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"Revenge, Renewal and the Promise of a New Year" (Boot Hill/D&D)
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<blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 1833821" data-attributes="member: 8530"><p><strong>Chapter Thirty-four, “Wrapping up the Day”, January 6th, 1882:</strong></p><p></p><p>At the doorway of the Lone Star Ruby smiles and take a long smell of the flowers from Judge Lacey. That was twice in one day she got flowers! “These are just lovely Mr. Lacey and it was special of you to come here so late to give them to me.” </p><p></p><p>Ruby pondered the thought of having lunch with Mr. Lacey. He was a nice man, even if he was a lot older then she. Normally she would do it to figure out what the best way to take advantage of him was but she wasn’t doing that anymore she reminded herself. She had such a pleasant day today she figured what harm could it do to keep a lonely man company, out of the goodness of her heart and all. Besides he really was trying to impress her and the effort was noticeable. </p><p></p><p>Ruby brushes some hair off her face and says, “Of course I’ll meet you for lunch Mr. Lacey, it sounds wonderful. You know I was thinking of you today. You were so kind to give me that book. I was wondering...probably a stupid question... are you really a Judge or is that your name?" He smiles like a schoolboy and says "If I go and tell you all of my secrets now what will there be to talk about during lunch? I'll come by here at noon on Sunday to get you and escort you to the dining establishment." He departs and Ruby heads back into Lone Star. </p><p></p><p>Down the street, "Thank goodness," Kate said, a little out of breath. "You were gone so long, I was beginning to worry. Did you find those men?" She listened as Jake explained what happened, and that they had recovered the money with no one getting hurt. "Do you think Nanuet could give Maggie the money?" She asked. "She seemed a little uncomfortable about him, and it might help. Especially if you play up his covering your back?" "Oh, and Jake, you still need to tell me what in the world happened to Ruby."</p><p></p><p>Nanuet says, "But I thought the money belonged to you ladies and Jake, for your singing and piano playing? If you want me to try and look good for Maggie, I don't mind if you don't, but I want you to get the money that you earned. Besides, it is getting late and the sun rises early. Lets get this settled."</p><p></p><p>Jake replies, "I don't care who gives back the money, those two snakes-in-the-grass just got to me I guess. No, it wasn't my money." Jake says shaking his head. "If Katherine thinks it is a good idea, Why don't you just give it to Maggie and say it was stolen from Ruby and Katherine and you helped retrieve it." Jake shrugs his shoulders. "Katherine and I can just hang out here on the front porch if you need us." Jake pauses and scratches his head, "And Indian," he looks down and then back at Nanuet, "that was probably a bonehead move on my part. But thanks."</p><p></p><p>Nanuet smiles at Jake and holds out his hand. Jake grasps it firmly and they shake hands. "Nothing I wouldn't do for a friend." Nanuet takes the money and walks into the Lone Star. </p><p></p><p>When Nanuet goes into the Lone Star, Jake turns to Katherine but keeps an eye on the indian through the door. "So I get off work at the bank and go looking for you and Ruby. I find Ruby at the cantina sitting with; what was his name, Gomez; and drunk nearly to the point of falling over. I'm still not sure what lead to that. Well I rescue her from him, and there was little chance of her being sober enough to sing in a few hours. So I brought her to Valdez, and he removed the ill effects of the alcohol from her. Well apparently, he also removed any worries, bad feelings and a good deal of common sense. She's been little miss happy daisy since then. For a while it was cute and funny. For a while anyway... I had the impression this was temporary and will wear off. If she's like this in the morning maybe we ought to go talk to him about it."</p><p></p><p>"It stopped being cute and funny when she called out for the men in the saloon to buy me drinks. It was so humiliating being offered up like a filly at auction. And worse..." Kate looked around and moved Jake a bit farther away from the doors. "Did you notice something odd about Tom Whipple tonight?" She hoped the night was hiding her blush. "I felt like he was watching me. I was upstairs earlier with Maggie and it's obvious they keep separate rooms. And after last night, the incident with the floozy, I think he might have known exactly to whom he was renting that room. Maybe I'm imagining things. </p><p></p><p>As far as Ruby goes, I hope it's better in the morning. I doubt Mr. Valdez will be up at sunrise, and we have an early start. You hadn't forgotten had you, about helping the Cartwrights get their cattle? Unless you didn't want to come, of course." Jake answers, "I've been meaning to ask you about that, but we haven't talked since you road into town earlier." He scuffs he boot across the boards that make up the porch to the saloon. "So Nanuet here meets Flint day before yesterday, and you three go riding out into the desert to see where his partner was murdered. And you run into four guys who you saw in the Marshall's office the day before. And all of you happily ride into the mountains together looking for a bunch of murderous cattle rustlers. </p><p></p><p>Now after narrowly avoiding becoming the Indians’ sacrificial offering want to continue on your quest for saving a few dozen head of cattle of these guys you hardly know; and to bring to justice the alleged murderer of this other guy your barely know. And you want to bring the poker player along just in case a game breaks out?" He pauses to take a breath. "Now, I'm not saying I won't help, but I am the only one that thinks this is a little weird?"</p><p></p><p>The corner of Kate’s mouth twitched. "Well, I didn't have anything better to do, and I'm sure you learned more in your days as a young hooligan than card playing. Really, the whole thing started with just going out to look at the claim, it escalated from there, and Al is the one who knows where the cave they're holed up in is. You're right, none of us really have a stake in this, but I would hope someday if I need help people wouldn't just turn their backs on me. I would be a hypocrite to do it to someone else."</p><p></p><p>Jake answers, "Oh, Katherine, there you go being the conscience that this poor old hooligan never had." Jake tries to suppress his laughter but can't. "Hooligan, ha. Look if you, Ruby and Nanuet are determined to go, I won't let you go alone. But I wonder if you know what you are getting into?" </p><p></p><p>Jake looks at her serious for a moment. "How will you know which ones are cattle rustlers and which ones are murderers? Do you care? All of these guys are facing a rope one way or another if we bring them back, what exactly to you have in mind here. Are you riding with the intention of killing these men? I’m not particular to shedding of blood myself. But I can if that is what needs to be done. Have you really thought about what you are doing tomorrow? Not to mention they will probably not come along quietly." Jakes looks around into the cool night air before continuing. "Aww, hades. I was just thinking that I've been shot at two days in a row now, and it looks like tomorrow will make three." He pushes back his hat, leans against the railing and gives her a big smile.</p><p></p><p>Inside, Nanuet says to Mrs. Whipple, "Ms. Maggie? We have retrieved some money that a couple rascals took from the tip cups of Ms. Ruby and Ms. Katherine. I helped Jake retrieve it and I wanted to give it to you so that you could get it to the proper people." Nanuet puts the money on a nearby table and takes a step back. He smiles and says "Have a nice night." before walking out back to his companions. He opens the door to the Lone Star after hearing the tail end of Jake and Katherine’s conversation. </p><p></p><p>The Indian says,"Jake, you have no part in this and I ask nothing of you. I promised Flint I would help him find out who murdered his friend, and I will help see this killer brought to justice. As far as the Cartwrights are concerned, they seem like good people although getting their cattle back is secondary to me. They did help me out with Geronimo, so I at least owe them a try. </p><p></p><p>Look, it is getting later as I stand here. Like I said, you are not involved in this situation and if you want to stay out you may be the only wise one among us. I have made a promise to help someone in need. I have life debts to repay to those in need and this seemed like a good place to start." With that Nanuet walks away back towards the stables of the El Parador looking to catch a few more hours of sleep before dawn. With his adrenaline up from the confrontation in the corral, that seems unlikely.</p><p></p><p>Katherine and Jake head back into the Lone Star. It's a quarter-of-midnight and the last two patrons are paying their bartabs and then leave. Maggie asks the employees to have a seat at the round table in the corner. They sit down and Tom puts the "closed" sign on the door as Maggie comes over with a bottle and six small glasses. Maggie says "That Indian friend of yours returned all of the stolen money." Jeff Mills comments "Hard to imagine, an honest Injun." This earns the burly roughneck a nasty look from Katherine. </p><p></p><p>Tom asks Jake to run through an account of what happened, which Jake then supplies, giving ample credit to Nanuet. Tom looks Tony and comments "Well, how did you guys do tonight?" Tony says "I had a really good night, took in $ 160. He then hands over $32 to Tom. Tom then turns to Jake and says "You didn't seem to do so well, but at least you lost spectacularly to the right guy. It would have killed me if Adair had won the pot. Cassidy plays here often enough and I'll be hitting him up for a favor next week, so his being in a really good mood about winning over $ 200 won't hurt."</p><p></p><p>Jake raises his glass and says, "Here's hopin' I get a chance to get some of that money back from Cassidy. Of course after you get your favor." He finishes with a wink. He hands Tom a ten spot and says, "I kinda lost track of where exactly I ended up with the excitement in and out of the saloon. But this ought to cover it. Next time it will be more." Jake says matter of fact and sips his drink.</p><p></p><p>Tom seems surprised but pleased. He says "Well, what we're celebrating tonight is that with what we've made so far this week I'll be able to move up my plans to build a third floor onto this place. I figured I wouldn't have the money until spring, but thanks to Ruby here this place can now afford it. I'll send a telegram to my Father and Cousin Teddy up in Denver to come down as soon as they can to help me and Jeff build it. Only took the four of us around a month to put on the second floor last year. Say, how does that Indian friend of yours feel about doing manual labor? Another hand would speed things along even faster.</p><p></p><p>"He had been talking about finding work," Kate said, remembering with a smile how Nanuet had 'lost' his job. "A little short-term work would be agreeable, I think. I'm not certain if his plans include a long-term stay here, so work that he knows has a definite ending might just fit the bill for now. I'll talk to him tomorrow." Kate shifted her eyes away from Tom Whipple, still uncomfortable with him. Instead she smiled over at Maggie and lifted her glass. "To the Lone Star and the continued success of friends."</p><p></p><p>The Whipples state say unison "To the Lone Star", they then glance at each other with a freindly smile and simultaneously laugh, then tap each other's glasses together for the toast. "And to our continued success" Tony adds, to which the Whipples and Jeff agree. The evening ends and Katherine, Jake and Ruby leave the Lone Star to head back to the El Parador.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Silver Moon, post: 1833821, member: 8530"] [B]Chapter Thirty-four, “Wrapping up the Day”, January 6th, 1882:[/B] At the doorway of the Lone Star Ruby smiles and take a long smell of the flowers from Judge Lacey. That was twice in one day she got flowers! “These are just lovely Mr. Lacey and it was special of you to come here so late to give them to me.” Ruby pondered the thought of having lunch with Mr. Lacey. He was a nice man, even if he was a lot older then she. Normally she would do it to figure out what the best way to take advantage of him was but she wasn’t doing that anymore she reminded herself. She had such a pleasant day today she figured what harm could it do to keep a lonely man company, out of the goodness of her heart and all. Besides he really was trying to impress her and the effort was noticeable. Ruby brushes some hair off her face and says, “Of course I’ll meet you for lunch Mr. Lacey, it sounds wonderful. You know I was thinking of you today. You were so kind to give me that book. I was wondering...probably a stupid question... are you really a Judge or is that your name?" He smiles like a schoolboy and says "If I go and tell you all of my secrets now what will there be to talk about during lunch? I'll come by here at noon on Sunday to get you and escort you to the dining establishment." He departs and Ruby heads back into Lone Star. Down the street, "Thank goodness," Kate said, a little out of breath. "You were gone so long, I was beginning to worry. Did you find those men?" She listened as Jake explained what happened, and that they had recovered the money with no one getting hurt. "Do you think Nanuet could give Maggie the money?" She asked. "She seemed a little uncomfortable about him, and it might help. Especially if you play up his covering your back?" "Oh, and Jake, you still need to tell me what in the world happened to Ruby." Nanuet says, "But I thought the money belonged to you ladies and Jake, for your singing and piano playing? If you want me to try and look good for Maggie, I don't mind if you don't, but I want you to get the money that you earned. Besides, it is getting late and the sun rises early. Lets get this settled." Jake replies, "I don't care who gives back the money, those two snakes-in-the-grass just got to me I guess. No, it wasn't my money." Jake says shaking his head. "If Katherine thinks it is a good idea, Why don't you just give it to Maggie and say it was stolen from Ruby and Katherine and you helped retrieve it." Jake shrugs his shoulders. "Katherine and I can just hang out here on the front porch if you need us." Jake pauses and scratches his head, "And Indian," he looks down and then back at Nanuet, "that was probably a bonehead move on my part. But thanks." Nanuet smiles at Jake and holds out his hand. Jake grasps it firmly and they shake hands. "Nothing I wouldn't do for a friend." Nanuet takes the money and walks into the Lone Star. When Nanuet goes into the Lone Star, Jake turns to Katherine but keeps an eye on the indian through the door. "So I get off work at the bank and go looking for you and Ruby. I find Ruby at the cantina sitting with; what was his name, Gomez; and drunk nearly to the point of falling over. I'm still not sure what lead to that. Well I rescue her from him, and there was little chance of her being sober enough to sing in a few hours. So I brought her to Valdez, and he removed the ill effects of the alcohol from her. Well apparently, he also removed any worries, bad feelings and a good deal of common sense. She's been little miss happy daisy since then. For a while it was cute and funny. For a while anyway... I had the impression this was temporary and will wear off. If she's like this in the morning maybe we ought to go talk to him about it." "It stopped being cute and funny when she called out for the men in the saloon to buy me drinks. It was so humiliating being offered up like a filly at auction. And worse..." Kate looked around and moved Jake a bit farther away from the doors. "Did you notice something odd about Tom Whipple tonight?" She hoped the night was hiding her blush. "I felt like he was watching me. I was upstairs earlier with Maggie and it's obvious they keep separate rooms. And after last night, the incident with the floozy, I think he might have known exactly to whom he was renting that room. Maybe I'm imagining things. As far as Ruby goes, I hope it's better in the morning. I doubt Mr. Valdez will be up at sunrise, and we have an early start. You hadn't forgotten had you, about helping the Cartwrights get their cattle? Unless you didn't want to come, of course." Jake answers, "I've been meaning to ask you about that, but we haven't talked since you road into town earlier." He scuffs he boot across the boards that make up the porch to the saloon. "So Nanuet here meets Flint day before yesterday, and you three go riding out into the desert to see where his partner was murdered. And you run into four guys who you saw in the Marshall's office the day before. And all of you happily ride into the mountains together looking for a bunch of murderous cattle rustlers. Now after narrowly avoiding becoming the Indians’ sacrificial offering want to continue on your quest for saving a few dozen head of cattle of these guys you hardly know; and to bring to justice the alleged murderer of this other guy your barely know. And you want to bring the poker player along just in case a game breaks out?" He pauses to take a breath. "Now, I'm not saying I won't help, but I am the only one that thinks this is a little weird?" The corner of Kate’s mouth twitched. "Well, I didn't have anything better to do, and I'm sure you learned more in your days as a young hooligan than card playing. Really, the whole thing started with just going out to look at the claim, it escalated from there, and Al is the one who knows where the cave they're holed up in is. You're right, none of us really have a stake in this, but I would hope someday if I need help people wouldn't just turn their backs on me. I would be a hypocrite to do it to someone else." Jake answers, "Oh, Katherine, there you go being the conscience that this poor old hooligan never had." Jake tries to suppress his laughter but can't. "Hooligan, ha. Look if you, Ruby and Nanuet are determined to go, I won't let you go alone. But I wonder if you know what you are getting into?" Jake looks at her serious for a moment. "How will you know which ones are cattle rustlers and which ones are murderers? Do you care? All of these guys are facing a rope one way or another if we bring them back, what exactly to you have in mind here. Are you riding with the intention of killing these men? I’m not particular to shedding of blood myself. But I can if that is what needs to be done. Have you really thought about what you are doing tomorrow? Not to mention they will probably not come along quietly." Jakes looks around into the cool night air before continuing. "Aww, hades. I was just thinking that I've been shot at two days in a row now, and it looks like tomorrow will make three." He pushes back his hat, leans against the railing and gives her a big smile. Inside, Nanuet says to Mrs. Whipple, "Ms. Maggie? We have retrieved some money that a couple rascals took from the tip cups of Ms. Ruby and Ms. Katherine. I helped Jake retrieve it and I wanted to give it to you so that you could get it to the proper people." Nanuet puts the money on a nearby table and takes a step back. He smiles and says "Have a nice night." before walking out back to his companions. He opens the door to the Lone Star after hearing the tail end of Jake and Katherine’s conversation. The Indian says,"Jake, you have no part in this and I ask nothing of you. I promised Flint I would help him find out who murdered his friend, and I will help see this killer brought to justice. As far as the Cartwrights are concerned, they seem like good people although getting their cattle back is secondary to me. They did help me out with Geronimo, so I at least owe them a try. Look, it is getting later as I stand here. Like I said, you are not involved in this situation and if you want to stay out you may be the only wise one among us. I have made a promise to help someone in need. I have life debts to repay to those in need and this seemed like a good place to start." With that Nanuet walks away back towards the stables of the El Parador looking to catch a few more hours of sleep before dawn. With his adrenaline up from the confrontation in the corral, that seems unlikely. Katherine and Jake head back into the Lone Star. It's a quarter-of-midnight and the last two patrons are paying their bartabs and then leave. Maggie asks the employees to have a seat at the round table in the corner. They sit down and Tom puts the "closed" sign on the door as Maggie comes over with a bottle and six small glasses. Maggie says "That Indian friend of yours returned all of the stolen money." Jeff Mills comments "Hard to imagine, an honest Injun." This earns the burly roughneck a nasty look from Katherine. Tom asks Jake to run through an account of what happened, which Jake then supplies, giving ample credit to Nanuet. Tom looks Tony and comments "Well, how did you guys do tonight?" Tony says "I had a really good night, took in $ 160. He then hands over $32 to Tom. Tom then turns to Jake and says "You didn't seem to do so well, but at least you lost spectacularly to the right guy. It would have killed me if Adair had won the pot. Cassidy plays here often enough and I'll be hitting him up for a favor next week, so his being in a really good mood about winning over $ 200 won't hurt." Jake raises his glass and says, "Here's hopin' I get a chance to get some of that money back from Cassidy. Of course after you get your favor." He finishes with a wink. He hands Tom a ten spot and says, "I kinda lost track of where exactly I ended up with the excitement in and out of the saloon. But this ought to cover it. Next time it will be more." Jake says matter of fact and sips his drink. Tom seems surprised but pleased. He says "Well, what we're celebrating tonight is that with what we've made so far this week I'll be able to move up my plans to build a third floor onto this place. I figured I wouldn't have the money until spring, but thanks to Ruby here this place can now afford it. I'll send a telegram to my Father and Cousin Teddy up in Denver to come down as soon as they can to help me and Jeff build it. Only took the four of us around a month to put on the second floor last year. Say, how does that Indian friend of yours feel about doing manual labor? Another hand would speed things along even faster. "He had been talking about finding work," Kate said, remembering with a smile how Nanuet had 'lost' his job. "A little short-term work would be agreeable, I think. I'm not certain if his plans include a long-term stay here, so work that he knows has a definite ending might just fit the bill for now. I'll talk to him tomorrow." Kate shifted her eyes away from Tom Whipple, still uncomfortable with him. Instead she smiled over at Maggie and lifted her glass. "To the Lone Star and the continued success of friends." The Whipples state say unison "To the Lone Star", they then glance at each other with a freindly smile and simultaneously laugh, then tap each other's glasses together for the toast. "And to our continued success" Tony adds, to which the Whipples and Jeff agree. The evening ends and Katherine, Jake and Ruby leave the Lone Star to head back to the El Parador. [/QUOTE]
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