Sapphic Cowboi (4 page)

That night she stopped early enough in a
natural glen among the towering trees. She could have been in
Jackson within a half an hour but wanted to stay out this one last
night. She made a fire early and cooked some soup fixings she had
brought along before dousing the flame. She checked each of the
horses to be sure they hadn’t picked up a stone in their hooves and
were fine with the long march they had had that day. Each of them
exchanged affection with their human, rubbing their muzzles along
her as she patted and rubbed them. She smiled as she returned the
affection often hugging them out of sheer exuberance for the
massive beasts. Finally they were all settled and she lay on her
bedroll with Feathers, her dog beside her. The horses were loosely
around her chosen spot, sentinels guarding their human. Between
Feathers and the horses she was certain any intruder intent on
mayhem would be intimidated. Watching the stars up in the cloudless
night she fell asleep wondering what their future would bring.

Perhaps it was the remoteness of the glen she
was in, perhaps it was just fate, but she was lucky she wasn’t
discovered that night, men and women, desperately hungry and out of
work roamed all over America in this time of need. Her valuable
horses, her small amount of provisions, any of it would have been
gleefully stolen. Her very person would have been used to satisfy
some hunger that some needed to appease. They wouldn’t have cared
that she was a woman wearing dungarees or her hair cut too short,
they wouldn’t have cared about the dog or the horses, she was a
woman alone and as such fair game. Some men thought they had the
right to victimize those they felt were put there in their paths
for whatever they meted out, some men didn’t care about others,
some were just as desperate to feel something, anything at this
horrible time in history. If not the remoteness of the glen, the
black of the night, the black of her animals, or the fact that she
had put out her fire early, she might have been seen, she might
have been found, she might have been hurt.

Early in the morning as the
sun was barely over the horizon Maggie was up and taking the horses
to a creek she had found. She started her small fire and quickly
heated up the last of the soup before washing out the small pot she
had brought along and drying it to pack it among her things. She
fed Feathers some dried food she had brought along specifically for
him. In no time at all it was as though no one had been in the glen
except for the horse dung and the cropped grasses. Checking the
halters and ropes on the horses she was soon on her way heading for
Jackson and the depot. She created quite a stir in the early
morning as she rode down the main street with her herd and dog.
People stopped to stare at the site of a dozen perfectly matched
black horses, their manes and tails streaming behind them trotting
briskly along the avenue, a dog a the heels of the woman, and they
weren’t certain it
was
a woman, sitting straight in the saddle on one of the beasts.
She stopped in front of the depot and dismounted. The horses ranged
out as far as their ropes would allow them as she tied off Sampson,
the one she had chosen to ride today. “Stay” she said to Feathers
who watched her with his deep dark black eyes. He sat to
acknowledge the command as two of the horses leaned down to snuffle
at his feathery fur.

As she walked into the depot she saw it was
deserted except for a sleepy eyed clerk. His eyes widened at her
manly attire and long strides realizing this was a woman! “Can I
help you?” he asked automatically.

She smiled which further surprised him at the
beauty revealed “hello, I’m supposed to give you this” she handed
him a piece of paper Peter had explained to her that identified her
as an employee of Bigelow Circus and was supposed to get her onto
the rail cars.

He took and read it in surprise looking up at
the ‘woman’ who had given it to him. They had been expecting a
horse trainer, a man and this woman was definitely not what they
had expected; besides she was early, days early. He swallowed
thinking rapidly. They had some time and an empty car for her
before the next train was due. “Yes …” he hesitated “ma’am, we have
your car for you if you want to bring …” he swallowed “your horses
around” he indicated the back of the depot where a car stood on the
side track.

“
There were supposed to be
two cars made available for my horses” she told him wondering at
his hesitations and figuring they were some sort of speech
impediment, perhaps he was nervous around women.

“
Yes ma’am but we weren’t
expecting you for a couple more days and we only have the one” he
swallowed nervously wondering if she was going to get
angry.

Maggie was annoyed wondering if one would be
enough for her babies. “What about hay, feed, and water for them?”
she asked trying to think about their comfort.

He promised that both would be delivered if
she wanted to inspect the car as he gestured in back of the depot
and headed there grabbing his coat to escort her out to it.

Maggie was surprised at the sheer size of a
railroad car. The horses would fit inside she could see and she was
glad they hadn’t sectioned it off into individual stalls, the
horses could lie down too if they needed. At the moment and in the
newness of this type of travel perhaps it was better that they
didn’t have a second car where she would have to be constantly
climbing from one to the other to check on her babies. The car had
opened slats to allow air to flow freely and a trough for food and
another for water which the attendant assured her would be filled
from a reservoir in the floor of the car. The trip was expected to
take two days.

“
This isn’t like a regular
stock car” he told her nervously waiting for the explosion he was
sure would come over the missing second car. “The Mather’s” he told
her as though she should know what that was “only can carry six
steers, this is a Burton” he told her proudly, again assuming she
knew what that was.

She was only concerned that there was room
for her babies to move around, they weren’t confined to small
stalls and unable to keep their balance as the train pulled their
car along. She nodded to acknowledge what he was saying but knew
nothing about Mather’s or Burton’s, styles of railroad stock cars
that were used. “How soon can you deliver the hay, feed, and water
and when should I load them up?”

They discussed what she needed, she declined
to wait for a second car unsure of where she could hide the horses
while she waited for that second car and knowing she would be
stretching her luck on that idea. He agreed to get the hay and feed
right away and signaled to another clerk to arrange the filling of
the reservoir under the floor as they lowered the ramp to the side
of the car, he was surprised as the woman helped to do a man’s job
as naturally as any man would.

The horses hadn’t been left unnoticed, a
small crowd was gathered behind them and Feathers was sitting where
she had left him but looking uneasily over his shoulder at the
growing number of strange people. She looked just as curiously at
the people who were talking about the magnificent horses and she
caught the surprise of some as she untied Sampson and swung up into
the saddle to lead the horses around the depot.

“
Do you want help loading
them up?” the clerk called as he watched her leading the
blacks.

“
Nope, I got it” she called
back and pointed Sampson to the ramp who only hesitated a second
before mounting it followed by two of the others immediately. She
ducked her head and got off the saddle in a flash to push the
horses and call to the others that had stopped at the ramp. At her
reassuring voice two more mounted and then another two. “Cmon
Ashes, get up here” she said in an exasperated voice to one of the
horses that hesitated. At her voice the horse looked up and
immediately mounted the platform followed by two more. The final
two followed easily just waiting for the others to move inside.
Feathers sat at the door waiting for Maggie’s command and watched
the horses inside. It was crowded with the milling horses in the
empty car but Maggie quickly removed the ropes from their halters
as she reassured them in this new environment talking to them,
petting them, and calming them. She backed a couple of them up to
line them along the wall of the car and make some room. She removed
her saddle from Sampson and dumped it near the door with her bags
and gear and looked up as someone began to mount the ramp and
Feathers growled warningly.

“
Hi there, you need some
hay” the man called cheerfully as he eyed the dog in the doorway
and the horses that he could see beyond in the rail road
car.

“
Yep, you got some?” she
asked in return.

He indicated some bales he had on a cart and
Maggie went down to help him haul them into the car and stack along
the wall near the door.

“
Is this it?” she asked as
they finished with the few bales.

“
No ma’am, but I thought
you’d want to make a bed for these beauties” he admired the fine
horse flesh and wondered where they were shipping them, he’d been
surprised when one of the clerks from the depot had come running up
and breathlessly told him to haul the hay he had to the depot, that
someone had shown up
early
and they needed it
now.

She nodded to show she had heard him as she
looked at the horses looking at him curiously and suspiciously by
degrees. Feathers growl had been to alert her. “Are you bringing
the feed too?” she asked.

“
Yes ma’am, I’ll have both
here shortly after I get it loaded” he assured her wondering who
she was and where these horses were going, if she owned them, and a
few other curious things he would have liked to ask but
didn’t.

Maggie nodded again not saying much as she
watched him hurry back to his cart and with his broad shoulders
effortlessly lift the end and hurry off with it away from the car.
He had been surprised when she took the bales effortlessly on her
own shoulders one at a time and carried them up the ramp into the
car. She turned to start taking apart the hay bales and make beds
for her beautiful babies who snuffled at the hay and began nibbling
at it as she spread it around.

The man did return with many more bales and
sacks of feed. The clerk filled the reservoir beneath the car and
she filled a trough with fresh water. Somewhere a pitchfork was
found to clean up after the horses that didn’t seem to care where
they were when they needed to rid themselves of their manure or
water and Maggie made a pile in the corner of the car.

“
You can toss that out on
the siding when they stop to fill the train with water” the clerk
assured her when he saw her neatly piling the manure and hay in the
corner. He didn’t tell her that she could throw it on their own
siding because he knew he would be the one to clean it up if she
did. “I’ll be sure to tell the conductor to have them fill the
reservoir on the trip” he promised her.

“
What about my own food?”
she asked unsure if she had enough for another two day trip and
wondering if she should go into town to buy some to tide her
over.

“
You can eat in the cars
when they come up” he glanced at her attire “we can provide you
with a sleeping berth…” he began and she shook her head.

“
No, I’ll sleep in here” she
said indicating the hay bales she had spread for her own bed, her
bedroll on top.

“
But your tickets paid for
that” he began and she looked at him curiously wondering why he was
arguing.

“
Just refund the difference
to me and I’ll make sure the money gets back to the circus” she
told him. “I just want to make sure I get some food, I don’t need a
berth.”

He reluctantly gave her the difference of the
berth on her ticket and changed it to food only, most who traveled
like that would end up sleeping upright in their seats but since
she was riding with the livestock he had to admit she would
probably be more comfortable in there and certainly would have a
lot more privacy. He watched as she shoved the difference deep in
the pocket of her dungarees. “The train should arrive about 10
o’clock and will hook up to yours then” he assured her. She nodded
as she looked at the clock; she had an hour yet to kill and thought
maybe she should get some food despite his assurances that she
could get some with her ticket. Besides she would need treats for
the horses and food for Feathers. He directed her to the nearest
General Mercantile and watched curiously as she walked off in that
direction.

As he tried to remove the ramp from the car
though he ran into a problem, the dog began growling threateningly
and the horses within began to crowd around curiously at the open
doorway where the woman had shoved a board across but left open the
main sliding door. That board wouldn’t halt a determined horse or
the dog that was watching him warningly from under it. He decided
to leave the ramp until the woman returned and went back inside to
work.

Maggie quickly made her purchases surprised
at the higher prices here in the big city and made her way back
towards the depot. She would have liked to see more of Jackson but
people were looking at her attire curiously and her short black
hair like she was an oddity. She put her purchases with her gear,
Feathers nosing at the packages with a knowing wag of his tail. She
looked out the door waiting for the sound of the train approaching
as she looked into town as far as she could see with the depot in
the way. When the clerk approached she hopped down to help him
remove the ramp.