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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 3206474" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chapter 200, “Thursday Morning“,  Thursday, March 30th, 1882, 8:00 AM Like every morning since the picnic, Kate woke with her mind in a cloud of confusion. Even in her dreams she seemed to be turning over the possibilities in her mind, and each time she thought she'd made a choice, the other choice suddenly seemed to be the right one.   She would have to see Conrad today, if only to find out if he had gone out to get the carriage back, or if he waited for someone from the ranch to go with him. But he always slept late and she had a few hours before he would be downstairs. Kate got herself dressed, leaving her hair loose and went into her teacher's rooms. She didn't see him immediately but found Ginnie easily enough, hunched over a book. Ginnie's eyes still looked tired, and she was starting to get circles under them. Kate slipped over to her and gave her a hug. "You're working too hard, Ginnie," she said. "You need to rest more." Then she turned to the door where Mr. Gonzales was just coming in and said, "Good morning. I'm not too early for you, I hope."   "Not too early, but I am on my way out. I'm going to talk to Judge Lacey about the fencing competition. I'll see you girls this afternoon," he said with a twinkle then headed humming for the door.Jake wakes early and watches Ruby sleeping for a while before deciding to get up. Hearing him move about the room she stirs and wakes. "Good morning Ruby," Jake says cheerily. "What are your big plans for today? Will there be more lessons with the sword today?"  Ruby stretches with a yawn, "First you have to tell me you love me, then I'll answer your questions..." she says with a sleepy smile.  "I love you, princess." Ruby smiles and sits up slowly, stretching again. "If I have time I'll take more sword lessons. I think I'm getting pretty good. You should see me! And I'm going to practice for the festival with Madge. And after lunch, if you remember, I had Harry put up those signs for people to come by to audition for the festival. 1-4 I think I said. That should be fun, if you want to keep me company."  "I may, depends on how my morning goes. I have a few errands to do this morning, if you will be around for lunch I'll let you know how they went." They make small talk while Jake finishes dressing, strapping on both revolvers and pulling on his duster. He kisses her and heads out.Jake's first stop is to see Minerva Florencia. She says jokingly, "Is it noon already Senor?" "No, Senorita, it is not noon yet. Your eyes do not deceive you. I sometimes rise early." Jake coughs, "Though not often. Por Favor, I do have a favor to ask of you."  Minerva eyes him warily. "Not the kind of favor you were asking of me behind the saloon I hope." "Ah, that." Jake rubs his hand against the cheek the priestess had so ably scratched. "You misunderstood my intentions, Senorita. I thought that there was about to be a fight in the Lucky Lady between you and Ruby and tried to get you out side quickly so I could ask you about the pendant I was wearing. I thought I had little time before Ruby came out and was unbuttoning my shirt to show you the pendant and ask you a question about it." Jake shrugs. "I suppose I should apologize. You have little to worry, you defended yourself quite effectively." Minerva tries to hide her smile. "Si, I am quite able to take care of myself, Senor. Now how may I assist you this morning?" "Do you have a religious book with paintings of the deities that I may borrow for a while?" Jake asks.  "Si, I do. I will go and get them. Please make yourself at home. I will be right back. " She goes to her room and retrieves the book from her chest. What could he possibly want with this? She returns smiling and hands him the book. "Are you going to commission a statue for our new church, Senor Jake?" Jake was slouching in a chair when she came back down the stairs. He rises and accepts the book. He flips throught the pages and nods to himself, apparently satisfied with what he sees. "A statue for the church?" Jake raises his eyebrows. "No, not a statue, Priestess. Something suitable though. You are very perceptive." He closes the book and looks her in the eyes. "Statue makers do not seem to be common in this area. I am going to have something made, I would perfer to keep it discrete right now. Also, I do not wish my gift to be at the whims of the viligance committee. Before I give it, I will make some arrangements to make certain it is displayed properly. If you have control of the church then that will be easy." Minerva nods approvingly. "I am sure that the gods will look favorably upon your contribution. I shall keep your confidence for as long as you wish. Let me know if I may help in any way. " she says walking him to the door. "You may return the book at your leisure."  "Gracias, Senorita."Jake takes the religious book he has borrowed from Priestess Florencia and goes to see the family that Pedro recommended as being particularly talented with mosiac tile. "Buenes diaz" Jake greets the Martinez family and explains that he is looking for mosiac tile art and asks to see some examples of their work. Jose and Sophina show him a number of small mosaics in their small home. Pleased with what he is shown, he opens the page from the book with a copy of a painting of Hermes, complete with hat, winged sandals and staff. "This is what I want." He says simply. "Except this high," he says stretching his hand over his head. Jake chats with them for a while, getting a lesson in mosiacs and letting them proudly show more of their work. Eventually Jake brings the conversation around to the price and amount of time needed to make the tiles. "Sooner is better, but take the time that is necessary to do the best work." The couple leave the room and speak to each other quietly before returning and offer to do the work for a $100. This is a good price, Jake thinks, I couldn't get this done for double that price on east coast. Knowing he could negotiate further, he chooses not to. "It is a deal." Jake gives them $20 to get started. "Let me know when you think it can be completed."  After leaving the Martinez home Jake makes his way to the Marshall's office. "Good morning Marshall Berg." Jake greets him cheerily. "Since it appears you can't continue to fulfill all your duties as a lawyer for your clients I was wondering if you would share your opinion of Mr Upton with me? If for some reason I need to go in front of Judge Isby I certainly won't be selecting Mr Fisk to help me."   Berg replies, "Can't really say, he hasn't done much yet. He's planning to specialize in insurance rather than litigation, but I think he's waiting until after this Cowboy Gang situation blows over before starting, too much of a high-risk venture otherwise. I hope you continue to come to me for legal paperwork, I'm still allowed to do that on the side."   Jake says, "You've done a good job, I'll will if I can." After listening to Berg's assessment of Elihu Upton, Jake asks him, "Chester said that you were with him at the Palace last Saturday night. Were they pretending that was some kind of worship ceremony? I was confused by what I heard. What do you think was going on?"    Berg says, "Oh that. Adair has his gals do that every week when the boxing ends to keep the patrons from leaving. Nothing religious about it, she may have made some comments about Venus, but basically all she did was an elaborate strip tease. Started with a dress made of silk handkerchiefs and ended with only a belt, necklace and bracelet and I can assure you, the jewelry wasn't what people were looking at." Jake asks, "Do you know much about an entertainer there? Jane I believe her name was."   Berg replies, "Yes, Jane Boag. She came into town last September with two other Palace workers, Fannie Mitchum and Leslie Hutton. They had worked together in Kansas City brothel that Boag's mother ran. I only know this because they had me notorize some legal documents for them when Boag received inheritance money from the estate of Boag's mother.”  They finishing chatting and Jake heads back to the Lucky Lady in plenty of time before lunch with Ruby.   After Ruby drags herself out of bed she heads over to Kevin's once again. They ride to the same spot as before. Today's lesson consists of learning the 4 primary guard positions.  Ruby asks Kevin, "So, have you worked long with the Judge? He says you met up where his other office is."Kevin replies, "Not long, a little over a week. But I've helped him out before in Wilcox. I started there in 1880 as a clerk for one of the mines but it went bust late last year. Been trying to scrape out a living since then doing a variety of part-time jobs. This is a great opportunity, the Judge says that if I give him a year he'll recommend me for an Executive Secretary position at the Territorial Legislature. And Isby is one guy that the Governor listens to, so that promise is as good as gold."She replies, "I know that he really depends on you Kevin. I'm sure you'll get what you want. The Judge is in a bad spot right now and he needs your help.  Anyway, we should get back, I have lots to do today and preparations for the festival. I somehow let myself get suckered into that," she shakes her head.  They head back to town and Ruby meets Jake for lunch at the Lucky Lady."Guess what?" Ruby says walking into the saloon, "I forgot to ask you," she says walking up to Jake, "I want you to take me out to dinner on Friday night. Someplace nice...Will you?" She cocks her head to the side while flipping her hair. "Please baby..."   Laughing Jake replies, "Sure, let me take you out. What is the occasion?"  Ruby takes Jake's hand and leads him to a table. "Do we need an occasion?""Not at all." They ask Maria to make them some lunch. When she heads off Jake says "Just before coming back I stopped in to see Mitchell Berg. I asked him about the lawyer Elihu Upton. He didn't know much about him except that he came here to start some insurance business. A town without fire extinguishing equipment and in the middle of a war. I hope he is a better lawyer than a business planner because if we need to go before Isby it is either him or Fisk." "I also asked Berg about the ceremony at the Palace. Want to know what he said?" Jake keeps his expression neutral.   "Sure," Ruby replies, sitting on her feet in her chair.   Jake tries to give her Berg's account of the evening and what he said about Jane nearly verbatim. "Berg's a fairly level headed guy. He didn't seem to think anyone was taking it seriously as a ceremony, except maybe Jane." Jake shrugs. "That probably leaves you with more questions than answers. Oddly enough the part I thought was worth noting was the jewelry."Ruby says, "That's one person's opinion Jake. How does Berg know that others weren't affected differently? Besides, didn't we talk about the desire part earlier... You can't tell me if you saw that dance that you wouldn't feel anything, " Ruby teases, lightly pinching his arm. "What's interesting about the jewelry?"    He replies, "You tell me. A woman is doing a strip tease so why leave that particular jewelry? He didn't describe it, but wouldn't she wear something exotic, alluring, mysterious or something that drew attention somewhere? Mr. Berg referred to them almost as distractions. Especially a bracelet." Jake shrugs. "Seems out of place.""Something has to hold the hankies on, right?" Ruby shakes her head then giggles. "And geez, I've never heard of a woman wearing a bracelet for jewelry before. It's just unheard of. You're right, there MUST be something to it." She giggles again before noticing Jake's glance of disapproval. "Alright, what are you thinking?"   "Don't give me too much credit. I just thought it was odd." Jake shrugs again. "You asked my opinion before. I just thought I would ask around a bit and tell you what I found. Just being protective of my girl. You are probably right it is nothing."Ruby's smile widens, "You did? Of course I want your opinion. I saw Jane yesterday and I think she's coming by today. She wanted to convince some Vigilance Committee members to attend the ceremony this weekend. And she wanted my help, although I really didn't do much. Convincing the two bankers to attend, and yesterday the Cooks to renew their marriage vows, so I helped, what's the harm in that?"  He says, "None."  She adds, "I LOVE it when you're protective of me, Mr. Cook."Jake says, "I stopped by to see Senorita Florencia this morning. Remember the afternoon where she went a little crazy? Apparently she thought I was... that I was going to... ahem, she thought I took her out back to have my way with her."  Ruby's eyes widen. "She MUST have been crazy. Doesn't she know you save that for me?" Jake unconsciously rubs his cheek again. "That's why she beat the tar out of me. I don't know if she believes me now that I was only trying to show her the pendant I was wearing, but she was civil enough.  Which leads me to the reason I visited her. I borrowed a book on the deities." Jake looks at Ruby and wags his index finger, "Don't you dare laugh at me but I'm having a mosaic of Hermes made."   A genuine look of surprise crosses Ruby's face. "Really? Have you decided to start uh, speaking to him again? Did you.." she glances around making sure no one is close by, and she whispers, "Have another dream? Why are you doing it?""No, I haven't had another dream, thank Herm-," Jake catches himself and laughs. "No dreams. I just figured what the heck, with all this god stuff going on in this little town I would improve my odds." Jake shrugs for the third time. "I'm not entirely sure why I'm doing it. It can't hurt right?"   She says, "No, it can't hurt."Maria brings Jake and Ruby out their food, a spicy chicken dish with a side of Spanish rice and creamed corn. There are no other patrons around when Jeff Mills arrives. He has his suitcase with him, having spent the last few night's at Job Kane's house, and Job is expected back this evening. Jeff heads upstairs to his room with it. He had been to work the night before, but seemed to go out of his way to avoid Jake, Ruby and Niles. He comes down a few minutes later and asks Maria for some lunch.  Jake notices Jeff and nods to Ruby. "Hey Jeff, care to join us?"She also nods to Jeff, "Yes, Jeff, come and join us. I'll get you some lunch from Maria." Ruby hops up and rushes into the kitchen before Jeff can respond. She comes out with a plate and sets it on their table, again sitting on her feet.   Jeff sits down with Ruby and Jake. He eats his food and doesn't make eye contact with them. They note that he is drinking water rather than the single mug of beer that he usually has with his mid-day meal.Ruby states, "Jeff, I can see that you are a bit more.. quiet than usual. We need to speak about the other night. And it's time for you to tell us why you have two armies trying to hunt you down. We can't help you if we don't know what's going on.   First of all, did you see what happened with the Marshal? He was attacked by the Cowboys and is clinging to life. They aren't playing by the rules. I know that I can be very convincing, but I NEVER intended for you to kill anyone."He looks up and says, "Miss. Ruby, Yes, I suppose that I do owe you a better explanation about my background. Maybe then you'll understand my reluctance to trust folks. For the last fifteen years everybody I've trusted has then gone and then asked me betray my own personal code, just assuming that I'd follow their orders. Look Miss. Ruby, I'll tell you more and we're alone now but that won't last. Could you maybe do that trick with the candle and powder to give us some privacy?"She says, "I appreciate your willingness to be honest. But I don't have any of what you refer to. That's Kate's thing. Perhaps we could go upstairs to our room, the office. That will be more private. What do you two think?"   "Sure, that's fine," Jeff says.  Jake nods yes and leads them up the stairs.</blockquote>

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