Eldorado…part one.
Chile 1855….
It’d been a long damned tired trip from home to Chile and I’d thought that I’d left all the excitement and the drama of America behind me. Well guess not, I just came to find out that South America was still an America of a sorts.
Just as wild, and just as filled with its own dangers. Like the tsunami that hit here a week or so ago. I wasn’t here but riding through the countryside the last few days I’ve seen plenty of things that really show the power of nature.
Part of me honestly wants to stop and help a few of these folks but one I’m a gringo until they take in that I’m a woman or that I look like one, then there’s the fact I’m white and American and a senorita.
Yep…heard right.
I look like a girl.
Sorta of a long story but I was changed, given things to make me like a girl by this bastard named Lucien and trotted out to be one of his attractions in his freak show. He had this fella whip up some stuff that had burn’t all the hairs off my face and another bunch of stuff that made me lose the other air on my body.
Unfortunately I’ve got a chest like my momma’s. She was well known for her bosom. And I’ll have you know part of me wishes for that dry heat of home…either back home in America or down home in Comodoro…well just outside out it about a five hour’s ride to where me and my girls have our place.
We called it Del Toro and it’s a ranch and it’s the one place that I can truly call home. We landed with a mess of people that ended up coming with us out of California and we all kinda banded together and I’m not really sure why I got elected to be “The Boss” but Jade and Dove are certainly the ladies of the house.
We’ve got cattle and we’ve got some good ground too for crops and Jade’s ideas of crops an mine are a tad different. I was raised in corn and grain country and some potatoes and themsuch.
Jade had us get fruit trees put in and that was a pain and seven fold I’ve never seen it done like she wanted yet we dug holes…hole to plant her trees in well transplant trees she’d bought from other people but we had buried them a foot and a half up the trunks and she’s dumped stuff into the holes like horse manure and cattle manure to dirt and sawdust and even things like banana peelings and such.
Gotta admit the trees took root again really well and we have lots of fruit and stuff. And I really do like to have good apples around and we have good apples and good pears and we have for the first time in my life seeing them a couple of them avocado trees and a few lemon trees too. I’ll got to admit…one of Dove’s lemonades in a canning quart right out of the well sounds really good ‘bout now.
Beef was my main idea but we have a dairy herd too and we make our own butter and cheese and jade introduced me to yogurt and sour cream. I’m not too big on either of them but they do go good with spicy foods.
We got lots of veggies too and that’s with the locals I’ve never really knew there was that many squashes and such. We got lots of variety and we even have stuff planted that sells. We grow lots of onions, they like the soil up our way.
It’s been a good life so far even though I know that if we weren’t as armed as we are that we’d have men up in our business trying to take what’s our just because we’re a bunch of women.
I’ve got two loves and I’ve fathered two children one from each despite the way that I look both are little girls and both call me Momma, Dove’s Mom and Jade’s Mummy.
Oh yeah…I guess I should of introduced myself.
I’m Nikki Steele.
People used ta call me “The Fastest Dress in the West.”
I’m getting looks I’ll admit that I must be a sight. A blonde woman alone with a straw cowboy hat on…hey they’re light and a vest in a pale yellow shirt with the front undone because it’s so damned muggy here and a pretty good sized set of breasts wearing pants and a set of gunbelts with two colts strapped to my sides and a fair number of blades and a bullwhip as well.
I’ve gotten inked too, my right arm has an Indian styled raven tattoo on the wrist and forearm that Dove had drawn for me and my left has a cross and rosary with a bunch of roses and a knife on it.
Yeah I’m not really what most folks have seen around here.
Oh and here’s Santiago.
So why am I all the way up here in Chile when I should be minding my own back home?
Damon Black…
Damon had been an ex-lover of Jade’s and he had shown up needing a place to stay and we gave him a roof over his head and food and work. He was a decent ranch hand and even not a bad fella to talk to if a bit different…he had came from New York City originally I guess and he was a bit of a tough bastard from things that jade had said and he had been useful now and then when some of the rancheros though we’d be easy pickings with the cattle.
But…
Damian the fella that took over everything that the bastard Lucien had sent us a crate on day last month out of the blue with a letter saying he’d be round to collect it and stay a spell.
When we opened it up there was a lot of stuff that jade said looked like really old Columbian Indian things and more stuff like journals written in Portuguese she thought. But with them was some things, pottery and what-not but this stuff had been inlaid with gold.
And there was a map? It looked like it might be a map up that big old river they got over there called The Amazon…but one word had been really clear in the journal that we did pick out and stuff.
“Eldorado…”
Well it took him a few days and the sonovabitch waited until I wasn’t home but he broke into the main house and he stole the stuff in the box.
Well that’d be enough to send me after him but he mixed things up with Jade and he stabbed her.
She lived but it was a close one.
Too damned close.
And I might be sort of a woman, but at the same time there’s enough of the old me that was raised not to let stuff like this stand. Dove was good and she understood and I left not just for getting those things back for our friend but there was a score to settle.
I ride carefully making my way through the crowds; with things being the way they are here after the big wave the streets are busy. I get a really serious look from a bunch of missionaries from back home with their whole collars and crosses.
I don’t mine the faithful but I can’t stand those that are faithfully ignorant and faithfully bigoted. And even without knowing me they don’t like my appearance. A woman’s gotta keep her place.
My colts are good reasons though why they and a lot of the locals aren’t harassing me. Women are sort of seen in that same way down here sometimes but they also get that there are some that won’t fit all the rules.
I’m mannerly and tip my hat to the preacher and his flock as I ride by. “Preacher.” I keep going and I head to where there’s a place where I can stable my horse. I’m looking for someplace I think I can trust. Like I said…there’s a lot of folk that’ll cheat you just because you’re a woman.
I find a small livery still open and I stop here because there’s a woman and two girls that look to be her daughters mending tack. I’m going to wager they do other things here too and this is one of those smaller family style stables.
“Ola senorita can I help you?” This older man comes out from the inside of the barn area.
“Yessir, I’m lookin for a place to stable up for awhile.”
“How long mees?”
“I’ll pay for a full night.”
“That’s a decimo mees.”
I reach for my wallet out of my back pocket and pass him a decimo, that’s a dime here considering the state of affairs that’s a fair price.
I leave Lola to him and get some of my things arranged and I head into the streets with a picture of Damon on a scrolled up piece of paper that Dove had drawn and start asking around. I spend a few centavo here and there to grease the pig as it where and one old timer nods and points me to a place down towards the docks.
I pay him a decimo kind of mostly because he’s got an honest face and people round here can use the odd bit extra. I’m moving through the streets trying to not get too caught up in the likely literal crap and stuff that’s here there’s still no indoor plumbin here abouts, heck my place has indoor plumbing…
I’m actually thinkin about Damon and a bit about taking a bath when I’m hit with a shoulder tackle into an alley and I’m wrestling with three men. They’re going for my guns…one’s ripped my shirt open and ma girls would’ve been floppin if not for my corset that I’m wearing and they seemed pissed off.
“Damned puta, what’re you doing with things like these, you don’t deserve to carry them and pretending to be a man.”
They’re Chilean or hispano of some kind by any rate and they look like they’re street toughs, they also look like they’re thinking of rapin me.
I get titty fondled by the shirt ripper and I see red…he’s busy thinking he’s going to get something he’s never going to get and I let him do what he’s going to do…it’s only have a minute before he’s grabbing for my pussy and gets a handful of my fella-bit.
“Matre de dios! Shee’s a senior!” he’s freaked out and he’s shocked the others…it’s an opening. I headbutt the guy trying to get his mitts on my guns. I break his nose with a crunch and he yelps but he let’s go of my arm for an instant.
I draw and pistol whip him it the temple, point the gun at the other fella holding me and do the first click of the hammer being pulled back with ma thumb. He flinches thinking he’s going to get shot and I draw with my other hand and shove that one into the mouth of the fellow who’s got his hands all over my breasts.
His mouth wasn’t open…so I went through a few teeth. He was gonna do something until that hammer get’s thumbed back on him too.
“You stupid concha de tu madre! Ye ever try something this damned stupid ever again and I swear I’ll do more then bash ya up I’ll be pulling the damned trigger!”
I move until I’m back to the main street again and honestly there’s a part of me that’d be more than happy to just shoot these sons of bitches and be done with it but I don’t want trouble with the law herebouts.
I glare at them and nod towards the end of the alley but the other side. I pull the colt from the fella’s mouth and he falls to his knees spittin teeth and some blood. I put the barrel to his head. “I ever see you three again I’ll shoot first and as questions later you got me?”
He nods gagging. I look to his friends and they nod too. “Get the fuck out of here.”
His buddies grab him and they take off running and dragging him with them. I hear one of them yell once they’re safely around the corner end of the alley. “Fuckin puta! You’re gonna get yours!”
Yeah…I either see then back with friends to help or I’ll never seen them again. I’m bettin on the second cause they looked like they were each others only friends anyway.
I wait a few minutes more and I head to a stall where there’s a woman selling clothes and I buy a new shirt there from her and put it on, it’s a medium men’s white style of shirt but it’ll do. She’s nice enough to give me a cloth and a bucket of water for me to wipe myself off with…she even helps me loosen my corset and re-adjust ma girls back to rights and gives me a tug to lace back up.
I leave her with a tip and a thank you and I head to the tavern where Damon’s supposed to be.
I look around and I see him at a table with a few other fellows and he’s playin cards. I look at the bunch he’s with from all over I’d guess and maybe even his crew. I walk over to his table and I take a seat and pull the knife he used on jade and stick it into the table.
Damon’s cold..he looks at the knife, then at me.
“Y’know why I’m here.”
“I do and you came all this way?”
“I did.”
“Won’t do you any good Nikki, you’re outnumbered here and you’re not that fast!”
He tips the table towards me and I shove my chair back sliding back over the floor and I draw…
Oh lovely…
We’ve all drawn.
Eldorado part 2.
And like I said we’ve all drawn steel and Damon’s flipped the table between me and him blocking my view of him.
Okay…in the few scant seconds I need to think.
Is he going for cover?
Is he going to run?
Is he going to shoot me through the table?
He stabbed Jade who was a friend in cold blood.
I lean/fall back and just in time as he’s palm snapping the hammer and there’s bits of table flying over me as his bullets whiz past me as I fall backwards and one’s close enough to take my hat off my head.
His friends at the table are drawing and turning to track me as I’m going down. I’m not killer, well…I have but I don’t need to here. I unload on them legs don’t move thet much y’know in times like this so putting a forty five bullet through an ankle or a knee’s pretty easy at this range but I save two shots per Colt.
I put my guns close together and shoot the middle of the table and blow a good hole in what’s left of it. Damon’s there and stares at me through the hole and we exchange shots agin me rolling left.
On of the fellas I shot in the knee grabs me cussing and Damon’s reloading and then as I’m struggling with the fella I hear this really American accent yelling. “Damon Black! Drop your guns and raise your hands you’re bound by law and you’re coming with me.”
Oh what the hell!?
No damned way, Damon stabbed my Jade and stole from my house I’m not letting some bounty hunter get in my way now!
The fella that has me gets both guns in his nostrils and he screams in pain and lets me go and clutches at his face. I jus got done firing pretty fast and a colt gets pretty hot, hot enough at burn a person.
He lets me go and I holster my colts and reach back and touch the floor and do a kick up that Jade had taught me. A fella, one of the types that looks like he was with Damon or friends wit ’em comes at me and swings a bottle at my head.
Okay…step into him, grab his wrist and turn…use his weight to roll him up over my back and through another table.
He crashes through with a surprised yell.
I look for Damon who’s reloading his gun and I pull my whip off my belt and snap it out one, two, three lashes side to side getting anyone coming at me stung and outta my way and I snap my wrist at Damon.
I’m not going for his gun. Naw that’s for dime novels and such. I hit him square in the face and slice him a good one and he turns yelling “Christ!” and turns back and decides the bullets he’s got in are fine enough to kill me and he opens fire.
I duck into a roll behind what’s left of his table and grab the knife still stuck there. I hear more gunshots and more fighting and Damon yelling. “Fifty dollars! Dollars to the men who kill the whore and the Canadian!”
Canadian?
What the hell is a Canadian doing in Chile?
Oh he must have flashed the cash because the ones not pissed off and involved are getting involved with this dangerous greedy desperate look in their eyes. Some are grabbing bottles and knives and whatever is handy to take me down.
It starts way too fast really for me to describe other than I’m awash in a sea of the worst kind of maggot that survived the big wave here and it’s a damned good thing I know a lot of tricks to keep myself safe and that I’m hand with a knife. I use it mostly fer blocking as I’m not partial to killing a man I don’t have a solid hate on for. But I’ve got a good idea of the stuff on a body and there’s lots of muscle and tendons you can poke and slice that’ll take a fella out of a fight.
I’m grabbed again by behind and he finds out why I have sharpened spurs and while I down use them on my horses. I’ve no problem taking a fella in the crotch with a mule kick when I’m getting grabbed like that or lifting my leg enough to run a long slice down his leg.
The one’s behind me now aren’t too keen on grabbing me and they try to hit me more than anything and I take more than a punch or seven to my liking and someone was about to smash my brains in with a chair when this tall fella in a duster and a buffalo furred collar steps into my fighting circle and blocks the chair shot with his long rifle before driving the butt of it into the guys face.
“Ma’am.” I think he had time to tip his hat to me.
“Don’t ma’am me what the heck are you doing here?” I shift sideways of a punch and snap out a hard backhand right into the guys ear.
“I’m sorry but I don’t follow?” he blocks another attempt with a knife on him with his rifle again and butt strikes that fella down too.
“You! You’re the Canadian aren’t you?” I step in with a fast jab at this uncertain looking cretin and pop his nose like a hammer on a tomata.
“Yes ma’am.” He hard stomps a guy’s foot and it musta hurt because he yelled and the Canadian hits him under the chin with a rifle in hands uppercut.
“Why are you here?” there’s a second of breathing room and Damon’s damned well headed out the back of the place.
“Damon Black’s bound by law to stand trial for his crimes.”
“And this isn’t Canada!” More are closing in on us and right now it’s more to make us pay for hurting their friends and their pride than anything else. I duck a punch and counter with an uppercut with the fist holding the knife; I hear the crunch of teeth.
“I know that but my orders come from the Queen’s Governor-general’s office.”
I have no idea how the whole Canadian politics goes and stuff but it sounds all official and stuff. Dove has a liking for Upper Canada as she calls it with York? And Quebec and Montreal and places like that. Me I really don’t know a damned thing about it save the Brit’s are still big there and there’s a whole pile of Indians and Frenchmen up there.
“Well that’s all well and good and everything but I’m after the sonovabitch for stabbing my girl and stealing a bunch of things that belonged to a friend of ours. You can have him after I get what’s mine and take a strip or two off of him for good measure!”
I make a push for the door…well the back door and a few cuts with the knife and a knee here and an elbow there and the fella behind me laying about with that long gun of his like he’s done a lot of this before and watching my back.
They close in really hard thinking we might get away and the Canadian fella does something…because he’s just holding his rifle in one hand and in the other I’m hearing this unmistakable hiss of a lit fuse and I glance over my shoulder to see him holding a stick of TNT with the fuse burning away.
Oh fucking hell is this guy loose a few marbles outta the set?
“Gentlemen…I’m sorry as entertaining a stop in this lovely establishment has been I think the young lady and I will be taking our leave. Thanks ever so much for the taste of local hospitality.”
And he’s not bluffing!
He tossed the lit stick into the middle of the room!
The next thing I know he’s got me by the arm and we’re running out through the back of the bar into the alleys.
There’s a loud BANG!!! And the windows blow out and there’s a huge amount of smoke!
I’m still staring and he’s already rattling something off in really good Spanish to one of the locals who points and he takes off running.
Oh no I’m not getting blamed for this! And he’s not taking Damon before I get a
hold of him!
I’m running as best I can given the junk still around and well being ample chested corset or not still doesn’t make running easy by any means. And I’m reloading as I go.
“Are all Canadians as damned crazy as you are!? You know how many people you killed!?”
“No one here as far as I know.”
“What!?”
“It was a fifth of a stick of dynamite mixed in with the rest being flash and smoke powder.”
Oh…well that was a neat thing then. Loud and some force to knock people on their asses and a lot of smoke blasted all around.
“Ha! I might have to steal that trick.”
“You’re more than welcome to it ma’am.”
“Call me Nikki.”
“Well then you’re more than welcome Miss Nikki.”
“Just Nikki, Nikki Steele.”
“Really? It’s a pleasure then.”
“Pardon?”
“I seen a show you were in a few years back in Baton Rouge. You were amazing.”
Oh well…shit…
“I’m afraid you have me at a disadvantage sir.”
“And that would be Miss Steele?”
“Nikki please, what’s you’re name?”
We were running and talking and we come round a corner near the docks or the docks that were strong enough to stay standing and Damon’s there moving through the crowd with two other fellas that nudge him seein us and he says something that looks like he was cussing and one of the fellas turns on us fast like a real fighter and raises a double barreled shot gun at us and dammit there’s no time…
He fires…
Both barrels at us and the Canadian fella is in front of me suddenly looming over me and pulls me into his chest and ducks over me and Goddammit I feel the force of him getting shot through his body.
“Daniel, Daniel Scott…you ready?”
“Are you crazy!?....yeah…”
He turns around to face them and turns me around with his hands manhandling me…wha…dammit no time now.
I draw on Damon and his friends again…
Eldorado-3
Daniel Scott…
Dammit I’m actually pretty mad at this whole thing. One I don’t take kindly to someone…anyone laying hands on me especially if it’s a man. I’ve got lots of reason and lots of memories of those reasons to haunt me the rest of my life.
I’d be taking my ire out of him if it wasn’t for him savin me and using himself as a shield. Well he didn’t go down and I’m hoping he’d not too badly hurt unless he’s wearing an armored longcoat.
And then well there’s Damon.
Between all of the stuff he’s already done today and stabbing Jade and betraying us I’m really ready to lay into him and the fella’s he’s got with him.
I’m already drawing as Daniel pulls me around in from to face then and the fella with the double barrelled get’s it first and I shoot the gun out of the hand of another and there’s a bullwhip uncoiling fast at my face and I stop breathing and just let everything slow down to a crawl and I bring my right gun up and I put a bullet it the whip as it’s uncoiling slicing it’s braid to bits…kinda like that trick when a bowman uses an arrow to shoot another arrow to split it.
After all y’all I might not be in the shows anymore but I’m still Nikki Steele.
And dammit if Damon’s not high tailing it outta here again and shoving people in our path as he’s running. I really do hate men like him that see nothing wrong with using others as shields or weapons or toys.
I’m chasing him using my smaller size to try to get past folks in the crowds and the Canadian boy’s right on my tail until he isn’t and I see him run up a pile of sacks in the street and from that ontop of a wagon full of barrels heading down the street and he yells down at me.
“Miss Steele use your whip!”
“Pardon me sir we just met.”
“I’ll pull you up!”
I slip my guns back and pull my whip and if I’m higher I might be able to get a better shot off at the snake.
I snap it out and he catches it around the sleeve of his longcoat and he…holy crow he pulls me right off my feet and swings me through the air past him and the wagon and onto the awning of one of the shops. Now just like home most places have a good awning and now I’m up and above the crowds I start running and reloading and taking deep breaths and jump from on to another and another like I’m hurdling fences.
I see Damon making his way clear and he’s running hard with a couple of those fella’s yet and he’s heading for a ship that’s looking like it’s pulling off the pier and leaving.
And since it’s opening up to the docks I’m running out of road right fast.
Breathe Nikki, breathe you got the time. Bullets travel fast and just slow it down.
I look around me taking it all it as I’m running and the best chance is…
I pull my guns and I take aim and I fire at a net crane one of them ones that’s run by a mule on a turnabout. My first shot hit’s the brake on the crane and my second right at the hind feet of the mule getting it to start hoofing it and the next shot to the gear stick on the crane to get it swinging my way.
Damon looks at me hearing the shots and he’s cussing and my next shot clips him tearing a nice slice across his right cheek.
I was going for the kill.
He needs t’be put down.
And I only winged him because that sonofabitch has to have viper in his blood or something he’s that quick.
Quick enough that he grabs a girl slips a knife from his sleeve and turn on Daniel.
“Stop right there or I slit the girl’s throat from ear to ear.”
“Let her go Damon you’re bound by law there not good to keep trying to escape.”
“Now see here’s were you and I differ maple-butta, I’m not trying and I’m not bluffing.”
I see the muscles twitch and scream. “No!!!”
I’m fast but there’s no shot to take not without him using her…closer it’d be different but at this range.
I’m already swearing that I’m going to feed him his balls as he cuts the girl’s throat and he shoves her at Daniel.
He runs to catch her in his arms and he’s tryin to stop the bleeding and…and…
Dammit!
Dammit! Dammit!, Dammit!
I jump and catch the rope and swing out on the crane using my jump and my weight to swing me out….I could make the ship.
I could cut him off and take him there and then but I’m watching Daniel and this young local girl and she’s still alive…I can see her eyes and her arms moving a little as Daniel’s got his hands over her throat and…
I let go and drop and roll beside him.
“She’s not going to make it.”
“She can.” He looks at me and there is just this look in his eyes that…I’m biting my lip and my mouth goes dry from the intensity.
“What can I do?”
“Sugar, I need sugar and lots of it white if you can get it.”
“Right sugar…”
“It’s aright Daniel’s just fine.” He says and even with what’s going on right now somehow there’s a bit of a smile in his eyes.
Dammit, I just blushed.
Serves me right for that crack about my whip.
I run around looking and asking for sugar and I see that damned bastard Damon on that boat he got on with his two amigo’s holding the crew at gun point already outta range but there’s no mistaking the smug smile on the bastards face as he’s getting further and further away.
I’m not religious by much means compared to some but I think God would have a few questions about me pursuing revenge over me not helping the girl.
I get lucky and there’s a man from Greece with a shop here that had the sugar and he and his sons come with me back to Daniel and the girl and I’m kinda at a loss at what they’re doing until I see them pouring sugar carefully into where Daniel’s been holding her throat.
“Sugar?”
The Greek nods. “It’s an old trick from the wars. It clots the blood. She is lucky the main artery was not severed and that you were there my friends.”
“I honestly thought she was a goner myself.”
It’s still not over that quickly as it takes a good deal of sugar a few times before they get it stopped. They might not have hit the big sprayer veins but she still woulda bled out and it’s a real careful go of it to get her moved onto a wide plank and then to a cart and from there to the doctor.
It’s bad when we get there because there was a lot of damage that Damon caused and more than a few injuries from this whole mess and the local doctor is also a priest and it’s really slow going for them to keep her stable and to get her sewn shut and bandaged.
Hours and I’ve for all the shooting and fighting have never really been in a doctor’s place and seen the other side of things. I stay because there ain’t enough hands, and there’s bandages needed and water to be boiled and all sorts of other odds and ends that I’m feeling now that I’ve gotta make amends for.
Daniel even while still in there gets things square with the local law and the priest to help out as well.
The Greek fellow even went and found us a place to settle for the night in a hacienda close to his own for cheap.
I’m hugging myself feeling the chill of the night and then everything that happened after the fighting and saving the girl and helping out here. I wait for Daniel to come out because…well I’m not really sure. I’m not sure why or what’s going to happen next in all of this.
Part of me wants to just go home and part of me want’s Damon to face justice and part of me…
“Nicole…”
I stop thinkin and my heart does a lurch…Nicole’s not my name not even before I was Nikki it wasn’t my name and I’ve never been called that before and just the way it sounds on his voice.
I turn and look at him. “Daniel.”
He passes me a mug of coffee and I take it and cradle it loving the warmth it’s really welcome being hot and freshly made. And honestly my hands hurt like hell. “Thank you, thank you for everything that happened today.”
“You shouldn’t since you save my life there but you’re welcome.”
“We should get our things and get to Mr. Thematopoliss’s place.”
“Oh okay right.”
We finish the coffee and he takes them into the church and we head to get my things and then his at the bar where he left his bags and after checking on my horse we head to the hacienda.
The Greek fellow and don’t ask me to try and say his name’s been a really good host and his wife and his daughters whipped us up some stuff to eat and it was odd but pretty tasty. I never though I’d like spinach worth a damn but I think I might try making that spinach pastry thing back when I get home. And those grape leave with the meat and the rice were pretty tasty too. And I even liked the potato and garlic soup.
But the bath they had set up for me was just amazing.
Nothing special except a good deep tub and a dandy sponge to go with it all. It’s just after everything that’s happened it feels damned good.
I almost fell asleep except for the sound of Daniel getting undressed through the wall.
Now I said I’m not too fond of men and that’s been my thought for most of my life since all the things that happened. I will admit that there was one or two of those fellows that paid to have me were better, cleaner and nicer by far than most and I do enjoy what I do with Dove and Jade.
But my thoughts are right now drifting to Daniel.
He’s easy on the eyes that I’ll admit and he’s polite which is always a good thing in a man but the thing I can’t let go of and making my tingly parts tingling is the fact unlike so many men he has this honor about him that.
He took a shotgun blast to me and saved my like and more than that…yeah more than that he gave up his mark, his fugitive and all that ego and pride to save that girl.
Putting others even your own life before your own glory now that to me says that Daniel’s a real man and not some fella that claims to be one.
I climb out of the water and dry off and slip myself into knickers and a shift and I slip out of the bath and to his room and the door’s open and he’s undressed down to his pants and there’s a large dark bruise all over his back where he was shot and he’s got lots of old scars like a soldier would.
I slide in quietly and he notices me but I’m still close enough to touch him and stand tip toe and give him a kiss.
“Good night Daniel.”
“Uhm….wow…”
I turn to leave but he gently takes hold of my arm.
“Nicole…”
Damn me why does that thrill me as much as it does? Some other person and I’d be feeding him his balls.
I bite my lip and look at him. “Yeah…?”
“Can I kiss you again…I’ve wanted to kiss you ever since we’ve met.”
“You have?”
“I admit yes…who wouldn’t want to kiss Nikki Steele?”
“Okay…”
No sooner than I get in out he pulls me to him hard and fast like a ball room dancer and he kisses me full on the lips and it’s softly and it’s hard…and it’s deep and over and over and my hands settle on him and that hot…he feels so warm to my touch and his leg brushes my “other gun” and I break the kiss.
He’s looking at me and I’m looking back and biting my lips. “I’m sorry Daniel I’m kinda a freak.”
He stares at me and then smiles at me a little and says. “Nicole…I like you and not some bit of you…”
“Thank you…I’m not used to being treated with something approaching kindness and dignity from regular folks.”
He looks deeply into my eyes and his hands move to my girls and he cups them really gently and so completely… “I’d like to show you some kindness.”
I look up at him and lean into him and his hands and it feels good and so different than my other times already. “I’d like that too Danny.”
He kisses me just like before and my body heats up and I feel that swoony wave roll over me as everything gets heated up from his kisses and his touch and his hands slid down and take my shift slides off my shoulders and he lifts me to the bed.
I want this…for the first time in my life with a man and not my girls I want this...Oh!
Eldorado part 4.
He’s looking at me and I’m looking back and biting my lips. “I’m sorry Daniel I’m kinda a freak.”
He stares at me and then smiles at me a little and says. “Nicole…I like you and not some bit of you…”
“Thank you…I’m not used to being treated with something approaching kindness and dignity from regular folks.”
He looks deeply into my eyes and his hands move to my girls and he cups them really gently and so completely… “I’d like to show you some kindness.”
I look up at him and lean into him and his hands and it feels good and so different than my other times already. “I’d like that too Danny.”
He kisses me just like before and my body heats up and I feel that swoony wave roll over me as everything gets heated up from his kisses and his touch and his hands slid down and take my shift slides off my shoulders and he lifts me to the bed.
I want this…for the first time in my life with a man and not my girls I want this…Oh!
And Now…
I’ve been with my girls hundreds of time and I’ve been the one on the bottom and there are times when that perfectly fine by me and right here, right now with Danny is one of them.
I wasn’t born a girl and I wasn’t raised as one but there is things that I’ve been through and done since I was a teenager that has me livin as one.
But when it comes to me as a woman and being with a man in the bed this is new to me and scary and at the same time it’s thrilling because I do want this and I want him and he makes me feel like a woman almost all the way already.
But is a good way y’know?
“My…My bags…there’s ointment for…”
He nods and he smiles and he picks me up in his grip like I’m a sack of feathers and I dunno it’s because the girls have done it when I pick them up I wrap my legs around his hips and hang on.
He carries me into my room and we sort of sweep through and grab all of my things and then we’re back to his room and we stop as he’s locking the door and holding me with my back pressed to the wall and my breasts pressed into his chest and they are aching and swelled and on fire like….
I think I like the feel of all this tough man-muscle and those scars and the heat coming off of his body and the heat from our passion…I’m just droppin stuff we don’t need, that I don’t need and I have my little bag of personals with me in one hand and my gunbelt in the other by the time the door’s locked and Danny carries me back to the bed.
I manage t’get out some sweet scented talcum powder to put on the sheets before he settles me down and he gives me another hungry kiss and then goes down to my breasts.
Oh holy…his lips and his mouth are so strong as he sucks one of my nipples into his mouth and he swirls that tongue of his and sucks even harder driving the whole feelings of my breasts being touched through the ceilin…and then his hands.
Big and strong and calloused…don’t get me wrong I love my girls and love their touch but Danny’s hands are so much bigger and his touch and all o’ that just almost covers my breasts and the heat and the gentle but strong way that he’s squeezing.
Like he’s pullin the pleasure out of ma body like he’s takin juice from an orange…pleasure nectar but for me and I arch up into his touch and his grip and moan…long and soft and right down from my insides.
“Take me Danny, jus take me please darlin.”
“Nicole…you’re so beautiful do you know that…sweet…you’re so sweet…”
No dirty trashy talk…being told that and getting that kind of bed respect is a very nice thing indeed.
He moves and he takes my jar from my hand and he kisses his way down and I gasp loudly and grab my own breasts as his mouth wraps itself around my man-handle.
“Oh lord Daniel!”
I feel him smile around it and his lips keep going down and down and down and his mouth is hot and wet and this is so undamnexpected….and when he starts to actually suck me it’s so strong my hips raise and move with his motions and I cry out as he lotions me up and gently starts to work me loose and ready with his thick finger.
I fire off my little derringer in a right hurry and squeeze my breasts and arch up and I bite down on the urge t’swear…oh it’d be in a good way but still he’s being one hell of a gentleman and I might have none of the middle parts of one but by god I’m gonna be a lady.
It takes a lot longer than I thought and no time at all in that way things go when you’re makin love for him to get me slicked up inside and then he kisses his way up to my mouth and only after some deep mouth t’mouth kissing does he break from that and softly asks me.
“Are you ready?”
“Please yes, I’ve never been so…Thank you Danny…”
“You’re welcome Nicole….”
“Ain’t never been a man like you t’do this an treat me decent…this’ll be like a first time all over again fer me.”
“I’ll be gentle lover…but now might be a good time to kiss me.”
Lover…and manners even now and treating me right…there’s tears in my eyes and I take my hands and run them through his hair and pull him into a long over and over dime novella romance kiss as he slowly and gently sinks into me.
It is like nothing before, even the gentle ones that had paid for me weren’t like this man and this changes everything.
I’ve never, ever made love to a man like a woman before in my life or had the joy of that happening back.
Well I won’t go through all of the nitty gritty stuff but you know when it’s good…this this was.
Naked hot lovemaking in the Chilean night with the smells of sex and soap and powder blending with the tang of salt water and the hints of leather and gun oils from our gear and him worshiping my breasts as we move.
And movin…
He’s a cowboy amongst whatever else and he’s got that on a horse exercised all the time eating trail food lean hard body and his hands held my hips and my bottom and he’d lift me into this gait just like movin in the saddle and long. Long times and long long strokes and like it went of forever…three times my little derringer went off and the last one was that deep, deep thing I’ve only had happen a few times with the girls…that deeper pleasure but tonight…tonight he had that happen inside of me and it went through me like flashes of heat lightning.
And I fell asleep exhausted like never before after he cleaned us both up with a basin and washcloth off the dresser before we curled up together in the same bed.
“Hold me tight Danny, hold me tight tonight ah wanna feel like this awhile ah wanna feel safe.”
I mean that in the way that still this long and so many years later after living that life in the show…I still have nightmares some times.
The smell of fresh coffee and the sunshine coming in and the sounds of seabirds is the next thing filtering in for me.
I feel good too…not even a bit sore he was that gentle and I got that used to things but I still feel that feelin of after…that good feeling.
He’s in his pants and no shirt and he’s holdin a cup of coffee for me and I sit up and I sip it and smile at him.
“So now what?” I ask.
“Now we find a way to catch up with him.”
“He’s got a fair lead on us; we might not be able to catch him.”
“Not normally no I’d say not but there is the boat that I came in on, it got me down here very fast.”
“But it’d best be really fast then.”
“I hope so; we can ask Doc Faraday if we can go faster.”
“Alright then, we best get moving an see.”
He gives me a kiss and we get dressed and we drink our coffee and thank our hosts over a quick breakfast of some pan fried bread with some sausage and melted cheese in it to eat as we pack up and get ready and we stop by the stables and get my horse and I pay the young fella there a few bits for doing a good job and we head to the docks.
We’re definitely getting looks for all of the stuff that had happened the day before from the people and a few friendly nods likely about the girl and some jus keep clear of us because of the gunfighting from yesterday too.
I watch Daniel using a mirror and he’s signaling a boat out there in the bay and I’m more than a tad curious as it’s coming in right quickly against the tide and the wind ever and she’s got her sails furled and such.
Then I see this trail of smoke coming from it too?
“Dan? What in blazes is going on with the boat?”
He smiles. “I told you it was fast…it’s an invention of the good doctors.”
“Uh-huh…”
I see the boat pulling in to dock and there’s these what I’m going to assume are other Canadians there because they’re well white folks and they’re all pretty clean cut looking and there’s a lot of brass on the ship and there’s a chimney there too made of the brass in a big tube.
It’s coming in pretty fast and then I hear a blast of steam like a locomotive and it slows to a stop and even backs into place at the dock.
There’s this woman in a fancy dress with the petticoats and all the do-dads to go with it except she’s got herself an fancy belt to go with it and a shiny nickel plate forty-five on her hip.
She let’s go of the handle of this lever and she’s looking at us as she says something in french and the ramp gets lowered with a railing built into it.
Daniel looks at me and takes off his hat.
“Miss Nikki Steel this is Doctor Deidre Faraday, Doctor Faraday this is Nikki Steel The Fastest Dress in the West.”
She has that look of one of those fine city ladies and she smiles at me and dips a little all mannerly and stuff but she’s looking me over quite a lot as well.
And I’ve never heard of a lady being a doctor before and why is that important with this ship?
“Pleased to meet you Doc, so this contraption will get us caught up to Damon then?”
“I believe my steamship will be up to the task Miss Steel but the longer we tarry the more difficult it shall be.” She says it still smiling but she’s got an English accent that just fits the clothes.
Steamship huh?
This doesn’t look like no riverboat that’s for sure.
“Well then times a wasting Doc, there room for my horse.”
She smiles at me. “Yes of course, shall we?”
I look at Daniel. “Shall we?”
He takes off his hat in the whole gesture of ladies first.
I start leading my horse up the ramp, this…this just got interesting.
Eldorado part 5.
Okay I’m a wee bit nerved up getting on board I’ve been iffy with boats and rivers and stuff. It’s us not in my experiences as things go and all. I lead my horse up the ramp and I’m followed by Daniel and the she’s talking in a few languages and as soon as we’re on the desk there’s a hiss of steam and we’re movin.
Alrighty I’m right surprised by a whole lot of this thing here. The boat’s made of metal more obvious on the inside than outside but they have a stable here with four stalls and I get some help with my horse as the sailors here are helping out.
I know a little Portuguese when I hear it but they’ve got some of those East Indian fella’s there too with the turbans and such and I see most of em have these long curved daggers and small pistols too.
Alright…some of these fellas are bare breasted but girls I think with really tiny breasts it’s very strange and exotic and there’s even a few other folk I’ve never seen before. But y’know these boy-women East Indians look kinda tough.
Actually I’m a wondering if they might be like me even. There’s a very sort of a something there like that. And I think that there’s something packin in their pants that live born and natural women folk don’t have.
Daniel’s joined me and he looks like he’s done this before here.
I look at him. “So how do you know Doctor Faraday?”
“She’s an agent of the Dominion of Canada.”
“Agent, like a spy?”
“Well something like that she’s brilliant and at the same time she’s a woman.”
“Well what is that supposed to mean.”
“It means that a lot of people completely underestimated her. Like they did with you in California.”
“Oh, you heard about that.”
“It had certainly been that much of a thing that it drew attention.”
“So am I in trouble back home now?”
“From what I understand it’s actually been hushed up.”
“Why?”
“Well there’s still a strong Mormon contingent there that doesn’t want what you did and what happened to get any more attention that what it had gotten.”
I frown and get the brushes as I take my things off of my horse. “I’m not sure how to take that.”
“I’d just go with it; sometimes you don’t want a spot lantern on you.”
“That’s true.”
He helps me take care of the horse and there’s a bit of a return to our time together before in that and we stick pretty close as we come from there back onto the deck.
That’s still kind of…
Like I said before I’m not one for men folk all that much even the ones that are good with the way that I am. Daniel seems so entirely different though and just thinking of that has my body warmed from the thoughts.
He leads us to this strange cabin. My word it’s a nice idea actually it sort of reminds me of a river boat with this part glassed in ay the top of the rear section of the boat and there are all sorts of gauges and things that are fascinating.
I can recognize and figure most of them out too.
There’s a ball map a globe set in this stand and there’s this metal arm that has a pointer on it and from what I’m seeing the globe moves under it as we’re traveling. How it works I don’t know but it definitely is showing us moving away from Santiago.
Then there’s a compass, and a dial for steam pressure and another for our speed and another for what seems to be wind speed along with several others. Dr. Faraday is there and she’s reading a book and consulting a map table with a glass top of our current coastline and she’s talking in East Indian I think as she’s using a grease pencil to mark out and chart our course.
“A very interesting ship ma’am.”
“Why thank you very much Miss Steele, it took a lot of funds from my estate to build it and many more years before I could be allowed to really test out my theories.”
“Some folk need real proof before they’ll believe a lady.”
She smiles at me. “Indeed and sometimes not even then if you’re a woman.”
“I know that song quite well.”
“So I have heard. Would you care for a tour?”
“I think that’d be a good idea, seeing how dangerous things might get if we catch up with that son of a bi…sorry excuse my language ma’am.”
“Oh think nothing of it the man is indeed a true cad in every sense of the word.”
“I wish I knew that from the start.”
She smiles and gently slips her hand onto my arm and I think she’s giving me this look like my girls give me when they’re interested. But there’s friendliness there too and I can see some kindness in her eyes as well.
“There’s no shame in giving a man or a woman the benefit of the doubt Miss Steele.”
I smile back a little.
“You sound like my girls; I’m generally a wee bit less charitable than that honestly.”
Daniel coughs. “Nicole you chose a girl’s life over revenge, that’s charitable.”
I blush a little. “She hadn’t done nothing but be in the wrong place at the wrong time and while I’m not all that religious I’m thinkin the good lord would rather see me showin mercy over wrath given there was an innocent involved an all.”
She gives me that smile that some women have that sort of sometimes make me forget that I’m the woman I’ve become and feel like the good fella I might have been all that long ago…or that that part of me is still alive and kickin.
Yes, even as happy as my life has been I still have all these hurts and doubts over my condition and later the things that I’ve been through.
And I am good with being me most of the time since there’s naught to be done with it anyhow but we all have these moments.
And this is sort of actually a good one.
Ma pa said this was called feelin yer spurs…walkin tall.
I blush again. “Well I’d be right grateful if I could be shown to the jakes.”
“Oh well we should get you settled to your cabin then and I can show you the ladies WC while we’re doing that.”
“Dubba-sea?”
“Oh water closet love.”
“Oh…well lead on doc my need’s getting urgent.”
She shows me there first and it’s smallish like made for a ship but there’s a lot of brass and copper and porcelain here and there’s hot and cold water in the taps and a french toilette that flushes and then there’s this wonderful thing she calls a shower.
“This is wonderful I think that if I can afford such a thing I might have to install these things back home.”
She gives me a roll of this soft, soft cotton paper that’s like gauze.
I have no idea what it is.
“Papier de toilette.”
“What?”
“It’s rolled paper gauze and you use it to wipe with.”
“I’ll be…”
“It’s originally a Chinese idea but they used a box of sheets, this is catching on in a few places these days and I imagine it will be mass produced soon.”
I look at the roll. “Where’d you get this?”
“I have it shipped from a maker in Singapore.”
“I will have to get their post from you madam this is another thing that my ladies would just adore and would punish me for not bringing in no matter the expense.”
She smiles. “Of course, I’ll leave you to it.”
I do mean it I’ve heard of people using all sorts of stuff and rags being the more common thing aside from the local foliage or whatnot and some places just make me cringe with the thought of what they must do.
Thankfully I’ve done that business before we left but I still sit down to make my water.
It just don’t seem right given how I am to do it and stand.
I use a little to wipe the drip and flush it away and I feel like a darned kid watching that.
Mighty nice to have soap and hot water on demand too.
I come out and she and Daniel are there waiting and I sort of blush at them being so close to such a personal thing and all but they don’t mention things and soon we’re show to our quarters. They’re small, just enough for our things and a folding cot from the wall but it is private.
I look at Daniel and I see him blush as I do as we likely had the same idea. That these beds will not be comfortable to make love in or on.
She catches the look and then she’s looking at Daniel with this look of …oh really…and it’s the oh really you slept with her too look.
I look at her trying to be a straight shooter. “We did, I hope that that won’t be a problem will it?”
Eldorado…Part 6.
*Before…
I come out and she and Daniel are there waiting and I sort of blush at them being so close to such a personal thing and all but they don’t mention things and soon we’re show to our quarters. They’re small, just enough for our things and a folding cot from the wall but it is private.
I look at Daniel and I see him blush as I do as we likely had the same idea. That these beds will not be comfortable to make love in or on.
She catches the look and then she’s looking at Daniel with this look of …oh really…and it’s the oh really you slept with her too look.
I look at her trying to be a straight shooter. “We did, I hope that that won’t be a problem will it?”
*And Now…
She looks at me and she does that little semi-side tilt of her head that Jade can manage but I can never do without feeling foolish. It’s one of them mannerly lady things y’know.
“Oh it will not be a problem for me. As long as I have the same consideration though.”
What?
Oh…oh her and Daniel.
And there must be something to that because they’re not together and there is certainly a lot to be attracted to with a well-heeled woman like her.
I’ll admit the very first time I laid eyes on her and she was turning in that pretty dress with the fancy patterns and the whole corset and the perfect hair and the ringlets and that fancy little hat I was thinking of how lovely she looked and that she was attractive.
An yes I mighta been a little bit jealous too.
I am what I am now and I’ve settle inta being Nikki and I’ve adopted a lot of things from being a woman and sometimes as country and saddle as I am I like to feel pretty and sometimes I like to feel beautiful.
Though I have no illusions that I’m not much more than sorta a Plain-Jane despite my breasts.
I hated and curse then for my misery a long time but after a life with my girls and my time with Daniel I have darned good reason to be proud of them in like the womanly way.
“No not at all we all have a past and the world’d be a might lopsided if some folks avoided all the folks that they’ve been with.”
She quirks her face in this little smile and says. “Quite.” And then she moves away from Daniel and moves passed me. “If you’ll excuse me I need to get us underway Ms. Steele…Daniel…” she gave him this little high society head nod and she heads off down the hallway.
D’ya call a hall of a ship a hall?
He’s still blushing a bit. “Sorry she’s a bit well…”
“British?”
He smiles. “Yes, sort of that yes. She has a bit of a wit that takes getting used to.”
“She’s gotten under your skin.”
“Well uhm…no not that.” He blushes a lot and tries to get his composure. “She’s a genius, a real genius and she’s a little eccentric too and very misunderstood.”
“Sounds like you have a soft spot for her.”
“She doesn’t have many people close to her Nicole, she has no country.”
I look at him and back to where she went. “Well I get a lot of that. Guess I’m not used to folks like her and all still.”
I take my things other than the usual bits that I carry and I put them in my quarters and he’s doing the same and we’re still quite close and have the doors open so we’re almost in the same room still.
I hear a hissing sound and then that tinkle of metal that reminds me a whole lot of the train and I feel us start to move and I look out of my little round window and we are and moreover we’re going fairly fast.
“This is a steamboat?”
“Yes I think so.”
“Ain’t nothing like the ones I’ve ever seen. No big water wheel and there ain’t no coal that I can see for a ship this size.”
“I think she uses oil.”
“Oil, would it burn hot enough?”
“She’s a chemist as well as an inventor so likely her oil burns pretty hot.”
I get finished and I get changed too into something cleaner and a little more presentable and maybe a little more revealing seeing how things is and all and I see Daniel waiting for me and we both head up the hall and up the stairs and up onto the deck.
We’re pulling out of port pretty fast and we’re passing the few ships that are there and anchored and some of the fishing boats and it’s ten minute later and we’re not just free of the harbor but we’re heading out into open water.
I’m impressed.
I do take a large inhale of the fresh sea air and I smile. I wasn’t raised around the sea or water but I did like some of the ports I had seen and been to when I was in the circus and I did enjoy the trip down to my new home too in a lot of ways and after all my years in the saddle and such the motion doesn’t really bother me too much.
Too much if we get a big bobber of a swell or something I’ve always felt those but right now I feel quite good.
I walk with Daniel to the place where she’s at and the wheel and it’s shiny with all sorts of do-dads and thinga-ma-jigs and they all look like they do things or measure things and she’s looking at a map.
On a table outside but it’s under a sheet of good glass with hinges and clips and there’s marks with a waxed pencil? And she’s doing maths in a notebook and looking at some other thing that looks like a gauge for a steamer.
Okay he’s right, she is hella smart.
I’m with Daniel in just watching and keeping quiet and she gets done and passes off her book to one of the people that she has working for her.
“I just did some rough calculations and I think because we are lighter and we do not displace as much water and have less drag and we’re not utterly dependent on the wind we will be able to catch up with the cad in time.”
I blink. “In time for?” Wow that was a lot of silver dollar words.
“Hopefully if my estimates are true before we have to cross and go around Cape Horn.”
I blink and nod. I did that once and our ship was taking it’s time and we waited a full day and a half for the weather that the captain had wanted.
I look at Daniel and we both nod and Dr. Faraday looks at us both. “Perhaps you both should have a plan of action for when we do catch up with them.”
Eldorado…Part 7
*Before…
“I just did some rough calculations and I think because we are lighter and we do not displace as much water and have less drag and we’re not utterly dependent on the wind we will be able to catch up with the cad in time.”
I blink. “In time for?” Wow that was a lot of silver dollar words.
“Hopefully if my estimates are true before we have to cross and go around Cape Horn.”
I blink and nod. I did that once and our ship was taking it’s time and we waited a full day and a half for the weather that the captain had wanted.
I look at Daniel and we both nod and Dr. Faraday looks at us both. “Perhaps you both should have a plan of action for when we do catch up with them.”
*And Now…
Now that’s a good point and I look at Daniel and he looks at me. “I suppose the chain gun’s going to be the biggest thing.”
I nod. “We gotta do something to deal with it. The best thing I can think of is maybe getting them to waste ammunition.”
He’s frowning. “It’s a large caliber gun though, it has a good range.”
I think for a minute before nodding. “That means we have to out range them. We need to actually make them panic enough to fire at us and to waste that big gun’s ammo before we get close enough for a real fight.”
Daniel nods and says. “I’ve a long rifle but I’ve never shot at range from a boat before.”
I look at him. “How many rounds do you have?”
“A few boxes.”
“Good I’ll need them.”
“You?”
I look at him and then at the mast. “Because that’s are best bet an you’re a might too big to be up there and ahm a professional gunfighter.”
His mouth quirked…then he looked at the mast. “When I was in training and in all the assignments that I’ve had I’ve never worked with a gunfighter. I’ve faced a lot of them or those that have thought they were gunfighters.”
“Well they weren’t me were they?”
“No you’re pretty unique Nicole.” He blushes.
“As Ah recall that was a good thing?”
“It was very good.”
I grin. “It was good fer me as well y’know. How about you go and get that long gun of yours and I can get to my job though.”
“Okay then…” He turns to leave and then he stops and he turns back to give me a kiss.
It’s nice, getting a kiss.
I was never really liking too many men. Not when I have the past I do and with everything else…it’s nice to have something like this. I love my girls but at the same time the way that I am its. I’ve been this way a long, long time and I have some of those true girl feelings to feel like Ah want to be liked and pretty and maybe even beautiful?
Daniel’s one of those guys that makes a girl feel good about herself.
Even one like me.
It’s even nice watching him go.
Then I see her looking at me like she’s watching me. And I give her a nod and we sort of share a look that is sort of this whole sort of yes…yes we’ve both slept with Daniel.
Ah won’t lie, there’s something really dauntin about her and her education an all the class she has…an I’m sure Daniel is really well educated too being an agent an all.
I take a breath and go over to the mast, yeah it has one fer like back up and stuff really and I start to try and climb the thing, it takes me taking my boots off and try doing it that way.
It’s been a long time since I climbed a tree or anything and it’s not like it’s a big mast or it’s a big ship or anything and yet once I’m up there with my feet on the cross bit and the rest of me leaning on the mast and hanging on it.
It’s beautiful as all heck despite the swaying.
And up here the boat moves and sways a whole lot more.
Honestly I think I’d been a whole lot worse off and suck if I wasn’t used to being on boats and such a little and the swaying’s actually not too bad really considering all the long years that I’ve been on horseback.
But it’s not a picnic either this ain’t ma trade and it’s never going t’be really.
I do a lanyard up but around my waist with a length of cord to keep myself sorta safe and I get myself placed as well as I can and I take out my spyglass and I take a look around and even through the glass it’s quite the sight an I sorta wish that I did this on the trip when we first went down t’where ahm living now.
But what I’m looking for and not finding makes me frown. No sign of that coward or the ship that he was on at all.
I see Daniel come out and I untie myself and slide down the mast as best as I can without getting tangled in the gear and such and he’s looking at me as I get down to the deck and he has a rifle case with snaps and the outside of it’s a nice looking leather and he kneels down and opens it up and I kneel beside him.
Now I’m a gunfighter and I use pistols for that but that doesn’t mean I’m not aces with a long rifle.
But this here, this here’s a thing of beauty.
Dark walnut and brass fittings and decorations with the blue black steel and a tube magazine under it all and a lever feed. There’s no maker’s marks for it and there’s other things with it for the sights it’s a real nice set with the side wheel adjusts and the flip up grader for it all and then there’s the fact that it’s got no makers mark.
“It’s a lovely gun Daniel but who’s the gunsmith.”
“Arturo Wayland.”
“I have never heard of him.”
“He’s a gunsmith that works for The Dominion; you wouldn’t really know his work unless you were hired.”
“Well he does really fine work it might just be a worth working for this Dominion if they’re giving out custom work like this.”
Daniel smiles. “Don’t tempt me or I’ll write a letter to The Council giving you a recommendation.”
“No thanks I’m no spy.”
He smiles again. “Neither am I really Nikki I’m just a policeman…sort of a ranger.”
“Rangers are dangerous enough.”
“Well Canada’s a pretty big place so we use long rifles a fair amount.”
“Right ‘cause beavers be damned dangerous.”
He twists his face up into a cute sort of frown….and Doc Faraday bursts out laughing as she comes closer with one of her sailors that has a crate of bottles and she has a basket with cloth rags in it.
He gives her the same look.
But sigh…ah don’t think that I’ll ever be that kinda woman where ya do that cover your mouth with yer hand just so when you laugh and all.
And I think she’s wearing make-up as well to.
I’ve never been that type unless I was workin the shows and part of that was me really not having the choice.
Now Jade…even if she doesn’t need it she does all of that most of the time and she always looks amazing.
Actually so does the doc if I look at her in the same way…actually her waist has me the most curious really since she’s one of those women that wears the corsets and most definitely not like mine where it holds in my girls as much as anything and is back support for riding.
She’s got the real deal tiny little wasp waist kind of corset pulled tight and that actually makes me wonder sort of what she’d look like without all of that finery and gear.
And then I sort of remember Daniel knows and that sort of leads a little into my imagination with him and her.
And…
No…he might since he’s as adventurous as I think he is nice but she just sort of seems a little straight laced and the like.
I open a box of bullets and these I recognize as being .30-30’s and that suits me just fine. I’m loading the rifle and the Doctor settles herself on a large pile of coiled rope and she begins to start to plug the bottles with rags.
“We can use these for you to get yourself ready to sight in on; the rags will keep them afloat long enough and you can use them as flags as well.”
I nod. “That’ll work.”
She smiles and another of her crew shows up with a tray and coffee? It smells like really good coffee at that. “Quite.”
I’m no too long in getting ready and after I get a “proper” mast harness and my bandoliers I start my practice shooting and…
Who in the hell had a tiny catapult?
And she keeps saying “Pull” to the fella with the release every time she sends a bottle out over the water?
It takes me about thirty or forty rounds to get to where I can shoot a bobbin bottle at about two hundred yards and after that I move onto going up the mast and shooting from there but trying for further off and out away from the ship which means firing behind us most of the time I miss more than a few times and they toss me up another box of shells and we’re getting low on bottles too.
Which she’s apparently solving by having a few of her folks tipping back a few and watching as we fire.
I smell one of the bottles and the smell of ginger is really powerful. I have no idea what this stuff is but it sure ain’t sarsaparilla.
I get actually pretty good up her after a case of rounds and I’m pretty sure that I might be able to get them in the vicinity they need to be in and hopefully getting their gatling man to use up his ammo before we close up with him and all…
I was just done and I turn and there’s this black spot on the horizon and it goes back and forth from being there and not because of the curve on the horizon?
I whistle down and Daniel looks up and I drop the rifle down to him and take out my spyglass.
I’m not sure but I think that might be them….them ships sails look right and all.
I yell down. “I think we’re catching up!”
The next thing I know is Doc Faraday unlashed some rope to something and put her foot into something and gave a nod and some of her folk grabbed a line and with a zip and a whoosh she flies up the mast to where I am like some fairy princess.
Okay that was impressive especially with that oh so very British look she has on her face.
“Alright Doc that was impressive.”
Her eyes have this sparkle there to them when we’re this close and I can smell her powder and perfume a mix of light rose and coconut and her lips are painted really, really red in a very nice way and she does that almost smile with the head tuck.
Oh…well then Quite…as she’d say.
Then there’s this bit of mischief that plays up and she opens her hand for my spyglass.
“But of course I’m a Doctor.”
Eldorado…Part 8
*Before…
I yell down. “I think we’re catching up!”
The next thing I know is Doc Faraday unlashed some rope to something and put her foot into something and gave a nod and some of her folk grabbed a line and with a zip and a whoosh she flies up the mast to where I am like some fairy princess.
Okay that was impressive especially with that oh so very British look she has on her face.
“Alright Doc that was impressive.”
Her eyes have this sparkle there to them when we’re this close and I can smell her powder and perfume a mix of light rose and coconut and her lips are painted really, really red in a very nice way and she does that almost smile with the head tuck.
Oh…well then Quite…as she’d say.
Then there’s this bit of mischief that plays up and she opens her hand for my spyglass.
“But of course I’m a Doctor.”
*And Now…
I pass her the spyglass an I’m a bit bemused by the way that she’s acting and I’ll confess there’s something to like about a woman that can do what she just did.
I’m a little spoiled by my girls because they’re both from the circus life and I met them there and they’re all sorts of capable but as much as womenfolk are more capable than most give them credit for it’s a whole different stripe of cat that does stuff like this.
She nudges me with her hip as she folds it out. “Hold me if you please?”
I…
“Alrighty, y’might want to look at getting something less wind catching next time Doc yer dress and such is pretty and all but it’s kind of dangerous.”
She’s looking through the spyglass still but her lips do that upturn into a bow. “I like my dress thank you very much; it’s a one of a kind.”
“Like I said it’s pretty.”
Wait…did I just feel?
H’yup that’s a pack of throwing knives and I’d wager if I moved my hands a bit more freely that she carries other things to under all of that. Well don’t let it be said that once I was used to having such a pair as I got more than a few things have been hid in my corsets.
She shouts something down to the crew and they start shouting back and forth and I don’t know what she said or they’re sayin but she got them moving for certain and not long after that I see steam pumping out more and we start moving a bit faster and a bit faster and she’s watching things still.
“Do you think that you’re ready for shooting like this Miss Steele?”
“I am, and you can call me Nikki.”
“Hmm…not quite yet I don’t think after all we just met.”
Alrighty…
That has to a British thing or something I hear they’re all about propriety and stuff, and apparently they’re like that even when they’re breaking the rules like they’re doing now.
It don’t matter where y’go there’s a certain bunch of things that are not seen as proper for a woman to do.
And y’know double that if they think it’s something all capable and daring and makes you look better or as capable as a man.
Honest to god I’m kinda glad I’m not one of those men anymore if I ever was in the first place.
“I believe that you are just fair enough in in about a quarter glass.”
“Quarter glass of what?”
“Hourglass, fifteen minutes.”
We head down and I actually head off to quickly use the head. Yes I’m taking the time to pee before things get heavy and then I come back and get the things for the rifle ready and spare shells in my vest pockets and check the sights and the mounted spy glass and I get a drink of water and head back up.
Three or four minutes left and I use it to get used to the feet and the sway of the boat and get into that rhythm I hear her yell up. “I believe now would be a good time to start you attempts Miss Steele.”
Okay then I take a breath and I sight up and it’s far…and there’s the wind and elevation and height too and then there’s the wave dips…that’s what I’m waiting for. For us to rise up on a wave and for them to be down and have all that height and…
I fire.
The first shot misses the pilot/helmsman and it makes him duck and scamper. Good enough that means there’s no one steering the ship now and I know what I have to adjust for and I fire off two more one taking a chunk of of the deck near there and the third shot is right in the wheel.
I’m putting the fright into them of getting close to the thing and it’s having an effect already.
It’s listing and the crew is scampering running to make ready and I see that son-of-a-snake and I see him going for cover and as much as I want to try to sight in on his mangy ass I know I don’t have the time.
We dip down out of sight with the waves and I move my head away from the rifle it’s important to do that and I close my scope eye too for the few seconds because it rests your eye and it doesn’t wreck the visual memory that your eye’s got from the last thing it was like focused on.
An ol sharpshooter’s trick.
I feel the swell and I hear the gatling gun opening fire now that we’re coming back into they’re sight too and they’ve a man at the helm again.
The gun’s roaring and firing and that’s actually all to the good really the thing’s a killer fer sure but it’s not a weapon with a good range and it sure ain’t really accurate and the more ammo that they use the better really.
And as much as I don’t like killing there’s the fact that they’re doing all of this with him and that means that I’m going to use any means I have and I sight in and I put a rifle shot through the head of the fella at the wheel.
I coulda and might shoulda held off an took him in the shoulder but dead in the head says a lot more about staying the hell away from that wheel than a shot to the shoulder would and it says a great deal about how good I am with a long gun.
Just because I’m a gunfighter and use a leg iron as my trade don’t mean I’m still not Nikki Steele with a long gun too.
I fire off a few random and yet good guessed shots around the ship I hit two out of five and I’m not trying to but they don’t know that.
I see that bugger out from cover with some other fellas that look like they’re with him and they’re doing something and I lose sight of them as we get blocked out by the wave action.
I take the time to reload and it’s the same deal when we see each other again and the gatling gun’s spitting death at us and all it’s doing is killing fish maybe and I see a kid now at the wheel and there’s a couple of guns on him from the deck making him take the wheel and a couple of crew standing and blocking sight of them…I mean I can see them but I can’t get a shot. I’m good but I’m not going to shoot the crew either since they’re likely under threat too and I am for certain now going to shoot the kid at the wheel.
Dammit t’hell and Alabama.
What to do…and now I’m running out of time…
Well honestly I know some fellas that aren’t crew and are likely signed on with Damon and that’s the gunner at the gatling and the reload man, Damon wouldn’t trust no one else but his own with such a thing.
I put a bullet in each of them before the wave dips us down again.
I load two more shells.
We’re getting closer now, and we might be getting into a range where they might start hitting us and I’m not gonna take that chance with that gatling gun and I’m going to do as much damage as I can with it.
The wave crests up and I see they’re ditching the life boats and leaving them in their wake and some barrels of things to get in our way or maybe punch a hole in us because it don’t take too much to hole a ships enough to hurt her…not with speed on you.
And yet there’s still something else about all of that stuff in the water too.
And that gat’s firing and this time there’s the whiz-whine of rounds passing us and people taking cover as I’m hearing yells and thunks of shells hitting wood.
“Goddammit!”
I open fire and I know what I’m tryin for and that’s the gatling gun this time and the gunner but he ducks after my first shot and he’s still got it pointed our way but he’s firing wild.
I put a round into the casin but she’d still firin, I miss the gun as we hit a crate they’ve dumped and oranges are everywhere in the water I still don’t trust that not to be a thing…I’ve got my angry woman’s intuition in my gut going off and I can just feel badness coming.
I put another round into the casing of the gatling gun and we take some more rounds and I see shots hitting the gunner catching him in the head and I look to see Daniel standing there with his own long rifle sighting in and taking shots even as rounds were whizzing by him and crates of ours were busting up and a lamp shattered not a yard from him and he just stood there as cool as you please and took that shot.
Why am I not just cursed with an interestin life but meeting all these interesting people that make me want things that maybe I shouldn’t.
I’m still getting used to the girls an me.
I wasn’t raised with that good with just being with who you’re with when you want to be and yet still committed to those you’re living with…I’m not saying it doesn’t have its advantages but still….damn Danny why do you gotta be just one of those good ones.
I put another round in the casing as another fella grabbed the gun and the crank and he gets maybe ten rounds off and it stops with a jammed motion and he’s yelling and Daniel puts another bullet in that fella too and I hear even from here Damon cursing and swearing and I look for a chance to put a round in him and there’s another bump and anther to our ship and I see more crates and I see.
There’s kegs in one of the life boats and there’s all sorts of fuse cords in there burning and stuff.
“Explosives!” I scream.
I scream it a might too late because a second later there’s one hell of a boom and I’m blown off the perch I’m using and I lose the rifle into the drink and I hit the water…I know I’m going to hit the water so I kinda curl so I’m not so flat and cover my head with my arms and then I’m in the water.
I open my eyes and look up and I can see the water burning and I can see the boat still in one piece and things in the water and I’m trying to swim and kick and I’m damned heavy.
But I’m damned stubborn too…I’m not going to give up and then I…I see Doc Faraday coming down just like she was when she was coming up only she’s riding the anchor and holding it’s chain and she pushes off towards me in that damned dress and I see her with some kind of thing over her mouth and it’s got a bottle or a jug or something and she’s…she bubbling out air?
Oh shit she’s got something to breath or something!
I swim to her and we meet and she takes it off and I breathe as she shoves it on my face and it’s damned odd and tastes like a chemists pharmacy or something but it’s air and she looks at me and she’s lost her hat and all and she presses something on that breathin thing and I inhale again but slower…try to make this last and then she takes a breath and then she smiles and she grips this brooch on her dress and yanks it off and there’s some cord or whatnot and…?
And her dress, under the skirts it’s filling up with air and it’s getting puffy and filling out and she looks like some odd way too proper English mermaid and I feel her slip her boot under my foot and we’re floating upwards like a sack of air.
We share the air bottle once more each before she lets it go and we come up to the surface and we’re panting and breathing hard and her skirt’s all floofed out around us like a southern belle settling at a plantation picnic.
I look at her and she looks at me and she’s smiling and her hairs in a mess and there’s burning debris and stuff all around us and everything and dammit I’m alive.
So I kiss her.
And I’ll be damned if she doesn’t kiss me back right away and everything too.
I break the kiss and she smiles at me. “Well then I think now it’s fine to call you Nikki then right?”