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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 2814917" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chapter Eighteen, “A Rooftop Dinner”, Thursday, May 25th, 1882, 6:00 P.M. Jane takes her to the end of the corridor where a rope hangs down from the ceiling along the wall. The rope has a loop at the end and she tugs on it. Part of the ceiling begins to descend, ending at a forty-five degree angle with a staircase heading further up. They walk up. The 60x100 foot flat roof is covered with tin, with a 30x50 foot canvas tarp in the center and large shapes in the center of the tarp. The tarp ends at a long wooden beam parallel the roof with a crack on the side. Jane unhitches two latches where the tarp is fastened to the roof on the opposite side as the beam. She says to Ruby, "Okay, crank it back," gesturing to the handle on the side of the beam. Ruby is a little uncertain but does as Jane asks anyway. She gently pulls the handle back and watches curiously to see what will happen. A canvas tarp of that size must weigh close to 500 pounds and yet as Ruby turns the crank it beings to effortlessly roll up around the beam just as one would rolling up a bedroll. As it pulls back from the roof it exposes a 20 by 40 foot plush carpet of an emerald green color. Sitting atop the carpet are pieces of nice furniture, all made of oak and a light tan leather with a considerable amount of padding between the wood and leather. The furniture consists of a twin-sized bed, three reclining couches, two plush chairs, and an end table beside each. Two wooden buckets upon tripods, obviously made to hold ice and beverages, sit between the furniture. A rectangular coffee table with a glass covered case holding cut-glass crystal glasses finishes the ensemble. The only other item is a fancy brass telescope. Ruby's eyes widen and her mouth drops open at the scene before her. It takes a moment before she can speak and when she does her words come out in a stammer. "I... uh... this..." she points to the furniture, "Unbelievable... how did you..." she just shakes her head in wonderment, staring. "I love the stars," she manages to get out. Jane says, "We keep it covered when we aren't using it so that it doesn't get dirty and dusty, or wet during the rare rain shower. Red and I come up here a few nights every week. Part of why we wanted the building to be so large is to block some the city lights below, and after midnight when most of the city has gone dark the stars are remarkable." "It's perfect, it's beautiful. I would be up here every night! " Ruby says, getting her power of speech back. She gazes up into the sky, "I love watching the stars, there is something wondrously and romantic about them, always watching down on us from the heavens. So full of beauty and no matter what they never change. Jake and I have a place we go to see the stars, out of town, but we don't get there as often as I would like." Jake and Francisco arrive back at the meeting house and haul the gear inside. Jake says, "Thanks for the help." Jake deposits their bags in his new room and goes about looking for senior partner Mr. Patrick. He finds Mr. Patrick downstairs in the kitchen talking to the chef. Jake lets him finish his business with the chef before suggesting they head off to find the ladies. Red checks with some of his partners and says, "They were last seen heading up to the roof. Let's grab a few bottles of Kentucky Bourbon and a bucket of ice and go join them." Jake nods and follows Red to the roof. As soon as Ruby notices Red and Jake's heads peek up the stairs she runs over. Grabbing Jake's hand she pulls him to one of the soft reclining couches. "Can you believe this?" she says excitedly. Red pours the contents of the ice bucket into the two containers. He says, "They will bring us up some food in the hour, along with some champagne for later." "How wonderful," Ruby replies dreamily. "You know," she glances over at Red, "You're going to have a hard time getting rid of us." He replies, "Why do I have to get rid of you? Seems to me your boyfriend owns part of it." She waits for Jake to sit on a reclining couch before sitting in front of him and snuggling back into him. She holds her glass of bourbon up in front of her face and looks though it. "He is more than my boyfriend, he is the love of my life," she says simply. Jane says, "It is good that Aphrodite sought to bring the two of you together. How exactly was it that you first met?" Jake says, "Ruby and her friend Katherine saved me from the rapacious conversational skills of one halfling newspaper man. I was in a sorry state, quite hung over from the new years celebration." Ruby furrows her brows, while looking up at Jake. "What does rap-cious mean?" Jake replies, "Let us say that Chumbley has an insatiable appetite for making people suffer through his constant lip flapping." Ruby smiles up at Jake then looks back at Jane. "Yes, Chumbley is quite talkative. But we needed to speak with him that day and there Jake was, sitting with Chumbley. What a mess he was," Ruby smiles fondly. "Hung over and all raggedy. But I saw something I guess. She giggles, "More trouble than I ever imagined." She looks back up at Jake. "I didn't know you celebrated New Years. I didn't, didn't have anything TO celebrate. What did you do that night?" Jake replies, "I just joined in at the fun going on at the Gay Lady on New Years Evening. I played some poker, enjoyed the entertainment, danced, drank a boat load of whiskey, um, you know that sort of thing." "With who Jake?" Jake feels Ruby try to fight her body from getting tense. Jake raises an eyebrow and says, "I went there by myself, dearest Ruby, because I had not the fortune yet to meet you. Now, are you going to ask me what I did there and every time I got blisteringly drunk at a saloon during my lifetime? I assure you after fifty of so of those stories it would get dull and tedious." Ruby drinks down her bourbon. "You know that isn't what I was asking." She stands from her comfortable seated position and walks to the bucket, slowly pouring herself another. She looks into her glass before looking at Jane and Red, "I'm insanely jealous, I can't help myself when it comes to Jake. He doesn't like me asking about it though. Of course he must realize how devastating it would be for me to find out from whomever the lucky lady was that night or any other in Promise City about his life before me." She takes the bottle of bourbon and tops everyone's glass off before returning to the couch. She sits on the edge, guessing Jake will be mad now that she isn't able to keep her jealousy under control and hoping she hasn't ruined the evening. Jake pulls her back to her previous comfortable position. "All the other women I may have met seem to be fading from my memory. Might as well, since they cannot compare to my Ruby. Now, can we go back to enjoying the fine evening?" One corner of Ruby's lips rise into a smirk. "I suppose if you keep buttering me up eventually one day I will forget you had a life before me." She reaches back and pulls Jake's face towards her, kissing him deeply. Moments go by before they are interrupted by the staff bringing up dinner. "Oops," Ruby blushes, "Sorry. I hope we didn't embarrass you guys." Red and Jane both laugh at that. "It would take a lot more than that to embarrass either of us," Jane exclaims. Ruby relaxes as she pulls her feet off the couch. "Is that a dare?" she laughs. "This looks great," she says, handing Jake his plate. "And I have decided it's a champagne kind of night!" She says pouring herself one. "Anyone else?" Red lies back on one of the reclining couches and says, "Now Jacob me boy, tomorrow we'll have to pay a visit to my lawyer and make it official. You just have to decide if you want your public name here to be Cooke, Jacob or something else altogether. My attorney will keep your real name confidential no matter what you decide." Jake says, "I am certain there is a good reason to keep my identity masked, but I cannot for the life of me think of one. I have been more concerned about someone following me to find you. If you are no longer worried about that, then let it be Cooke. I only use one face anyway. As it is, your Francesco knows who I am. Seems he is cousin to our Tony "Lucky" Corleone." Red is actually taken by surprise at that piece of information. "Really? Gads, it is a small world. I'd have never guessed, although come to think of it, I did know that they were both Sicilian. Sorry Jake, I'd have forewarned you if I even suspected. By the way, why haven't you fired that Tony Lucky yet? He's one of the worst gamblers I ever played against. I didn't even need to cheat to clean him out." Jake answers, "No particular reason. The devil you know and all that. We will be adding faro soon and moving some of the more serious poker upstairs, leaving Tony down stairs. He does bring in some money, and I suppose if all the dealers were sharks our lower end clients would migrate away. Mostly because I have neglected the place with all the trouble we have had in the last few months." "Yeah," Ruby adds, "And I don't like the way he looks at me." Three of the employees of the Meeting House arrive up on the roof. One puts a bottle of champagne into one ice bucket and a bottle of white wine in the other. Another has a large tray with four covered silver plates which he places on the coffee table. The third has a smaller tray with assorted desserts which he places on the coffee table. The three of them leave. Red removes the silver cover over one of the plates, revealed a rib-eye steak, baked potato, butternut squash and freshly baked cranberry-honey muffin. He sets his plate on the coffee table beside his coach and helps pass out the other meals, each of which has the same. He asks Jane to say a blessing before they dine. She does so, keeping it short. Red, Ruby, Jake and Jane are finishing up their dessert when Red's man Richard hastily makes his way up to the roof. He announces, "We just got word, Tombstone is on fire. The 4:30 train barely got away before the train depot went up. The train had over 100 refugees and they say that half the town was ablaze, and that was two hours ago." Red goes over to the telescope and repositions it to the southeast. He says, "Hmmm, that's around seventy miles away but....there" He steps back to let the others look. A solid plume of dark smoke can be seen on the horizon, and once they know exactly where to look it can even be discerned with the naked eye. Ruby takes a look through the telescope. "Wow, I wonder what happened? I guess better Tombstone than Promise City." She shrugs, "I hope that nice dress store didn't burn down." She quietly looks out across the land, watching the smoke rise before another thought invades her mind. She looks at Jake, with only slight worry on her face, "You think our friends are okay?" Jake replies, "I would expect so, since it did not happen in the middle of the night. That should have allowed most folks to know what was happening and get out. No help we could extend from here, it would take us too long to get there. These western towns are just tinderboxes waiting to go up." Jake looks into the telescope, "I will be surprised if there is anything close to half the town left after that. Be a good time to be in the lumber business though...." Jake glances at Red for a moment. "Mierde," he states simply. "Quite a hot welcome for Katherine's family. If Earp was indeed on the train back to Tombstone and looking for a distraction to get to someone he could not ask for a better one." Jake pauses and then turns to Ruby, "To whom did you send your telegram? Did it need to make the stage?" "I sent it to Katherine. I thought she would get the references and immediately get it to who it needs to get to. Yeah, I think it would need to be on the stage, we don't have a telegraph in Promise City." A worried look again crosses Ruby's face. "What should I do? Send another one, just in case?" Jake says, "The poles may have burned or there may not even be a telegraph office in Tombstone right now. Katherine was in Tombstone but I suppose a telegraph operator would not know that. I would guess that business as usual will not be the order of the day in Tombstone tomorrow. Short of sending a courier with a letter, I am out of ideas." Ruby looks Jake in the eyes. "Should I be really worried right now? Or should I hope that Mr. Gonzales can take care of himself and would be smart enough to also take care of Madge? Either that or we get some horses and ride home." Jake answers, "Oh, Gonzalez will be fine. Earp does not even know to look for him because of the disguise. It is Madge that we might worry about. I would doubt that Earp will actually harm her, but he might scare her into telling him where to find her teacher. No, I do not think we should go running back there straight to Madge. If Earp sees that he will then start to suspect some conspiracy with everyone. If Wyatt Earp is bent on going straight to Promise City and confronting her, there is nothing we can do about it." Jake shrugs. "Check to see if the telegraph is working in the morning? Send a letter to someone else in Promise City? We ought to be back in Promise City before any voting that may happen Monday night anyway. I know you feel like we ought to do something, but I surely do not know what that something is. " Ruby sips at her champagne and is quiet for what seems like a long time for her. Finally she says, "You are right, there isn't anything we can do. I don't think he'd hurt Madge and Josie is staying there too, so she would make sure that hothead doesn't do anything stupid. We will check the telegraph in the morning. In the meantime," she raises her glass, "We should enjoy ourselves. Our friends are resourceful and are fine I'm sure. Let's not ruin our vacation, although I might need some distraction. Anyone think they can help with that?" she laughs. Jake stares off at the red glow in the distance. "Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Probably because there was nothing else to do about it. Let no one say Silver Jake Cook fiddled while Tombstone burned." With that he drains his glass of champagne. "Stick to what you know best. I for one will make a valiant attempt to keep your mind far away from there," he says while refilling their glasses. "Here is to a pleasant evening and a bright future." Ruby looks at Jake with furrowed brows. "What in Hades are you talking about, fiddling?" She shakes her head and laughs. "No wait! Don't explain, some things I don't want to know." She raises her glass and clinks it against Jake's, Red's and Jane's. "To a more than pleasant evening and the brightest future for all of us, full of love and happiness." The four of them enjoy a pleasant evening on the roof of the Three Gods Meeting House. They tactfully ignore the red glow in the distance, or at least no one brings it back to their conversation. After the food is gone, the drinking continues between light conversation and the sharing of stories. Eventually they make plans for tomorrow and say their good nights. Jake and Ruby retire to the his room and spend some time with one of their favorite hobbies, testing beds.</blockquote>

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