TEMPERANCE
TEMPERANCE
“What is it with you and alleyways?” Jimmy asked as Temperance pulled him off the street yet again.
“We have to get our stories straight,” she explained, straightening his jacket and pushing his hair back over his shoulders.
Jimmy nodded, suddenly a little nervous. “Right,” he said. “Are you sure we’re gonna get away with this?”
“Of course we are,” Temperance assured him. “The trick is to believe what you’re tellin’ them. If I’m playin’ a part, I make sure I think like the person I’m acting would. Understand?”
“I think so,” Jimmy said. “So, where are we goin’?”
“See that saloon over there? ‘Winston’s’?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll go on in there and get a drink. Give me fifteen minutes and then go in there, buy yourself a drink and then get a seat at the table I nod to. Whatever you do, don’t let on that you know me.” Temperance raised her eyebrows to question whether he was following her and he nodded briefly. “I’ll already have picked the player you have to watch out for - there’s always one - so you just have to follow my lead and pick up the signals I give you.”
“Signals?”
“I’ll brush my chin like this if he’s got a pair...” Temperance went through her list of signals with a rapidity which astonished Jimmy and brought a smile to his face. After going through them twice, finishing with the lick of the lips for a bluff, Temperance was satisfied that Jimmy had committed them all to memory as well as he could.
“You’ve done this before, am I right?” Jimmy asked, the smile tugging at the corners of his mouth betraying his amusement.
“Once or twice,” Temperance agreed, reflecting his smile. “Now, are you sure you’ve got it?”
“Leave it fifteen minutes, take the table you nod to, leave when you order a whiskey and meet you back here in the alley,” Jimmy summarised. “Just one thing. What if someone saw us together before?”
“Chances are that they won’t’ve,” Temperance shrugged. “Most of the fellas playin’ in there have been at the tables since before the sunset and besides, we weren’t out in the streets together for long.”
Jimmy nodded and gave Temperance a steady, though slightly anxious, look. “We could get us into a whole heap of trouble doin’ this, Temperance.”
The young woman smiled, gave her hair a final flick, and then turned to walk into the street. “That’s what makes it fun, Hickok,” she whispered back at him. And then she was out in the street, throwing enchanting smiles at the men she past and swaying her hips seductively as she went.
“A whole heap of
trouble,” Jimmy repeated to himself as he leaned back against the wall.
But he couldn’t wipe the smile from his face. Temperance was dangerous,
exciting and rash, and somehow she’d managed to breathe life back into
him just when he’d least expected it. Checking the pocket watch that Temperance
had secured at the
same time as she had his outfit, Jimmy counted down the time until he was due
to make his entrance.
Jimmy walked through the doors of the saloon and smelt the familiar blend of alcohol, smoke and cheap perfume. The air was thick and heavy. Jimmy stopped just inside the door and let his gaze travel around the room, trying not to make it obvious that he was looking for someone. As he did so, he noticed more than a few pairs of eyes looking back at him. A couple of cheaply dressed whores whispered to each other, their giggles drifting over to him as he began to walk to the back of the room, and a few men engaged in games at the tables scattered around the room looked up at him, watching him intently. Usually Jimmy didn’t like having so much attention focussed upon him, not being in control of the situation, but tonight, dressed to the nines and ready to enjoy himself, he felt different. The clothes were like a mask to hide behind, and they gave him leave to act as he wanted and step outside his normal behaviour.
A burst of red fabric
caught his eye and as he looked casually in its direction, he made out Temperance
at the end of the room. She was perched on the knee of a rather overweight man,
who sat smoking a cigar and fondling his cards. He’d obviously just told
a joke, because Temperance was covering her mouth and letting out a twittering
laugh which seemed to Jimmy completely incompatible with the girl he’d
come to know. Forcing his face into an expression of composed indifference,
he made his way
over to the bar and ordered a drink. It was against the rules, but he could
hardly be expected to be taken seriously drinking sarsaparilla.
After a moment he caught
a quick look from Temperance, the first she’d given him since he’d
entered the saloon, and she nodded passively to the table she was sitting at.
Taking a deep breath, Jimmy picked up his drink and strolled in a
careless manner towards the table.
Once there, he nodded to the men who looked up at him and made his way over to the only empty chair. “Room for one more?”
The man who had taken a liking to Temperance looked up from his cards and gave Jimmy a curious stare. Then, with a brief nod, he pointed to the chair Jimmy was standing behind. “What’s your name, stranger?”
“Edward Matthews,” Jimmy replied as he sat himself down, thankful that he’d taken the time to work out a name earlier. He dipped his head a little towards the other players at the table. “Gentlemen.”
“Well, Mr Matthews,” the heavy man continued. “May I introduce you to Mrs Annabella Hodson.”
Temperance nodded her head towards Jimmy and gave him an alluring little smile. “Mr Matthews.”
“Mrs Hodson. It’s a pleasure.”
“Our lovely Mrs Hodson here is on something of an adventure, Mr Matthews,” the heavy man explained as he picked up the cards he had just been dealt. “She is running away from her drunkard of a husband in Boston, isn’t that right my dear?”
“Quite right,” Temperance said softly.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Jimmy said.
“Oh no, I can assure you I’m quite happy here, Mr Matthews. Mr Klein here is taking very good care of me,” Temperance mewed as she threw Jimmy a surreptitious smile.
“Enough with the talk,” one of the other men said suddenly. “Let’s just play cards, all right?”
“Fine,” Jimmy agreed.
The game began.
Temperance gasped with
laughter and flung herself onto a crate which lay in the alleyway she and Jimmy
had just turned down. Her face was flushed with laughter and her eyes were shining
with unshed tears caused by her excitement. She leaned her
back and head against the wall behind her and pulled her skirts over so that
Jimmy would have room to sit down.
“How much did we make that time?” she panted, her chest rising and falling heavily as she tried to get her breathing back to normal.
Jimmy pulled the wad of money out of his inner jacket pocket and stared at it blindly for a moment, still sighing with laughter. “Um...let me see. That’s ten, twenty, thirty...hell, we got a lot! That’s how much we got.”
Temperance broke into a fresh fit of giggles as she heard Jimmy’s words and saw him wave his hands around in an abstract gesture. Her laughter set Jimmy going again and for the next few moments they sat together on the crate and laughed until their sides hurt.
“See?” Temperance asked, after she’d managed to gain some of her composure. “Didn’t I tell ya you’d have a good time?”
“Who?” Jimmy asked in a bewildered fashion.
“Whatdya mean ‘who’? You, ya fool,” Temperance laughed, finishing her last sentence with a hiccup. “You know what I reckon, Hickok? Do ya know? I reckon you’re drunk!”
Jimmy turned to her in astonishment. “Me?” he asked. “Me? You think I’m drunk? That’s a terrible thing to say, Terempance...Terem...Temperance.”
The self congratulatory look on his face when he finally got her name out right had Temperance doubled over in laughter in no time.
“Anyways,” Jimmy continued, oblivious to her laughter. “I can’t get drunk - I work for the Pony Express. Don’t touch the stuff,” he drawled. “You, though, now *you’re* drunk.”
Temperance looked up quickly and patted Jimmy on the shoulder. “Maybe,” she whispered in an enlightened tone. “Maybe you caught it off me!”
Now it was Jimmy’s turn to double up in laughter. As he tilted over away from Temperance, his weight began to tip the crate to one side and a second later he and Temperance had been deposited on the hard ground. In their inebriated state even that was cause for laughter, and after staring up accusingly at the crate, they laughed until tears were trickling down their cheeks.
In truth, they’d
been drinking all night, from when Jimmy walked into Winston’s as Edward
Matthews, to when they’d taken their leave from the Lucky Dollar seven
hours later. They’d been in four different saloons, each time with different
story and with
different characters to play. They’d spent the most time in the Yellow
River Saloon, where they’d been the sharp, eagle-eyed, gunman Luke Garnet
and his fiery, devastatingly beautiful woman, Jane McNeil. Jimmy, every inch
the gunfighter with his steely glare and his low, dangerous drawl, had played
cards, while Temperance, draping herself over Jimmy and using her cleavage and
her face to full advantage, had driven the rest of the players to distraction.
Now they sat in the dirt down a side alley which ran off the main street, laughing like neither of them had laughed in months.
“Hey,” Jimmy finally managed. “Hey. What time is it?”
“You’re the one with the watch,” Temperance answered, patting Jimmy’s vest before finding the watch chain and pulling it out towards her. “There we go. It’s...it’s...Gimme a minute - the hands keep movin’. It’s four o’clock.”
“Four o’clock!” Jimmy repeated. “I gotta be ready to go in a coupla hours.”
“I reckon you need some sleep,” Temperance said sagely, attempting to tuck the watch back into his vest as she did so.
“Mm,” Jimmy mumbled in agreement.
Temperance looked up and saw that Jimmy’s eyes were closed and his head was tilted back against the wall behind him. “Oh no, no, no,” she said quickly. “Not here. You gotta go back to your hotel.”
“Oh no, no, no,” Jimmy said, grinning to himself at his impersonation of Temperance. “I can’t do that. Kid’s there.”
“*Oh*,” Temperance said slowly, suddenly appreciating the situation. “You can’t do that then.”
“Nope. Can’t do that.”
“I know,” Temperance said as inspiration struck her. “You can come back to my room.”
“Your room?”
“Uh-hu.”
Jimmy gave it a moment’s consideration. “All right, come on then.”
Together they struggled
to their feet, leaning on each other for support and getting themselves into
another fit of laughter as they did so. Out on the street they stood and looked
about them. There were very few people walking around, only a few stragglers
emerging from the saloons and making their way home.
“Which way?” Jimmy said, his words slurring into one as he spoke.
“Er...That way!” Temperance announced, pointing down the street.
They made their way a little unsteadily towards the hotel, Jimmy dipping his hat to an old man they passed and receiving a broad smile in return.
Inside the hotel, which was at the opposite end of the street to the one Jimmy had booked into with Kid, Temperance fished around in her purse for the key and they made their way up the two flights of stairs to her room.
After spending five minutes
trying to open the door to number 12, Temperance realised that her room was
number 21 and they finally managed to get inside. The room was bare and drab,
with only a few of Temperance’s things lying around to brighten the
place up, but they were both exhausted and the bed was inviting.
Jimmy sank down onto the lumpy mattress and reached his arms up over his head until he was holding onto the bars which made up the bedhead. “I reckon I could sleep for a week,” he muttered, as Temperance lay down next to him.
“Me too,” she mumbled.
They were silent for a moment, and then Temperance started laughing again. “You remember...remember when...” Jimmy could feel her body shaking next to him and he turned to see her covering her face as she laughed.
“What?” he asked, wanting to be let in on the joke.
“Remember when you forgot who you were?” Temperance managed to say in between giggles. “Some fella asked you your name and I had to introduce you because you’d forgotten!”
Jimmy found himself chuckling at the image of himself sitting at the table in the Lucky Dollar trying to remember who in the world he was pretending to be at that moment. “I didn’t forget,” he said, defensively, in between bursts of laughter. “I just couldn’t remember, is all.”
“Ain’t that the same thing?” Temperance asked, her eyes brimming with tears again.
Jimmy shrugged and threw her a lopsided smile. “Shut up, will ya?”
Temperance’s laughter died into amused sighs. “You made a great gunfighter, you know,” she told him, referring to his stint as Luke Garnet. “I’da believed you.”
The smile faded from Jimmy’s face and he stared up at the ceiling. “I’ve had a bit of practice,” he said quietly. “Ever heard of Wild Bill Hickok?”
Temperance heard the change in his tone and she turned her head on the pillow so that she could look at him. Jimmy’s hands were still clutching the bars at the head of the bed and his upper arm was obscuring his face a little, but she could see that he was no longer smiling. She turned her head back and joined him at looking at the ceiling. After a moment of thought, she spoke, her words an effort to repay the insight into his real life which he’d given her.
“When I was twelve,” she said softly. “My parents died. I didn’t have anyone to look after me, so I found a job in a brothel.”
There was a silence in which Jimmy could hear Temperance’s unsteady breathing.
“You didn’t have to tell me that,” he said gently.
“I know,” she replied. “I usually don’t talk about it. People would just think that I’m still like that. I’m not though.”
“I know that,” he whispered. “I’d never think of you like that.”
In the darkness, the
fingers of Temperance’s left hand covered those of Jimmy’s right as
they clutched the metal bar at the head of the bed. Jimmy turned his head and
Temperance’s lips brushed his in a soft, innocent, kiss. When she pulled
back, they
shared a smile in the dark, the dim light from outside illuminating their tired
eyes.
“Night, Jimmy.”
“Night, Temperance.”
They were both asleep seconds later.