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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 2814873" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chapter Three, “Lunch and Dessert”, Wednesday, May 24th, 1882, 11:00 A.M. Ruby and Nanuet finish painting the living room and reception area. When they are done Ruby gets him a glass of lemonade that Maria had dropped off with ice from the icebox. They sit together on the porch. "Wow, that was a lot of work, my arm is killing me! But it looks great. Thanks again for all your help. Just two more rooms to go then I can decorate." She sips at her lemonade. "I should wake up Jake. He doesn't normally sleep this late." Ruby and Nanuet sit and chat for a little while longer. Finally, Ruby stands and places her lemonade on the porch. "I am going to run a do a quick errand. I guess I kept Jake up too late last night," she laughs, "So I don't want to wake him just yet. Feel free to make yourself at home." Ruby gives Nanuet a quick kiss on the cheek before making her way to the intersection of East and South Street, ending her trip at the O'Hara's house. She knocks on the door, guessing one of the many people who live there should be home. She hears Meagan O'Hara's heavily accented Irish voice say, "Who is it?" from the other side of the door, which remains shut. "It's Ruby West," she calls back, "A friend of Katherine Kale's." She calls back, "Oh yes, I remember. I'm afraid that I can't open the door Miss. West, Caitlin has the measles. We're all taking the medicine and shouldn't be contagious but the Doctor says we shouldn't take any chances and say quarantined until at least Friday." "Oh my," Ruby comments before she has a chance to catch herself. "Does Kate know? More importantly, do you need anything?" She says, "When I spoke to Kate on Monday that was before Caitlin broke out. We've stayed put since then. We're fine though, Dorita has been bringing food over for us." "That's good. If you need anything else tell Dorita to tell one of us." Ruby pauses. "I came because I have a job I need filled and thought maybe someone in your household could use one. But this seems like a bad time, talking though the door and all..." "Well, why don't I stop by your place for lunch on Friday and we can talk then," Ruby replies. "That sounds good. Take care of yourself until then. Try not to go too crazy cooped up with all those kids!" Ruby heads back to her house. Nanuet was still relaxing on the porch. "Now I'm going to wake up Jake," she laughs. Heading inside and upstairs she stands for a moment in the doorway to her new room. She smiles at the scene before striding to and hopping into the bed. "Wake up sleepy head!" she says loudly. "You're late in telling how much you love me today!" Ruby attempts to wake up Jake mostly unsuccessfully. "Fine, I'm going to have lunch with Kate then. But I need to talk to you today about business at some point so make sure to find me please." Nanuet finishes his lemonade with Ruby and then when she heads off for lunch he heads to get cleaned up and find Minerva. Ruby cleans the paint off herself and dresses. She kisses a sleepy Jake and heads over to the Cantina for lunch. Kate waved to Ruby as she came inside and sat down. Her plate was loaded again, courtesy of Dorita and Kate was slowly making her way through it. "How was the morning? Conrad must be sleeping in, since he's not here yet." Dorita brings them both beverages and says "Conrad not here now, he here hour ago then go off with Arcade's Gang." Kate replies, "Oh. Well, it wasn't very important. My father just wanted to make sure he knew something he ordered would arrive when they did. I hope there isn't any trouble." Dorita says "No trouble, they say they just need his help with something. I'm sure he be back for supper, I tell him you looking for him." "Thank you, Dorita. Just don't let him panic about it," she smiled. "He has a tendency to worry." Kate says, "Ruby what did Jake think of what Mr. Blake had to say? I'll admit I was a little lost. Beside offering a place for your clientele to stable their mounts and vehicles and getting Jeff for a foreman I wasn't sure what else he was looking for." "I didn't tell him yet," Ruby replies, anxiously looking for her own plate from Dorita. "He is being lazy today and sleeping in." "Honestly, I don't know how the situation works out for us. We could pay Austin for the ability to stable the horses and such. I don't know if he was referring to sending customers our way for gambling and entertainment. But if he opens a hotel it will be competition for us, even if our place is nicer than his. He didn't seem to have many answers, except what he needs from us." "Taking Jeff is worth more than room and board, that's for sure. I don't know how we could be without him. Niles said he has someone who could help replace him and Nanuet could also work more but I'm just not sure Jeff is replaceable. Especially during this time we will be so crazy, and we need to hire all kinds of new people... Ugh!" Ruby puts her head in her hands. "It's too much to think about. This is Jake's department." Dorita brings Ruby her plate of food and asks Kate if she wants any more. While the two women are eating they see Burton Lumley, owner of the Gay Lady Variety Hall and Saloon, enter the building. He goes over to the bar and speaks briefly to Dorita's husband Pedro. On his way out of the building he notices Ruby and Kate and stops at their table. He tells them "The Promise City Merchant's Association will be meeting tonight at 5:30 at the Town Hall Building." Ruby replies, "Thank you Mr. Lumley. Is this a scheduled meeting or is something going on?" Lumley replies, "It's unplanned. Judge Isby is back in town with news of the Governor's answer to our petition to incorporate. He's called for a combined meeting of our group and the Promise City Vigilance Committee." Kate says, "Thank you, Mr. Lumley, I'll be there. This ought to be interesting. We're going to have to work with the Vigilance Committee if it's good news and that will be a challenge." He replies, "We will indeed, we will need consensus from a majority of both groups in order to accomplish anything. Thankfully their two newest members, Derek Avery and Zeb Cook, seem to be more reasonable than the other three so that should help." Kate replies, "Let's hope so. Everyone's going to have to give a little, even the Vigilance Committee. I'll see you this afternoon, Mr. Lumley." The man tipped his hat and hurried off to continue spreading the word about the meeting. Kate turned to Ruby and said, "I get the feeling it will be a frustrating few weeks trying to deal with that committee." Ruby laughs, "You get the feeling? I'm pretty sure that is a fact Kate. They are the most stuck-up, prudish people I have ever met. If the answer is yes to incorporate, no one is going to agree on who should run this town." Ruby rolls her eyes, "What a mess it will be. As for myself," she begins digging into her food, "I could care less about it. Although tonight's meeting should be interesting. Sparks will be flying. Maybe I'll come along, should be an open meeting I would guess." Kate replies, "Even if it's not, you hold a stake in one of the represented businesses. It shouldn't be hard to get them to let you in. I know you don't care whether we're incorporated or not, but if the governor approved the request you'll probably care about who ends up in charge. And as you say, the flying sparks should be entertaining. It's turning out a much busier day than I expected." "It doesn't matter who is in charge. In the end who's in charge is the person with the most money in their pocket." Ruby shrugs. "So I don't actually care. If whomever it is makes my life hard then I'll leave." Ruby scoops some chili into her mouth. "Which would suck, but that's life and the way of politics." Kate answers, "Well then I'll care enough for both of us, since I don't want you to leave. I'm selfish that way. I won't let anyone chase me away from the place I chose for my home. You're right, politics isn't pretty, or particularly honest much of the time. But at least here we have a chance to have a say right from the beginning and perhaps keep some of those people from getting too much influence." Ruby rolls her eyes, "You can try Kate, but I know from personal experience how unlikely that is." She pauses. "And... you're a woman. They don't give you too much say to start. Me on the other hand, I don't really care what rules they put in effect. I generally get my way in the bedroom," she smiles with a twinkle in her eyes. Ruby continues to eat. "So what are you doing today? Besides the meeting that is." "Just checking with the hotel to make sure they'll have room for Mr. Pickering and his students. Then I'll probably go home and try to get some work done on the house. With my family coming I want it to look nice. I'm afraid Maman is not going to be impressed with my new home." Ruby replies, "I know about getting work done on a house, though I can't believe I can say I even have a house of my own! As for your family, they'll get used to it. This is your life now and if they love you they'll love all the things about you. I can help you if you want. Although our decorating styles are definitely not the same. I'm sure you have ideas already and I can help. I might complain a little though, my arms hurt from painting," she laughs. Ruby says, "I should tell Jake about the business stuff at some point, but that can wait." Kate replies, "He's got to wake up at some point," Kate laughed. "As long as he knows before the meeting, and about the meeting, it'll be fine. All that's really left to do is finish the wallpapering in the parlor and then to unpack my packages from Boston. You like opening packages, I know. If you're about done, let's run to the hotel and then we can do the fun parts of decorating a house. But you have to promise to let me help you with yours in return." "You know Kate," Ruby says while finishing the remainder of her plate, "A little over 5 months ago I wouldn't be getting up for another, oh, two or three hours. We're night owls, what can I say? And sure, I won't turn down a chance to get some help on our house. Although I still have to decide on my decorating scheme. I like that part." Ruby pushes her plate away. "I'm ready," she smiles. Kate smiled and the two left the Cantina for the Promise City hotel. On the way she said, "I would just have the students stay with Dorita, but she's always full up on the weekends and my family will already be staying there." In what was becoming a familiar routine for the day, Kate and Ruby stepped into the hotel and asked Melissa Smith what kind of room they might have for six students and their teacher. She indicates that she has four rooms available for Thursday night but only two for the weekend. She does have all of the extra cots that had been at Ruby's new house, so they could double up in some rooms on those if necessary. While Melissa Smith is talking to them both Ruby and Kate take in the aroma of her freshly baked cherry pie. "I'll let them know, thanks," Kate said. The smell of the pie was tickling her nose despite the fact that she'd just eaten lunch. "I don't suppose you'd wrap up a couple pieces of that pie for us, would you? I just ate, but it smells wonderful." "Yes, smells delicious. Where do you get your recipes from? Everything you make is just fantastic. I love when Jake brings me here for dinner," Ruby comments. Melissa says, "Oh, they're mostly just old family recipes. Cooking has always been my hobby. Eric has stated several times that he married me for my cooking." She wraps up two pieces of pie to go. "I'm sure it was more than just the cooking," Kate said and paid for the pie. "Thank you. I'll bring the gentlemen by tomorrow when they arrive." As the girls left and went back to Kate's house she asked, "Ruby, is my face getting round?" "Uh..." Ruby pauses and takes a long look at Kate's face. "I don't think so, why?" Kate says, "I'm just hungry all the time, like I'm trying to make up for all the food I wasn't eating when I first came here. My corset is getting quite tight, and when I looked in the mirror this morning I could have sworn my face was rounder. Silly, isn't it?" "Well, I'm really not the best one to ask about details like that," Ruby smiles and looks at Kate again, taking her chin in her hand and inspecting her face side to side. "Why would that be funny, you are carrying a brat, right? I can see you being hungry. Although it would be early for the corset getting tight part." "Dorita's been taking awful advantage of my willingness to eat. She still pokes me and tells me I'm too skinny," Kate laughed. "I'll have to keep an eye on it. But I'm still eating this pie! C'mon, I'll show you all my pretty linens and bric a brac for the house." "I bet you have some really nice stuff." Ruby follows Kate into her new house. "Yes, Dorita has a way of making us all eat. She thinks everyone is too skinny. I wonder if there is anyone she doesn't think that about?" she wonders out loud. "Skinny is not usually a word used to describe me. So what are we doing today? And how is the school coming along?" Kate says, "You can peek in the schoolroom if you want, it's all ready. This measles outbreak pushed back the start though. I won't ask you to help me finish hanging the wallpaper since you've been painting all day. But there are curtains to hang, closets to fill, vases and photos and things to put out. You know, the little things that say that Ginnie and I live here." Ruby says, "Oh that reminds me. I went to see the O'Hara's today, I wanted to find out if any of them are looking for work. Anyway, they are all stuck in their house until Friday because of the measles. Thought you'd want to know that. I asked if she needed anything and she said no, Dorita is taking care of her." Ruby kneels on the floor next to a box and starts pulling out the contents. "Do you have spots for all this stuff?" Ruby says while carefully studying each item she pulls out. Late replies, "Not specifically. Just which rooms they go in. Poor Meagan. All of them closed up in that little house. But Friday will be here soon, and the little buggies Conrad ordered for Ginnie and her twins. That'll get them out from underfoot for a while." "Well, I can move them around, that is easy enough." Ruby pulls a few more items out. "Buggies? What's that about?" Kate states, "Getting Ginnie used to horses without her having to ride them, mostly. And to get her outdoors a little more when she's not working. They're little two-wheeled carriages like the ones they use for racing. Very safe though. He ordered one for the O'Hara girls too, thinking Ginnie would be more interested if she had some friends learning too. Conrad thinks they could race them eventually, but I don't see where they would do that. I'm not sure I like that idea anyway, but we can argue about that later." "Racing buggies?" Ruby raises an eyebrow. "I guess that sounds like fun." She lets it drop after that. Ruby lets Kate direct her what to do. Even though her arms hurt and she is starting to feel cranky at all the work she doesn't complain. Kate keeps talking lightly about things as she and Ruby drop things off in the rooms where they belong. She only has her help with things Kate couldn't do alone, like folding blankets and hanging pictures. After a couple hours she can see Ruby's patience wearing thin so they went back downstairs and ate the cherry pie they had brought back from the hotel. "Most of the rest is little things I can do myself. Why don't you go have a nap or maybe a bath to relax your arms? I can help at your place tomorrow." Ruby tried not to be too happy that her work was over or leave too quickly. "Oh, a nap sounds very good. And I have to talk to Jake anyway. I can come back another time to help you too if you need it. As for my house, the bedroom is all set up so there is no rush for anything else," she smiles wickedly. "I'll see you at the meeting tonight." She gives Kate a peek on the cheek and hurries back to her own house and nice comfy bed where she curls up with the puppies and falls right to sleep. Kate kept arranging her little house, humming under her breath as it began to look more like a comfortable home than a barren house. As the time for the meeting neared, Kate went upstairs to her pleasant room. It was painted a soft white color, and her bed and the vanity were all decorated with a soft green. The pictures Ruby had helped her hand were all pastoral scenes, and the bedside lamp was etched with flowers around the glass flame enclosure. Inside her room Kate changed into her gray dress, fixed her hair again, and headed for the town hall.</blockquote>

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