“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 h
ad 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.
Maggie smiled and nodded “yes, I can’t wait.”
This pleased Ariana as it meant more time for them to spend together. She picked up a few odds and ends in the store as well. They were soon on their way back towards the farm. “You don’t have a movie theater in town?”
“Nope, that’s why that one was the first I’d seen and boy what a movie” Maggie remembered it all, Rhett Butler and Scarlet O’Hara, what a movie! She also remembered the feelings it had engendered inside of her, the feelings for the woman driving this truck. She had suppressed them for so long that remembering the movie and those feelings suddenly struck her again and she nearly asked Ariana if she had ever been attracted to a woman but stifled the impulse immediately. As a result she was a little quiet on the way home.
“Something wrong?” Ariana asked as she pulled up close to the house so they could hurry in with their purchases and not get too wet.
“Wrong? Why would anything be wrong?” she answered but then hopped out quickly carrying her mail and a few of the packages with her arms full.
Ariana knew she was a tad too quiet but her arms were full too and she made her way into the house. “Whew, I’m going to bake tomorrow!” she vowed as she began to put away their purchases.
Maggie smiled “I’ll look forward to sampling what you make then!”
“Maybe I’ll put you to work!” Ariana threatened.
Maggie was wondering what to do with the mail, she wanted to know what it said but heading over to Peters in the rain would bring up unnecessary questions and she didn’t want Ariana to know she couldn’t read. She put it down on the bench by the door and helped put away the packages.
“Why don’t you read your mail while I put together supper” Ariana offered.
“You’ve been making supper almost every night since you got here” Maggie objected, “let me make you dinner.”
“That’s okay, I love learning to cook, and this book is amazing” she pointed to Betty Crocker’s Cook Book. “It’s taught me a lot!” She opened it to meals and pointed at a picture “here you read me the ingredients and I’ll put it together” she offered generously.
Maggie froze for a moment and scooped up the mail “I’m just going to put this in the office” she said to avoid the conversation.
Ariana shrugged and went to make dinner not realizing that Maggie had just avoided a conversation with her.
Dinner was delicious. They had pork chops, mashed potatoes, and fresh canned corn. “When did you find time to can all that” Ariana asked as she indicated the lines of canning jars in the pantry.
“Well when I had the garden going full steam I hated to throw anything away so the horses got a lot but I also canned in the evenings.”
“I’d read every chance I got, your mother had a terrific collection” Ariana enthused as she cut off the meat from her chop.
Maggie nodded and changed the subject. What she knew, she hadn’t learned from books but from doing. She hadn’t had time to go to school and both her father and grandfather saw no point in educating girls. Even if she was brilliant with the horses they had thought she would have a man to take care of her someday and what did she need to know those things for?
A couple of days of very cool weather followed the rain but it was enough to dry out the fields a little before more rain came, almost torrential rain and they were stuck inside. Maggie spent time in the barn working on her forge making shoes for the horses.
“Is there anything you don’t know how to do?” Ariana asked admiringly as she watched the muscles on Maggie’s arms bulge in her shirt as she struck the hot shoe with her hammer to get it custom fit for Ebony who she was presently shoeing.
“You have the animals, you learn how to take care of them” she told her with a smile through the soot on her face.
Ariana had often been amazed at Maggie’s skills, seeing her hot and sweaty behind the forge though caused her to feel a bit, hot under the collar herself as she watched her expertly fit the shoe to Ebony’s foot.
“Shhh shhsh,” she calmed him when he tried to shift away from the hot fitting, the smell of slightly burnt nail material from the hoof was in the air. She soon had it in the shape she wanted, trimmed off some of his hoof and then applied it one last time to measure before nailing it into the hoof.
“Have you ever got kicked?” Ariana asked as she sat on a bale of hay and watched.
“Sure, plenty of times” Maggie answered without looking up as she finished nailing on the shoe.
“Doesn’t it hurt?”
Maggie finished off the shoe, gave the hoof a couple of swipes with her file and felt it before answering “sure it does” she looked up “but hopefully you have the trust of your horse when you work on them like this. They could kill you if they wanted, but mine don’t want to.”
“I think Perseus could if he wanted to” she answered with a shudder remembering how he looked at her when she went into the field to play with the horses and foals she was so fond of.
Maggie let go of the foot and stood up slowly from her bent over position, feeling her back as she straightened it, her breasts pushing against the fabric of her sweaty shirt, Ariana’s attention was immediately diverted as she watched the play of Maggie’s body against her clothing. “Well Perseus has a job to do; taking care of his harem is part of it.” She arched back to curve her back fully and gave Ariana a fine view of her breasts tautly against the material. She wanted desperately to take her in arms and … quickly she tamped that thought down.
“Are you done for the day?” she asked instead.
“Yep, Ebony was the last one today. I don’t have to do any of the two-year olds yet.” She arched again to ease her aching back. She checked all four feet once more and let Ebony out into the pasture where he joined the others, their heads bobbing in horse greeting.
“That’s sure a pretty sight” Ariana commented as she came up beside Maggie to watch them.
“Prettiest sight” Maggie agreed, alert suddenly with smell of Ariana on her nostrils. She was right there, right at her side, the smell of her was intoxicating, all she had to do was turn, she was only a few inches taller, she could turn and… she tamped down the improper thoughts and looked up at the rain that continued to fall. She turned the other way “I’ve got to clean up” she said.
Ariana had felt something in the air as they watched the horses, she felt a vibration from Maggie, or thought she did. She had deliberately barely brushed against her shoulder as she came up beside her. She wanted desperately to take her in her arms, to feel her against her, the thought of those breasts against her made her dizzy with need, want, and desire. She bit her lip to stop it, the pain giving her some measure of control. She thought Maggie sensed her thoughts and turned away but she began to pick up the tools she had used and Ariana realized she was foolish, she was the one with the problem, Maggie didn’t even know of her attraction.
“Hey, you didn’t read these?” Ariana had been cleaning up the house, room by room. A couple of the rooms, one that had been Maggie’s brother’s was spotless and closed off, the other, her grandfathers was as well. She saw that Maggie kept her own room Spartan and clean but only functional. No pictures on the wall, no clothes anywhere lying about. The office was the only room that Ariana hadn’t gone into and when she saw the pile of mail on the desk she picked it up to ask Maggie about it.
“Oh, I forgot it was there” Maggie said hedging from where she was sitting in the kitchen oiling some leather leads and being careful not to get the oil anywhere but on the leather. She looked down at her project nearly done and rubbed harder.
“But this might be important” Ariana stated confused, hadn’t Maggie went to read it the other night?
Maggie shrugged.
Mail was rare and important in Ariana’s mind and then it occurred to her, the state of the office, it was messy and unfunctional, in fact, there were piles of opened mail in piles of piles all around the office. A suspicion was forming in her head as it occurred to her. “Maggie?” she called to get her attention.
Maggie ignored her, knowing what might be coming.
“Maggie?” Ariana said quietly as she came to stand before her.
Maggie studied her shoes, today she was wearing regular shoes rather than the sandals she preferred. They had white socks in them and looked nice on her slender small ankles.
“Maggie” Ariana said in a different voice and at this Maggie looked up, her hands slowing from the rubbing they were giving the leather leads. At the cautious look in Maggie’s eyes she felt her heart melt, she thought carefully of how to ask her, how to approach this delicate subject, she swallowed convulsively “do you know how to read?” she asked hesitantly and feeling bad for her friend, for this wonderful, beautiful soul who was so fantastic with animals, a great friend, and who was hurting from what she could see.
Slowly Maggie shook her head, not saying a word.
“Not at all?” Ariana said tenderly, her heart going out to her.
Again, Maggie shook her head feeling like an absolute failure to the more sophisticated Ariana, someone she admired greatly, loved desperately, and would have bitten out her own tongue before she told her this bit of news.
“Can you write?” she asked now confused and wondering how she had sent the letter to invite her here.
Sapphic Cowboi Page 12