Sapphic Cowboi (15 page)

A few days later she went to town for
supplies and was shocked at the amount of mail she had waiting for
her. She looked it over dumbly and knew she would have to spend an
evening or more with Peter going through it all. It all looked to
be the same but then she couldn’t know for sure and it worried her.
She rushed through her stocking up and quickly filled her buggy
with the supplies she had purchased. People wanted to talk to her
now that she was home but she was distracted and looking at the
letters they knew she had a lot on her mind. One decidedly feminine
letter, it smelled like Ariana she was certain was from her friend
and she wanted to know for certain.

“
Well lookee who’s here”
Peter said in greeting, surprised to see her back so soon after
getting home.

“
I’m sorry to bother you
Peter but look at this” she showed him the pile of letters. “I’ll
pay you for your time but some of this has to be read as soon as
possible, maybe answered too” she told him desperately. Not telling
him that one of the letters in particular she needed to know
about.

Peter was amused. Didn’t she know she was
famous now? It wasn’t just their town who knew of Maggie’s Mustangs
as she was billed in the circus. The O’Malley Farm had gotten many
inquiries after she left. First to buy which surprised him since
they were in a depression and few had money. Then after her horses
which he wasn’t authorized to sell unless something happened to
her. Frank at the bank had surprised him with that news after
Maggie had left. He was flattered but he also prayed that his best
friend came back unharmed and after seeing her perform in the
circus he had known she was having the time of her life and earning
money while she was at it.

Maggie left the feminine letter for last as
they opened all of the others one by one. There were solicitations
for her to come and perform which shocked Maggie as she had never
considered something like that. Because it was month’s
accumulations of mail, she had already missed the deadlines on
some. She had Peter write back anyway to them all, each and every
one of them and explain her being sorry to of missed them but that
she had been on the road with Bigelow’s circus and not gotten their
invitation until too late. She figured if she ever stopped
performing for the circus at least then she might have other
alternatives she had never considered. There were quite a few
inquiries, some she had made from stopping on the ranch in Arizona
for horses, breeding and ride mounts. She considered each one
carefully, giving Peter a chance to ease his cramping hand before
replying.

“
Geez Maggie” he said
shaking his hand after putting the quill down “my hand is hurting”
he complained good naturedly before continuing.

By what he read to her she had at least four
of her mares sold, she would be keeping the foals anyway and a
couple of the geldings as well. Her herd was safe with the money
she had saved and Frank had assured her he had received each of her
money transfers showing her a balance that made her proud. She was
able to pay her taxes and still have some to spare.

Reading her Ariana’s letter though was
different; Peter could sense Maggie’s anxiety. He could smell the
scented paper, he felt jealousy over her friendship and a little
more he couldn’t put his finger on it but he could sense there was
more. She told of the town they had stopped in next and that she
was helping with the zebra and donkey act, it wasn’t the same, it
wasn’t as exciting, and she wasn’t performing but she was missing
Maggie and hoped to see her in the spring. What was she doing?

Maggie hesitated to put anything personal in
a letter since it would be Peter writing it. She told of the foals
that had been born while she was gone, she told of the inquiries
for her horses and she impulsively invited Ariana to come and see
it all. She never expected to see Ariana before spring so it was
with absolute surprise that a Model T pulled into her yard two
weeks later.

Maggie had been doing the plowing on her
farm, catching up with a late planting of various crops. She was
using a pair of older geldings she kept for this very reason and
she was hot, dusty, and worn out from the work she hadn’t done in a
long time. Seeing the black truck pulling into her yard she wiped
her face and released the chain from the plow. She was done plowing
and would begin planting the very next morning, she wasn’t happy to
see visitors. The dogs were barking, horses were looking over the
fence in curiosity, their ears twitching, their tails swiping at
the ever present flies as they watched.

The visitor got out of the truck and shushed
the dogs from what Maggie could see, Feathers started wagging his
tail and greeting the visitor which surprised Maggie because that
meant he knew who it was. Filly wasn’t as welcoming as Maggie began
to walk across the farm yard wiping the sweat from her brow and a
film of dirt across it.

“
Why hello!” Maggie said in
absolute delight as she recognized Ariana in a yellow sun dress
with matching sandals on her feet looking incredible with her long
black hair back in barrettes.

“
Wow, that was quite a
drive” Ariana smiled in return at seeing her friend. Maggie was
dressed in overalls and looked every inch the country bumpkin with
her high rubber boots and checkered shirt; she was filthy too from
what it looked like.

“
I’m so surprised to see you
here” Maggie said in genuine astonishment.

“
Well you invited me” Ariana
waved the letter Maggie had had Peter write for her and she had
posted along with dozens of others the next day. She had never
posted more than a couple letters in her life but that day; all the
responses to the letters she had received went out and cost her a
pretty penny to post.

“
That I did, that I did”
Maggie responded with a smile.

“
Well aren’t you going to
hug me?” Ariana pouted and then laughed at the horrified look on
Maggie’s face as she looked down at the mud and dust on
herself.

“
Did you drive all the way
from Florida in that thing?” Maggie asked looking at the Model T
and recognizing Cecil’s old pride and joy.

Ariana nodded “I did, and all by myself too”
she said proudly.

“
What if you had had a
flat?” Maggie asked knowing the propensity for those things to do
that.

“
I did” Ariana admitted
“twice, but once two nice young men rescued me and once I changed
it myself!”

Maggie smiled, Ariana could do anything she
set her mind to and she didn’t blame the ‘two nice young men’ for
‘rescuing’ her, she would have done it for Ariana herself!

“
Well, this is great, how
long can you stay?” Maggie was suddenly excited to see her friend
and show her the farm she had grown up on.

“
For as long as you want me”
Ariana spread her arms and spun at the freedom of being here, it
had been a hard sell but she had been able to convince them that
she wanted a vacation away from the circus and Maggie’s letter had
been a godsend.

Maggie liked the sound of that and went to
the back to fetch Ariana’s suitcases carrying them easily she
escorted her to the small farmhouse.

Ariana followed curiously wondering what her
house would be like, she had talked about her home, how much she
missed it, and Ariana, who had never really had a home, had been
envious.

They went in through a screen door, Ariana
grabbing to open it with Maggie carrying the cases and onto an
enclosed porch where Maggie put down the cases and sat to remove
her rubber boots.

“
Do you want me to remove my
sandals?” Ariana asked showing off her nice leg as she stretched
out her foot.

“
Noooo” Maggie laughed as
she pulled off one of the boots and a small cloud of dust came with
it. “It’s just this” she indicated the cloud “I don’t want to have
to sweep up later.”

She soon had both boots off and in stocking
feet picked up the cases again.

“
Let me take one of those”
Ariana scolded and Maggie shook her head with a grin.

“
I’ve got them” she said and
opened another door where a cat sat next to the door as though a
welcoming statue.

Inside was like a hug as far as Ariana could
tell; the kitchen wasn’t very large, dominated by a table that had
seen a lot of use over the years but polished until it shone.
Onions hung from the ceiling and a room went off the far side, a
fireplace that was used for cooking with a stove attached at one
end, a sink and cupboards at the other end. Unused to a home, this
felt like one immediately. She followed into a small living area
with a couple of easy chairs, a couch with another cat on it that
watched her suspiciously, and shelves full of books and she
followed back to a hallway that led to an office and a several
bedrooms. Maggie gave her the largest which obviously had been her
parents before she set the cases down, one on a bench at the end of
the bed, the other on the bed itself. A large white pilled
bedspread protected the bed itself which had a four poster in some
dark wood and netting that could be lowered.

“
What’s the netting for?”
Ariana asked curious at how lovely it looked rolled up on all four
sides.

“
We get mosquitos and other
bugs flying around sometimes and you don’t want to close the
windows for any hint of a breeze that might come through, but
that’s summer, we get some good gully washers down here so you
won’t need to worry about netting none.”

Ariana remembered the conversations about the
farm and looked forward to a good old fashioned storm with rain
hitting the roof.

“
I’ll let you use the
bathroom first if you wanna freshen up, it’s going to take a bit
for me to clean all this off” Maggie indicated her dirty
attire.

“
Oh I don’t mind waiting”
Ariana hurriedly answered feeling nervous being here for the first
time.

“
Well, the outhouse is out
back if you need that or there is a bedpan under the bed for night
necessities” Maggie blushed telling her guest that but she had been
amazed the first time she encountered an indoor bathroom on the
road and wanted Ariana to understand she wasn’t fancy here. She did
have running water in the house though in the form of a bathtub.
“You can take a bath if you want, the plumbing is in for that” she
hurriedly told her to cover her embarrassment.

“
I’m fine, you go on” Ariana
told her. “I’ll unpack if that’s okay?”

Maggie nodded and looked up at her, their
eyes clicked, the attraction was there but Maggie was too
inexperienced and too unknowing to read Ariana like that.

Ariana finished unpacking long before Maggie
came out of the bathroom so she spent the time looking at the knick
knacks in the living room and sitting down to try and entice the
cat into letting her pet it. It, like its owner was a little
spooked.

“
There, that’s better”
Maggie came in looking fantastic to Ariana. She was wearing clean
dungarees, suspenders, and a button up shirt, familiar duds around
the circus for the working horse master, except for the suspenders,
those spruced it up a bit. Her hair was damp from her bath and she
had only finger combed it giving it a rakish appeal.

“
You have a very nice house”
Ariana said formally, now that she was here she didn’t know what to
say to Maggie. She had missed her,
desperately
. She’d been so miserable
that when Cecil suggested she visit and she got the letter from
Maggie she jumped at the chance, he had thought she would go by
train but she had convinced him to lend her his Model T and while
he hadn’t been thrilled that she was driving alone she was proud of
herself. She had only driven while the sun was up and stopped long
before it set so she was in a safe boarding house or a hotel long
before it became dangerous to drive at night.

“
Mama decorated it and I
just kept it up, Daddy didn’t really care and we spent most of our
time out in the paddocks anyway.”

“
Yes, let’s go see those
foals you told me about, I’m looking forward to seeing them!”
Ariana found the horses to be a neutral subject and jumped on the
idea.

Maggie took her out to the field where the
main herd was playing and munching on the grass in the shade of
several trees. She stopped in the middle and just sat down and
indicated Ariana should do the same. The horses weren’t inclined to
come out of the shade where they were comfortable but curiosity
factored in and one by one they were heading over to see what their
Maggie wanted, she hadn’t called them, she hadn’t commanded or
signaled them so they ambled over at their leisure. They smelled
Ariana and those that remembered her were soon nuzzling her for
pats and affection.

“
They remember me” Ariana
said pleased as she got up to pet more of them feeling overwhelmed
by their greetings.

“
Of course they remember
you, it’s only been a few weeks, they’d let you ride too if you
wanted” Maggie told her with a smile as one of the horses tried to
climb into her lap. “Stop that you big dog you” she said
affectionately.

Ariana laughed, she remembered how delightful
it was to watch Maggie play with her horses, training them without
them realizing it. They were so smart and loved her so much. A big
brute of a black horse stood off to the side being standoffish but
looking angry at them and Ariana noticed him, he looked like he
could breathe fire and she could tell he wasn’t someone to mess
with. “Is that your stallion?” she asked fearfully, she had heard
stallions could be dangerous.