It was the biggest and the brightest room Kid had ever been in. The Sterling Room at the Winslow House was papered with gilded wallpaper and hung with crystal chandeliers that sparkled with reflected gas light. The two riders had been shown to a small table covered with a white, linen tablecloth and set with gleaming silverware. Other elegantly dressed diners sat at tables around them.
Studying the large, ornately printed menu card, Kid felt a rising sense of unease. He peered over the top of his card and saw Lou peeking back over hers with a perplexed expression that mirrored his own.
"I'm having a little trouble deciding what to order," Kid admitted.
"Me, too."
They both dropped their eyes back to their menus a moment. Then Lou set hers down on the table. "Can you make heads or tails outta this?"
Kid shook his head. "It's not written in English, is it? Leastwise, I never saw so many o's and u's in anything I read before."
"What do we do?" Lou squeaked as a waiter in black tie and tails approached their table.
"Just point at somethin'. It's got to be edible, whatever it is."
The waiter paused beside the table. "Would monsieur and madam wish to consult the sommelier this evening?"
"The summer-yay?" Kid stammered. "No, I-I don't think so."
Their server frowned. "Are you quite sure? Our cellars contain many fine French wines and champagnes."
"Oh! I like champagne!" Lou exclaimed.
Kid wondered when she'd ever had such a thing before. But he was determined to please her. "We'll have a bottle of that, then."
"Very good, sir. And have you selected your entrée?"
"We came in that door," Lou responded, pointing, then flushed pink when the waiter smirked.
"I meant, have you decided what you would like to order?"
"Ah … yes," Kid answered, slightly miffed at this fellow so clearly looking down his nose at them. He assumed an air of authority as he stabbed randomly at a line on the menu. "I'll have that."
"The Huitres au Naturel," the waiter repeated in a fluid accent. "Excellent choice. And for the lady?" He looked at Kid as if expecting him to give Lou's choice, too. But she jumped in on her own behalf.
"I'll have this one," she declared, holding the menu up for the waiter to take note of.
The waiter's eyebrows lifted a hair. "Escargots a la Bourguignonne? Madam has adventurous tastes."
"Uh, I … I had this last time I was in New York City, and just wondered if the scargoe here is as good."
Another smirk from the uppity server. "I'm sure you won't be disappointed." He briskly collected their menu cards, gave them a curt bow and turned on his heel.
"I don't seem to recall you mentioning that New York trip," Kid goaded.
"Stopped off on my way back from Ft. Laramie last month. Took a sorta roundabout route."
Kid leaned over the table to speak confidentially to his dinner companion. "What do you suppose he meant by adventurous tastes?"
Lou shrugged, then grinned. "Maybe I have to shoot and skin whatever it is myself. Too bad I left my holster back at the hotel."
Another man approached. This one wore a red jacket and had a white napkin draped over his arm. He carried a silver try, on which stood a silver bucket containing a bottle and also two wide, shallow glasses with thin stems. "Your champagne," he announced.
He set the tray on the table, then deftly pulled the bottle from the bucket – which Kid observed was half-filled with shaved ice – and wiped the damp glass with the napkin. Next he peeled back a piece of gold foil that covered the top of the bottle, revealing a kind of wire cage around the cork. Kid decided a fellow might die of thirst waiting for this performance to end as the wine steward carefully unwound the wire, then wrapped his fist around the neck of the bottle and tugged gently on the cork. It exited the bottle with a soft pop. He quickly poured a golden, effervescent liquid into each of the glasses and set one glass in front of Lou, and the other in front of Kid.
The young man was mesmerized by the tiny bubbles rising through his glass, didn't notice the waiter still standing next to the table until the server uttered a pointed, "Ahem."
Kid looked up.
"Were you going to taste the champagne, sir?"
"I thought I'd wait and wash down my supper with it, if it's all the same to you."
The waiter made a little choking sound. "Very good, sir." He scooped up the tray and tucked it under his arm. Like his predecessor, he executed a little bow before leaving.
"Quite a place that has to have two different people serve you your food and your drinks," Kid observed, reaching for his glass.
"Wait!" Lou blurted.
Kid's glass stopped halfway to his mouth. "What's the matter?"
"There's a special way you're supposed to drink this." She scooted her chair halfway around the table, in closer proximity to Kid. Then she picked up her glass delicately and leaned forward, threading her arm around Kid's. He was forced to lean toward her, too, to allow them both to bend their arms enough to bring the rims of their glasses to their lips.
"After all this contortin', I believe I could get a job as an acrobat with one of those traveling shows Cody is so fond of," Kid grunted.
"Watch out for the bubbles," Lou cautioned. "They tickle."
Kid managed to take a sip from his glass. As Lou predicted, the energetic bubbles breaking at the surface made his nose twitch. The drink itself tasted a lot like white wine, with a slightly bitter aftertaste. He wasn't sure he liked it, but Lou sure seemed to. She was giggling into the rim of her glass.
"What's so funny?"
"You. Ya look like yer wrestling a steer."
Kid flexed his bicep uncomfortably. "Do we gotta drink the whole bottle this way?"
"Nah. Just the first sip." Lou untangled her arm from his and pushed her chair back to her side of the table.
"You seem to know a lot about this stuff," Kid observed.
Lou set her glass down and stared into it. "I had it once before, is all." Something in her expression told Kid not to press the issue. Instead, he took another sip from his own glass. He thought he liked it a little better this time. "Makes a change from sarsaparilla," he observed, and that made her smile again.
"We're lucky Teaspoon isn't here to see us," Lou commented. "You know how strict he is about the company rules."
Kid nodded. All the Pony Express riders had been required to sign an oath to abstain from alcohol while in the employ of Russell, Majors and Waddell. Granted, it was a regulation regularly flouted by many of the riders, though Kid generally toed the line. Now he shrugged. "We're not on duty, and I don't imagine we're likely to tear up the town on this stuff."
"Careful. It might have a bigger kick to it than you think."
Just then yet another server appeared at the table. This one carried a larger tray than the last. He deftly transferred a covered dish from the tray to each of Kid and Lou's places.
"Huitres au Naturel," said the server, lifting the cover off Kid's plate with a flourish.
"Escargots a la Bourguignonne!" he declared, pulling off the lid of Lou's dish even more dramatically.
Then he was gone.
Kid looked down at his plate. Lou looked down at hers.
"What did you get?" Lou asked.
Kid picked up his fork and poked at his dish tentatively. "I'm not exactly sure." He placed his hands around the rim of the plate and gave it a little shake, frowning as the gelatinous, gray lumps jiggled a little inside their half-shell cradles. "Seems a mite undercooked." He set his fork down again and looked at Lou. "How 'bout yours?"
She wrinkled her nose. "I'm pretty sure I saw Rachel picking this very thing off the underside of the cabbage leaves the other day." She held her plate at eye level and squinted at the snails closely. Her gaze flickered to Kid's and she raised her eyebrows. "Think I should try to make friends with it?"
Suddenly both riders were laughing. Lou set her plate down and pushed it toward the center of the table. "I'm sorry, but I just can't eat that, Kid." Snickering, she tried to regain some semblance of composure, and nearly succeeded until her date suggested, "Want mine?" Then both riders doubled over again.
The very dignified fellow who had taken their orders originally now approached, looking stern. "Is there something amiss with your meals?"
"They're real … interestin'." Kid gave Lou a wink across the table. "But I believe we're ready for dessert."