is supposed to tell her things are a bad idea, is nowhere to be found, and only the fact that she's been two steps behind the obvious all day kept her from inviting them to bed. All it would take is for one of them to come in to check on her, and all her good intentions would be gone.

Luckily for her virtue, no one checks on her, and eventually, the alcohol lulls her down into sleep. 

*****

In the wee hours of the morning, six of the seven Carter boys sit around Beau's office passing around a bottle of moonshine.

"You think Beau really said she looked like a whore?" Will asks quietly.

"If she took a shot at him first it's possible. Did you see the cut of that dress? I kept thinking her nipples were just gonna fall out the way she had 'em laced up to the brim." Markus laughs.

"There was no danger of that. They weren't pushed up too much. Just together a bit." Luke says with a grin pulling a groan from the other five. 

"You serious right now?" Daniel asks leaning forward.

"If anything she was trying to keep 'em down, but the way that dress is cut they gonna push out the top either way. And she wasn't wearing a bustle of any sort. Just the one petticoat." Adam adds. They're the only two with any information in that regard and while they might have won the throw there are no secrets between the brothers.

"How mad was she about the whole thing? I told you we should have been clearer." Will says with a pensive frown.

"I think it's all just afraid, not so much angry. She wasn't angry when Adam was kissin' her neck."

The room erupts into hoots and Adam blushes brightly. "Shit it was just right there. Besides she made this noise that was just pure sex when Luke was rubbing her feet." 

"What can I say? She's got cute feet and was too drunk to take her shoes off."

"You think everyone's got cute feet. Prob'ly have dreams about the Mayor's size elevens." Daniel teases.

They all laugh. They're closer than any group of men has a right to be, and they cling to the hope that she'll come around and agree to be their wife. They even secretly harbor a hope it will give Beau a reason to come home more often. They had seen more of him in the last year as he brought her letters up from town than they had in the whole of the three before it. 

More than anything they just want to be a real family again.