Chapter 2
Hop Sing was starting to loose his patience with this bad tempered boy. "You take these towels to the room at the end".
"What room I don't know what you're pointing to" Sam told him crossly. She'd had a really boring day mucking out stables and chopping wood. Now this cook seemed to think she was his assistant or something.
"The room at the end, the room at the end, how many times" Hop sing pointed before going back into his kitchen.
~o~
The room at the end. She swiped up the towels and sauntered over finally finding the room he was pointing at. She walked straight in and all anger and frustration gave way to shock as she was met with the sight of the oldest Cartwright brother in the bath tub. Her eyes found the floor in zero seconds as heat exploded to her face. She quickly dumped the towels down on a wooden surface by the door.
"Hay pass them over here will ye" he asked.
"Yeah ok" she picked them up and sidled over staring determinedly into his eyes and not looking anywhere else.
Yeah she could do this, this is good.
"Thanks" he smiled.
"Hop Sing keeping you busy?" he asked drying his chest and arms.
She guessed that that's what he was doing because she was still staring into his eyes as if she was trying to hypnotise him.
"Not too much just bits and pieces" she told him.
He took another towel from her and stood up.
"Ok bye".
At that moment she didn't care if he suspected. She fell over a water bucket on her way out and crashed through the bathhouse door scattering the chickens.
~o~
Annie's day wasn't going much better. The sewing circle was just little below excruciating. She shook her head in frustration. They tittered at her bringing a dress to mend first off. When they said sewing they meant beautiful elaborate embroidery. She should have guessed that of course. Then they got on to the subject of wedded bliss. Abigail told how her wedding night was the best night of her life and her husband knew then that he had struck gold when he had married her. Marsha recounted how her husband bought her a diamond pin the day after to thank her for giving herself to him in that intimate way. They asked Annie about her first night and she could at least be happy with the lies she managed to tell. She sounded convincing even to herself.
She was glad Joe and the other men were working late. She needed some private time as tears began to well up. She threw the dress onto the couch and headed into the spare bedroom to wash her face.
~o~
Sam came in and lugged a bucket of logs to the fire. She was dirty, grimy and tired but the day was nearly over thankfully. She put the bucket down and turned to leave but then she spied the dress. A lovely blue satin dress with a white frill colour. Gingerly she picked it up wondering where the owner bought it. Was it catalog bought or did they stock it in Virginia City?. Would it fit?. She put it up to herself.
"What are you doing!".
Sam jumped as she caught sight of Annie at the bedroom door.
"How did you get in here" Annie shrieked.
Sam quickly crossed the room. "No, no please" she begged "I was only looking at it".
"I'll scream" Annie said "I'll scream".
"No don't do that, please I can explain".
Annie screamed and Sam quickly covered her mouth as she struggled.
"You don't understand" she begged.
Annie's eyes looked so terribly frightened.
"I'm a girl, I picked the dress up because I thought it was so very beautiful and I'm a girl" Sam slowly took her hand from Annie's mouth as realisation dawned.
"But the way you're dressed, I seen you work alongside the men. You're a girl?".
"Please I need this job, it pays well. Please don't split on me".
"You're a girl".
The front door clunked open at that moment making them both jump. Adam walked in, a little surprised to see Sam talking with Annie.
Sam lost the power of speech for a moment as he stared at her.
"There was a spider in my room. I saw this boy fixing up the fire and asked him to remove it" Annie told him.
"Fine" Adam scratched the side of his face "would you gather up the chickens before you go and pen them in?".
"Yes sir" Sam nodded throwing Annie a glance of gratitude before she went.
~o~
Sam was relegated mostly to work at the ranch house and she often saw Annie in passing . Little by little they engaged each other in conversation.
Annie came out to the yard one morning with the latest catalog from the stores in Carson city. "Sam look at this".
"Annie, I'm busy, what, oh that is beautiful though" Sam stared at the ladies under garments decked out in lace and frills.
"Think Joe will like me in that?".
"I don't know though, it's a little bit over the top if you don't mind me sayin" Sam told her.
"No, I don't mind you sayin, which one do you think?".
"Can I hold on to this" Sam asked "I get a break in an hour I can have a good look then".
"Sure" Annie smiled "tell me later which one you think".
Sam rolled up the catalog and struck it in her back pocket.
~o~
Sam worked away brushing out the stalls and filling feed buckets with oats. She stepped out of the way as Ben led his horse into a stall. As she went to fill the water troughs something fell from her back pocket. Ben bent low and picked it up. Sam stood blushing all the way up from her neck as Ben leafed through the undergarment catalog arching an eyebrow at its content.
"The place for that is under your pillow son" he said finally handing it back to her and exiting the barn.
Sam released a long shaky breath as she stared after him.
