I Went Down (NaNoWriMo Read-Along)

15 Dapper Jack

“You’re going to take them into the Plains?” the hostler asked skeptically. He looked over Dapper Jack’s shoulder to where Jimmy Primrose and Reinhold were waiting on the far side of the street.

“Yes,” Jack said. “I am.”

“For a week?”

“Yes.”

“Have either of them been ahorse before?”

“Of course they have. If they hadn’t, would I be here to hire horses for them?”

Beside him, Howser nodded vigorously. “Best pick out some gentle horses for them, though,” he said. “No need to seat Pels on  anything too fancy.”

The hostler sniffed. “I doubt they’d know fine horseflesh when they saw it.”

“But you’ll know the worth of Pel currency when you see it,” Jack said. He took out his wallet and handed several bills to the man. “That’s for you. The gentlemen don’t need anyone to know that they’ve picked up the Plains habit of horseback riding.”

The man’s mustache twitched slightly as he counted the bills and slid them into his shirt pocket. “I suppose I have a couple of horses that will be easy on them.”

“Thank you.” Dapper Jack smiled. He and Howser followed the bandy legged little man through the stables and out into the paddock. The hostler rattled a bucket of grain and the horses began to trot towards him. He clucked and cooed to them like a mother hen, coaxing a halter onto first one and then another until a string of horses was hitched to the fence.

Jack paid him the agreed upon price to take the horses for the week and went back to bring Jimmy and Reinhold to meet the mounts. They got seated without incident while Howser secured their bags to the pack horses. Dapper Jack swung up onto his horse and settled into the saddle. The dun gelding shifted under him and pulled against the reins, trying to get a mouthful of grass. Well, he would learn soon enough that Dapper Jack was no pushover. He wound the reins around his gloved hand and sat back in the saddle, letting the horse feel his weight. Jimmy and Reinhold sat on their placid mares, looking at the road ahead, not exactly with eagerness, but with anticipation. Jack looked at Howser, who had the pack horses  strung together. He leaned forward and tapped his heels to the his horse’s sides. As they rode away, he looked back once and saw the hostler, still standing by the paddock and shaking his head.

The man was right to doubt, of course. It was a foolish thing, to take a pair of Pels out into the Plains. Howser said as much when they stopped for the night at a roadside inn.

“They’re not used to riding,” Howser said, pointing with a thrust of his chin at Jimmy, who had sat down heavily on the single upholstered chair in the small dining room. Reingold had perched gingerly on a nearby bench and was watching the door. The innkeeper had taken their money and gone to boil water so they could soak their aching bodies; they were waiting for his return.

“Of course not,” Jack said. “Neither are you, I suppose.” They’d all been too much in the city to be anything but tired and sore now, but there was no point in admitting his own stiffness.

Howser scowled. “I’m just saying, there’s nothing but a straw-filled bed waiting for each of us, and a good wool blanket doesn’t make up for the lack of a warm woman. How’re they going to bend their legs around a horse tomorrow and the next day?”

“We’ll intercept the road and the trucks tomorrow night,” Jack said. “And Jimmy will do whatever it takes to see Baccarat suffer.”

The innkeeper returned and motioned them in the direction of the bathhouse. It was a simple structure of rough-cut planks and a little sneer of distaste curled Jimmy’s lips as they entered.