************************HH*KC*JS*TJ************************
The job Hannibal had agreed to while in the doggery of La Junta didn't pan out, which wasn't so bad, gave him the chance to ride up to Cheyenne and see Jenny, let her know about his cousin and the letters that would be arriving in her care. And truthfully, he missed his cousin so much since they separated, it'd be good to see a friendly face. And maybe Jenny with all her connections would have an idea who was taking on more help these days.
He took his time getting there, zigzagging his way north in search of a job. Maybe he was being too fussy, but he wanted something better than following cattle arses across the land for low pay, he'd had his fill of that for now.
The wide open arms and the snug embrace against Jenny's ample bosoms were just what Hannibal needed, his arms easily encircling her corseted waist in his tight hug. The kisses on his cheeks were a nice bonus, better yet was the one on his forehead, his head pulled down giving him no polite escape from viewing those bosoms up close unless he'd close his eyes. He didn't. A man's spirit needs a little loving from a good woman once in a while, makes things look more hopeful, kind of new.
"Lord, you're a mess, Hannibal! Never seen a man more tore up by the road!"
No, it's inside that he's hurting, poor boy.
"We'll sit here, sweetie. Harry, get in the kitchen and bring this skin-and-bones young man a full plate!" She filled a pitcher of beer, brought two glasses to the table and filled them to the top. Hannibal washed the trail dirt down his throat with beer chilled in the spring house.
Ah, thank you, God, for beer!
"Billy! BILLY!" Jenny scanned the room for her son. Hannibal saw a boy not much younger than Jeddie, golden headed, no, hair more the color of Jeddie's, blue eyes too, looking about thirteen years, appear from the kitchen door carrying a large plate of food to set before him.
"Thank you, Billy," the words barely out his mouth before the food was going in. Jenny smiled at Hannibal with fondness. It's satisfying watching a man enjoy his meal.
"You never met my Billy last time, did you? Billy, I want you to meet a good friend of mine, a real good man, Mister Hannibal Heyes."
"How do you do, Mister Heyes." Billy held out his hand. A pang of home sickness ran through Hannibal's chest.
"Very nice to meet you, Billy." Hannibal stood and shook the boy's hand with masculine aplomb, then returned to his plate and glass.
Jenny kissed Billy's cheek. "Off with you now. Have some things to discuss with Mister Heyes." She raised her hand to Harry and motioned to the office door.
"Got something I need from you, Jenny." Hannibal didn't get the chance to tell her about the letters from Jeddie before Harry returned and handed Jenny a small tin box. She sat down across from Hannibal and opened the lid removing one of two envelopes.
"These came. You know a Private J. Curry at Fort Lyon, Colorado?"
"My cousin! He's seventeen and just joined up an' I told him to send me letters in care of you, you're the only one I know who could do that for three years. I'm looking for work an' you know how that is, Jenny, just the looking, an' when I find it, well, can't say where I'll be one day to the next sometimes. Do you mind?"
"Not at all, sweetie! I'm happy to be here for your cousin. What's his name?"
"Jeddie. Well, Jedidiah, but that's so formal. I had to sign his enlistment papers, we were down on the Santa Fe Trail thinking of going to California an' striking it rich, or east to St. Louis, maybe something in the city for us, or we coulda gone up to Denver, but I got a handle on a job in La Junta, fell through, an' while I'm there, Jeddie meets the cavalry heading back to the fort from patrol so he rides along. Got the big story about army life nowadays from Sergeant Quinn but they don't believe he's seventeen so he had to come get me to sign for him. Met his captain, too. They're not bad fellows, seems like Jeddie will do well, they like him an' what he can do already an' he's got all his schooling done. I hope that means he'll not be fighting Indians much..." Hannibal's voice trailed off.
"You're worried about him."
Hannibal looked at the food left on his plate, moving it around with his fork.
"You raise him?" Hannibal had told Jenny three years ago that he had no family but for one cousin, both of them orphaned at a young age.
"Pretty much, as much as I could. We're two years apart an' some months. I've always been responsible for him."
"What's he call you?"
"Hannie." Hannibal raised his head partially, looking aside at the floor, a bit embarrassed for having divulged his family's pet name for himself. But then, Jenny's a good sort, he decided. He meant to smile up at her, but on raising his head his eyes got no further than her ample bosoms and he forgot what he was going to say. Heck, he forgot how to move!
Jenny smiled at the young man's obvious predilection and his inability to hide it.
"Want any more to eat, honey?" Food ought to snap him out of it. Hannibal scooped up the last bite and sat back rubbing his still flat belly.
"No, thanks, Jenny. That was real good, though!" He brought the glass to his mouth and finished off the beer, wiping his mouth with his sleeve cuff and releasing an unintended belch. "Oh! Pardon me!" as he covered his mouth after the fact.
"Music to my ears, Hannibal!" Her laughter put him at ease. Jenny leaned into the table with her left arm to her ribs, giving her bosoms full access to the table top. Hannibal's smile of contentment turned to one of fascination. "Here, let me fill your glass, got to be more trail dust you can wash down!" She held the pitcher across the table filling his glass. "Drink up, honey! It's on the house! Same as your meal and room."
Hannibal picked up the glass and drank steadily thinking Jenny wouldn't notice what he was looking at beyond it. He set the empty glass down and signed contentedly, smiling at his hands around the glass.
"Oh, honey! You'll want a hot bath! Brigid!" Jenny set the the envelope onto the table in front of her. "Brigid!"
Seeing his cousin's handwriting on the envelope, Hannibal reached across the table for his letter. He had almost reached it when Jenny leaned in to signal Brigid to their table, her bosoms covering the envelope.
Hannibal froze, his hand a split second from having reached the envelope, a split second from having his hand held between those bosoms and the table! A grin on his face, a bite on his lower lip, he raised his sparkling brown eyes up at Jenny.
She don't know what she done!
"Brigid, this is my good friend, Hannibal Heyes." Jenny straightened while reaching toward Brigid, releasing the envelope and Hannibal took it, grinning triumphantly to himself.
Women got no idea what them things do!
"Ain't she a pretty one, Hannibal!"
Sparkling green eyes, long chestnut hair tied up on top, tendrils spilling down over milk-white shoulders, over a low, very low cut blouse, and curling over milk-white...
God, I'm surrounded by bosoms tonight! His dimples were in full bloom.
"Give him Room Four on the end and a hot bath. And see that the bed clothes are fresh!"
"Yes, Missus Black." She curtsied to Hannibal, animating the milk-white bosoms nearly breaching her blouse, turned and bounced away, smiling coyly at Hannibal as she bounced up the staircase. With a crooked grin, Hannibal followed every move and every movement.
Jenny held her smile in check. She snatched the envelope from Hannibal's hand, replaced it in the tin and closed the lid. "Here you go, honey. You'll want to read your cousin's letters in your room."
Hannibal took the tin and stood beside the table. "Thanks, Jenny. I told Jeddie you're my good friend and he can count on you. So, well, thanks."
"We're friends for life, you and me, Hannibal, and now Jeddie, too. Go on. Bath will be ready soon."
Jenny watched the young man ascend the staircase and disappear around the upstairs corner. She leaned back in her chair, eyes sparkling, looked up at the ceiling and gave a loud, throaty laugh.
"God, I love me a bosom-man!" she declared to the room.
Harry, passing by, raised an eyebrow quizzically.
She lifted her glass.
"He finds pleasure in the most simple things!"
************************HH*KC*JS*TJ************************
Hannibal slowly lowered himself into the steaming bath, the still-closed tin lying on the bed. A knock on the door and Brigid entered holding a bottle of cognac and two glasses. "Missus Black sends this with her regards." Hannibal sank into the clear water to his chin.
Brigid walked to the side of the tub, ran her hand up the bottle neck and popped out the cork. She reached over him to the chair on the opposite side which held the soap, then set down and filled the glasses.
Removing her low cut blouse to reveal an even lower cut camisole that was unfastened to her waist, she knelt alongside the tub near his shoulders, smiling down at the hunkering Heyes who couldn't wipe the smile from his dimpled face.
She couldn't help smiling back at that sweet face. Truth was, she had a hard time looking into his eyes, so deep they were. She'd been out the door before now if it wasn't for that disarming look of vulnerability. And the dimples. She wondered if he had any more...
"Now to get you cleaned up, Mister Heyes!" She never claimed to be an expert at this, so she decided to go with what the young man gave her, pushing the wash cloth deep into the tub between his legs to wet it, reaching across him for the soap, and vigorously rubbing the two together, the camisole straps falling off her shoulders to her arms.
Hannibal raised himself in the tub, reached up and pulled the camisole apart to enjoy her milk-white mounds bouncing as vigorously as were her hands rubbing the cloth and soap. Holding the camisole aside like theater curtains, he was mesmerized by the show. Dark brown eyes gleamed, long slender fingers reached toward the hard centers, gripped and turned. A squeal.
Brigid feigned indignation. "Mister Heyes! Oh, you're no innocent!"
She pouted. He waited for a truthful response.
Green eyes locked shamelessly on that face with the dangerous mix of innocence and mastery. And she let herself fall into the deep brown eyes, if for no other reason than to see where they took her.
************************HH*KC*JS*TJ************************
Squeaky clean and fully relaxed, Hannibal sat stretched out on the bed against the headboard and watched Brigid close the door behind her. Her eyes seemed to sparkle more, if that was even possible, as the hallway lantern caught them. Or maybe it was her smile that added to their brightness.
He stared at the closed door for several minutes recalling the recent events in his room. Yep, he'd have to write Jeddie about some of the tricks he'd just invented. Women love a man in uniform, so Jeddie was bound to...
Jeddie! Where's that tin?
************************HH*KC*JS*TJ************************
Dear Hannie,
I get to write because there's time at night before the lanterns are put out. The first day was real hard I have to say to you. We drilled in our civvies, that's what we call clothes that aint our uniform, then we had to be inspected by the fort doctor. We were buck necked for that. We got measured and weighed, he looked in our mouth and ears and eyes. He put his fingers on our heads and checked for bumps. He asked questions about what it was like growing up. Well, you can figure out that I passed the examanation! Got uniforms and they are sharp!
We eat together for enlisted, no officers allowed with us. There was some gripes about the food but I tucked in! Sergeant Quinn said -You heard about the 11th Commandment have you? When your in the army never complain about the food.- We all laughed at that!
We have every day training with the horses. And I tell you, Hannie, mine is a gem! His name is Brazen. We have rifle practice at the range and pistols too. And sabers. We do that every day. And drill and march. There's a laundry here and the fort women work there.
And we have hand to hand fighting training. I'm learning so much in that! We have an Indian scout he's Shoshone who I'm learning tracking from. And I do boxing, too. Sergeant Quinn got me doing that, said I'm a natural on account of I'm quick with my hands. You better watch yourself, Hannie, I'm catching up to you fast!
The officers put on a dance because of us new troopers in the Mess Room, music played by all sorts from in the fort, very good! Reels and step dances mostly. Well, you know we know those already! Some of the men can't step to the music at all, but they don't stop because how often will we get to be with the fort ladies for the evening. They had a drink called punch in a big glass bowl and lots of cakes and sweets made by the wifes and ladies. I got to dance with Miss Rachel Wellington for the Virginia Reel. I saw her in the laundry. She's 16. Her father is Major General at the fort.
The army is real good at calling people for their rank and for outside the fort, too. As in Mister or Sir for all men and women are always Maam or Missus or Miss. And a Missus can be a Maam but a Miss can't! I asked how do you know what one to use and Sergeant Quinn said -Do your best Private and she will tell you if your wrong!- Ha!
We got so much to learn just to get through a day with all the different bugle calls! Revilley at 6 and right after Stable Call. Then is breakfast call at 7. All day long up til lanterns out. Us new recruits have Sink Duty, that's latrines. I hate that! That comes in Fatigue call. Remember Evans? He's our bugler now. And last is Taps and Tattoo.
And not just rank but saluting. We got to learn all the different ranks to know who to salute. But not to U.S. Marshals or sheriffs. I asked. Sergeant Quinn said we ought to show we respect them taking care of others like we do in the cavalry.
I won't go on patrol for weeks, first is so much training. Say! Almost forgot to tell you! After you left, Hannie and we were drilling, well here comes through the gates the 10th Cavalry! You just missed them, Hannie, the Buffalo Soldiers! We had to stop and watch them and Sergeant Quinn said we could be troopers like them if we work for it!
Well Hannie, Tattoo sounded and the lantern is going out very soon and I have to finish if this letter is going in the mail tomorrow. I just want you to know that I am doing my job here and it is going pretty much like I thought. I hope you got that job in La Junta. If you need money you can ask. I got nothing to spend my pay on here. They dropped our pay from 12 to 9 but I still save up some. If your in La Junta we can meet at the doggery some day for beer. I would like to do that.
Good-bye for this letter.
Your cousin,
Private Jedediah Curry
Fort Lyon, Colorado
lll
Dear Hannie,
Well it's two weeks since I wrote the first time. Not much is different from that letter, we still drill and train. I like best the horse training and pistols. On my own time I go to the Day Room and theres books on firearms and weapons that I can read for free. And the fort gets the Rocky Mountain News and I read that.
I get to take out my six-gun once a week and go to the fireing range to practice. I am getting pretty good and faster than when you saw last. I also practice the fast draw with the army pistol for the same reason. I never know when I need to be fastest.
Say! I got to talk to one of the Buffalo Soldiers last Sunday on the fireing range. He heard I did this and came to see who would be doing extra. We talked about firearms and horses and main things about being in the cavalry. He's been a Buffalo Soldier for 6 years. He said most of that time he has been on patrol! He was in the army eight years before the cavalry. His name is First Sergeant George Washington Sims.
I asked Miss Rachel to take a walk around the fort last Sunday. It was hot but not so hot not to take a walk and she had one of those parasols, a white one with almost all lace. Well, I didn't want it to be over but we soon got around to the COs office again and her mother was looking for her by then. I said -Thank you Maam for allowing me to walk with your daughter today.- She didn't get mad so I guess I used the right rank for her!
You remember Proulx and Schmidt from the day we were in Captain Roberton's office? Well, Proulx, we call him Frenchie and I are chums. I figured he was from New Orleans but when I asked he said no, he is from the Red River. And I thought he meant Texas but no, there's another Red River in Dakota Territory and Minnesota. There has been fur trading there from Saint Paul to a town in Canada called Winnypeg, he said they use big ox carts that's what his father is, a trapper. Well, now the steam boats are moving on the Red River and Frenchie said his father wanted him to do something better than trapping so they went down the Mississippi to St. Louis and the Santa Fe Trail to go to California so he is there in the fort when we rode in. Schmidt is our chum too. When we are in formation, that's what we call when we the cavalry is lined up, Frenchie is on my left all the time. When he talks I think of the fur trappers in Laurence and that part. Do you remember them, Hannie?
Well, I have to go. We played cards tonight poker in the barracks so I did not start to write until late and the lights are going out quick like. I took almost all the matches. I hope you are doing well Hannie and hope I can see you in La Junta and talk together again. I miss that.
Your cousin,
Private Jedediah Curry
C Company, 7th Cavalry
Fort Lyon, Colorado
lll
Dear Jeddie,
I am writing from Jenny's because I didn't get the job in La Junta. She is asking around about places for me and that's good because I don't have to ride around so much and get saddle sore. It's a center here, people come from all over because there's not much else around so there's a real good chance I'll find work.
On the way here I went to see Mr. Greeves about your pay but he was gone on a cattle buying trip. I gave them all they needed to know about your enlistment and to send your pay to the fort. Have you got it yet? If not, maybe they mixed it up and will send it here. I will keep an eye out for it and will send it on to you if it comes to Jenny's.
Jenny got your first two letters and I really liked reading them! It seems you are doing well and learning a lot of things you never do punching cattle. You got yourself a girl, too! That's real nice! I bet she's very pretty!
Damn, I'm sorry I missed the Buffalo Soldiers! I'd like to meet that Sergeant Sims some day.
Think you're getting pretty fast, huh? Well, I practice too! When you get out, I call a draw between us and you better be ready to back up your claim! (Joking)
It's funny you mentioned the fur trappers because I was thinking about them myself and the time I went with Da, you were pretty little then, to Laurence and he stopped the wagon and had a talk with some of them. I remember their buckskin clothes and their always grinning faces and ready to pat a man on the back. They were with some Osage.
Jenny told me about a man, Jim Plummer, who comes in not regular but often enough who might have a job for me. I'm going to stay around here and see if he shows up. Right now I do some things for Jenny in her saloon for my room and food and I play poker too, and bring in some money.
I put $30.00 in here for you. Spend it on something you'll have fun doing, Jeddie, something not cavalry. I know there ain't a lot around Fort Lyon but when you start doing patrol and are away from the fort for a time you might be near a town that has things to do and stores. Maybe buy your girl something she'd like. But not with all of it! Spend some on yourself, Jeddie. I'm giving it to you because I really think you deserve it for all you been doing. I told you before and it's more true now, Jeddie, I'm very proud of you.
Jenny said when I write to you to tell you she says -Hello- and from all I've been telling her she feels like she knows you as well as she does me. You'll like her, Jeddie.
Well, Billy is calling me. He's Jenny's son, almost 13 and he works around here some. I need to help him unload the supply wagon into the kitchen in back. So I have to stop writing and get this in the mail to you.
This is working real well writing letters and me getting them at Jenny's. It's not as good as talking to you, I miss that, too, but it's the only thing we have got right now.
Good-bye for this letter, Jeddie. Please keep writing to me.
Your cousin,
Hannibal
lll
Dear Jeddie,
Jim Plummer came into Jenny's today. I sat at the table with him and played poker. He seems like a very capable man. There were others with him who played too. We got along pretty well. They are leaving at sun up. I had to think about signing on with him and just came up from the saloon to my room. We shook hands so I leave at sun up, too.
I'll be kind of near a town that I can get into every once in a while and send you a letter, but don't think it'd be smart for you to send them to me there. Let's stay with the way it works with Jenny. That way we both know your letters will be with her for me to read whenever I get to Cheyenne. I told Jenny if a letter comes from a Mr. Greeves to send it on to you because that will be your pay.
It's late and I have a long few days of riding starting early tomorrow, so ending this letter short. Just want you to now what's going on with me.
I will send you money every chance I get. Be sure to use it the best way.
I miss our talks.
Good-bye for now.
Your cousin,
Hannibal
************************HH*KC*JS*TJ************************
It wasn't so bad but not as good as he thought it'd be. There were some in the Plummer Gang who Heyes would never allow in if he was leader. They bring the whole gang down to their level sometimes and Heyes didn't like being brought down. Plummer wasn't as sharp as Heyes had initially thought when they met at Jenny's, but he wasn't so proud not to listen when someone else had an idea.
The second in charge was "Buck" Dickson. Not a bad sort, pretty much the same intelligence level of Plummer, though Plummer would never admit it. Wilkes is the kind who gives most a fair shake. A new kid Emmet trying to prove himself. A sad-sack Swills who is also the gang jester. And an assortment of others who come and go, Lobo, Preacher, and others now and then will join up for a job, but they always move on.
The best part of being in the gang was the old fellow "Fingers" McKay, one of the foundational safe crackers of the West who Heyes was very pleased to learn from, expanding on what he'd learned working with Soapy and Silky when he was fresh out of escaping Valparaiso. McKay suffered from lung consumption, his thick, hacking coughs were relentless and as much as they bedeviled the man, they could be heard for miles in open country. He was of no more use on a robbery, he was in fact a detriment and a danger to all involved. But he took a liking to Heyes, as most people do, and Heyes became his star pupil.
McKay had an assortment of safes in a hidden backroom of his general merchandise store in Laramie, Wyoming, many of them no longer in use or barely found anymore, but the main workings of the three and four tumbler locks were basically the same as safes today. Heyes practiced on them every day, often all day, nestling up to one and lovingly placing his head against the cool steel box, gently handling the dial, careful not to offend with a rude touch. McKay also had a box of locks of every kind, padlocks and door locks, and gave Heyes a pick lock case of the tools to open any and all of them.
His favorite safe was a red Cannonball he affectionately called 'Brigid'. He'd lovingly lay his head aside her large, round upper compartment, softly resting his arm across her front, his fingers gently turning her dial left and right until she submitted to his demands. She always responded with a click that to him sounded almost like a sigh. God, he had to get back to Jenny's and soon!
Their first summer was overall successful, the gang gaining in reputation among the outlaw circle and in newspaper notoriety.
That's how Heyes spent the first summer of 1871 in the Plummer Gang and Jeddie's first summer in the cavalry. Robbery Season would start again in late March or whenever the snow cover was gone. Heyes figured he'd stay with the gang through next robbery season. Jim had a number of plans he'd go over with Dickson and had even started including Heyes in the planning.
He made it to Jenny's only once the first winter. Jenny handed him a large tin box holding the letters Jeddie had mailed him and which had gone unanswered. Heyes felt the biggest guilt pangs not being there for Jeddie as he always had before, even the two years after his Valparaiso escape he'd kept in touch on a monthly basis. Being an outlaw changes a man in ways he never knew it would.
************************HH*KC*JS*TJ************************
January 1872
Heyes sat on the bed of his room at Jenny's that first winter, the open tin box next to him. Jenny kept it organized according to post date, Jeddie's earliest letters on top.
The first several letters Heyes read were filled with all things repetitious and mundane in army life that reinforced his decision not to enlist with his cousin, interspersed with amusing stories of the characters Jeddie lived and worked with, his blossoming affair with Miss Rachel, how he missed his cousin.
It was the first sentence of a letter from December that gave him a start.
Dear Hannie,
I'm in so much trouble.
************************HH*KC*JS*TJ************************