Sapphic Cowboi (23 page)

Their first show together after all those
months parted from the circus wowed not only the crowds who came to
see them but their fellow performers. Ariana had already turned her
sketches and ideas over to the seamstresses and with some good
natured bantering and bartering had them excited about making the
outfits she felt they needed. After seeing the two of them perform
everyone agreed they were an excellent team. No one said anything
when they saw the unintentional affection between the two
women.

They got into the synch of
things, a three day show here, a one day show there, always
performing to the best of their abilities regardless of the length
of the show. Hoarding their pay against future plans Maggie
included Ariana in any future on the farm. They both knew now they
wanted a future,
together
.

As they worked their way north and Maggie saw
new towns and new places she marveled at the ever changing
landscape. Her world had been broadened last year by joining them
but now with Ariana to explain and talk to about it she learned
much more, read much more, and expanded her horizons as never
before. Ariana wondered at her lover and friend and how she saw
things, seeing them for the first time through Maggie’s beautiful
eyes was wonderful, she herself had seen many of the places many
times before and felt she had become hardened to their beauty.
Maggie found wonderment in the simplest of things.

Swimming the horses in the Atlantic Ocean off
of Atlantic City brought back memories of California and their joy
there. The horses enjoyed the salt water and the crowds that
watched their play were easy to hand out fliers to, they brought
several people from the circus to encourage people to attend.

They went up as far north as Boston before
turning west again and heading for Buffalo. As they approached Ohio
again from Pennsylvania Maggie began to form an idea and confided
in Perry who loved the idea. He spread the information and the
entire family got behind it. He took Maggie to a store and helped
her to buy some things and then he sat her down “you have to ask”
he advised her.

Maggie dragged her feet as she approached the
tents that made up the Bigelow’s offices and living quarters.
Ariana slipped away from them most nights to spend them with
Maggie, everyone had noticed but no one cared to say anything, they
saw two women in love and protected one of their own.

“
Oh, Hi Cecil, got a
minute?” she asked when she had called at the tent entrance and
been told to enter.

“
Hi Maggie, everything okay?
Those new bales get delivered?” He looked pleased to see her, she
had become a favorite, she wasn’t their only horse act anymore now
but she and Ariana were their best. She had really grown too from
the shy country bumpkin she had been and he was proud of her. From
what they had heard from Ariana too she had expanded her horse
breeding program and sold several horses.

“
Yes, they are much better
than the last batch, no mold and I didn’t have to throw out any.”
Mold could be deadly if fed even accidentally to a
horse.

“
I like the new accessories
you two have added, it’s really classy” he told her appreciatively.
Some acts got stagnant but Maggie and Ariana kept coming up with
new and better. He liked innovations.

“
Thank you, that’s Ariana
who keeps designing new stuff” she offered modestly but she had to
figure out how to make things work, what the horses would be
willing to do, and what they could get away with.

“
What’d you want to see me
about?” he asked curiously as he came from behind the makeshift
desk where he had been doing the infernal paperwork involved in
running an operation this big. They had picked over another circus
that had gone under this year and its leavings which they had
picked up for a song had helped them expand
considerably.

“
Um is Carlton around?” she
asked cautiously. She didn’t like him, he looked at women, all
women with a look that either dismissed them as human beings or he
stalked them as bed partners, she didn’t like how he ignored Ariana
either.

“
You wanted to see Carlton?”
he asked surprised.

“
No, not really” she looked
really nervous now as she wrung her hands.

“
What can I do for you
Maggie?” he asked kindly seeing how nervous she seemed.

“
I’d like to ask…” she
swallowed; this was harder than Perry had made it appear. “I’d like
to ask for Ariana’s hand in marriage” she got out feeling decidedly
uncomfortable looking everywhere but at what she assumed was
Cecil’s shocked face. At the deadly silence though she hesitated
and looked directly at him.

Cecil had been shocked. Not that Maggie would
ask such a thing but that this would acknowledge what was an open
secret in their small community. He didn’t know what to say really
but by the time she looked at him he had at least closed his gaping
mouth. He swallowed and asked “shouldn’t you ask her father?”
hoping to put it off on him.

Maggie shook her head
“surely you know how she feels about him, she loves you like a real
father, so no, you are the one I should ask, not
him
.”

“
You know it won’t be real…”
he began, honored knowing that Ariana loved him like a real father;
he had always loved that little girl as his own. The woman she had
become he was just as proud of.

She shook her head in denial “it will be real
to us and that’s all that matters, I just want your blessing before
I ask Ariana. We can worry about the ceremony in Ohio when we get
there” she told him.

He nodded dumbly and then realized, why the
heck not. The two women loved each other, made each other very
happy, why not a ceremony? It might not be legal, it might not be
Christian even, but to them it would mean something. He smiled
suddenly “why yes Maggie, I give you my blessing and I welcome you
as the other daughter I never had.”

Maggie had tears in her eyes as she nodded in
acknowledgement of what he had just said. The warmth she felt
towards her circus family and the love she had found was only
enhanced by the words this man had just said. She unconsciously
headed in his direction and they shared an awkward hug. She sniffed
audibly and smiled at him tremulously at the immense joy he had
given her. They shared the smile as Carl walked in and looked on
surprised. Maggie backed away, nodded to Carl, and smiled at Cecil
again before leaving the tent rapidly to go find Ariana.

“
What was that about?” Carl
wondered aloud, he thought for a moment perhaps Cecil was behaving
like Carlton, coming on to the young girls.

Cecil laughed in delight before telling his
father “Maggie just asked to marry Ariana!” then watched in equal
delight at the expressions on his father’s face.

“
Marriage? Between two
women? Why that’s, that’s…” he searched for the proper world
“preposterous!”

Cecil nodded and then said
“but it’s right…for
them
.”

Carl was surprised as his
ire lessoned, the circus had an interesting mix of people and he
had been around it for over twenty five years. He had seen same sex
couples for many years, he had known about Ariana’s predilections
for years and accepted it but …
marriage?
“But why
you?
Why not ask
Carleton?”

“
Has Carleton ever done
anything for that girl? She wouldn’t have gone to that school
without your say so.”

Carl had to agree, Carleton had been nothing
but a disappointment, still he did his job and while a failure as a
father he had fathered a beautiful young woman who looked amazingly
like her grandmother, only prettier and more alive!

Maggie found Ariana playing with the foal
that the zebra’s had squeezed out. It was cute and stunted, not
nearly as beautiful as the fillies that her own horses produced.
Seeing her play with the little baby who was ugly and awkward and
being looked on by the suspicious mother made Maggie wonder if she
was doing the right thing? If Ariana agreed she would be giving up
on having children of her own someday and maybe Maggie had no right
to do that? When Ariana looked up from where she was petting the
little filly on her lap like a dog though Maggie’s heart just
melted, she love this woman, they planned to spend the rest of
their lives together, that had already been decided, asking her to
marry her in front of all their family and friends was just an
affirmation of the love they felt for each other.

“
Hey look at her” Ariana
enthused as she let the filly rise from her lap. It wasn’t as
graceful as the horses that Maggie raised but it had its own charm.
Or maybe it was the woman who was looking like a little girl
playing in the hay with the baby.

“
She’s not going to be very
big” Maggie commented in amusement.

“
Maybe we should cross breed
one of your blacks with a zebra” Ariana said amused.

“
Don’t you dare!” Maggie
took the bait.

Ariana shared a laugh with her lover and then
looked at her, really looked at her. Maggie needed a haircut, her
short hair looked good on her but then she was used to its cut. It
was longer than she could remember it being before, a little
shaggy, Maggie had been too busy to have someone cut it for her,
and there was always someone willing to help in the circus. “You
need a haircut” she told her with a grin as she got up.

Maggie ran her fingers through her short
hair, it was longer than she liked but she had planned to cut it
for their ceremony but then Ariana didn’t know that. “Say, you busy
now?” she asked awkwardly instead.

Ariana looked at her curiously. She’d just
been playing with the zebra filly so no, she wasn’t busy. She could
see that Maggie was nervous for some reason and wondered at it.
“No, what’s up?” she asked trying to make whatever it was easy on
Maggie. She loved her so much, was so happy with her, she couldn’t
believe they were together after all the angst she had put herself
through last year convinced she could never have this.

“
Well I was looking for you”
she hesitated feeling suddenly shy and put her hand in her pocket
feeling for the box that Perry had gone with her to buy.

Ariana knew something was up; Maggie was far
too uncomfortable for whatever she wanted to say. She started
walking away from the zebra area to give them some privacy, people
were always around.

“
And I thought we could
talk” she continued still sounding awkward and unsure of
herself.

“
Hey Maggie, someone wants
to talk to you about your horses” someone called from over where
the fences were up around the blacks.

Maggie nearly groaned at the interruption and
headed that way followed by a puzzled Ariana wondering what was
going on, what Maggie wanted to talk to her about. They had a show
in a couple of hours, maybe there was a problem?

The man who wanted to talk
to her didn’t make a good impression on the circus horse master; he
was condescending to her because she was a woman and made it known
because he was a man that he was superior and more knowledgeable
about horses and life due to his
being
a man. He was astonished that
she refused to sell any of her blacks to him when he offered her a
pittance, insulted both her and her horses, and ended up being
chased off by Feathers for his insufferable attitude.

“
That was great!” Ariana
laughed after he was chased off. She herself had listened as he
told Maggie what she was doing wrong, with her training and her
breeding program and that the horses would be better off on his
farm where he would get them into shape. He was astonished she
didn’t use whips but then what could a mere woman hope to control
these stupid blacks with if not a whip?

Maggie was no longer in the frame of mind she
needed and she got up on Sampson bare backed and rode him around
the grounds to ride off her anger over the stupidity of that man.
Ariana understood her need to get away and let her go still
wondering about the conversation they had started by the
zebras.

“
Hey, where is Maggie, we
have to get you dressed” one of the performers mentioned to Ariana
as the time neared for their portion of the show, they had three
performances now in each show and were looking to add to
them.

“
I don’t know I haven’t seen
her in a while” Ariana worried as she looked for her partner and
friend.

It wasn’t until fifteen minutes before show
time that Maggie came galloping up on a frothing Sampson who looked
ready to take on the world.

“
Where were you, we go on in
fifteen minutes!” Ariana let her worry come out in
anger.

“
Yeah I know, I’m sorry I’m
late, I’ll be changed in a minute” she got off Sampson, and headed
for the tent she shared with Ariana most nights “could you sponge
his mouth off, he got pretty excited” she said as she ran to
change.

Ariana was annoyed; she got a bucket and
sponged the heaving black, whether or not he was ready for the show
he would have to go on. They promoted the ‘herd’ of Maggie’s
Mustangs and Sampson was a key player, a natural show off. She only
hoped that wherever Maggie had been he wasn’t too tired out. He
certainly was feisty as she sponged him down and saddled him up
with one of the show saddles that were small and almost
unrecognizable as a saddle. It consisted of black material that
matched the black of the horse and in fact was made of horsehair
but it allowed a seat on the horse so they didn’t slip off and they
could stand on him or spring off him depending on the stunt.
Sampson was solid and dependable and few of the other horses could
stand in for him.