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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 1872656" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chapter Forty-seven, “Bath Time”, January 7th, 1882:Kate took her part of the money and began to hide it around the room. Some inside a hat brim a bit tucked away inside a book, and some folded neatly and tucked behind Tom's picture in its frame. She stopped for a moment and ran her finger over the picture. "I miss you," she said softly. After a few moments she shook her head and set the frame down. She quickly changed her shirt, tucked her simplest dress in a bag to take to the bathhouse and went downstairs.  Nanuet was waiting already, and a few minutes later Ruby and Jake came down. This time when Dorita brought them something to eat, Kate went at it with a will. The sooner it was down, the sooner she could have a bath.Once they are back together Jake asks "So what is everyone's plan for today?" Having already eaten early Jake is only picking at the food. "After I clean up I WILL have that nap. But after that I have nothing going on until its time for me to run a game at the Lone Start later tonight. If anyone needs me for anything, let me know." He pauses and watches the others dig heartily into their meals. "I already helped myself to some additional weapons and ammunition that their previous owners will no longer need, so what ever is left including the wagon can be sold by whichever of you thinks they can get us a good price for them. I guess you are all in favor of giving Flint the proceeds from the wagon. I want to help him too, but I was going to hold my tongue on that until we saw how much it was worth. Hey, don't look at me like that! A little greed is not a bad thing." He answers with a boyish grin. Then quietly, "Katherine, Ruby says you two know someone that may be able to help us with the pile of valuable and unusual items. One of you takes charge of that if you don't mind. After we understand what we have better, we can decide what to do with them." He looks around the room nonchalantly. "I would keep any conversation about what happened today quiet between us, the less information others have the better on that. I'm afraid that too much may already be out though." He stops and smiles putting on the confident Silver Jake Cook face. "But don't worry. We will be fine. More than fine."Kate says,"I'm certainly getting a bath this afternoon, and some sleep. I might just sleep in the bath," she laughed. "After that I was going to see Dorita's grandfather to talk about some of those books I lent him yesterday. Not to worry, though, I won't get carried away and be late." Kate lifted her napkin to her mouth as she said quietly. "We should be able to get those items looked at this afternoon, but I'm afraid I don't know much about the value of wagons." She took a deep breath as she dabbed at the corners of her mouth with the napkin, then put it down.   "I think I'm going to head out for that bath. That is something I'm sure will be fine." She dropped a few coins on the table for the food and smiled over to Ruby. "Gentlemen," she nodded to Nanuet and Jake, picked up her bag, and headed for the door.Nanuet stretched his neck and back and said "I am going to get myself cleaned up and then head over to the church. I need some time to reflect and reconnect with the spirits. Once we get all the items from the wagon sorted out and know what we want, I will take care of selling it. Flint suggested that one of the silver mines could use it, so I will start there. That however will wait for tomorrow. Ruby, before you go, I need to speak with you about another matter."  Nanuet pulls Ruby aside, out of earshot of the others. They have a discussion that looks as though it may continue later. Nanuet looks uneasy and blushes through most of the conversation. He then gathers his stuff and heads out.Ruby finishes her conversation with Nanuet for the moment and she looks over to Jake. "Are you coming?" She waits a moment then yells to Kate, "Hey wait for me!" Kate stops by the door and waits for Ruby to catch up. She takes the other girls arm and strolls out into the street.It is only a short walk down the street to Gilson's BathHouse, situated between Rixton's Furniture and the all too familiar Comstock House. The bathhouse is in a twenty-by-thirty foot two-story brick building. The ladies enter and are greeted by a middle-aged woman who introduces herself as Laurie Gilson. She is assisted by a wood elf named Jules Huerta, who draws the water for the baths. She explains that the price of baths is fifty-cents and that she uses fresh water for every bath and has Jules scrub out each tub between patrons.  The first floor is divided up into six different rooms each with two tubs, with a curtain in each room to further subdivide the room for more privacy. Regular soap and the use of towels are included in the price. Specialty soaps and bath oils each cost an additional twenty-five cents. Back at the El Parador Jake has been sleeping soundly for nearly an hour at this point. As soon as he lay down on his bed he fell into one of the most restful periods of sleep that he had had in years. Nanuet is heavily in prayer when he has a vision. Before him stand a trio of Native American supreme beings of his same moral code, the Raven God, a greater deity responsible for the creation and transformation of the world; Hotoru, a lesser god responsible for the wind and weather of the world; and the Thunder Bird, a mystical creature that fights evil created by human or elf.   The two birds fly in a circle surrounding Nanuet while Hotoru speaks to him. Nanuet is told that he has been tested and found to be worthy. They say that his training as a shaman will begin that evening, that following his evening meal he is to return to where he had slept the previous night and the two who will guide him on this path of discovery will then join him.Jules brings Kate and Ruby to one of the 6 rooms. Ruby barely waits for Jules to leave before she gets undressed. She takes various items out of her bodice, casually tossing them on the nearest table. The items include money, a derringer, keys and a playing card (which she is a bit more careful with). She drops her dress and undergarments to the floor, stepping on them a few times and leaving them crumpled on the floor in a ball. She gets into the tub, leans back and closes her eyes. When she doesn’t hear any noise coming from Katherine she opens her eyes. Kate quickly grabbed the curtain and pulled as Ruby stripped. She was still unbraiding her hair when she heard Ruby sliding into her own tub. A moment later Ruby called out, “What are you waiting for? I though you wanted a bath!” "It takes a minute to get my hair loose," she answered as she finally slid gratefully down into the scented water and breathed deep. Kate washed her hair with the special soap first and then let it hang behind the tub as she soaked. It was probably ten minutes before she spoke. "Ruby, will you do something for me tonight? When you can, keep an eye on Tom Whipple. I don't want to tell you why, if I do you might imagine what I'm looking for. I thought I noticed something, and I want to know if it was just my imagination." “Sure Kate, I can watch him. I can see things fairly well from the stage. But you’ve got me very curious. What could you be imagining about Tom Whipple?” Ruby pauses. “I wonder what they’re going to say when we tell them we’re not moving in.” Ruby takes in a huge breath. “I can’t believe they are relying on us so much. That isn’t very wise, don’t you think?”"I don't know that they are relying on us so much. It seems the addition was just to make room for us. It was a big assumption that we would stay so long as to need or want rooms. But I imagine when someone comes looking for work, you imagine they plan to stay a while.   I don't know how to tell Maggie that we don't want to stay there. It's sweet of her to want us, and I hate to turn her down. I have felt a bit guilty about staying at the El Parador. You saw how many people were looking for rooms. I'm human; I could get a room anywhere. I feel like I'm taking a room someone else could use. Still, I'd rather buy a house."Ruby's knuckles tighten on the side of the tub. "Buy a house?" she says slowly. Was Kate referring to all of them buying a house? "Kate, when you say buy a house..." Her thoughts are interrupted by gunshots.   There are three shots and they come from somewhere outside of the building and to the west. Laurie knocks on the door and tells them, "Don't let those sounds bother you. People shoot off guns around here all the time. I'll have Jules go check it out." "Good lord, can't we get away from gun shots today?" Ruby was clearly stressed out. "I think I need some sleep... sleep and lots of liquor."Kate replies, "As long as they aren't shooting as us, I'm not getting out of this tub. And I'd try the sleep before the liquor, hmm?   I hope my share is enough. Although I don't really feel I earned it. I can't live in a hotel forever, and I can't be under the same roof as.... Well, I miss having a house," she finished lamely. "Of course, if you wanted to live there, you could, but it would be up to you. And depending on the house, Jake and Nanuet too, but there would have to be a way to keep them separate. Otherwise it would be completely inappropriate."Ruby didn’t know if she should laugh or cry. Kate wanted to tie them all down and she was worried about it being inappropriate. Ruby thought it over. If she really wanted to leave then why didn’t she earlier? She didn’t want to leave any of them, she learned that today. Maybe a house was a good thing? Ruby wasn’t signing on any dotted line any time soon but she would at least think about it.  She says, “Of course you earned your share. You got us all there. And you are right about not living in a hotel forever. I’m sure you had a real nice house with Tom and living in the Cantina with us has to be hard on you. You deserve a nice place Kate.  So, who is going to look after this house?” "I don't know," Kate sighed, sinking further into the water. "It's just a dream, I guess. I like the Cantina, I feel at home there. I don't know what I was thinking."Ruby replies,"Dreams are good to have Kate. We all need them. And if yours is a house then I'm sure you're going to get it one day."  Ruby gets out of the tub and gets dressed. "We'd better get back if we want some time to rest." Ruby realizes she forgot to bring clean clothes so puts back on her crumpled dress. "I'll only have it on a few minutes until I can get to sleep anyway," she thinks. Ruby puts her wet hair up into some kind of knot and puts all her belongings back in her dress. "Almost ready?"Kate had gotten regretfully out of the tub, but she felt wonderfully clean. She tried to get her corset on as quickly as possible and slipped into her clean dress.  "Yes, I'm ready," she said, leaving her wet hair loose behind her head to dry. "I'm certainly ready for a nap." She pulled back the curtain and took Ruby's arm. "I'm glad you decided to come back, Ruby," she said simply as they left the room.The sound of gunshots had  awaken Jake from his restful slumber. He lofted the curtain and looks out the window of his room and based upon the position of the sun concludes that it is around 3:00 P.M.  He doesn’t hear any more gunshots so he lies back down on the bed and goes back to sleep.Meanwhile, five miles northeast of Promise City…It was time for the prospectors to head to town. Since they were also afraid of claim jumpers moving in their absence and stealing their ore MacNaulty and Seawell agreed to stay behind to guard the site. Elliott and Lewis climbed up onto the buckboard of the wagon and began to make their way towards the town. The wagon contained more than a ton of rocks and the aged horses had to struggle to get the wagon started off. As the animals’ exertion became more obvious Elliott started to wonder if they had the strength to make the five miles to town. He handed the reins to Lewis and climbed out to not only lighten the load but also help to lead the animals. “This is going to be a long trip,” he thought to himself.</blockquote>

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