Something Blue

Chapter 11

Gabe

Gabe loved his mother, but talking to her had put him in a foul mood. He'd intended to return to his room and get a few hours' sleep after their conversation, but when he stretched out on the floor, listening to the twin, soft breaths from the bed above him, all he could think about were his mother's words.

"When are you going to let this girl go?"

As if it was a choice to hold onto her. He'd never had a choice where Katherine was concerned.

Agitated, he pulled on his boots and returned to the bar room. The place was always tidy, but he cleaned it deep that night. He cleaned floorboards and scrubbed floors and polished the bartop. Some of the more expensive bottles on the shelf behind the bar were collecting dust, so he pulled them all down and wiped them off. His energy was restless and discomfiting, crawling beneath his skin. No matter how hard he worked, he couldn't seem to exorcise it.

His mother's girls kept odd hours, due to the nature of their work. Although the brothel closed just after three, and it was already dawn, some were still up. He heard them moving about upstairs, and a few stumbled down in their nightgowns, bleary-eyed and sleep-mussed, waving a silent greeting at him before shuffling off to the kitchen. The place didn't go truly quiet until around eight o'clock. Eight to noon. Those hours were a brothel's version of the wee hours of the night. If anyone was moving it was an oddity.

Well, Gabe supposed as he finished in the bar room and moved outside to the stables, he must be some kind of oddity.

The stables needed little work. He'd cleaned them just the day before, after all. He stood in the tidy space, gnawing on the abused toothpick in his mouth and glaring at the horses.

"Suppose at least one of you wants some exercise," he drawled, walking up and down the long aisle. All of his horses were 'adopted,' as Amelia liked to say, from the Tucker family. All of the horses that came out of that ranch were well broke, but some were, as Josh liked to say, 'a little too mellow.' The last few years, under Amelia's clever guidance, those 'too mellow' animals were run through an extra round of training to acquaint them with the extra bulk of skirts around their legs, and the uneven weight of side-saddle riding, and were marketed as 'Ladies' Horses.'

The whole affair had resulted in a deluge of teasing from the ranch hands and the town at large, but when Gabe brought it up with Josh his friend had just shrugged and showed him a line in his ledger, and Gabe hadn't dared join in the mockery.

Turned out ladies needed horses too, and were willing to pay a pretty price for docile creatures with floral names and braided, glossy manes.

After the girls found out, his mother had given him a pocket full of cash and he'd ridden out to the Tuckers' and purchased four gentle, perfectly-groomed 'Ladies' Horses' for the girls. Then he had gritted his teeth and dropped an uncomfortable amount of his own savings on a regular horse for himself. It was selfish and unnecessary, but he was tired of walking everywhere. And a man around here needed a horse if he had any intention of finding a legitimate job. That was what he'd told himself.

"How about you, Reaper?" he asked the sleek gray Asil, offering the animal an apple he'd brought from the kitchen. The horse took it without any apparent eagerness, and Gabe wiped his drool-slick palm on his pants before stroking it over the animal's neck. The hide was warm and smooth, life thrumming beneath his touch in a way that both thrilled and soothed him. Reaper crunched away at the apple, ignoring Gabe's attention.

"He's an arrogant bastard," Josh had told him when he'd pointed at the animal and asked for a price. "I ought to pay you just to get him off my hands."