In Time Relieved, 3/?

[boogieshoes]

did i mention i was supposed to be doing actual work today?  well, i sort of am - the CFD case is cranking, anyway.

-bs

Chapter 2

 

‘… Looking back, I suppose I should have known then and there that something odd was going on.  If not then, then when she refused to take any laudanum at all, or maybe when she asked for some whiskey in her water…’

 

She was out of it for a couple of days, her breathin’ shallow and whistling through her nose.  Nathan taped up her ribs but good, and used a salve the Seminole Chief gave him for her bruises.  6 weeks, Nathan said, and more like two months just to be sure, and she was so tired that even after she woke up moving to the balcony and back winded her.  But she liked it on the balcony.  Said it got her out of doors and her mind off things.  At the time, I thought she meant her pain, for she refused to take laudanum.  I didn’t pay too much attention to that, because Vin refused laudanum, too. No matter what, flat-out refused, said he didn’t like the way it made him feel all wooly inside his head.

 

I just thought she felt the same way about it, and didn’t worry too much, even when Nathan said those were the first words out of her mouth, just about – ‘Don’t you dare give me any laudanum!  Don’t even think about it!’ 

 

Now that I think on’t, there was a whole slew of little things like that, things which weren’t strange enough by themselves to alarm me, but all together made an interestin’ picture.  Like the way she’d pester JD for every book that passed through his hands, and make no never-mind that it wasn’t what a proper young lady ought to read.  Or how she always drank her water with a little bit of whiskey in it. 

 

I remember now, when I’d visit her on Nathan’s balcony sometimes, and she’d be bundled up in a blanket, sitting on the rocking chair with some piece of embroidery or other in her hands. 

 

‘I’m no good at straight sewing,’ she’d say, ‘but I love to add embellishments.’ 

 

I didn’t think of it until Mary pointed it out, that girls embroidered samplers all the time, but not usually buildings in such detail, nor of all one stitch.  I have to admit I liked sitting up there with her, because she didn’t seem to need to talk to me.  So we would sit on the balcony and read together, or she would embroider, or sometimes we would both just doze in the sun until it was time for dinner, or Nathan decided it was time for her to go to bed.

 

I told myself I was getting to know her, but really, she was getting to know us, and the town, much more than the other way ‘round.  I should have realized how deft she was at withdrawing information from us, having done it so many times myself.

 

‘Tell me about these people, JD,’ she’d say, ‘Who’s that man over there?’ and point to old Mr Gruen, the German hotelier. 

 

Or, ‘Hey, Buck, that’s a pretty dress, isn’t it?  Who’s that woman wearing it?  I’d like to ask her where she got the fabric.’  And Buck, being turned on by his favorite subject, would ramble on about all the pretty ladies in town, and because he was Buck, all the ladies were pretty.  And she’d smile shyly and thank him, and Buck would say, ‘Miz Tanya, I do believe you’d look right pretty in that dress; I’ll ask Mrs. Potter if she has more of that fabric for you.’

 

She played poker (badly) with Ezra; spoke of the mysteries of the Bible with Josiah; talked to Nathan about how best to reduce local parasites and stay clean; asked Mary what it was like to run her own business, and what did she look for in a story for the newspaper.  Vin stayed away, maybe afraid that Nathan would ambush him with some laudanum in hand.

 

With me, she watched the town pass by her below.  But now that I think of it, I was probably the only one watching the town.  She had plenty of time to watch people from her perch while she was alone, after all.  I think now she was watching me.  Watching my reactions to what was going on in the street.  Tanya’s smart, and subtle when she wants to be.  I expect a week after she was awake and coherent in Nathan’s clinic, she knew the major players in town, and knew who to watch for, and who to watch out for. 

 

And she had a long two months after that to watch, and learn, and think on what she learned, before she was allowed to stumble down the steps in the dusty summer heat and limp over to the saloon.  I can’t help but wonder now just how much Tanya was in control, at least in those early days.  By summer’s start, she certainly knew enough to have taken over the whole town, if she’d wanted to. 

 

But I didn’t know that then.  I knew that she was content to leave me alone to drink, if I wanted to be alone and sour, and that was a good break from Mary and my friends.  That’s the problem with friends, see, they like to bother you when you just want to get good and drunk and be left alone to your misery.  Never mind that they’re right to stop you before you shoot through the walls of your hotel room to get some braying ass of a man to stop singing. 

Comments

[sfulton229.livejournal.com]

Great analyis by Chris and love how well Tanya was adapting to her enviroment. She got as much information as possible. Looking forward to more.