Sapphic Cowboi

SAPPHIC COWBOI

A Novel by K’Anne Meinel

SmashWords Edition

Published by:

K’Anne Meinel on Smashwords

Copyright © K’Anne Meinel February 2013

SAPPHIC COWBOI

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As he watched from the corner of the barn he
was amazed as the six horses played and gallivanted around the
woman. They were pawing at the ground, snorting, and making mock
challenges against each other and her, pretending to charge her
only to pull up at the last minute, ever conscious of the human’s
frailty compared to their massive strength. It was enchanting, it
was a dance, and it was silly and beautiful all at the same time.
The man watched as the horses despite their vast size behaved like
puppy dogs.

He knew the minute they sensed him or saw him
because one by one they pulled up and looked at him suspiciously,
sentinels protecting their human, they were magnificent with their
heads held high and their nostrils flaring trying to catch his
scent on the wind, black guardians with the sun reflecting off
their sweaty and shiny flanks. She only became aware of him as her
six steeds stopped their playing and all stood guard around her, an
intimidating spectacle if he hadn’t seen them cavorting minutes
ago.

“
Can I help you?” she called
from between the massive beasts as she wove between them and looked
over their backs to see him clearly.

“
I’m looking for Maggie?
Maggie O’Malley?” he called in return across the paddock and
approached the fence. The horses shifted marginally but he felt
sure if he made any gesture they found offensive towards the woman
they would come to her defense in a heartbeat. He studied the
woman; sure he had found who he had been told about, she was
dressed in masculine dungarees, a button up shirt with the sleeves
rolled up on the arms, the sweat visible in the V of the shirt, and
well-worn down at the heel boots. Her hair was cut unwomanly short
like a man’s, and was as black as her horse’s long manes but he
supposed it was easier to work with when working with such large
animals. She wouldn’t be perfect for his plan but her horses would
and he could work around the fact that she didn’t look very
womanly.

“
You’ve found her” she
called back as she got around the last horse and gave it a loving
slap on the rump to move it out of her way marginally as she walked
toward the man who had asked for her. She studied him; he was short
and in a cheap ill-fitting suit. He looked like he had been
perspiring and she could tell he was balding under his fedora,
probably wearing wool in the hot summer’s sun. As she thought of
this he removed a white handkerchief from his pocket and whiped it
across his forehead knocking his hat back to confirm he was balding
and wiped the sweat on his florid and rounding face.

He smiled showing uneven and tobacco stained
teeth. “That’s a relief, you are a hard woman to track down” he
tried to compliment her.

Maggie was on her guard, first of all he was
a stranger, but a man as well, and she was a woman alone. She
trusted few if anyone. “What can I do for you?” she asked.

He nodded, she was all business and he was
grateful for that, most women in his experience were flighty and he
tended to be condescending to most of them. “I’m looking for a
horse trainer and I heard about your horses” he nodded towards the
six who had followed behind her at a respectful distance but were
curious as they watched him. He found it a bit intimidating these
beasts but they were beautiful too.

“
My horses aren’t for sale”
she said immediately and very coldly.

He shook his head “No, I’m not looking to buy
them, although they are beauties” he tried to compliment her again
to put her at ease, women liked compliments. “I’m looking to put
together an act. Let me explain.” He gestured to the fence line
they were both walking towards.

Maggie stopped well short of the fence, far
from arm’s reach but with six horses at her back she had nothing to
worry about. “An act?”

“
I work for Bigelow’s Circus
and I’ve been authorized to hire you for the season with a contract
that can be renewed at the end of the season for you and your
horses” he told her attempting to smile reassuringly as he gestured
towards the six waiting beasts.

She glanced at him to see if he was serious,
no one offered a job in this day and age. The depression was deep,
especially in the hard south for a woman alone. If Maggie’s father
hadn’t left her the farm and such fine stock as well as some
securities to draw from she wouldn’t have been able to keep the
herd intact. Her babies would have had to of been sold off and she
would have not only have missed them but their unique personalities
and brilliance. She loved her horses and it was a lonely life but
she kept to herself and trained her babies for herself and appeared
regularly in the parades in town as well as used two of them
constantly for any funerals people hired her to pull the hearse
wagon. Completely black horses such as hers were rare and she had
been offered cash money for them time and again but she didn’t want
or need, to sell them, yet. It was however becoming tight
money-wise to feed her herd and she wondered at this job offer.

“
I’m Cecil Bigelow, my
father started Bigelow’s Circus, maybe you’ve heard of us?” he
asked hoping to put her at ease. He could see the suspicion in her
eyes; he knew circus or carney people were viewed as thieves and
racketeers. He also knew this act would be a wonderful addition to
their line up if he could get her to agree.

She shook her head. Everyone had heard of
Barnum and Bailey Circus but there were a lot of other smaller
companies that treated their animals horribly as she had seen from
time to time when they came through town or the adjoining
towns.

He sighed disappointed, Bigelow Circus wasn’t
very large but they had started with a good group of people who
wanted to showcase their unique talents but with millions of people
out of work there were a surplus of other circus troops to deal
with and not all of them with the best reputation. “Well, my father
started Bigelow’s Circus twenty five years ago, we aren’t the
largest by far, but we are one of the best. We aren’t like the
rest; we respect our people and performers and pay them after each
show.” He didn’t know if she knew anything about the ‘circuit’ but
a lot of circus’ ripped their people off regularly and then closed
down and left in the night leaving their people high and dry and
subject to the whims of townies who had no idea what to do with
these ‘circus people’ and often times the animals as well as the
people were left with a huge debt that townies didn’t know how they
could repay. People had been known to carve up the unique circus
animals to feed the poor and out of work and put the circus people
to work at things they were inept at.

“
What did you have in mind?”
she asked curious. It wasn’t every day someone walked into her yard
to inquire about hiring her or her horses. She could hear them
breathing heavily through their noses around her catching his scent
and cataloging it. They would remember him and his actions she
knew, filing it away in their pea sized brains. They might have
small brains but they had hearts the size of a grapefruit and were
loving, loyal, and a helluva lot more ‘personable’ than most
people.

Cecil explained what he had in mind, the
showmanship, showing off their ‘tricks’ and anything else she
thought that would wow the audience.

“
You want me in one of those
outfits?” she asked horrified at the thought of what she had seen
displayed and looked down at her stained dungarees and shirt as
well as her scuffed boots. The thought of her in a womanly outfit
almost made her laugh, she had worn men’s clothes for so long many
people made the mistake of calling her ‘sir’ before they saw her
lovely face and despite the masculine haircut saw that she was
indeed a woman.

He grinned despite himself, he wished she had
‘the look’ they would use, that would be great with her skills at
controlling the horses but she was far too ‘manly’ for the exotic
looks they were planning for such an act. “No, no,” he shook his
head “I’m hoping to find someone willing to put on those flowing
costumes and maybe you can help me find someone but we want you to
train the horses and take care of them for us.”

Maggie was relieved, she hadn’t worn a dress
since her father’s death and that had been painful as well as
awkward. She was more at home in slacks and a shirt, she had
another set besides the one she was wearing that she washed
frequently but she had to admit a job might be in order, most of
her money went to the horses and during this economy she hadn’t
been making much and things were getting a little tight. She had
sold off any horse born that didn’t ‘conform’ to her black beauties
but if it had been up to her she would have kept every one, that
wasn’t practical or good business sense but she loved her babies
and every one she had sold had caused her heart a wrench she didn’t
recover from, she remembered each and every one of them and missed
them sorely but she couldn’t have dozens of hay burners on the
place despite the temptation to keep them all.

He explained roughly what he wanted in the
act and assured her it would be up to her and the horses abilities
“can you train them to do some of the things I outlined?” he asked
worriedly.

She smiled showing even white teeth, she was
an attractive woman despite her masculine attire and unwomanly
short hair and he appreciated it on a purely male level. “Would you
like to see them play?” she asked.

“
Well when I got here I saw
them playing…” he began but she held up a hand.

“
That was just ‘horsing
around’” she grinned at the word play. “Let me show you what they
can do?” she asked.

He nodded and was intrigued hoping she was as
good as he had been told. He had counted on this as he had seen
several trainers over the past weeks he had been looking but found
nothing that he would offer a contract to, there was always
something missing and he was getting desperate, they needed a good
horse act and the few they had weren’t drawing the crowds they
hoped to. He was disappointed that Maggie wasn’t the girly girl he
hoped she would be but if she could train these beasts…

Maggie turned and clapped her hands over her
head sending the horses snorting and stamping to the far end of the
large paddock and turned back to see what she would do. Maggie
crouched down and the horses turned as one, in perfect
synchronicity as they began to charge her intent on running her
down with six sets of thundering hooves.

Cecil watched amazed as the
beasts, with mayhem in their eyes, snorting and plunging in
apparent disregard towards their trainer, they were a beautiful
sight as they flashed their black manes and tales in the sunlight,
glistening flanks and coats creating a beautiful show of incredible
muscles. As they approached Maggie it looked like they were going
to trample her and then he watched in awe as they lined up
effortlessly and one by one jumped over her in a magnificent
display. That wasn’t the end of her ‘show’ as they ran in circles
around her in seeming disarray and perfect synchronicity at the
same time. She rarely spoke but instead controlled them with
signals that were lost on Cecil and he watched the superb display
for half an hour before he shook himself and realized how lost in
the moment he had been and hoping it would be the same for their
audiences. She had effortlessly grabbed at manes and bounded onto
their backs, she had stood up on one and then two with a leg on
each beast, all while galloping around the paddock. His heart was
thundering in his chest,
this
was the act he had been looking for,
this
was the trainer and
he was relieved, if he could just get her to sign a contract he
would do his father proud and Cecil was above all his father’s son.
He spent the ‘off’ season searching for acts and other oddities for
the family circus but this year he had taken off the summer, their
prime show season, to look for other acts they needed around the
country. He had thought a woman trainer might be an oddity and he
had been prepared to be disappointed but at this moment he was so
excited he was nearly shaking. They could hire a looker to work
with this woman and between them the act they could build would be
astounding and wow the audiences who came to see the
circus.