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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 3254046" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chapter 211, “Shopping and Crowds“, Friday, March 31st , 1882, 1:00 P.M.As it is after lunch time and Jake figures Conrad should be finished his first meal of the day, whatever he chooses to call it. Jake wanders over to Conrad's home and enquires about the costumes that he had sent for. "Now what do you have for me in that trunk of yours?" Jake asks "Here is the closest thing to what you asked for." Conrad holds it up, turns it and hands it to Jake. "Oh." He looks at it a moment and holds it not too close and if it was going to bite him. "This isn't exactly what I expected. What else do you have?"  "You are welcome to look through the trunk." Jake rummages through the costume trunk and ignores Conrad's obvious enjoyment of Jake's discomfort. "This is the reason I didn't become an actor. Well, that and lack of any talent." Jake scratches the back of his head. "I'm grateful for the loan, I am really stuck without it. I guess I'll take it. Let's see what I can wear with it, if I am going to feel like an fool I might as well go all the way......" Jake thanks him again, bundles up the outfit and makes his way back to his room where he hides it in one of his travel bags. "I'm not going unarmed but my regular holsters couldn't possibly work with that," he says to himself.  He quickly makes his way to the leather shop and purchases a fairly standard gun belt with two holsters on it, testing to make sure it will ride high enough to be concealed from view. He brings that back to the room and stows it with the costume. Jake then spends the next hour practicing some tricks he hasn't used in a while, tricks he learned that first summer after he fled Philadelphia. Memories of that summer in Ohio creep back while he practices, some are fond memories others not so fond. He's certain that the children will enjoy at least some of this. He then returns to the main room of the Lucky Lady and chats with Niles and Harry.At the El Parador, Gonzales spends the next half-hour telling each of the women about scrolls, how the advantages to using them are first that no hand gestures are required and secondly that they are cast at the wizardry level of the creator rather than the caster, so that each of their scrolls will function as though he had cast it rather than them. He cautions them to be careful of using spells that they do not know the creator of, particularly with offensive spells, as words are often written into the incantations to prevent them from being used against their creators. Lastly he teaches them how to conceal scrolls in books and on objects, giving each of the four women not only the scroll but a small container of a sticky adhesive to affix the scroll to other objects if needed.  Ruby gives Gonzales a kiss on the cheek, then bounces off to the Lucky Lady to find Jake. Ginnie settles with her code notebook and scribes down all of the directions and information that Mr. Gonzalas had given them in relationship to the scroll. She then turns to him and asks quietly "I believe that the ability to become invisible may be my best emergency protection. Is there a possibility that you could teach me that ability? If they can't see me they can't kill me." Her eyes were wide waiting for a response she expected to be told no that she wasn't ready however it was worth a shot.  Kate states, "I'll suggest that to her the next time I see her. Everything we can do to make our tools less conspicuous is good." He replies, "I'm sorry Ginnie, but you are not powerful enough in the practice of wizardry to learn that yet." He notes a look of disappointment in her immediate reaction, which she quickly changes to a more neutral face. He adds, "However, if you find the need for that particular spell please come to me and I will be happy to cast it onto you."Kate asks, "Is there something else she could learn to help distract people from her? Some of the first spells you taught me created sounds or light that might move attention away from her."  Ginnie sees that her teacher is ensuring that he knows when she is non-visible and realizes that she is going to have to do quite a bit of self research in order to be able to cast the spell. She nods to her teacher and heads into the corner that she has created for herself to spend more time with the books   Her ego bruised the stubborn Irish temperament that saved her during the time on the streets emerges in her head.  "So I don't have the experience, of course I don't because no one will let me work on anything except coping and translating books! It's time to start taking some chances and practicing on my own. 1 spell at a time somewhere I can be alone. I'll get the power I need and no one can stop me."Kate talked quietly to her teacher while Ginnie busied herself with the books. "Can you find something to teach her today? Just to take the sting out? A love of those simple spells are fairly useful. I'd like to stay, but... I have a few things to do yet this afternoon, and I don't really think she wants me here anyway. You'll keep an eye on her, won't you?"Kate says, "Thank you, Professeur. I feel safer already. It's a good thing we can use these from far away, I'd rather negate them before they get close. I will have to think of an object I usually carry with me to affix this to."   Kate says, "I should go as well. I have some last minute things to do this afternoon." Kate dropped her voice and said, "I hate to ask, but could we go upstairs and fetch the wand? I feel a little exposed without it. I certainly could have used it on Monday."  He replies, "Oh yes, let's go get it. I taught Ruby how to use it as well. She also has that magical fireball rod, although it is rather conspicuous being thirty inches long. She may want to see if Pierre can fix a gun stock onto it to make it appear to be some type of shotgun."Kate talked quietly to her teacher while Ginnie busied herself with the books. "Can you find something to teach her today? Just to take the sting out? A lot of those simple spells are fairly useful. I'd like to stay, but... I have a few things to do yet this afternoon, and I don't really think she wants me here anyway.  You'll keep an eye on her, won't you?"  Gonzales replies, "Yes, I think that teaching Ginnie some more cantrips would be an excellent idea. I also have in mind another introductory spell that could be of use for her."Kate took the wand and slipped it into her pocket, then left Ginnie in her teacher's excellent care. Perhaps after the festival she could teach Ginnie a few cantrips herself. She was familiar enough with those to teach them, at least she thought she was.    Ruby arrives at Lucky Lady to find Jake.  "Baby I decided I want to go shopping now instead of tomorrow!"  "As you wish, Princess," Jake replies with a smile. Ruby claps her hands and runs upstairs to get some additional money. Ruby excitedly drags Jake along for some shopping, perusing the stalls slowly, chatting with everyone and anyone who looks her way. Ruby purchases a silver hand held mirror and brush from Sterling’s Sterling, plus a bracelet for Katherine and a matching one in a smaller size for Ginnie. When Jake isn't looking she purchases something for him and asks that it be engraved, to be delivered to the Lucky Lady when it's finished. From Fowler’s she buys soap, some plain and some specially scented. She spends a good amount of time at Tyrill Salsbury’s tent, buying up rolls of wallpaper for the new addition to the Saloon. For the Lucky Lady a wall clock from Sterling’s and the 10X4 foot wooden framed mirror for behind the bar from Marc & Florence LaBrecque’s – glassware tent. From Sydhie Tyler Ruby buys a hanging porch swing. Finally she makes Jake inquire about the nicest bathtub they have and also has it delivered to the Lucky Lady. She peruses the jewelry but oddly she doesn't find anything that can compare to her heart earrings or the ruby ring that rests on her finger. She does find some new clothes and boots to add to her wardrobe. She makes one final stop where she purchases a sword for her lessons. Laden with purchases they make their way back to the Lucky Lady. Once back they go up to their room. Ruby tells Jake about her lessons with Mr. Gonzales. Then she carefully shows him her new skill by first making herself invisible, then making him invisible. Her first attempt at herself takes a little effort but by the time she gets to Jake she seems to have it down  Jake laughs and follows the giggles to locate Ruby. He gropes at her and says, "This is definitely weird.""Weird... but useful..." she says as Jake feels a pinch at his butt followed by another round of giggles. "Figure out how to use this. Tomorrow Mr. Gonzales is going to show me how to see invisible people and things. That is why I have to practice." After some more giggles and fun with being invisible Ruby says the word Jake has heard before and they both become visible again. "You ready?" Jake asks Ruby, "To go and practice shooting?" "Yup, I don't need to do anything special." Jake puts on an old shirt and grabs up all his weapons for some target practice. Before going down stairs he carefully removes the special shells from the long barrel Colt, folds them into a piece of paper and puts them into a pocket he can button closed. He loads ordinary shells into that pistol. On the way out he grabs a burlap sack and fills it full of empty bottles from the trash. They dodge though mobs of people to get to the Cantina and decide to walk their horses out of town instead of ride them. "I'd like to do some shopping tomorrow, will you come with me?" Ruby asks as they walk. "Sure. I'll go with you. Seems like those folks brought in everything imaginable." Once they get to the edge of town they hop on their horses and rid out to their normal spot. Jake does a through check of the surrounding area before letting his guard down slightly and starts setting up. Jakes takes the empty whiskey bottles he gathered up from the saloon and places them firmly in the nooks made by the large cactus so there are some on each side and somewhat spread out. He walks and stops with his back to his targets. He thinks hard about what Red, Wyatt and Helen have showed him. Without any warning he grabs for his Colt whirls and fans off two shots. He stands there for several moments staring at the unbroken bottles. "Damn." Is all he says. He tries twice more with the same result. Frustrated, he drops the spent cartridges out of the gun and reloads in silence. He reholsters his pistol and walks over to Ruby. "I'm thinking too hard about this." The grabs her and gives her a long kiss. He starts to release her and instead gives her another. He grins, "That was nice." He turns and walks back towards the cactus saying, "I have to feel it, not think it....." Out flashes the Colt and the shots come fast, two at a time. Left and right the top of the lowest two whiskey bottles disappear. Right and left the bottoms of those same two bottles shatter and fall. Left and right again, more glass shatters. The Colt spins in his hand and is holstered. Without another word his long barreled Colt is cross drawn and fired, the same two shots at a time. One after another, the rest of the whiskey bottles shatter and fall. While Jake is practicing his gun Ruby is going over and over in her mind everything that Mr. Gonzales and Madge has taught her. She practices casting some minor spells, throwing small rocks around with one, making little lights with another. She concentrates on Jake while he is shooting until she can see the magic surrounding his duster. She mutters a few words and a couple of small lizards fall over, asleep. After she is done with her own practicing she sits on a nearby rock and prepares her gun. Next Jake tears the limbs off the cactus with shots from his shot gun. It is quite easy to pull off two shots with it, but the same care is taken to make them accurate. Lastly, he works with his Spencer Rifle doing the same to some saguaro cactus in the distance. Since it is a seven shot, he tries to rapidly fire the last three each time with no success. "I guess I'll settle for rapidly firing off two for now." He sets the rifle on the rock and approaches Ruby. He stops just in front of her with his hands on his hips. She can smell the acrid smell of burnt gunpowder, can see the smudges on his hands and tiny burn marks on his right sleeve near the wrist, he even has a smudge of gunpowder residue across his forehead. None of that detracts from the grin on his face as he stares at her. "I got it. I got it right," is all he says. Ruby smiles at Jake, so proud and sure of himself. He always looks the most handsome when he is sure of himself. She stands and steps towards him, wiping at the smudge at his forehead. "Good job, baby. You make using that gun look pretty sexy. That's of course if you're not standing on the other end of it."  Jake laughs. Then he laughs harder. "All this time I was missing out on another way to attract women. Good thing I already got mine," He says and winks at her. Next Jake helps Ruby improve her own shooting. She practices taking better aim while moving around until she feels like she has improved a bit. "You know, I need a better spot to keep my gun. My current spot is good for emergencies but not for fast drawing. Maybe I should keep it in the back of my skirt? Or maybe my boot? What do you think?"   "The boot isn't going to be good for fast draw." He looks at her and scratches his beard and then rubs his cheek. "Think of the sleight of hand trick. Put it in a spot where one hand can reach it naturally looking while the other hand distracts. Somewhere on the skirt seems better." It looks like they are done shooting practice when Jake says to Ruby “Throw me that revolver.” She frowns, walks over and hands it to him. He doesn’t take it. “No I meant it. Go back and throw me that revolver. Imagine I’m standing somewhere without a gun and you have an extra or you don’t have the shot. Imagine anything, just throw me the gun.” “What if I goes off and you shoot yourself?” Ruby asks.  “That’s why we practice,” Jake responds rolling his eyes. “Ok…” Ruby says and hesitantly throws Jake the gun. Jake walks the gun back over to Ruby, looks her in the eye and says gently, “Look, imagine my life depends on you throwing me that gun. It’s better to practice it and hope we never need it, then need it and not be able to do it.” Ruby nods. Jake stands back again and this time Ruby throws him the gun and he catches it. "You too." He says and throws the gun to her. They continue to practice back and forth until the movements are sure and smooth; catch to proper grip ready to fire. "I hope that doesn't come in handy this weekend but why do I have the feeling it will?" Jake replies, "I was thinking the same thing." Kate took the wand and slipped it into her pocket, then left Ginnie in her teacher's excellent care.  Perhaps after the festival she could teach Ginnie a few cantrips herself.  She was familiar enough with those to teach them, at least she thought she was.She stopped in her room and saw a large trunk sitting in the middle of the floor with a note on top.  Katherine opened the trunk with a smile and began to search through it.  She pulled out gown after beautiful gown; most with elaborate beadwork or embroidery.  And almost every one far too large for her.  A few almost fit, but not close enough to be able to make any kind of alterations in time.  She was nearly at the bottom of the trunk when she pulled out a dress that must have been part of the play about the Trojan War.  It was pristine white and accented with gold, and attached was a small bag of jewelry meant to go with the costume.  Like the others it was a bit big, but this one could be easily adjusted.In her reflection Kate could see how she would look once it was adjusted and she styled her hair.  Somehow it felt scandalous, even though she really showed more on the bottom when she wore pants for riding.  The costume certainly showed more on the top.  "It's the only one that will fit," she said, trying to excuse herself.  A few minutes later the costume was carefully hung in her closet and the trunk repacked.  She dressed in her riding clothes and went down to the Cantina, asking Pedro to see the trunk was returned with her thanks.  Then Grant Keebler escorted her over to the O'Hara house.The O'Hara house, small as it was, was the epitome of space efficiency. How one woman could fit seven people and all of their possessions into two small rooms and make it still look spacious was something to believe. Every available space, especially those not obvious, was utilized. Meagan O'Hara was inside with the two youngest children, the next eldest five further east doing something over along practicing some of the children's games. Both Colleen and Cathleen notice Kate going to visit their mother."I hope I'm not interrupting anything," Kate said, settling herself in a chair. "Colleen and Cathleen came by today asking about borrowing some horses for the races tomorrow. I certainly don't mind, but I wanted to check with you before I made any promises. I told them, with your permission, that I would take them out to the ranch to choose some mounts. They told me you already knew about their racing, which I don't doubt," she said with a smile. "But it still seemed right to check first."Meagan says, "Well, they appear to have exaggerated a bit. They raced before at the University, back when they were six and seven, against college students. But those were all practice races to help hone the student's skills. Since coming to America they've raced once, a little over two years ago. Patrick and I were away for a week, arranging schooling for Shannon and we had left them with their Uncle Timothy as he worked at a racetrack and we knew how much they adored horses. Timothy entered them in a competitive race against adults, which Patrick and would not have approved of. He hoped to make it rich, and was somewhat successful as Colleen actually finished third. So I am neither giving them permission or saying no. My concerns are first the fact that it has been a few years since they've ridden, during which time their bodies have begun to change so they may not have the same dexterity. Secondly, I do not know the horses. I would only want them to ride animals with the proper temperament. I do know that they are anxious to do this. They wish to earn enough money to purchase a spinning wheel for me."Kate says, "That's very sweet of them. I'm surprised though, that you don't have one already.”  Meghan answers, "I had one over in Ireland but had to sell it before we left as we were limited in the quantity that we could bring for passage. I has always planned to buy another one here but each time we didn't have the money for it or there was one available that I could borrow so it wasn't a necessity." Kate says, “Well, if they borrow horses from me I can make certain the horses are of even temperament. They could borrow Meribel, the horse I ride for everyday. She's a very gentle but responsive animal. There are a couple others out at the ranch I would trust. Let us do this. I'll go out to the ranch this afternoon and bring the horses I'd trust into town. Tomorrow morning you and I can put the girls and the horses through their paces, and if we are comfortable we can let them race. What do you think?"   Meghan answers, "I think that is a fine idea."When Kate returned to the El Parador she went back to her room to get dressed for work. The red dress she had bought from Mary Kelley was hanging there, and she would no longer need it for tomorrow night. But it should be warn, especially since it wouldn't fit for that long in the first place. Well, it was likely to be a big night at the Lucky Lady. Kate squeezed herself into the dress, then pulled most of her hair up, leaving only a few long curls to hang over her shoulder. Ruby and Jake head back to town and have a quick dinner, which they have to do at the bar since their Saloon is packed full of people. Ruby then hurries upstairs and dons her green gown. She makes herself presentable and prepared for the evening ahead she sweeps downstairs with a smile and starts interacting with the crowd.A rather angry looking Al Brower comes into the Lucky Lady and heads directly to the bar rather than to Job Kane's table. "Whiskey!" he rather loudly exclaims. Harry Rote pours him one.  Ruby walks behind the bar and takes the bottle from Harry. "I'll take care of Mr. Brower, Harry. Thank you."  She smiles at Al, "Not having a good day?" she asks, pushing the whiskey towards him.Al says, "No, damn it! The Comique is packed, mobbed, even more crowded than here. Normally we don't serve food, but Pierre and I hired our landlady, Hannah Milford at the Double Eagle Boarding House, to cook for the saloon the next four days. So we have this large dinner crowd and I had Clarisse start singing then, and they've stuck around. I looked to probably be the best night we've ever had, and then HE showed up!"  Ruby looks at him curiously while refilling Al's glass. "Care to share who is he?"Brower exclaims, "Cornelius Van Horne! I thought he was gone for good. He used to clean us out every Friday night. Well, it's Friday night and he's back! Damn It!"   Ruby's eyes widen again. "Oh wow." She glances around the saloon for Jake. "Mr. Brower, I'm sure that your crowd is so large that even Mr. Van Horne couldn't take away your profits. Is there anything I can do for you? I should also get on stage."   Brower nods no sullenly before Ruby heads to the stage.   She sings a good mix of songs and as the crowd grows she sticks with more upbeat and crowd pleasing tunes.Jake starts up his game and announces it will be stud poker for a while to accommodate more at the table. He keeps his eyes open to what is going on around the room.  After her first set Ruby continues to happily interact with customers, joking and flirting with them. At one point she passes Jake's table and motions for him to meet her when he has his next break.Several men in Jake's game go bust early, apparently having a small stake. He breaks early, "This will be a short one, so don't go far. We'll introduce some new money when we start back up." He goes to find Ruby.  He finds her out on the porch. Normally she is watching the stars but tonight she is watching the mobs of people walking on the streets. Jake walks out and she motions for him to hug her, which he does. As he wraps his arms around her she whispers in his ear, "Mr. Van Horne is back in town."  Jake pulls back only a bit and looks her in the eye. "Really! That's great!" He picks her up by the waist and spins her around once before putting her back down. "Now you can meet HIM for real!" The smile drops from his face. "No, probably not. Too risky with all these people around." Jake sighs, "It is good to know he is OK though."Ruby giggles as Jake swings her around. She clutches at his neck tightly and grins at the brief moment of happiness that flashes across his face. "I'd like to, if we can arrange it." She pushes some hair off his forehead, "I thought you'd like to know. Brower says he's at the Comique." She pauses then her grin grows, "And this time you don't need to get jealous if he stops by and I share a drink with him."Jake scratches his beard, "We'll see what we can work out." "Good!" Ruby gives Jake a kiss, "That will make me happy." They head back inside. Ruby heads back into the kitchen to speak with Maria. "Maria, I'd like you to take this," she hands her $30. "When you get a chance take this money and buy some new supplies for the kitchen. Don't forget we're going to be expanding and hopefully will need more help for you here in the kitchen. So buy what you think you will need."</blockquote>

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