Sapphic Cowboi (8 page)

It went on for a long while despite the show
being officially over. Maggie and her horses had been on near the
end and were not part of the parade at the beginning or the end,
Cecil thought this might be better for her and he was glad he had
decided that after seeing the mass of the dozen of horses. It had
been a terrific show though, more than he could have hoped.

“
Did you see the awe on that
crowd’s face” Cecil’s father was slapping his son on the back.
“They thought we had loosed a wild herd of Mustangs on
them!”

Cecil smiled, the people had been a good
audience, it was a baptism by fire for Maggie and her herd and he
wondered how much of that was play or were they really out of
control?

“
That’s the kind of thing I
want to see me boy” he slapped him again on the back knowing they
could market this kind of show and make a lot of money.

“
It will be better with
Martha on the back doing her tricks” Carlton put in not wishing to
be left out or let Cecil get all the accolades.

“
Her tricks would be better
kept inside her tent” Cecil muttered not thrilled that Carlton had
talked their father into letting her be the performer. He wasn’t
sure she could even ride much less perform. They had tried her with
the trapeze at one point but her weight gain was of concern, they
had tried her with other acts and she always managed to get in a
fight with one of them, even the clowns wouldn’t work with her. He
only hoped Maggie could manage her.

It was a disaster in the making. The next day
Maggie was brushing out her babies, talking to them, feeding them
treats and making them feel at home in the paddock when Martha
sauntered up.

“
You Maggie?” she called in
her odd voice which startled a couple of the horses who shied away
from the sound of it. Feathers started to growl from where he lay
in the shade of the tent.

Maggie looked up where she was inspecting
Schwartzie’s hoof making sure there was no gravel in it to cause
problems later. “Yes I’m Maggie, what can I do for you?” she
asked

“
I’m Martha, Carlton tell
you I was coming over to help you?” she asked chewing on a piece of
gum.

Maggie looked over at the attractive
red-headed woman. She was short, a little on the dumpy side, but
she was what her father would have called blousy or perhaps fast.
She was wearing a too tight dress, it must be several sizes too
small for her, and she was wearing makeup and not performance
makeup either. She was chewing her gum as Maggie had seen cows chew
their cud. The way she stood with a hand on her hip and waiting for
Maggie to answer her said a lot too. Maggie didn’t know what kind
of performer she would be but if the Bigelow’s thought she was the
performer for the horse act then she would accommodate them. Maybe
they had sent her over to help take care of the horses? With that
in mind she asked “Oh, are you here to help me brush them out?”

The woman looked at her as though she had
lost her mind, she gestured at her attire “do I look like I’m here
to muck out horse pens or brush them?” she said sarcastically in
her annoying voice.

Maggie could see the horses didn’t like the
woman’s voice. Something about it made her just as skittish. She
decided, like her horses, she didn’t like this woman. “Oh, okay”
she said timidly as though she didn’t know. “Do you want to work
out something then?” she asked.

“
Well we need to get them in
line for my act” the woman informed her.

Her
act? Maggie wondered at the wording. “What did you have in
mind?” she asked almost afraid to ask.

The woman began gesturing as she talked about
what she would look like and wear and what she wanted the horses to
do. She had caught the last of Maggie’s act the previous night and
liked the standing on the horses back and thought she could do the
same…in heels. She went on and on, oblivious to her rising voice
but the horses began moving decidedly away from the noise. Her
ideas became more grandiose and her gestures as wild as her hips
came into play from her enthusiasm. Maggie wanted to tell her that
at least half of what she was planning wasn’t practical and the
horses wouldn’t stand for it but the woman hadn’t stopped talking
and Maggie was raised to never interrupt. By the time Martha wound
down they were both exhausted, Maggie from listening, Martha from
her enthusiasm. “So whatcha think?” she asked chomping on her
gum.

“
Well…” Maggie didn’t want
to cause waves, she was still new at performing, new to the circus,
and didn’t know what to expect or what she could demand but she
hadn’t liked any of the woman’s ideas. They were all about her,
about showing off her, none of it was about the horses, or their
beauty, or their safety for that matter. “We will have to work on
it as the horses don’t know you and will have to learn to work with
you…” she could see by Martha’s expression she hadn’t thought of
actually working
with
the horses.

“
You know how to control
them dontcha?” she was chomping her gum faster as she asked in a
tone that implied Maggie didn’t have a clue.

“
Of course” Maggie defended
herself not realizing she was being set up.

“
Then control them” Martha
said in a flounce as she turned to leave.

Maggie stared after her
wondering at the exchange that had just happened. Wondering how
they would ever be able to work together. The woman hadn’t even
wanted to
meet
the
horses and to her it was obvious the horses didn’t want to meet her
either. She didn’t blame them; she didn’t like the woman
either.

“
Man, you gave them a show
last night!” Perry enthused as they ate at a picnic table set up in
the chow tent. Everyone came and went as their duties allowed them
and they had just sat down to a hearty meal of beans, bread, and
something that looked like stew.

The others at the table, mostly clowns
without their makeup like Perry gave her compliments as well.

“
Tell me, were they really
out of control and wild like they looked?” one of them asked
her.

She laughed and shook her head “they were
excited, this was their first show, but they were behaving
themselves” she answered honestly. She was sure if she told anyone
how out of control they actually were she would lose her job and
she needed the money. Cecil had brought her, her first paycheck,
handing her cash and she had stared at it in wonder before hiding
it in a secret compartment within her saddle, under the pommel,
made to look like part of the saddle.

They discussed various shows they had seen,
the entire table except for Maggie were old hats at this, they had
been in various circuses over the years and seen many things. They
loved that they had a new audience in the form of Maggie.

“
You aren’t going to want to
hang around with this wild bunch” a new voice teased.

“
Oh Ari” was heard
exasperatingly and equally affectionately from several of the men
at the table. Perry stood up though and said “Ariana, I’d like you
to meet our new horse master Maggie O’Malley.”

Maggie stood up and wiped her hand on her
pants even though it was already clean but it was a nervous gesture
from meeting new people. In the past twenty four hours she had met
a lot of new people and she wasn’t sure she would ever get used to
it. She looked up in the darkest of eyes, the woman had black hair
like her own, whereas her hair was cut short, Ariana’s was long and
back in a bun making her look elegant in her sun dress.

“
Hello Maggie, call me Ari,
everyone does” she said in a pleasant and well-modulated
voice.

“
It’s a pleasure to meet
you” Maggie said shyly realizing she was in the presence of a real
lady. Ari was very pretty, had on a light bit of makeup and not at
all like she had seen on other women in the circus this made her
looks enhanced and not detracting from her natural beauty. She was
fine boned and in Maggie’s mind she likened her to a thoroughbred.
She found she had been staring and she quickly let go and looked
down wondering if she should just sit down.

“
What are you doing today
Ari?” one of the others asked and Maggie took the opportunity to
sit back down but she didn’t eat. She didn’t know how to behave
around another woman and didn’t want to make a fool of
herself.

“
Oh, I thought I’d go
shopping in Columbus while we have this opportunity. Daddy said I
could use one of the horses and a buggy.”

Maggie looked up at the word ‘horses’
wondering at the others that were in the circus and realized the
woman was looking directly at her with a teasing glint in her eye
and not understanding it at all.

The others caught on right away and started
chuckling.

“
I don’t think I could stand
on the back of the horses like you did last night but that was
impressive” Ariana said admiringly.

It was then that a suspicion started in
Maggie’s mind, the woman was looking for a horse to hook up and
take her town and while her blacks were trained for that as well
the audacity of them assuming they could borrow them when they
wanted made her angry. The compliment and the look in Ari’s eyes
though negated any ill-will. Maggie wasn’t sure how to take what
she was saying so she stayed quiet.

Ariana grinned showing she was teasing the
shy woman. She had found it fascinating when Cecil had told them
all about the new horse master and that it was a woman. She thought
the choice of Maggie as the performer for the act the worst choice
but it wasn’t her decision to make. She turned to the others and
showed she knew them all of long standing as she teased and talked
with each of them. She left them after she had spoken with each of
them. Maggie noticed they all were affectionate with her as she
resumed eating her now cold meal.

She was curious who exactly Ariana was as she
saw her drive away with a slick black buggy and being driven by a
brown horse of non-descript coloring and disposition. Everyone else
was at work getting ready for that night’s performance. Some were
still making money off the crowds that came to look at the animals
they had in, some of the carny people taking in their money by
offering services such as palm reading or games and events, making
it a carnival and not just a circus come to town. Perry had
explained they didn’t normally have the luxury of three days in one
place but the fairgrounds had been empty and the town large enough
to make some money off of side-shows so the carny’s had set up
their booths to make money.

“
So are you ready for
tonight’s show?” Cecil came up rubbing his hands. His father had
been pleased at last night’s performance.

Maggie smiled from where she was feeding her
horses and checking on them, a constant thing for her to hide among
them and avoid the crowds that wandered around looking at
everything. She had closed up her tent only to keep out the curious
after Perry warned her that people, even the circus people, would
steal anything not nailed down. “Do you want me to do anything
different from last night?” she asked and thought about how out of
control she really was the previous night.

“
Well I’m sure Martha can
show you a thing or two” he assured her.

Maggie’s face fell. She hadn’t seen Martha
since she had rudely introduced herself.

Cecil noted her expression and wondered if
she had realized yet that Martha was his brother’s mistress.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“
Does she even know how to
ride a horse?” she asked not wishing to complain, after all Martha
was their choice not hers although she did recall talking to Cecil
about choosing the right person to work with her horses.

Cecil was uncomfortable, he had no idea if
Martha could ride a horse, all he knew was that she had tried many
jobs in the circus to earn her pay and he wasn’t sure sleeping with
his brother wasn’t one of the jobs. “Of course she does” he said
heartily not sure if he really believed it or not. He tried to
smile to show his confidence but he didn’t realize how fake it came
across. “How did today’s practice go?” he asked.

“
Practice?” Maggie asked
wondering if she had missed something, someone hadn’t told her
about a practice.

“
You and Martha? How’d she
do on the horses?” he watched them a little uneasily, they were
watching him too, those that weren’t eating.

“
We didn’t practice” Maggie
confessed wondering if she had just lost her job because she hadn’t
known she was supposed to practice.

“
Martha was supposed to come
over and introduce herself…” he started wondering what had
happened.

“
She did come and introduce
herself but we never got to the horses.” Maggie was puzzled, she
didn’t understand.

“
Dammit” he swore causing
Maggie to feel startled “she was supposed to practice on your
horses” he said angrily.

Maggie didn’t know if she should answer that
and chose to stay quiet watching Cecil for a clue of what to say or
do.

Cecil knew what had probably
happened. That lazy slut Martha had probably come over, introduced
herself but gone off to sleep off another one of her binges. His
father would not be happy. He had loved Maggie’s horses but he had
said how much
better
it would be with a pretty girl on back of the horses like the
crowds expected. Cecil cursed the day his brother had started
sleeping with the little opportunist. “She was supposed to work on
your act today so you two could perform together tonight, some of
the basic stuff until we had the costumes made!” They had gone to a
lot of expense over the costumes that his brother had insisted on
for Martha, to keep her happy, to shut up her constant harping. He
had never known such a greedy woman. He saw Maggie’s concerned face
though and knew it wasn’t her fault. Attempting to keep his anger
under control he said “don’t worry about it; I’m sure you will do
fine.” He went off to tell his father and make sure he understood
it wasn’t Maggie’s or Cecil’s fault that his brother’s mistress
wasn’t prepared.