Chapter Text
It’s been six months since the grit, relentless sunlight, and hunger of being lost together out on the plains. Long enough for the memories of laying on the dusty ground, a squeaky-voiced sheriff who wanted her outlaw ass dangling from a noose pressed ironically into her side for warmth, to fade. The memories have faded, but Sapphire can still recall her body being stiff as a board with discomfort. She hasn’t forgotten gazing up at the stars with her one working eye, weeds and sharp blades of grass poking at her ribs through her tunic, and seething with hatred for just about everything.
Six months is a long time, though, especially when you see someone most hours of every day. A lot has changed since then. Sapphire has cut her hair and faked the death of Lady Masque, her outlaw persona. She’s taken over the bookkeeping at O’Malley’s General Store in the town of Long Chance, where Ruby grew up (actually, O’Malley’s is owned and operated by Ruby’s adoptive father Alex).
She’s wondered what someone like her, who’s perfected the technique of a black widow, a master in the art of seduction and death, is really doing wreathed in domesticity at a General Store in a small, remote town surrounded by nothing but grass and compacted wagon trails. Does she think she’s actually fooling anyone? Does she believe that this is really something she can manage in perpetuity?
Ruby hopes that she can. She can see it in the honeyed brown of their eyes, can feel it when they interact together. Ruby actually thinks she can manage this—and, damn it all, Sapphire has come to love them enough to actually give it an honest try.
So far, she hasn’t been doing badly. It’s been six months since Lady Masque has killed a man, and Alex O’Malley is so harmless that being around him doesn’t make her nearly as uncomfortable as it used to. She’s not the best with customers at the General Store, being neither friendly nor outwardly helpful, but the latter’s steadily widening profit margins are proof that she doesn’t have to be. She’s loved, unapologetically, by someone she’s come to value deeply, someone who hasn’t minded working with her through all of the rust and ugliness that comes with the small trinket that is her trust and affection.
After six months of this life, Sapphire is beginning to register that she can be happy like this. She begins to hope, however tentatively, that she might be able to make this last.
It’s only been six months.
Who’d have thought.
O’Malley’s General Store is more than just a place to purchase dry goods and spare wagon parts. It is also a hotbed of gossip. Ruby’s adoptive father Alex perpetuates most of this himself, well-meaning busybody that he is, and what’s more is the folks of Long Chance don’t seem to mind it in the least. And so the cycle continues.
That being said, it’s no wonder that Sapphire’s caught wind of the rumors surrounding local land baron Greg Universe’s unimaginably large wife and her… servant? The trio lives in a more remote area, apparently, subsisting primarily off of livestock and gardening—and, of course, the wealth the Universes had amassed through somewhat dubious land deals.
Sapphire has not met the Universes or their third wheel in person, but the fact that nobody she’s eavesdropped on could seem to describe what, exactly, was so dubious about the land deals catches her attention.
She may not be Lady Masque anymore, but it’s only been six months. A decade’s worth of instincts do not fade quite as readily as spiteful memories of stars and a gently snoring head on her shoulder.
“Hm, yeah, I’ve heard of them too,” Ruby says when Sapphire brings it up at the dinner table one evening, hours after the General Store has closed for the day. “Fairly new family in town, ain’t they Pa?”
The three of them are gathered in the kitchen and dining area beyond the store proper, seated around a simply constructed but nicely polished oak table, drinking beer and chewing on the roast beef, potatoes, carrots and cauliflower Alex has had cooking in the coals of the cast iron stove for the last few hours. Ruby’s adoptive father doesn’t make fancy dishes, but they’re filling and flavorful, and Sapphire likes them for that.
“Aren’t they,” Alex says automatically. He is a tall man, all elbows and knees and skinny limbs, with pale, freckled skin and hair that is more reddish than brown. His cheeks are perpetually ruddy with what Ruby playfully calls an Irish tan—which is ironic, because Alex only ever burns when he’s been out in the sun for too long. There are deep laugh lines carved into the skin around his eyes and mouth, though, and he projects an air of companionability and dry humor.
Alex remembers something, and makes a thoughtful sound as he sets his fork down on his plate. He says to the two of them, “I’ve spoken with Mr. Universe on occasion, but I’ve never met the missus—rumor has it she’s taller than him, though; that’s an awful lot of woman, since Greg himself isn’t exactly what you’d call petite.” And Alex offers the goofy sort of wink that Sapphire’s come to associate with him gossiping and teasing simultaneously.
“He nice at all?” asks Ruby—and of course that’s what they ask. They are so naïve sometimes. “Cause folks at the store have been telling me he’s been buying up most of the surrounding land in these parts, especially the most productive quarries and goldmines. Even stopping production on some of the forestry up north.”
“I’ve heard much the same,” Alex agrees. He leans in on his elbow, the joy of gossip glinting in the blue-green of his eyes. “And I’m sure Sapphire knows how it’s driving up prices on basic supplies.”
Sapphire makes a sound in her throat. Is that an understatement. Because of this she hasn’t come close to her profit goals, even with all of the unnecessary expenditure the General Store’s cut back on since she’s taken control of the accounts. Who the hell do the Universes think they are? What long term goal is so important that they would stop the harvest of much needed natural resources? Are they trying to cause a pseudo-recession?
This is really starting to grind at Sapphire’s patience, and if she’s being honest, indignation about this is part of the reason why she’s asking about the Universes at all. Typically she lets Ruby and Pa hash out the gossip of the day without a word, preferring instead to listen to their comfortable banter and truly useful insight into the character of the townsfolk. For all that the two couldn’t look more different—one tall and skinny and pink, one short and thick and brown, with entirely different bones structures—Alex and Ruby are often on the same wavelength, intellectually.
“But if you ask me,” Alex continues, and Sapphire can tell from the twitch of his tidily waxed moustache that he is well and truly settling into the discussion now. “Greg Universe doesn’t seem like the sort of fellow with that sort of drive or ambition. Most people assume it’s him due to his gender, but I have my doubts. I know enough powerful women to recognize the influence of one when I see it.”
“But you’ve never met Mrs. Universe,” Ruby says after a quick bite of potato. “So what makes you so sure?”
Sapphire doesn’t say so, but she is interested in his rationale as well. Alex O’Malley has a good eye for people and their characterization. If he doesn’t think this Universe fellow has the intelligence or the drive for a systematic takeover of the local geography, then Sapphire believes it. She’s just curious as to why he thinks this way, and the more she hears about the Universes the more curious she becomes.
“It’s in the way he talks, Tumbleweed,” Alex says. “He’s too friendly and light. The man’s simply not the conniving sort. Matter of fact, I’m not fully convinced he even knows half of what’s actually going on.”
Well, Sapphire supposes that’s one way to handle the whole process of marriage: marry a friendly idiot and use him as the poster child for your schemes.
A woman smart enough to buy up the most productive spreads of land in the surrounding area undoubtedly has some long term plan. She also probably has some kind of control issue. If parts for machinery are going to be purchased for her operation, then she will likely be nearby to double-check the accuracy of these purchases. The most important ones, Sapphire theorizes, she might even feel driven to make herself.
And when she does, Sapphire will be there.
O’Malley’s General Store is the only business of its ilk in the entire county. They sell everything from sugar, to fabric, to spare wagon parts—if you need dry good of any kind, there is literally nowhere else to get them. Everyone comes to O’Malley’s eventually. It’s inevitable, and it is upon that inevitability that Sapphire is hinging her bets.
Sapphire spent far too many years as Lady Masque not to recognize the same behavior in other people. Just because she’s making an honest living now with Ruby and Alex doesn’t mean she’s forgotten. A location as remote as this is the perfect place to fade into the countryside and let the rest of the world forget about you; that’s why Ruby brought Sapphire here when they couldn’t bring themself to turn her in to hang for her numerous past crimes.
“You seemed awfully interested in the Universes,” Ruby remarks later that same evening, as they’re both getting ready for bed by candlelight in the loft of the main house. This is actually Ruby’s childhood bedroom. It’s decorated in brightly colored—if somewhat haphazardly stitched—tapestries, the floorboards creak if you don’t know how to step on them, and the single window doesn’t shut unless you jimmy the latch just so. The bed—a straw mattress on a sturdy cot of white pine that is barely long enough for either of them, and about as wide—is robed in a quilt similar to the tapestries. Actually, Ruby made the latter this last winter, when they were cooped up in the house with nothing else to do. Sapphire, for her part, had been amused by their philosophy of “if the colors are bright enough, no one will notice the less-than-perfect stitching.” To be fair, the quilt is warm and sturdy, and the hectic hodgepodge of colors all do, admittedly, work together somehow (though Sapphire is saving face by not saying so aloud).
Sapphire is currently in the middle of brushing her hair with a wood-and-boar-hair brush, but she nonetheless grunts in acknowledgement of Ruby’s earlier statement. She’s already in her usual striped cotton nightgown and sitting on her side of the little bed.
Ruby, untucking their shirt from their trousers and loosening the buckle on the leather belt around their sturdy square hips, seems intrigued. “You act like you have an agenda,” they say, and of course they’ve noticed. Ruby is nothing if not observant of her—of everything, really, though they often forget to mention it aloud. This is a character trait that Sapphire has reluctantly gotten used to over the last half year she’s known Ruby, willing and unwilling time included.
Sapphire doesn’t pause in her grooming as Ruby kicks off their boots and pulls their favorite floral-patterned handkerchief out of their breast pocket. She says, “I just want to make sure I understand what their intentions are, and if they aren’t good, that we’re not playing into their hands.”
“You think that’s possible?” Then, at Sapphire’s frown, Ruby shifts their phrasing. “I mean, you’re suspicious of a woman you’ve never even met, Sapph. What if she’s perfectly friendly?”
Sapphire hums. “I suppose it’s technically a possibility, but her actions speak quite loudly if you care to listen—and my hearing is not as damaged as my eyesight.”
Ruby studies her for a moment, and then shrugs to themself and makes to climb into bed.
“Wait, Ruby—your hair. Come here.”
“There’s no saving it, Sapph, it’s too much work,” Ruby protests, but they circle around to her side of the bed and bend over to allow her to try and order the tight curlicues anyway. Sapphire knows the brush is worse than useless for a job like this, and cards her fingers through her lover’s afro to try and order it some. She also… may just like playing with Ruby’s hair for its own sake, but only a little. Her ministrants are gentle, though, and after a minute or so of leaning over Ruby just lies with their head in her lap, breathing slow contented breaths on her thigh as Sapphire tidies their hair. She’s much better at it now than she was a few months ago (Ruby’s shown her some tricks since then).
Sapphire is tense about what she’s coming to know about the Universes, but this does help to soothe her nerves for the moment. The warmth of Ruby’s scalp and the entertaining, wiry texture of their hair are just good under the pads of her fingers.
“I’m going to fall asleep like this,” Ruby warns her after several minutes of this, speaking around an entirely conspicuous yawn. “But as long as you don’t mind that, please keep going.”
Sapphire laughs and allows them to finally sit up. She’s still smiling when Ruby leans in and leaves a brief but very sweet kiss of thanks on her cheek. It doesn’t bother them when she turns her head and brushes their lips together, too. In fact, the way they push back makes Sapphire smile a little bigger. It’s like they can’t help themself, like being this close to her inspires a brand of affection they cannot resist expressing. Like they need her more than they know how to articulate.
Sapphire lifts her chin when Ruby kisses at her jaw, sighs trustingly when they shift lower and press the softness of their lips into her throat. Their hand presses into the mattress next to her leg as they lean further in. She places her own on their knee, rubs it up the length of their strong thigh and around their hips. She winds the other around Ruby’s shoulders and pulls them in as they kiss the pressure point just under her ear. This is nice. She enjoys the way that Ruby’s free arm curls around her waist and the small bump of their breasts press into her chest. It’s taken a long time, but by now Ruby has touched her in ways she never expected to love, has kissed her in places others have ignored or abused, has helped her trust and enjoy what her body can do, at least a little. Even that is leagues better than the way things were—the way she was—when they first brought her here to Long Chance.
Ruby’s attentions are slow, meticulous, and utterly heartfelt. When Sapphire lets them go, and they shift down her neck, they don’t kiss lower than her collar and shoulders. They don’t lick or bite, they simply brush their lips into her. Sweet, brief moments of contact that are occasionally broken up by a caress of her side or spine, or a rendezvous with her own mouth. Even when Ruby kisses her lips, their own remain closed. They move against her, and encourage her to do the same—and she does—but Sapphire is not made to deal with writhing wet tongues that want too much. Ruby only asks for what they know she will readily give, and by some miracle that’s enough for them.
When Sapphire’s fingers hover questioningly at the loosened hem of their shirt, Ruby hums in their throat and murmurs to her in a preciously husky voice, “Please.”
Sapphire slips her hands up the inside of their shirt and along the warm, smooth musculature of their sides. She likes the texture of Ruby’s skin, enjoys how they grunt and catch their breath when her hands dip past the waist of their pants and over the curve of their rear.
Sapphire has only become familiar with good and healthy ways to have sex recently, with Ruby. It’s taken them both a very long time, and more than a handful of painful mistakes, to reach this point. Sapphire had been too reserved and damaged, and Ruby and been too cautious and ashamed of bringing it up. But they’re here now, the both of them, in precisely the right balance. Sapphire is emotionally engaged, and Ruby doesn’t take it too far.
Truth be told, at this point there is very little that Sapphire dislikes about touching and being touched by Ruby. She has an effect on them, a unique influence over their control over themself and their ability to experience pleasure. She doesn’t consider herself a prodigy, or even someone with any natural inclination towards carnal desires at all, but she has the ability and the permission to make Ruby’s body sing like a harp under her hands, and damn if she doesn’t take pride in that.
Though Ruby has known the influence of others in the past, nobody else is allowed to touch them now, and as such Sapphire has a mind to make this dedication worth their while. She may be no prodigy, but she has the hubris and the dedication to become the best musician Ruby has ever known. She doesn’t want them to remember that there have been other players for the instrument of their body; she wants them to want only her.
Sapphire has been pleasured by Ruby at this point as well; they’ve actually brought her to satisfying climaxes, and more than once. She just doesn’t want or appreciate it near as often, and they have both come to an understanding about that. It’s not personal, isn’t an indication that she loves or desires them any less than they do her; it’s simply not how Sapphire’s body is designed. When she does need, though, she knows that Ruby is a safe and trusted source of fulfillment.
Tonight is not one of those nights for Sapphire, but it does seem to be one for Ruby, and Sapphire is quite happy to provide the satisfaction they seek. She is efficient, but not forceful, about removing their clothing. Kissing the bared angle of Ruby’s shoulder, she takes in the expanse of rolling muscle and brown skin in front of her, Ruby’s eyes are warm and dilated in the candlelight, expression full of desire and happiness, and something surges in her chest. Sapphire leans over her lover, curling one arm around their head as she nudges her nose into their cheek. Ruby’s head turns, and they share a lingering kiss. Sapphire brushes a springy curl from their forehead and lightly kisses the side of their mouth. Her free hand touches their abdomen, fingers splayed and palm flat against their flesh. Ruby’s body radiates heat like the cast iron stove downstairs; it makes them a joy to cuddle against in the thick of winter and a less-than-ideal little spoon in these warmer later months of late spring, but the temperature under her hand now is pleasant.
Sapphire strokes up Ruby’s torso, over their sternum and up to the divot between the small mounds of their breasts. She delights in the way their breath changes, and small bumps on their skin rise to meet her touch like every part of them is begging for contact. She kisses their temple, their cheekbone, tangles the fingers of the arm she’s curled about their head and into the edges of their hair.
Ruby groans when she finally grasps one of their breasts and squeezes, rolls a hardened nipple under her thumb. One of their arms curves around her seated hips while the other reaches up and tucks strands of her shoulder length blonde hair behind her ear. They smile and pant a little as they kiss her again, just a short little peck. It conveys how much they adore her, though, and Sapphire relishes that. She loves knowing that Ruby needs her, and it is very much her motivation to take care of them.
Ruby hums as she nuzzles under their chin. With one last tweak of a nipple, her hand passes down their side and over the sturdy, if subtle swell of their hip. Sapphire opens her lips as she kisses their throat, allows them to feel the heat of her breath.
“Mm, Sapphire…” Ruby shivers.
She smiles at their tone, how they tilt their head to make room for her. She understands what Ruby likes, and she knows precisely how to give it to them.
Sapphire strokes Ruby’s hips and torso and leaves soft kisses along their neck and shoulders for a few more minutes, until they start grunting and shifting their thighs apart. Sapphire knows now how far she can push this before Ruby gets fed up, and she waits until just before that moment to reach between their legs. She strokes their vulva lightly, noting how wet they are from anticipation alone, and grins slightly at the high, feminine sigh just this earns her. Likewise, she relishes the way Ruby keens as her fingers push inside, past the labia and straight into the silky heat of their vagina. She gives them a kiss on the lips as she maneuvers, searching for the best leverage, the kind of touch that will make their spine arch and the moans choke off in their throat. Briefly, she kisses an areola and fondles a breast, and Ruby pants hard. She kisses their sternum and just above their bellybutton as she moves down.
There is a spot within Ruby that never fails to make them cry out, but it can be difficult to find, even for Sapphire. She always manages in the end, though, and after that reducing Ruby to a quivering tangle of limbs and breathy moans is easy.
She finds it this time straddled over one of their knees. The other pops up as Ruby arches, grunting and gasping as the pads of Sapphire’s fingers stroke the deepest parts of them. Sapphire kisses the softness underneath their bellybutton as two of her fingers massage that special spot. She watches through a veil of messy blonde bangs as Ruby’s head tilts back and their little breasts wobble on their chest, panting and whining helplessly. She smirks.
They’re so wet. Everything about them is swollen and silky and ready. Ruby’s hands clench in the quilt next to their head as their hips rise to meet the next pump of her fingers. Sapphire cups around the curve of their rear and rests her forehead on their hip, nuzzling into the bump of the bone. She knows Ruby isn’t paying attention to that right now, but that’s okay. They gasp and moan in a high pitched tone, and Sapphire feels the fluttering pulse of their vaginal walls as a fresh wave of lubrication coats her fingers. It’s so delightfully feminine, the way they sound and feel, and Sapphire loves having the right and ability to reduce them to this.
She kisses where Ruby’s leg meets their pelvis, though her hand doesn’t pause in its ministrants. Ruby’s sounds are getting desperate, but she knows they won’t finish from this. Their body doesn’t orgasm from g-spot stimulation alone; it’s a delightfully easy quirk to take advantage of.
“S-Sapphire, please…” Ruby chokes back a beautifully feminine noise as her wrist twists and she finds a new angle. They whine piteously as she draws her fingers back, admiring how wet she leaves them. Their labia are glistening with arousal. Open. Inviting.
They pant as she touches their labia with the pad of her thumb, stroking teasingly, smearing. A powerful hiss squeezes through their teeth as she ever so lightly rolls their slicked clitoris around. Their whole body shudders, but they do not climax.
A throaty sound escapes Ruby when her fingers plunge back into their warmth. Whether it’s from pleasure or relief it’s hard to say, but damn if it isn’t a potent noise. Ruby moans in earnest when she finds their favorite angle again, panting so hard that their breasts quiver. The muscles of their open thighs tremble, and they say her name like a prayer or a plea.
She doesn’t take the victory of this moan lightly. Sapphire needed time to get this good at touching Ruby. Being able to make them this wet, this full of pleasure—this desperate for orgasm—is hard won skill, and she is proud of how far she’s come.
She shuffles in and closes her mouth around one pert nipple and roll the hardened nub under her tongue. This in combination with the continued fingering of their g-spot makes Ruby finish, body quaking and convulsing under her—and the satisfaction that floods Sapphire’s extremities at this might as well be an orgasm in itself. She waits until she hears a breathy, overstimulated whine before drawing her fingers out and leaving their breast behind with a wet smack of her lips, pleased with the dazed look in Ruby’s brown eyes as the result of her work.
She’s not surprised when she feels an unsteady palm tangle through her hair and around the back of her neck to draw her in for an uncoordinated kiss. Ruby presses and backs off, presses and backs off, keeps coming back for more as if they thought they might have been done the first time. Sapphire kisses back readily, wiping her wet fingers on the fabric of her nightgown as she pulls the quilt around the both of them, tucking them in. Ruby is very tender in the aftermath of sex, forever reaching out and pulling her closer, always wriggling closer, curling into her. Sapphire loves being able to make Ruby orgasm, but she loves being able to wrap her arms around them and kiss their forehead or stroke their spine even more.
Ruby’s body radiates affection as much as heat, and it’s never so obvious as times like these, with the way they tangle their legs between hers and bury their face into the crook of her shoulder as they grip her close. They don’t speak. They don’t have to, because Sapphire already knows.
The two of them will fall asleep this way, inevitably, and it will be a good thing. Ruby isn’t anyone to be afraid of, and holding them makes joy and warmth radiate from her chest like she’s never known.
Ruby drifts off first, a combination of comfort and orgasm being hard to resist. Sapphire continues to drag her fingertips lightly over the bumps of their vertebrae even after that, contemplative.
This was not a place she ever expected to find herself, either physically or emotionally. That doesn’t make the fact that she’s here any less powerful, though.
She has to protect this person and what she’s found in them. She has to. At this point, she doesn’t have another choice; Ruby means far too much for her to do anything else.
No highfalutin shadow of a land baroness is going to get in the way of this. Sapphire would love to see her try.
Everyone ends up at O’Malley’s eventually, for some reason or another. Rose Universe is no exception, and it’s only a matter of time before she shows her fact at the General Store.
It’s three weeks after Sapphire asks Alex and Ruby about the baroness, but show her face she does.
“Ruby, no, those are for sale,” Sapphire says, swatting Ruby’s hands away from the jar of peppermints they had been about to scrounge from.
Ruby at least has the decency to look sheepish. Nevertheless, they say, “They aren’t all for me! I was getting some for Garnet, too.”
Sapphire is not impressed. “You’ve been feeding peppermints to the horse,” she says flatly.
“Garnet loves them!”
“And the handfuls in your pockets that you’ve been grazing from all day are for what, exactly, then?”
“Pa does it all the time, Sapphire, it’s fine!” Then, at Sapphire’s utterly unimpressed expression, Ruby wilts somewhat. They mutter, “There’s still plenty of candy to go around.”
“If you want peppermints so much, Ruby, then I will buy you a jar of your very own, just stop eating from the ones we’re trying to sell. Running a business, remember?”
“But Sapph,” Ruby whines, though the piteous tone they evoke is mostly cosmetic. They pull a small cluster of candies from their pocket. “You don’t want any?”
Sapphire groans, but she takes one anyway. Ruby grins as they shuffle in close. They wait for her to pop the peppermint into her mouth before leaning in and kissing her softly.
They’ve been stealing the lemon drops, too.
“Tumbleweed!” calls Alex. There is a distinctly teasing tone to his voice; he knows what’s going on back here. “If you’re not too busy, I could use some help out here.”
Ruby grins a little wider. “Duty calls!”
They scamper off, but not before giving Sapphire another kiss—on the cheek, this time—and doing an absolutely awful job of inconspicuously swiping two more candies from the jar Sapphire initially caught them taking from.
A particular noise outside of the storeroom catches her attention. It’s Ruby, which is why she cares; they don’t make sounds that are a cross between a surprised gasp and a grunt of awe for just anyone. Sapphire is out in the main room of the store before she really registers where her legs are taking her.
Alex had not been joking when he said Rose Universe was tall. The woman is probably a full head taller than Sapphire, maybe even moreso; it’s hard to tell from this end of the store.
Universe wears a sweeping ankle-length dress with a simple pattern embroidered along the hem. The fabric hisses as she moves. She is wide-hipped and large breasted, and her arms and shoulders are nearly twice the size of Sapphire’s. Her hair, too—a blatantly untamed mass of curls—is huge, unbraided and hanging about her shoulders despite the dry heat of the early summer day. Everything about Rose Universe is voluptuous and rich.
Seeing her in person, Sapphire can only think ‘old money.’
She thought earlier that the Universe doesn’t belong here, but now she’s certain of it. What in heaven’s name is a woman like this doing in the middle of nowhere?
Universe doesn’t seem to be looking for anything in particular. Well, she doesn’t beeline for anything, at any rate. Sapphire supposes that doesn’t actually mean much, but the way Universe traces her fingers over plates and tins is very much idle and disinterested.
They don’t interact immediately, Universe and Sapphire. The latter busies herself with straightening items on wooden shelves and avoiding customers, keeping Universe in her peripheral the entire time, and Universe simply… looks around.
She is, Sapphire realizes, not actually alone. It’s difficult to notice at first, but Universe has a living shadow, of a sort. A thin wisp of a woman by comparison, the circumference of her torso barely the same thickness of one of Universe’s legs. Her features are pointed, almost pixie-like, and while her own dress is well made and of a similar style to Universe’s own, she pales utterly in comparison to the other woman’s extravagant presence.
A maidservant? A friend? It’s hard to say what they are to each other.
It’s not even that Universe is wearing blatantly wealthy attire, it’s simply the way she holds herself. Small wonder she never goes into town; the last thing one could call Rose Universe is inconspicuous.
Universe doesn’t sneak up on Sapphire, but she sidles her grand, curvy bulk as if she thinks she is. Her companion is so small and lithe that her footsteps scarcely register as sound on the scrubbed wooden floorboards. She almost seems to glide, graceful and understated. Large doe eyes set into delicate, pointed features flick between her mistress and Sapphire like a part of her is wondering how this conversation is going to turn out. She says nothing.
“I’m looking for something,” Universe says. Her voice is smooth, refined, deep and simultaneously feminine, nearly musical. “Perhaps you can help me.”
Sapphire looks the taller woman full in the face without flinching or otherwise hinting at the blindness in her left eye. “You seem to have perused the entire store, is there something you can’t find?” she says, tone even and detached and, in its own way, polite.
“There is,” Universe agrees. What she says next is apropos of nothing, except perhaps no flaunt her own observational skills. “But first, if you don’t mind my asking, what’s a woman who moves with such power doing tending to a General Store out here in no man’s land?”
Well, if that’s the game she’d like to play.
“Probably something similar to why old money might settle in no man’s land and start buying up the most productive parcels of land,” Sapphire says lightly. She registers Universe’s doe-eyed shadow’s gasp at her audacity, but she remains cool and unflinching as she meets the larger woman’s eyes. They’re so dark there’s no telling iris from pupil; depthless and imperturbable. “Because I can.”
Universe’s smile is slow spreading and altogether devious. “Would you be interested in a more exciting job?”
Sapphire props a hand on one hip. “Shouldn’t I know who you are first?”
“You don’t already?”
This response doesn’t come from Universe herself, but rather her lithe shadow. It is, all things considered, a rather biting remark. Unexpected for someone with such pretty doe eyes.
There again, perhaps Sapphire shouldn’t talk.
Universe laughs a laugh as full and rich as the rest of her, and finally introduces herself anyway. “I suppose I should also ask for your name,” she says.
“Sapphire,” is the clipped reply. “What kind of job?”
She’s not sure she’s quite loathe to admit her own intrigue. It seems she is not the only one, however. She’s not entirely certain how to deal with that, either.
“The kind that’s a little more exciting than this domesticity,” Universe says with a spark in her eye. “But I can’t say more here. Are you interested?”
Is she?
Well, she supposes she can change her mind at any time, even after hearing the details—it’s not like Universe has the power to stop her—so is there any real harm in finding out more?
“Yes,” says Sapphire. “Tell me more.”
“Things shouldn’t take a turn for the ugly,” Rose Universe says. “Especially not with you stationed to the side glaring as prettily as you do, Sapphire.”
“But if they do?” asks Sapphire with coolly raised brows.
“Well.” Universe’s dark eyes flick conspicuously to the twelve-inch dagger strapped to Sapphire’s leg. She smiles. “It shouldn’t.”
She doesn’t say what she expects from Sapphire. The implications are pretty clear, though.
Pearl, who is stationed by the door, doesn’t flinch or otherwise react to this. For all intents and purposes, she seems to be at home with these expectations.
She’s in a similar dress to the one that Sapphire met her in, though, and she doesn’t appear armed. Sapphire, in trousers with her weapon on blatant display, doesn’t know how she can appear so unbothered by this.
Sapphire thinks of Ruby, with whom she was as honest as she could be without sharing her grander suspicions about the nature of Rose Universe. They know enough not to worry about her absence or motivations, and that’s enough for Sapphire.
Sapphire isn’t Lady Masque anymore. She truthfully doesn’t think she could kill a man in cold blood now—not without thinking of how Ruby would react, not without fearing the judgement and justice and ‘I thought you had changed’ they would regard her with. She is not beyond redemption, and she is going to prove that to both them and herself.
Of course, none of that prevents her from intimidating or potentially roughing someone up. That, Sapphire figures, is fair game. She has to be able to defend herself and come home at the end of the day, after all.
So far Rose seems to be right. It’s only fifteen minutes into negotiations, though, so that’s not really saying much.
As she watches, all Sapphire can think is that this rendezvous point—a small cabin on the outskirts of town, containing only a stove, a small shelf for cups and cutlery, and what could appear, at first, to be a dining table—is needlessly expensive. Who has the extra resources to dedicate an entire building to her business dealings?
The cabin is set up smartly, Sapphire will give it that. The location of its single window gives her a prime view of anyone that might be coming from Long Chance, as well as a fairly decent angle of anything that might be sneaking up from behind. This is also very clearly not someone’s home—it’s scarcely even a safehouse—and the impersonal and distinct lack of domesticity (not to mention the inadvertent display of wealth and power) leaves the air rigid and tense. Perfectly poised for exploitation.
Sapphire’s not seen Universe’s dealings before, granted, but she is willing to bet that someone who’s gathered up so much land so quickly isn’t coming by it honestly. At least, not completely.
Regarding the character sitting at the table across the room from Universe now, Sapphire can’t quite bring herself to feel pity for him.
The man is built slender. There is none of Alex’s skinniness and awkwardness to be found, only a carefully groomed aura that Sapphire can only describe as slimy. He has an air of a smooth talker, of someone who’s used to getting what he wants. He sits in his chair with a deceptive air of languidness, lounging, and regards Rose Universe with half-lidded eyes. Maybe he thinks he can turn the tables on her.
It’s men like this that reinforce Sapphire’s old bias against their sex. He hasn’t even opened his mouth, and she already detests him.
Like Pearl, Universe is also wearing a dress. Today’s ensemble is rife with flounces and flowered fabrics. She moves gracefully, stepping softly. She smells faintly of lavender as she settles into the chair across from the man. There’s a ready-written contract on the wooden surface between them; everything else is done, he simply hasn’t signed yet.
“You’re sure you wouldn’t like some tea, Marty?” Universe asks pleasantly.
Marty’s thin face contorts somewhat. Sardonic. “Where’s your husband? You can’t expect me to discuss something this complicated with a woman.”
“No tea, then,” she says, her tone still entirely pleasant. Sapphire must admit, she admires this brand of composure. It’s so unlike her own. “We’ll just get right into it.”
The smirk of a man who thinks he has the upper hand dawns on Marty’s face. “Sure, honeydoll, whatever you say,” he drawls with a condescending brand of humor.
Rose ignores this and begins a clearly rehearsed sales pitch, “If you look here, you’ll see the offer I’m making for your parcel, paid in full today.”
Marty waits.
Rose, entirely unbothered by this, continues, “Of course, this sale would entail signing over all of your rights to not only the land, but also anything it may produce, such as the forestry in the west and the gold in the south. You would receive no further dividends, and all of your subcontracts will also be transferred over to me.”
A very loud snort. “Is this some kind of joke? Where’s your husband, lady?”
Marty is raising his voice, and while Sapphire knows he has a shotgun in a holster on his hip she also doesn’t think he’s wise enough to suspect that either Rose, Pearl or herself might be a danger to him. He’s less likely to draw his shotgun for that. At least, not quick enough.
She places her palm on the handle of the dagger on her leg, but keeps her head tilted as if she’s looking out the window.
“He’s not here,” says Rose. “So, if you have any addendums you’d like to discuss, you might as well say them now.”
“You’re not offering enough for what I’ll be losing, you silly wench,” Marty spits. “What makes you think you can actually make a deal like this?”
Sapphire twitches, not liking his tone. If Marty notices this, it doesn’t show.
“Yet you came here anyway,” says Rose lightly. “Why is that?”
Marty doesn’t say anything to that. It is, Sapphire thinks, symptomatic of the fact that even he doesn’t know. Either that, or he thought Rose had been referring to a different sort of ‘deal’ entirely.
It’s not a wholly awful idea, to use an assumption like that to catch him off guard. Even Sapphire hadn’t noticed at first. That is saying something.
“Having a sum like this in cash is quite rare,” Rose continues. “You could retire with money like this.”
“And where’s this money coming from, huh?”
Sapphire does have her suspicions about this. She is quite intrigued to see how Universe will handle this accusation.
“Are you concerned it isn’t mine?” Then, at Marty’s plain expression of cognitive dissonance, she muses, “If I’m such a silly woman, I’d wonder why you’d automatically assume something so underhanded of me.”
“You know what? That’s it!” Marty exclaims. He slams his fists on the table and gets to his feet. He swats the contract onto the floor in a flutter of crinkled paper as he sweeps towards the door, where Pearl is still stationed.
At that moment Pearl chooses to reveal an intricately decorated pistol with a shift of her skirts. She doesn’t speak, but there again she doesn’t have to. Even if Marty wanted to draw his own gun, it would be too late. Sapphire hadn’t even known Pearl was armed.
No wonder they hadn’t stripped Marty of his shotgun when he came through the door.
Unlike Pearl, Rose’s is still smiling as she says, “You’ve been embezzling from the local parish anyway, haven’t you Marty? The minister there has been under your thumb for years. You’d know all about copious amounts of money that isn’t actually yours, no wonder it’s a conclusion you’re so quick to jump to.”
“Who the hell told you that?” squawks Marty. “I am a man of god, lady, and I—”
“—Am in the middle of nowhere, with a gun that’s been trained on you since you walked in, and no wife or children to speak of who will miss you.” Rose stoops over to retrieve the contract from the floor and gently spreads it out on the table again. “Now—”
Sapphire’s dagger sings as it embeds itself into the wall next to Marty’s ear. She keeps her expression cold and stoic, but she thinks she feels a hint of a smirk on her own lips as Marty’s hand falls from where it had been reaching for his shotgun anyway.
“Not so fast,” she says, circling around to yank her knife from the wall and twirl it casually around in her fingers.
Rose is still smiling pleasantly, presenting herself as the better of the two evils. She offers Marty his chair again with a graceful sweep of her hand. “Shall negotiations continue, then?”
Sapphire can’t quite help smiling to herself as she resumes her post at the window. Maybe she could get used to this after all.
If Sapphire had any qualms about this job by the time Marty walked away with a sack full of cash and without the deed to most of his property, she developed even less from the payoff.
“Lovely work, ladies,” Rose says cheerily. “Sapphire, will you be joining us again?”
“I think I might.” She doesn’t say anything more concrete than that before approaching the massive reddish brown-and-black patterned Clydesdale and quarter horse hybrid tethered at the only tree within reasonable distance of the cabin. The tree isn’t that impressive, honestly, a fairly young mesquite sapling that’s only big enough to provide shade for two or three horses, but that’s all the space Sapphire, Pearl and Rose need for their mounts.
Garnet’s ears flick forward upon seeing her, and her big brown eyes are attentive. She doesn’t snort or shuffle or stamp or whinny, but she does nudge into the hand that Sapphire puts on her muzzle. Garnet is Ruby’s horse, legally, but after surviving nearly a month lost out on the prairie with her owner and Lady Masque the mare seems to have taken a liking to Sapphire. For whatever reason, Garnet will listen to her just as easily as she listens to Ruby (a rare feat in itself, honestly, since Garnet tends to become selectively deaf whenever someone else decides to try ordering her around).
At a quick glance, Sapphire can see that Rose is smiling. Pearl, standing at her elbow, is rubbing a smudge off the luxurious nacre inlay on her pistol, for all intents and purposes not paying too much attention to the conversation. “I’m glad to hear it,” Rose says. “Travel safe! You’ll get something in the mail when I need you next.”
Sapphire says nothing to that as she untethers and mounts Garnet; she simply turns the mare into the direction of O’Malleys.
Ruby smiles broadly at the sight of her in the General Store’s entrance. “How did the new job go?”
“I think I was expecting something different,” is all Sapphire will say in mixed company. There are a handful of patrons in the store, and Alex is entertaining one in particular by the register.
“Oh, you mean Sapphire?” she hears him say over the rabble of other conversations in the General Store. “Not much to say. The little lady likes quiet, and she likes Ruby—she recently got her grubby paws on my bookkeeping too, and let me tell you, O’Malley’s has never done better! What she does with numbers, I’ll never understand, but power to her, I say.” Sapphire doesn’t quite catch what else is said, but Alex replies quite clearly, “Robert, and you a married man! That’s too much woman for you, anyway—now you take this sugar back to your misses like you were always meant to, and you thank God she hasn’t gotten wits enough to throw you out.”
If Alex feels Sapphire looking then he doesn’t acknowledge it. She thinks he knows, though. He’s not near a dim as he acts, especially in cases like these.
For a man, he could be a lot worse.
Ruby starts to say something, intrigue for her new job alive in their expression, but they are distracted by someone approaching and asking, “Excuse me, but could you help me find something? I’m looking for…”
Sapphire promptly tunes the rest out and heads upstairs to the back office, the only other room on the second floor besides her and Ruby’s shared bedroom. If any customers ask her for assistance, she doesn’t hear it. All of her focus is on finding a good place to store this payoff.
As an outlaw, Sapphire had had stashes in various places all over, just in case, but since Lady Masque officially died she hasn’t been able to come up with a decent enough excuse to sweep for them. There’s been a too big a need for her here, with Ruby. Sapphire feels uncomfortable without an emergency stash, though. It feels insecure.
Nobody else ventures into the office except for her, anyway. Alex and Ruby find the piles of records and order forms tedious, at best, and Sapphire’s organization of it all seems to baffle the pair. Really, it was a blasted miracle that Alex had been able to hold this business above water at all without proper bookkeeping.
She stores the money from Rose’s scheme under some blank paper in the desk’s single drawer. If anyone does go here, they’ll only ever skim off the top. It’s perfect.
As Sapphire tromps back downstairs, descending into shuffled goods and conversation and the scent of ink and stolen candies, she asks herself if she will tell Ruby about this. The money. They way Rose conducts her business. She doesn’t want to hide from them, but she also doesn’t want them to worry.
No, she concludes as she reaches the landing. Not yet. Maybe when she’s got a better grasp on the situation.
Pearl isn’t with them today. Her absence is oddly conspicuous, and Sapphire isn’t entirely sure why the first thing she noticed about Rose is her constant companion’s absence, but there you go.
“Pearl is taking some much needed rest,” Rose says at Sapphire’s significant look to her empty side.
It occurs to Sapphire in this moment that Rose Universe might be worried about the smaller woman. So she cares for someone after all.
It makes her visibly uncomfortable. Sapphire thinks the only reason she notices this at all is because she herself has been gruff and tried to obscure emotion like this. Caring for another is weakness, right? Ultimately, it just provides the Achilles heel that someone else can use against you.
Yes, Sapphire knows.
Sapphire doesn’t remark further upon Pearl’s absence. Rather, she says, “And what shall you and I be doing, then?”
When Rose explains the plan to her, Sapphire isn’t nonplussed, precisely. She’s known from the start that Rose is manipulative. No, it’s the edge of delight that Rose uses as she speaks that causes Sapphire’s eyebrows to rise.
Ruby would not approve of these tactics.
Well, Ruby isn’t here, are they? Ruby isn’t the one who will be participating in this, Sapphire is. What matters is whether or not Sapphire thinks these tactics are appropriate.
“Sabotage, then,” she says. “You aim to cause the disturbances that push these men to sell their land to you.”
“I prefer to think of it as preemptive negotiation,” Rose says lightly. The smile on her face is hauntingly pretty, altogether far too vacant.
Is this some kind of test for Sapphire’s resolve?
She grunts, not buying Rose’s terminology but also in no mood to barter the semantics of it. “Well, what are we waiting for?”
It’s the way Garnet’s ears flick as she approaches, Sapphire thinks. The great horse doesn’t shy away from her touch or avoid Sapphire’s attempt to swing up and into her saddle in the midday sunshine, but it’s the ways he looks at Sapphire. Like she knows.
Ruby wouldn’t find this tactic to be very upstanding—on the contrary, they’d find it quite underhanded—but Sapphire still urges Garnet to follow Rose’s pale yellow horse. She still listens to Rose as the latter describes some of the more unethical practices these landowners have been using.
“It’s not the mining, necessarily,” Rose says. “Gold is valuable, and obviously I see the use of taking it from the soil that isn’t using it. It’s the way they’re treating the river they mine beside, and the way it’s impacted my downstream property.”
So that’s what this is really about, Sapphire thinks.
“What are they doing to the river?” she asks anyway. She wrinkles her nose, but that’s because there’s a foul smell in the air like a carcass is cooking in the midday sun.
Rose gestures. “Look.”
It’s on Sapphire’s blind side, which is why she didn’t notice it right away. But now that she’s turned her head Sapphire can see a good sized stream flowing alongside the path their horses are plodding down. The size is the only good thing about this stream anymore, though. It’s running brown, nearly black with sediment, and there is a thin, oily iridescence riding along the surface of the water. It’s unusable, certainly.
Honestly, she never would have thought this could be the source of the smell.
“You can’t even boil this water clean,” Rose says. “It’s been tainted, and the wildlife on my property is suffering for it, because this stream is one of the only tributaries that never stops flowing, even in the heat of summer. Where do they get their water now, these creatures? These plants? Me? And once it passes me by, this sludge just keeps going down and down and down the stream, into the Red River, and on and down.”
Sapphire was so convinced that this was retaliation over decreased property values. Now, though—in light of Rose’s exposition—it seems that Rose also has ecology in mind. What is more important to her, though? What, precisely, nudges her to move on this place? This can’t be the only goldmine with this sort of refuse.
Sapphire turns her head, eyes the saddlebags on Rose’s yellow horse. If ecology and environmentalism were at the forefront of this, she decides, then this probably wouldn’t be Rose’s first tactic.
Without warning, a sound like thunder cracks out over the landscape. It isn’t thunder, though—thunder has a characteristic lack of direction, but this cacophony very much possesses a genesis. Garnet’s skin jumps under Sapphire’s legs, and her ears immediately fold straight back on her skull, but at her person’s soothing hums and petting she stays her course. Rose’s horse, however, whinnies and rears her head. She stops moving forward and stamps, antsy and scared. She might have even risen up on two legs and bolted, if not for Rose Universe’s control over her and the situation.
Sapphire tends to think that the fact Rose was able to calm her mount and urge on towards the source of the explosion without getting thrown off or otherwise panicked, in less than five minutes, is simply more proof of her skill in getting others to do her bidding than her animal’s loyalty to her.
As a matter of fact, Rose seems rather delighted right now.
“They’ll never be able to pick us out from the others until it’s too late,” she says with a small grin. “Today is the perfect day.”
For what it’s worth, it does seem to be. Two more explosions boom out over the landscape before they reach their destination. It also seems that Rose has either had a tour of this property or been trespassing, because she knows precisely where to go and how to avoid being spotted.
One can only presume that she has done her research on all fronts.
The sun feels pleasantly warm on the back of Sapphire’s neck, soaking into her shoulders as Rose stops at the entrance to a mine shaft. It’s not blocked off, but for all intents and purposes it does seem momentarily abandoned.
“This is one of the oldest shafts,” Rose explains. “Where they followed that first vein of gold. It’s not producing as much anymore, but it’s one of their more elaborate systems.”
Yes, she’s definitely had a tour.
“It won’t warm the productivity of the land once you buy it, but it will give a hard smack to morale,” Sapphire translates. “Discouraging, though ultimately minimally destructive.”
“Exactly.” Rose extracts a book of matches and the supply of dynamite she’s brought with her. Three units, each with an abnormally long fuse. She tosses one to Sapphire. “You’re more agile than I am; I need this in a crevasse somewhat further up. I’ll arrange these to take out the base of the entrance, but I want the whole thing to cave in. I want it to be dramatic.”
To be quite honest, Sapphire still hasn’t decided whether this is malicious or genius. Oh, she supposes it can be both, but which description does she want to be predominant?
Nevertheless, she scales the rocky, uneven side of the mine shaft some fifteen feet from the entrance, about where the air starts shifting from cool shade to cold underground. She finds a good place about three quarters of the way up to wedge the dynamite. Fortunately, the fuse is long enough that she won’t have to climb again to light it; it dangles about eye level with her now.
“Oh, I like it!” remarks Rose. She gestures to the ceiling of the shaft. “That’ll come right down. It’s like you’ve already seen what going to happen. Have you done anything like this before?”
“No.”
“Hm.” Rose hands her the match book. “Well, we’re going to light these and run like hell all the same. I don’t know about your beast, but Rainbow Quartz isn’t going to tolerate being anywhere near this when it explodes.”
She’s probably right.
Sapphire wordlessly plucks a match and strikes it. The fuse on her dynamite catches just as her fingers are starting to itch from the heat of the fire. She quickly tosses the book at Rose and lopes out to Garnet. She does, however, wait for Rose to reach her own mount before urging her horse into a gallop—well, Garnet is so large that ‘gallop’ might not be the best word for it. She a big animal made for endurance, not speed, but Garnet obviously senses her urgency and does what she can anyway. The trail behind Rose and Rainbow Quartz, but Garnet won’t spook as badly when the mine collapses either, so it’s just as well.
Sapphire doesn’t realize that she’s been more or less holding her breath this entire time until she startles at the dynamite’s inevitable crack and pow. The sound of tumbling geology like an avalanche is mixed up in it, persists afterwards like an encore. Garnet slows without having to be directed; she’s still maintaining a good pace, but she’s not laboring near as hard to do it.
Whether or not Ruby would find this morally deplorable is now utterly moot, because there’s no taking back the reality of Sapphire’s participation in it.
She nearly laughs. She hasn’t felt adrenaline like this in a while, and she’s missed it. The best part is, there’s nothing to feel guilty about since no one got hurt.
Rose actually is laughing, head thrown back and her curls streaming out in exhilaration. She slows Rainbow Quartz and glances at Sapphire as she and Garnet catch up. There’s a big grin on her face, extending from ear to ear. “Easy, right?” she says, and in that moment there is just something so substantially untamable about her.
She’s manipulative, and Sapphire no-doubt is playing right into her long range plans, but right now, from this perspective, if it means being able to keep doing things like this then Sapphire doesn’t think she minds playing along.
“You look happy,” Ruby says when she returns to the General Store later that day. “What happened that was so good?”
Currently they’re both in the storeroom. Ruby has ventured in from the boisterous and loud main room with all of the customers to fetch a bolt of fabric. It’s a pale lilac color, and it clashes magnificently with the red calico of their favorite shirt.
Sapphire merely says, “I think I like this second job after all.” Then she leans over the rolls of lilac and kisses them. It’s just a quick little peck, but Ruby senses the affection she funnels into it and smiles softly when it’s over.
Their smile is instantly wiped when Sapphire tells them, “And if you don’t stop stealing peppermints, Ruby, I swear to god I am going to get a case to lock them in, and you will never be able to touch them again until you need to make a sale.”
“It has not been that many!” they cry. At least they have the decency to own up to it.
Sapphire points with her index finger and says in all manner of seriousness, “Restrain your sweet tooth, or you will quickly find out that I was not joking.”
Ruby responds to this by blowing a playfully petulant raspberry at her. They saunter out to the main room with the bolt of fabric in a similar fashion, and Sapphire can’t help propping on hand on her hip and shaking her head in amusement as she watches.
Yes, she thinks. I can do both; I can have both. This is going to work just fine.