Sapphic Cowboi (16 page)

Maggie looked around the mass of legs around
her and couldn’t quite see so she got up using Ashes as a pulling
point and standing up. “Yup, that’s Perseus, he was glad to get
‘his’ horses home” she laughed as she told about bringing home the
mares with their foals.

“
OH they are so cute” Ariana
nearly squealed as she saw the foals staying so close to the mares.
“Can I touch one?” she asked hopefully.

“
Sure, let me get you
Cinnabars” she said as she went to call the mare to her. She was
soon bringing up a foal to Ariana “now hold out your hand and let
him smell it, he’s skittish yet but all of them will be good soon
after they get used to people.”

Ariana was enchanted, he was so small but yet
so big, she had thought they would be tiny but they were bigger
than the dogs. Petting them was a treat even with the mare looking
on suspiciously and the stallion breathing hard in the background.
She didn’t care what Maggie said, that stallion was scary.

One by one Maggie brought the foals to Ariana
telling her which ones were fillies and which ones colts. She
adored the twins especially after Maggie told her how dangerous it
was for horses to have twins. “I can’t believe you are going to
geld those” she said feeling sad for the little colts.

Maggie chuckled “it’s life on a farm Ariana,
I can’t have all these stallions around and look how many geldings
I can have” she indicated the friends Ariana had made on the circus
circuit. The horses knew her, trusted her, and adored her. Ariana
couldn’t argue with that.

“
I can see why you love it
here” she said as she looked out at the fields hewn from the woods
surrounding the farm. They were green with fall rains and the ones
dug up for planting waiting to spring up new life.

“
I have to begin planting
those fields” Maggie mentioned, work waited for no one and visitors
would have to accommodate that. She hoped Ariana didn’t
mind.

“
Oh can I help?” she asked
eagerly.

“
You are going to regret
asking that” Maggie laughed as they headed inside.

Ariana was thrilled; Maggie knew how to cook
and didn’t mind teaching her. “I never had anyone but the cook at
the circus and he cooks in such vast quantities I never learned how
to cook a single meal” she said as she laughed over their efforts.
Sitting down for two to eat was pleasant too because it was just
the two of them “So where is Peter?” she asked in a pleasant voice
wondering at their relationship she hadn’t been brave enough to ask
about.

Maggie shrugged “probably on
his farm planting
his
crops” she answered absentmindedly as she started eating and
missed the look of delight on Ariana’s face.

It was dark soon enough and they sat out on
the front porch with the cats and the dogs and looked out over the
fields where they could see the horses from the deeper darker
shadows they made outlined when in the middle. Those under the
trees were invisible.

“
This is nice” Ariana said
as she sipped some water and felt the coolness of the night
air.

“
I hope the rain holds off a
couple more days” Maggie told her.

“
Why, that would be lovely”
Ariana thought about the sound of it on the roof and looked forward
to it.

“
I need to get the seed in
the ground before it comes or I’ll have to plow the fields
again.”

Ariana nodded realizing how ignorant she was
of farming.

They sat out talking about the circus and
what Maggie had missed. Her act had been missed and Cecil was
anxiously waiting on her sending of the signed contracts. Maggie
flushed, she had forgotten about the contracts and realized she
would have to go over to Peter’s and have him read them to her but
not until she was done planting. They chatted until bedtime and as
they both stood, Maggie saying it was an early day with the
planting to be done they nearly collided and Maggie reached out to
steady Ariana before she fell back to the chair. The catch in both
their breaths was heard by both of them. Ariana stood there with
the touch of Maggie’s hand on her hip and unconsciously leaned into
her for a kiss. Maggie, certain Ariana was steady took a step back
from being so close to the pretty woman she was attracted to. She
couldn’t see the expression on Ariana’s face, the rejection she
felt.

“
Well goodnight” Maggie said
once she made sure the doors were closed for the night, the cats
and the dogs out.

“
Goodnight” Ariana answered
as she went to wash up; grateful she had used the privy after
dinner and didn’t need it now. She was also grateful for the water
piped into the old farmhouse and wondered why they hadn’t put in a
modern toilet in the place.

Maggie listened to the unfamiliar sounds of
someone else using the water in the bathroom and smiled, it was
nice to have company; it was especially nice to have Ariana of all
people visiting.

Ariana couldn’t believe the amount of work a
farmer did in a day. Maggie used to it didn’t even realize how much
she did. Gathering eggs, milking her cow, cleaning out the barn and
then eating breakfast only to go out and seed the fields, Ariana
was astonished. She soon realized she was hopeless at seeding and
instead offered to gather the eggs, milk the cow but only after
Maggie laughingly taught her, and then when Maggie showed her how
to make scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast made breakfast for them so
Maggie could get an earlier start and get the fields planted.

“
I smell rain” Maggie
complained on the last day she planted seed in her fields. “I’ve
got to hustle and finish” she said good-naturedly.

She was filthy, every day she came in from
her fields covered in pink dust from them. Every day she washed it
off her only to go out and do the same day after day. Ariana took
her water and watched her go round and round the fields with a
machine that raked the dirt over the seed she had planted. She
played with the horses, she learned to milk and strip the cow, and
she learned to find the hidden nests that the ornery chickens hid
in the deep hay of the barn. She got the mares with foals to trust
her by bribing them with carrots and other treats so she could pet
the colts and fillies and get them to adore humans. At no time did
she go near the stallion, he genuinely frightened her.

“
I hope you’re done then”
Ariana answered as they ate the sandwiches she had prepared under
the shade of a tree.

“
I appreciate you helping me
like this, I’m so glad you visited” Maggie told her with genuine
warmth.

“
Well if I could learn to
cook, I’d bake a cake so we could celebrate you finishing the
planting” Ariana told her honestly.

“
I think I have my mom’s
Betty Crocker cookbook around, you could look on the shelves in the
living room, she always said that was the best book to learn how to
cook from” Maggie told her but then looked down, she hadn’t ever
read it, there had never been any need.

“
I’ll do that” Ariana said
delighted with the idea as she didn’t have enough in the day to
keep her busy. She had cleaned which Maggie appreciated, she had
learned to cook breakfast, sandwiches were easy for lunch, but
dinner defeated her.

That night Maggie was astonished at the roast
that was on for dinner, the carrots and potatoes on the side and a
cake in the oven making the house smell heavenly. “What in the
world?” she asked as she came in stocking feet into the
kitchen.

Ariana smiled, thrilled at her surprise, “I
found your mother’s cookbooks!” she was delighted.

Maggie returned her smile “well I got
everything planted and just in time, it will rain tonight!”

Ariana was looking forward to that as well;
she longed to hear the rain on a roof.

The dinner was delicious for a first effort
and they both appreciated it. There was enough for leftovers for
lunch and dinner tomorrow.

“
Look at this” Ariana tried
to show Maggie the cookbook she was reading. Maggie was trying to
get the radio to tune in a show she was following. Abbot and
Costello were due to come on soon.

Maggie looked at the pictures, the black and
white photos showed some deserts that looked delicious “I’d have to
grow strawberries for that” she said as she looked at the photos
that looked so real.

“
Yes but do you see how much
sugar is in that?” Ariana was enthusing about the
ingredients.

Maggie looked down at the wording which meant
nothing to her and nodded in agreement. To change the subject she
asked “have you ever heard of Abbot and Costello” and was soon
telling about their hilarious comedy half hour as they waited for
the show to begin.

The rain did come that night and lasted on
and off for the day “this is good, it will give the ground time to
soak it up. If it came down in a gully washer it would wash all my
seeds away” Maggie explained.

“
Why don’t you put the
horses in the barn?” Ariana asked.

Maggie didn’t mind answering questions “they
can eat all they want out in the pastures and I don’t have to pay
for feed or use what I have on hand. I’ll be haying in a month and
storing that against next year’s needs” she told her avid audience.
Ariana loved learning everything about the farm.

“
Didn’t you tell me they
would ‘color’ or turn red if they were in the sun too
long?”

Maggie nodded pleased that Ariana remembered
everything she had ever told her “yep, remember how red they got in
California, it’s a form of brown” she jogged her memory as their
conversations went on.

“
Don’t you ever think about
getting a husband to help you with all this” she asked one day
cautiously, she wondered why Maggie didn’t marry Peter who had come
by and welcomed her, remembering her from the circus.

Maggie shrugged feeling uncomfortable these
days at the question, it used to not bother her, her lack of
husband, now that she realized why she hadn’t wanted one she felt
uncomfortable. Especially because the object of her affections was
standing there looking cute in a nice little dress. “My daddy used
to bring boys and men by all the time but I never found one that
would suit” she answered honestly.

“
What about
Peter?”

Maggie snorted in laughter “Peter is one of
my best friends, it would be like marrying my brother” she gave a
mock shudder.

Ariana looked at her, she had no clue that
Peter had a fondness for her; she had seen the way he looked at her
and wanted to say something but held her tongue. Maggie didn’t know
how he felt about her. “Why don’t we go to town, I’ve got the
truck, and we won’t get wet” she said suddenly excited at the
idea.

Maggie looked at her in surprise from where
they sat on the porch watching the rain pitter patter down. “That’s
a great idea, I never thought of going to town in the rain, you get
so soaked horseback and the buggy I didn’t want to haul out much
less the wagon.”

They were soon ready to go out and the rain
eased up enough until they were inside the truck that they barely
got wet. Maggie held on for dear life again as Ariana drove. She
wouldn’t tell her but she wanted to learn how to operate one of
these machines, she was fascinated and frightened by it in equal
turns as Ariana maneuvered over the pot holes in the road towards
town. “No one wanted to give me directions out here when I stopped
in town” Ariana told her over the noise of the engine.

“
Why is that?” Maggie asked
surprised.

“
They probably thought I was
some bill collector or something” Ariana answered with a
laugh.

“
How’d you find your way
then?”

“
Oh a lovely lady at the
boarding house believed me when I said I was a friend of yours from
the circus and gave me the information to get out here” she told
her with a smile.

“
Mrs. Baxter?” Maggie
asked.

“
Yep, I think that was the
name” Ariana answered, “really nice friendly lady, offered to put
me up if I wanted.”

“
Yeah, Cecil stayed there
when he came through town looking for me” Maggie told
her.

They got to talking about the people they
knew in the circus again and it filled the time it took for them to
go into town in the old truck.

“
Why Maggie, this is a
surprise to see you on this rainy day” the proprietor of the store
a Mr. Ringer looked up from his newspaper.

“
My friend Ariana has a
truck so we decided to come into town since it was raining” Maggie
answered.

“
Oh yes, the circus friend”
he said in reply.

“
How’d you know I was with
the circus?” Ariana asked confused.

“
It’s a small town Ari”
Maggie said with a laugh at her facial expression.

Ariana laughed with her, she had forgotten
how that could be.

Maggie had some mail, replies to all the
letters she had written and even a letter from Ariana which she
turned with surprise at her friend.

“
I wrote to tell you I was
coming but I guess you know that now” she laughed. She understood
now that Maggie only went into town occasionally and not on a
regular basis.

Maggie joined in on the laugh but tucked the
mail away as she got a few things they needed. With Ariana cooking
more and more they needed things like sugar, salt, and fresh
meat.

“
You going back on the road
with that circus next year Maggie?” Mr. Ringer asked.