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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 2329247" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chapter 118, “Angry People”, Friday, January 13th, 1882:Chester wakes up around 9:00 A.M. with a hangover. Boy, that Comstock can really put it away. He looks at his pocket watch. I better get to the bank, pronto. The ex-soldier dresses quickly and goes downstairs.  Chester sees Dorita with a puzzled look on her face. "Is there something wrong, Dorita?"  "Well, Mrs. Kale was just here and now she's left without her breakfast." Chester replies, "Hmm. I haven't seen her since last night, so I don't know where she is. That food shouldn't go to waste. Can I have it instead? If you see her, you can blame it on me." He smiles. "Yes. That'll be fine, señor." "You can call me Chester or Chet, if you'd like. You've been very kind to me." Chester sits downs and wolfs down Kate's breakfast. Then he rushes to the bank.Chester barely makes it to the bank on time. The tellers Bruce Maxwell and Scott Taylor are already in their places. The Condon brother managing the bank on this particular day is Frank. He lets Chester in, waits until the guard in position and unlocks the door. The first hour of the morning is fairly quiet, with just a few customers.  The handyman Jones arrives around 11 for lunch orders. He returns a half-hour later with the food. When he gets near Chester he whispers "Tell Silver Dollar I'm not ready yet, we'll have to wait for next week."Chester whispers back, "OK. What's the hold..." He winces and tries again. "What's the matter?" He whispers "Didn't get the getaway horse. We'll have to do next Friday instead." "That's too bad. I'll be sure to tell him." Chester waits until everyone else is done eating, before he eats his lunch. Then he checks the stored weapons and thinks to himself “I wouldn't put it past that guy to mess with these.”It's even later in the morning when Jake finally stirs. He sits up in bed and holds his head in his hands for what seems an eternity. He wanders around the room bleary eyed, changes his clothing and leaves what he takes off around the room on the floor. He does remember to put his derringer in the back holster and strap on his colt, more out of habit than of conscious thought. Just before he crosses the room he notices the piece of paper on the bed. He goes over and picks it up and takes him a moment to realize that it is his own handwriting.    He states an exclamation.  He finds the envelope and puts it back in, though not as neatly as before. He takes the other envelope and puts them both in his pocket, grabs his wallet off the floor and leaves the room. He forgets his 'other' wallet and heads down stairs.Jake comes down stairs in a foul mood. He sees Dorita and says "Please lightly burn some meat and have a double shot of whiskey waiting for me when I come back."  "No, senor, that no good for you in the..." Jake cuts her off. "Don't argue with me!" Then in a lower tone. "Please."  She gives him the note, which he reads: Good morning.  I wonder if you would care for a short ride this afternoon? The bounty hunter will be coming out to collect the body. Mr. Booth and I will be riding out a bit after noon and you are welcome to join us if you think it's needed. I'm sure Mr. Booth can provide me with all the protection I need if you are both busy. Love, Katherine."Leave this for Ruby" He then leaves the cantina and heads over to the post office. "I need to mail these two", Jake puts too much money on the counter so he doesn't have to listen to the man ask for money. "Fine day today, you know I..." "No it isn't." Jake cuts him off with a dark look. The man gives Jake his change. Jake sarcastically says "Thanks" Ruby paces the floor in her room, stopping occasionally to sit on the bed, but always jumping back up to keep pacing. Her mind is racing with thought and she is overcome with feelings she had managed to avoid the past two years. She realizes she is wearing a dress that Jake brought her so she pulls it off and stomps it on the floor. She pulls out her bag and starts stuffing things into it randomly, just as she had done a week ago. She takes a deep breath and pauses and then starts pulling everything out of the bag again throwing it on a chair. She sits on the bed again, head in her hands, trying to decide what to do. Then she gets up, determined, and starts to slowly put everything back in the bag.Once it reached noon, Kate excused herself and went back to her room. She changed into her riding clothes, braided her hair, got her weapons and went downstairs to wait for Mr. Booth. Booth arrives at around a quarter past twelve. "My, you look ravishing this morning" he states. He joins her at the table and asks "Have you ordered yet?" "I'm not really hungry, thank you. You go ahead. So, what's the plan for this afternoon? It's only a short ride, out to my new ranch, actually," she smiled. "Well, mine with a couple others."Booth calls Dorita over and orders himself some breakfast. He then asks her "Oh, could I borrow one of the Arcade horses for today?" She gets angry and begins to yell at him. Unfortunately her words are exclaimed at a rapid pace and in Spanish so neither human can understand her. Kate was stunned for a moment. She stood up and took hold of Dorita's hand. "Dorita? Dorita! What's the matter? Please, in English. How can we fix it if we can't understand?""Dorita, watch horses. We be back soon they say. Gone two months! When they come back? And so we feed horses. We water horse. We take horses for exercise. I try real hard to make happy. Now they be back someday and Sureshot Sam, man who kill famous outlaws, he will say to me 'Where my horse!' What me tell him?""I'm not sure I understand. Did something happen to the horses? Conrad, do you understand?" she asked, unthinkingly calling him by his first name. "It's alright Dorita, we won't take one of them, Mr. Booth can take my stallion."  Katherine squeezed the other woman's hand. "They will come back," she said quietly. "It no come back from the dead! Grant borrow horses to ride out to mine with you on Tuesday. Sureshot Sam horse get shot dead! Me no loan out other horses to you if that how you bring things back!""Grant didn't go with us Tuesday morning. Did he go with Jake in the evening to bring the miners into town?" Dorita exclaims, “Yes, they go then. Take two horse, bring one back, say other dead."  Kate shook her head. "It doesn't matter. We won't borrow any horses, and although you can never really replace a riders horse, I'll provide you with another so he at least won't be without." She leaned forward and hugged Dorita. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you." She calms down and says, "Thank you. No know if they ever come back but not want Sam mad at me for killing horse."  "I'm sure he wouldn't be. It will be alright." Kate waited a moment and squeezed Dorita's hand again. "Now that that's settled. Mr. Booth and I have an appointment, and he needs to eat first. Would you be so kind?" Jake walks back to the cantina where he gets his plate, drink and dirty look from Dorita. He goes to sit by himself in the corner telling Katherine as he goes by her, "I'll ride with you, I could use it." He finishes the meat and shoots the whiskey. He walks up stairs, gathers up his hat, coat, extra revolver and shotgun. He heads down stairs and sits with his feet up in the corner of the cantina waiting for Katherine to be ready to leave.Dorita nodded and went off to the kitchen and Katherine sat back down. "Well, I guess you'll be taking my stallion after all, Mr. Booth."  Kate looked over at where Jake was sitting and waved him over. "Jake is going to ride out with us as well. Maybe you could tell us both at once about the details."  Booth replies, "Actually I'll just head over to Drover's Livery and rent myself one. They only charge seventy-five cents a day and have half a dozen available. But first let me check over at the Long Branch to make sure that Cole is ready." "If you prefer, but I have two horses, one of which you could ride for free. I don't like making you spend money." Jake's voice comes out from under his hat across the room to Katherine, "The Indian and I brought back three extra horses the night we chased down the bandits. They're available if we need to replace or borrow one."  She replies, "Jake, why don't you come sit over here?" Jake releases a heavy sigh and drops his feet to the floor from the table. He grabs his shotgun off the floor and walks over to where the two of them are talking. He pulls out a chair, slides the shotgun under the table and sits down. "Good day." he says without emotion."Apparently not," she answered, looking at him. "Mr. Booth, why don't you eat your breakfast and go see Mr. Cole. Jake, maybe we could go over to the bank and get that money from the wagon?" "Sure." He gets up and puts the shotgun behind the bar. "You don't mind if I leave it here?" but he doesn't wait for an answer. "After you Mrs. Kale."Jake and Kate head down the street towards Condon's bank. As they are around sixty feet away they see a pair of men ride up to Condon’s Bank and tie their horses to the post outside. One is nicely dressed in a black tailored suit, the suit’s jacket is only waist length and has silver buttons, silver initials D.K.A. monogrammed in cursive script above the pocket, and silver fringe on the jacket collar. The clean-shaven man has on a matching black hat with pearl stone inlayed on its band, a thin black necktie and a white silk shirt. Matching Colt Peacemakers are worn on a gunbelt filled with ammunition. The man’s companion appears to be a bodyguard. He has on a worn brown leather coat over a flannel shirt, blue jeans, cowboy boots and a wide brimmed tan leather hat. Two guns are on his belt, a long-barreled single-action revolver on his left and a double-action revolver on his right side. He removes a shotgun from a saddleback holster on his horse and slides it into a holster on his pack. While the bodyguard’s eyes scan the street in both directions the better dressed man removes a black leather satchel from a saddlebag on his horse and then heads towards the front doors of the back followed closely by the other man. Kate and Jake are nearly to the bank at this point. "Maybe we should wait," Kate said, looking at the busy scene in front of the bank.Ruby had packed and unpacked her things a million times. At the moment her things were strewn all over the bed. She knows leaving is her only choice but doesn’t really want to so she is trying to convince herself it’s not what she has to do. All the plans that they had made were ruined now anyway, she knew she could never go back to the way things were.  It is late morning before she heads downstairs to look for Mr. Gonzales. She sees Dorita at the bar and says nicely, “Give me a whiskey.” She doesn’t look up to get her dirty look. “Have you seen your grandfather?" "He waiting for you up in room. Want to talk to you about something."She takes her whiskey and drinks it then heads back upstairs. Ruby approaches Mr. Gonzales door slowly. She gives a quiet knock and waits for him to answer. When he does she enters his room, closing the door behind her.  She turns to him, “Do you know why I am here?”  He smiles and replies, "Not offhand, but I'd guess it was probably something that happened between your parents around twenty-two or so years ago."  "I'm 18," Ruby says matter of factly. She isn't smiling or laughing at Mr. Gonzales joke, there wasn't much that was going to get either of those things out of her today. "I never was any good at guessing human ages. Now if you were an elf I would have gotten it exactly right." She says, "Dorita said you wanted to talk to me about something?"   He replies, “Yes, I wanted to ask you when Kate and Dorita weren't around. What is your opinion of Maggie Whipple and her dream of owning the Lone Star? She's been talking to my Granddaughter about it for the last three nights now and is very excited about it. From my one night there as a human and the things I overheard I did not get the impression that her brother or father think much of Maggie's abilities. I am not sure if I should do anything to help her or just consider this a family matter and stay out of it."She says, "I don't think Maggie has shown me anything that proves she can run the Lone Star herself. I also don't think she can take care of herself to be left alone without her father and brother. Jake," she practically coughs on his name, "and I were going to buy the Lone Star if Maggie fails. I could be wrong about Maggie and to be honest, right now I don't even care. But if you want my advice I'd stay out of it or you'll have to take care of her too after her family leaves." Ruby realizes that she was very harsh to Mr. Gonzales and could see in his eyes he knew something was up. She takes a big sigh, "I'm sorry, Mr. Gonzales. I didn't mean to be rude to you."  She starts pacing the room. “It has come to my attention today that I have, yet again, allowed myself to be used by someone. Well, ok, maybe I did a tiny bit of using too, but really what I discovered today was that I have gotten way too attached to the people here in Promise City. The only way I know how to deal with that is to leave here and find another place to go.” She looks up at Mr. Gonzales before quickly looking away. “Before I left I just really want you to know how much it means to me that you would tell me some of your secrets and trust me enough to help me learn how to use some of the skills I already have inside me. I am sure it will be helpful for me in the future.” She stops and gives him a knowing smile, then sighs again. “I wish things could be different but they’re just not. I do what I do for a reason and I should never have tried to make things different because then this happens….” Her voice trails off and she does not finish the thought. She quietly continues, “You are one of only a few people in my life who ever believed in me to be more than I am. Even if I can’t live up to your expectations of a golden eagle, it’s still nice to think you thought I had a chance. So thank you.”Sonoma knocks on her great grandfather's door "I've brought you some coffee, Hi Ruby" Ruby gives her a sad little smile. "Hello, Sonoma. You're not with Nanuet today?" "Ah, my little nightingale. Ruby and I were just talking about Maggie Whipple and her Father's opinions. You've spend three nights there, what do you think of the Whipples?"The young elvan woman says, “I haven't seen Nanuet yet today but I'm sure he'll be around soon.  The Whipples?  After spending three days there I have decided that the senior should go home and stay there he treats Maggie like dirt.  He has no respect for women or people at all unless he can control them and I truly believe that Tom is just as bad using Maggie and taking all the credit for running the Lone Star when all he really is a bartender.  Maggie was the one who realized that Ruby could sing and that would be a huge draw and she hired not only Ruby but Kate as well knowing exactly what she would need for help once the word got out.  Maggie has kept the books and stocked the Lone Star.  Tom doesn't even know how to order or where to get supplies he can't really cook and is too busy trying to provide an IMAGE to impress his sexist self-centered father to even realize that without Maggie that he would need more help both in the kitchen and on the serving floor.  He has no idea who I am and could care less I could have walked away with the entire night’s proceeds.  And he didn't even realize that his kitchen was on FIRE. He's as totally self-centered as his father and hasn't even let Maggie know that he's planning on selling the bar out from under her without even considering consulting her. I believe that if Maggie decides to stand up for herself she could run the Lone Star without any help she knows where the tables stand and is a real business woman and I have a lot of respect for her.  As for Tom, he's useless and I want to see him gone he deserves his father.” "Follow me ladies" Gonzales says and walks into his workshop. Once there he gathers up various components and deposits them in his brazier. He calls the two women close and says "I am going to start and incantation. I want you both to hold hands and when I extend my hands outward each of you take one with your other hand." Sonoma does as she is told watching very closely as her great grandfather casts the spell trying to understand what he is doing as it goes along"Maybe you didn't hear what I said. I'M LEAVING and I don't care about Maggie or any of the stupid Whipples. Just someone else who wants to use me, thanks a lot..."  With that Ruby walks out of Mr. Gonzales room.Ruby storms down the hallway. When she reaches the end of the hallway she is surprised to see both Sonoma and Gonzales already there blocking her path.   He states, "If you want to go I will be willing to help. With the spell I had started the three of us were going to instantly travel 800 miles rather than the 80 feet down the hallway that Sonoma and I went instead. When you calm down and have figured out your destination you know where to find me."  With that he and Sonoma walk off.Ruby watches them walk away. “800 miles”, she thinks…”What was he going to drop me in the middle of the Pacific? I don't need his help anyway!”  She goes back to her room and realizes that the one person she thought she could trust, well, she was wrong about him too.Sonoma walks into Ruby's room and stands at the door  "I do not know what has happened to you but you are out of line!  My great grandfather took you at face value respected you for who you were and asked nothing at all of you he offered you not only his trust but knowledge and the ability to be everything you could want of yourself and asked Nothing of you in return. I will not have you treat him this disrespectfully there was no reason for him to teach you other than he thought that you needed to learn who you were and what you could do in order to survive without killing yourself. Maggie has been nothing but kind to you she gave you a job and asked nothing more from you than you perform if you wished to. True Tom and his father are not good people, but if you truly believe that Maggie just wants to use you go ask her yourself.  You may be angry at the world right now but do not direct anger to ones that I care about and that includes you!" With that she stomps out of the room slamming the door behind her.  Ruby sticks her foot out to keep the door from slamming shut and gets in front of Sonoma. "You have no idea about me or the life I've lived so don't pretend to. If your grandfather has something to say to me he should come and say it. You weren't there when I thanked him for all he has done for me, told him I was leaving and he didn't say one word about it because he doesn't care.  Maggie didn't give me a job out of the goodness of her heart, so don't act like she did. They needed a singer and I auditioned, so what? It was just a job and it benefited them more than it benefited me. I never said anything about Maggie using me, I was referring to your grandfather wanting me to help him with a spell for Maggie.  I'm not angry with anyone but myself and don't worry I will be out of your way by tomorrow."Sonoma looks coldly into Ruby's eyes and says in a tight whisper  “You plan to run again.  You run because if you leave people can't hurt you.  You hurt yourself more because you leave.   Thanking someone at the top of anger is just a way to justify that no one really cared for you at all to begin with.  You fear people because to really love is to risk.  And to risk is to be vulnerable and to gain possible pain.   You still think of me as a child because I seem young.  You think I know nothing of the world.   I have already lived with humans for longer than your life will last.   I may not have lived your life but I have seen it before.  You are angry and dangerous.   My impression is that you will not stay because you fear someone will touch your heart and make you less self-sufficient.  You will only be as safe as you allow yourself to be.   It is you who must live with it if you truly believe that these people….the ones who have put their lives on the line for you….who faced bullets and pain….if you think that they only did it for their own personal profit at your expense!   I pity you.   For you are wrong and will be wrong until you decide to learn to live instead of running from life.” Sonoma starts to walk away then turns and adds “If you truly think that my great grandfather needed your help with a spell for Maggie you are not as bright as I thought.   He is the teacher, not you.  He was teaching you not using you.  An eagle is a prideful and independent bird and he knows that.  He would not cage you to him anymore than he would cage a real Eagle.” Ruby gives Sonoma as dirty of a look as she can muster and stomps back into her room, slamming the door. She throws some shoes across the room before collapsing face down on the bed. After a few minutes Ruby is calmer and she thinks about what Sonoma said. She never really thought of her as young but she certainly was wise for her years. Ruby had been mad and maybe she did take it out on Mr. Gonzales. She sighs as she gets up from the bed. She slowly walks back down to Mr. Gonzales room. When the door is opened all she says is, "I am very very sorry."</blockquote>

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