TEMPERANCE
TEMPERANCE 
“I can’t believe I let you talk me into this.”
“Quit your jawin’ and get on with things, Hickok.”
“I can’t even afford all this.”
“I thought you
fellas that rode for the Express earned plenty? Still, I’m payin’
so you don’t have to worry about it. Consider it a gift for savin’
me from
those goons back there.”
“That’s a change of tune.”
Temperance heard the
movement behind the curtain stop and she could envisage Jimmy standing before
the mirror, looking himself over. “You done in
there? Let me have a look.”
She drew back the curtain
despite Jimmy’s protests and a smile formed on her face as she took in
the ‘new’ Jimmy. The assistant in the shop had done
wonders with the clothes he’d picked out for him. The black suit looked
crisp and classy, especially when set against he gold brocade vest. Jimmy looked
a little awkward in the clothes as he awaited Temperance’s critical appraisal
but all she could see was the potential.
“See?” she
announced, standing back a little to take in the whole picture. “Didn’t
I say you’d look good? I knew you had a little bit of style hidden in
you somewhere, Hickok.”
Jimmy couldn’t
hold back a quick grin and he looked at Temperance’s reflection in the
mirror as he turned back to take a second look. “I feel like a
fool,” he said for the third time, although this time with less conviction.
“You look sharp,” Temperance assured him. “Perfect. Now let’s go.”
With a nod to the assistant, with whom she’d already settled the bill, she walked out of the door and into the street, bringing Jimmy along with her. It was dark outside now and the street was alive with a new kind of traffic, that of people young and old, but mostly young, on their way to the show at the saloon at the end of the street or to some of the more dubious forms of entertainment which kept the town busy until long after dark.
Shifting the bundle of his old clothes under his arm, Jimmy looked over at Temperance. “That assistant sure was helpful,” he noted. “How much did you slip him?”
“Money?” Temperance asked. “I didn’t give him a cent.”
Jimmy raised his eyebrows but said nothing. It didn’t take her long to tell him the truth.
“I told him you were the son of rich banker and that you’d run away from home. This morning you saved me from a bunch of outlaws who were holding me at gun point and now, as well as being eternally grateful and determined to repay you, I’ve found that I’ve fallen madly in love with you, but I’m keeping it a secret from you for fear that you love another,” she ended her tale with a dramatic flourish of the hand.
Jimmy stopped in his tracks, causing the people walking along behind him to veer around him. “Temperance! You really told him that?” he looked at her in utter disbelief. “I don’t know where you come up with these things. He didn’t believe you did he?”
Temperance shrugged
and continued on down the street, forcing Jimmy to jog a few steps to catch
up with her. “I don’t see why not. You believed me
when I told you that I was a card playing saloon girl from Missouri.”
“But that was the truth,” Jimmy began before catching the shrewd glance she sent his way. “Wasn’t it?”
Temperance turned to
face him, walking backwards as she did so. Her face was a picture of impudent
amusement. “You’ll just have to wait and see,
won’t you, sunshine?” she smiled before turning back around. “So
where is this hotel of yours anyway?”
“That’s it on the corner,” Jimmy pointed out. “I won’t be long. I just gotta go up and drop off my clothes.”
“I’ll come up with you,” Temperance announced.
“Oh no you won’t,” Jimmy replied, picturing Kid’s reaction if he was to meet Temperance. “You stay down here. I won’t be long.”
“You wouldn’t leave a girl standing out here on the street, would you?” she asked, fluttering her eyelashes and smiling at Jimmy hopefully.
“Cut it out, Temperance,” Jimmy said dryly. “You’re not *that* convincing. But you can wait in the foyer of you want.”
Temperance followed
Jimmy across the street to the hotel and then obediently sat herself down in
a chair in the foyer as Jimmy went up to his room,
taking two steps at a time.
Jimmy took a deep breath
as he pulled his key out of his pocket and slowly unlocked the door. The lack
of light inside the room told him that luck was
going his way - Kid was already asleep. Reaching one arm in through the door,
Jimmy threw his bundle of clothes onto the battered old chair by the closest
bed and dropped his boots carefully by the door. Kid hadn’t stirred and
for a moment Jimmy was tempted to leave without saying anything. But he knew
that if Kid woke in the night and found that he still wasn’t there, it
was more than likely that he’d come looking for him. So instead, Jimmy
positioned himself carefully behind the door with only his head and shoulders
poking through into the room - to make sure that Kid didn’t see what he
was wearing - and hissed into the darkness.
“Kid. Kid.”
There was a muffled
groan from the bed nearest the door, and then, in the moonlight which filtered
in through the window, Jimmy could make out Kid’s
ruffled head lifting off the pillow.
“Jimmy?” Kid’s voice was sleepy and thick.
“Yeah, it’s just me. Listen, I met an old friend of mine and I said I’d buy him a drink. So, um, I won’t be back for a while. I’ll see you in the mornin’.”
Jimmy was about to make a hasty retreat, but Kid was too fast for him.
“An old friend?” he asked, sitting up in the bed.
“Yeah,” Jimmy said in what he hoped was a convincing tone. “Jack Kerry. Used to know him in Kansas. Anyway, see you in the mornin’.”
But Kid wasn’t about to let it go that easy.
“You ain’t gonna be up all night, are you? We’ve gotta ride out first thing.”
Jimmy’s shoulders sagged and he pinched the bridge of his nose. Even when Kid was half asleep he couldn’t put one past him.
“I don’t know, Kid. I’ll be ready tomorrow; I promise. Now go back to sleep.”
He could tell Kid wasn’t sure about his, but after a moment he made out his friend leaning back down on the pillow.
“Alright. Night, Jimmy.”
“G’night, Kid.”
Jimmy was in the process of pulling the door shut when a voice broke out behind him.
“What’s the hold up, Jimmy? You ain’t chickenin’ out on me, are you?”
Wincing, Jimmy held up a hand to Temperance in an effort to shut her up and then took another look over at where Kid lay, hoping that, by some miracle, his friend would be asleep already. No such luck. As he looked into the room he saw Kid leaning over to the table by the bed and a moment later a lamp was lighting up the room. Jimmy met Kid’s look of sceptical expectation with a nervous smile.
“That’d be Jack Kerry, would it?” Kid asked dryly, the sleep gone from his eyes.
“It might be,” Jimmy answered slowly, as he searched for an excuse that wouldn’t come.
Kid shook his head and began to get out of bed. “What’s goin’ on, Jimmy?”
“Yeah, Jimmy, what’s goin’ on?” Temperance echoed from behind.
He hadn’t told Temperance that he was in town with a friend for the very reason that he didn’t want the two of them to meet each other, but now there was no avoiding it. Pushing the door open, Jimmy looked slowly from from Temperance to Kid.
“Kid, this is Miss Temperance Hathaway. Temperance, this is Kid. He rides for the Express too.”
Kid stood for a moment
and stared at the young woman on the other side of the door before taking in
her amused glance and realising that he was only
wearing his longjohns. He made a lunge for his trousers and tried to straighten
his messed up hair at the same time.
“Pleased to meet you, Kid,” Temperance smiled. “Don’t you worry about me. You ain’t got nothin’ I ain’t seen already.”
Jimmy groaned and pushed a raking hand back through his hair. “Thanks, Temperance,” he muttered, throwing her a quieting glare.
Pursing her lips together,
Temperance stood back and watched as the young man in the room tried to cover
himself up. An old couple walked past the
door, shocked expressions developing on their faces as they took in the sight
of the half dressed man in the room and the scandalously dressed young woman
standing in the door way.
Jimmy noticed their surprise and nodded to them in a friendly gesture, pretending nothing out of the ordinary was going on. “Nice night.”
The couple didn’t reply, but rushed down the hallway before stopping for a moment at the top of the stairs to throw stunned stares back towards Jimmy and Temperance. Jimmy heard the old man mumble something about “...*that* kind of an establishment” as he guided his wife down the stairs.
Jimmy was holding his face in both his hands when Kid spoke again. “Think I could have a word with you, Jimmy?”
Nodding forlornly and stepping into the room, Jimmy could imagine just what kind of words were running through Kid’s head.
“I’ll wait here,” Temperance suggested helpfully, as Jimmy closed the door behind him.
Kid waited until the
door was closed and Jimmy had turned to face him, before he spoke. “What
the hell’s goin’ on here, Jimmy? No, forget that. A
blind man could see what’s goin’ on here.”
“It ain’t what you think,” Jimmy said calmly.
“You mean she ain’t
some saloon girl you’re headin’ off to spend the night with?”
Kid asked incredulously. “And what kind of a name is Temperance,
anyway?”
“What kind of a name is Kid?” Jimmy countered, folding his arms over his chest.
“That ain’t the point Jimmy. The point is...” Kid’s voice trailed off as he finally took in Jimmy’s attire. “*What* are you *wearing*?”
Straightening his coat a little but otherwise ignoring Kid’s last question, Jimmy tried to give him some kind of an explanation. “Kid, you’ve got the wrong idea. She’s just a girl I met on the street this evenin’.”
“That’s comforting,” Kid muttered.
Jimmy continued regardless. “She’s a nice girl, Kid. Just a little bit different, is all. We’re gonna go play some poker and have some fun, that’s all there is to it.”
“Poker?” Kid asked sceptically. “Jimmy, you sure you know what you’re gettin’ yourself into?”
“There ain’t nothin’ to worry about, Kid,” Jimmy assured him. “I’ll be back here before dawn, I promise, and then we’ll ride back home.”
Kid thought about protesting, but Jimmy was already opening the door.
“Ready?” he asked Temperance as he walked out into the hallway.
“Sure am. It was real nice to meet you, Kid,” she said throwing him one of her sweetest smiles. “I promise I’ll have him back safe and sound by mornin’.”
Jimmy sighed and took Temperance by the hand, dragging her along the hall. “See you in the mornin’, Kid,” he called over his shoulder.
Kid watched them go
and then walked back into the room, shaking his head as he went. He knew trouble
when he saw it, and that girl was trouble from
head to foot. Turning off the lamp, he stretched out on the bed again and stared
up at the dark ceiling. He shouldn’t really be worried; Jimmy could look
after himself. But experience told him different and he lay awake for some time
picturing all the kinds of trouble Jimmy could get himself into during the night.