Sapphic Cowboi

by K'Anne Meinel

  “Well, as we agreed I took some of your crops in trade, you’re gonna have to get a hustle on though if you’re gonna get replanted for next season” he told her.

  With Filly helping her gather the mothers and their foals and riding Perseus to show him she was still the boss she had her hands full getting them home. She kept them in a separate pen until the other sniffed everyone over through the fencing and decided they were part of the herd. She looked proudly at what she had created, what her father before her had created, what her grandfather has started. She had seen other horses, many other horses on their travels. She had seen what they called Arabians and liked the pureness and the abilities of them, she had seen some Thoroughbreds and some Quarterhorses, in fact, she was trading one of her mares for a black Quarterhorse mare she wanted, to introduce that line to her herd. She felt the combination of what her father and grandfather had bred, what she had bred, and introducing this to her line would create better horses.

  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, Ari
ana 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.

  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.