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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 3175212" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chapter One-hundred-six, “Party Business”, Friday June 9th, 1882, 11:45 A.M. Kate finds Emery over at the Comstock House eating his lunch.  “You'll soon be tired of seeing my face," Kate said lightly and laid the paper on the table. "Have you seen this? We may have some competition in the moderate area."   Emery has not seen the paper yet and spends a few minutes looking over the article. He smiles and says, "Good for them. I would worry about it if not for two things, the party of Rustlers and Bigots has split, dividing that vote, and the Law and Order party loosing Manny and gaining Watkins should cut their voting base in half as well.  What this means is that an active campaign, focused upon the issues, is more important than ever. But we have both Helen Barker and Jake Cook to help us with that, so I'm not too worried. In case you haven't noticed, both of them have a tendency to get what they want."Kate replies, "I'd noticed that. So we'll, well you'll, just have to run a winning campaign. Hopefully the townsfolk will choose our ticket at the one best representing their interests. I have to get back to the school before lunch is over." A mischievous smile crossed her face. "Is Bea watching us?"  He smiles and replies, "Yes, and probably planning our wedding. It should make for a wonderful family, my niece will be arriving tomorrow and she's just a little bit older than your girl Ginnie.""Your niece? Well, along with the children you already have and the children who might come along later it would be quite a large family, wouldn't it?" she laughed. Bea should check with Mrs. Fly, I believe she wants to marry me off to one of her boarders.”  He laughs, "Only them? What of the other boarding house owners? Surely Mrs. Hooten and Mrs. Milford must have suitors in mind for you too!"   "People do seem to want to marry off widows," she smiled. "I wonder if those suitors have been informed yet." Kate says, “It will certainly be nice to have another girl Ginnie's age about. How long will your niece be staying? Should I expect her at school Monday morning?"  "She will be staying as long as she wants. She's related on my late wife's side, from Chicago, but she's half-elvan which doesn't necessarily work well in a large human city. I wrote about the vote towards racial equality and of the society that Cassidy started and they decided to finally take me up on my long standing offer for her to relocate here."Kate replies, "It would be hard for a mother to send her daughter away, even when she knows it would be a better place. If she's anything like you or your daughters I'm sure she'll like it here. Will you get a room for her here, or are you thinking of getting your own place in town?"  He says, "She'll have a room here at the Comstock House until after the election. Then if I find myself in a leadership position then I'll probably build us a house here in town."Kate answers, "Good. I wish you a pleasant journey to fetch her from Tombstone. That is assuming she isn't coming by herself on the stage.  I should get back to the school. I'm tempted to give Bea something to think about, but I'm going to let my better sense prevail."On his walk through town after leaving the Marshall's office, Jake encounters Katherine walking quickly towards her school. "Hey, slow down a minute." He quietly tells her the highlights of the encounter in the mountains with the vampires. "I was wondering if you could check these items out later today. You know, your special way." He hands her a brown neckerchief with a knot tied in it. Although the contents are concealed, inside are the belt buckle, ring and cuff link he found in the cave."No one thought it was important to tell me this yesterday? Perhaps before I walked alone though town in the dark on my way home from the Lady?" she asked, obviously bothered. "I can understand you not coming to get me, I couldn't have helped you with strangers there and I was teaching anyway, but would I even know about this now if you hadn't needed something? Which I will take care of for you, but I make no guarantees.""Errrr...." Jake looks down at his feet, "I did not bump into you alone yesterday to tell you. Besides, they were destroyed by then so you were safer last night after we knew than the night before that when we did not know, you know?" He gives her a bit of a shy smile, "Come on now Katherine. Do you really believe that if I thought you were in any danger last night that I would have let you walk home alone?" He looks about again to make sure no one is walking close to them. "You know as well as I do that Mortimer Turner is still about someplace. That did not prevent you from walking about alone." He gives her a smirk, "I am sorry, you are right. I am a selfish, thoughtless, undependable, lazy saloon rat. Let me make it up to you. I will go and get you one of those garlic necklaces that you can wear day and night to be safe. I will make sure it is extra large and smelly because I care so much about you."She states, "I didn't wear those damned necklaces in Thomaswell and I'm not wearing one here. If you really want to make it up to me I've been having the absolute worst craving for strawberries," she teased. "Next time please, just tell me and let me decide if it's important for me to know. And I do work at your saloon, no one would think it odd for you to ask for a private word. Mortimer Turner has every reason to be in Wilcox and none to be here, but you're right, I should still be more careful. I just didn't want to impose on any of the gentlemen, they'd been stuck with me long enough. I was accosted by a monster of a different sort Wednesday night. Doctor Eaton asked for a private word as I passed his office. Wanted to convince me to give up the rivalry between the schools and help support the Law and Order party." She went on and explained the conversation they'd had two nights ago. "I suppose any progress I might have made with him was lost when the Cattleman's Association rescinded its support. Emery Shaw is looking at you as an excellent mind to help us win the vote, you know.""An excellent mind? Here I go thinking he likes me because I am shifty conniver. What am I to do?" After a short chuckly he says, "Doc Eaton huh. They must have been really desperate to hold out a hand. If it is any consolation, you must still have a shred of respectability in their eyes." Jake's voice takes on a formal, commanding quality. "Fear not, Katherine Kale, your past history of indiscretions, also know as befriending gamblers and saloon singers, can be annulled. There is still a chance you can be saved." Jake gives her a wink.She replies, "Just wait another month or two and they'll give me up for a degenerate. If the Vigilance Committee respects me then I know I'm doing something wrong. Doc Eaton wanted me to stop offending Mr. Shackelton. I'd have to hide in a closet to manage that.”  Kate handed him the newspaper. "There's another moderate party that formed yesterday, spearheaded by Derrick Avery after the morality police excommunicated him. Emery wasn't too concerned about it, he felt with Helen and a certain shifty conniver on our side that we'll run the better campaign."Yes, I was worried about that. Not that Derrick can win, but that he will steal votes that otherwise would find a home in the Unity Party. He or Mitch Berg were good options for consideration by Emery." Jake scratches at his beard again, while he thinks. "Liza Brown might be the key to Mr. Avery. File that thought away Katherine. Near the end of the campaign, if they can be convinced that the votes they draw from the Unity Party just might get Fisk or Adair's folks elected they might be convinced to withdraw and publicly ask their supporters to vote for the Unity Party. Timing is everything, she would have to be approached by just the right person at just the proper emotional moment." Jake gives her another wink.Kate states, "Mr. Berg doesn't want public office, Jake. I'll be surprised if he accepts. Maybe a few years down the road, when elections come up again he can be persuaded. Derrick Avery would have been a good thought, in our hurry he never occurred to me. And what would be the proper emotional moment, Jake? I'm not quite the conniver you are, sometimes I need a bit of help."He shrugs. "We will know it when we see it. Fear, worry, doubt are the indicators. People like to have their problems solved for them." Then he chuckles darkly. "Or perhaps when we create it."  She says, "I guess I'd best start getting to know her then. Advice from a stranger rarely goes down well. I've been trying to win over half this town anyway, I might as well add her to the list."He replies, "She has been known to come to the El Parador and is in favor of women's rights. So you have at least two things to talk about. Let me know if our mayor to be needs any help finishing his candidate list. He needs a published platform pretty fast. I cannot do much convincing of the undecided without it. You have yourself a pleasant afternoon Katherine. I will be about if you have need of me.""Why don't you go find the mayor to be for yourself? He'd be glad to see you." Kate reached out and briefly squeezed his hand. "And I always have need of my friend. You know that. Perhaps I'll see you tonight at the Lady." She smiled one last time and slipped back into the schoolhouse just as the students were settling in.   Jake goes to have lunch at the Lucky Lady.Emery Shaw and Manuel Escobar arrive for lunch at the Lucky Lady and join Jake. Patrick Seawell and Helen Barker arrive to join them. Shaw says, "Almost done. The Party has me as Mayor, Chet as Marshall and four solid candidates for Council, namely Pat and Manny, Vera Blake and Cole Rixton. How did you do Helen with talking to your boss?"  Helen says, "I spent close to an hour talking to Marshall Berg about the fifth position. He's adamant that he's not running for any position. Can't say that I blame him. On the other hand that also means that the new Integrity Party only has around four hours left to fill three positions." Patrick Seawell interjects, "Make that two. They just talked my father into the being their Marshall candidate. Since he was the one who took charge of the group of military veterans who helped put down that riot two weeks back they felt that he had already proven himself to be the man for the job."  "Hermes." Mutters Jake. "Shame on us for not getting these folks behind the Unity Party before they discovered their need to go against the others. We need to get those folks on our side."Shaw says, "Well, great minds think alike. So both Priestess Florencia and Father Valdez turned us down for the final council position. Who else should we approach, we only have four hours ourselves and that includes collecting twenty-five signatures."  Jake says, "Derrick Avery." Shaw says, "You mean have him run for both parties? Sorry Jake, that won't work. Kate Higgins already spoke to Judge Isby about that when she was trying to decide between the Freedom and Liberty Parties. Isby said she had to make up her mind and pick one not both, that if a Candidate couldn't make up their mind which to support how could they expect a voter to."  "No, that is not what I mean." Jake steeples his fingers and is lost in thought for a brief moment. "I mean get him to give up his party and get their support. We probably can't effect that in four hours. We should try though." "What if we had a sort of support or guidance committee for the party? That way we could invite some of those folks to get on board with us, keep their dignity over not running and share their wisdom and experience with the candidates. Your father for instance," he says looking at Seawell, "likely does not really want to be Marshall. I bet that old Chet would love to have the man's support and advice. We convince Avery to join the ticket, or the committee and everyone wins." Jake taps his lips a few times with his finger. "In the mean time get Cassidy or Mrs. Kale to fill out the ticket on just in case with the understanding that we will replace them during the week." Pause. "Likely, anyway."Shaw says, "I like how you think Jake, but I do believe we need more time than is immediately available. Chances are that to get them in with us some of their candidates may need to replace ours. Rixton for one probably wouldn't mind, but I'm not sure about the others. Thankfully we'll have lots of time for possible substitutions. Plus I would want to talk to the Cattleman's Association before making such a wide change of strategy. But that idea has enough merit for me to go speak to both Avery and Upton about it. We could probably both find enough "straw men" to fill out our remaining vacancies, with one of those two temporarily flipping up into their group's Mayoral slot for the time being. That'll give all of us more time to talk to Berg for Town Council, which would probably cement a union given how strongly they feel about him."  "How about if I run for Mayor on the Integrity ticket." Jake says deadpan. "That will have them all running for the Unity Party," he finishes with a big grin. Before anybody can comment Jake states, "I am out of other ideas right now. Have at them, Emery."  Helen says, "Okay, stick me in as the last Committee person for the Unity party, consider that a placeholder for Mitch. I'll get a petition going, shouldn't be too hard for me to find the signatures." Shaw says "Thanks Helen." He leaves to go find Upton and Avery.  "I can sign my name," he offers to Helen. After Emery and his political party departed, Jake checked around the Lucky Lady. He found everything there was in control so went back home to relax on his porch and watch Promise City go by. You never knew for sure when an opportunity might be seen.  A short time passes and Eddie Palmer walks by.  "That makes it easy," the Postman says and walks up to the porch."Makes what easy?" Jake queries from his reclined position in the chair.  The gambler had just finished flicking most of a deck of cards into his hat perched upon the railing."Makes delivering this letter to you easy, Mr. Cook."Jake accepts the letter.  "Thank you Mr. Palmer, have a pleasant day."  Eddie waves over his back as he continues his rounds.  The name on the return address is a Miss M. E. L. Reiter.  Jake smiles and opens the envelope.That was Mattie.  No beating around the bush, no lipstick kiss on the letter, no hello how are you, Mattie got right to the heart of it.  Well maybe not the heart of it, because Jake wondered some days whether Mattie had one at all.  No, that was harsh, Mattie had a heart she just chose not to listen to it on occasion.  Jake laughed quietly and put the letter away in his shirt.  It might be fun to see Mattie again, but not at the risk of erupting volcano Ruby.  He thought about sending her a few dollars and then decided against it.  "She would just figure out how to black mail me for more."  He collected up the cards and begin spinning them with long arcs into the hat again.Chester spends Friday collecting signatures for his petition to be a candidate for Marshall. It doesn't take him long. Once that's done, he spends some time in the Lucky Lady.</blockquote>

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