Second floor room
Caroline awoke with a start. She glanced over to the side toward her bed partner to see if he was awake but apparently he had just moved about under the covers and that woke her up. Well, it wasn't his snoring, he was quiet as a churchmouse now. Course he denied he ever snored but he was wrong, she was the one who had to hear it. Still, Arabella used to accuse her of snoring and she also had vigorously denied the same transgression. Guess one never knew whether one snored or not.
Long as she was awake she decided to get out of bed and get out of her nightgown. She felt hungry and Messalina fried up some fine eggs made with lots of butter...oh and some sizzlin' bacon too. Yeah, there were times when she missed breakfasts completely because she would sleep so late. Today wouldn't be one of those.
Off went the nightgown, like she cared if Brendan saw her naked. He'd seen that plenty of times. Always seemed to enjoy the view too. Just then she stubbed a toe on the end of the bed.
"Goddammit!"
Hopefully that was not how the rest of her day was gonna go!
"Well, mornin' sleepy head," she once more looked her bed partner's direction.
Brendan probably would have kept sleeping if not for Caroline banging her toe on the bed. He didn't hear that, but definitely heard her swearing. He snorted a little as he awoke -- maybe Caroline was right and he did snore sometimes -- and squinted up at her.
Was she naked? Yep, she was. That woke him up. But he didn't sit up or rub the sleep out of his eyes. Instead he fluttered his eyelashes as though he couldn't quite make out what he was seeing and stretched one arm out to her, beckoning her closer. "Hm? What'd you say?" He wouldn't mind a little fooling around in bed before breakfast, and he had the feeling Caroline wouldn't, either.
Somewhere in the back of his mind he wondered what time it was, what day it was, and whether he should be heading to work. But right now he was focused on one thing: Caroline.
Well, least sleepy head was awake now for certain, one glimpse of her tits probably assured that.
Brendan stretched one arm out to her, beckoning her closer. "Hm? What'd you say?"
She huffed, "You know what I said, you aren't deaf." But she moved back to the bed and then plopped her naked self on the edge of the mattress.
"I bet I know what yer thinkin' too," she smirked, practically poking her pair right up in his face.
"But yer gonna have to earn our next fornication, mister. I got an idea...well a notion. And you are gonna have to do your part then."
Playfully she then poked him right in the nose with one finger, "Got that, hon?"
"You see I wanna learn how to shoot a pistol. Now I already got me my derringer and I have shot it. Don't even ask though if I ever hit anything. But I mean one of those full size revolvers. I want you to teach me. You got one of those. Then you can also help buy one for myself."
"Is that all clear now?" she grinned.
Brendan gulped a little bit at the sight of Caroline's breasts so close to his face. They were especially perky this morning in the cool air, and he had to blink several times to focus on what Caroline was saying to him. "...yer gonna have to earn our next fornication, mister."
He rolled his eyes and leaned back with his hands behind his head to listen to Caroline, flinching as she poked him in the nose. He really just wanted to grab Caroline and pull her back underneath the covers with him. His interest was piqued, however, and he found himself actually excited about what she was proposing. This would be fun, and would be a change of pace and scenery. He and Caroline would have to go out of town to do this.
"All right, all right," he said with a yawn. "I'll teach you. But you want to do it today? I gotta go to work soon." Maybe he could ask Mr. Kaufman to stop work early so he could have the afternoon with Caroline, but he had to at least put in an appearance at the butcher shop. .
"All right, all right," Brendan said with a yawn. "I'll teach you. But you want to do it today? I gotta go to work soon."
Caroline grinned, she knew he would agree. Truth was she could probably wrap him around her thumb rather easily. But she truly was fond of him and would never ask him to do something that would get him into trouble.
"Well, I figured that. You know my shifts aren't til late in the afternoon and thru the night," she pointed out.
"Guess it don't need ta be today. If nothing else we could wait til Sunday and do it. Just hope it ain't raining."
"Oh unless yer plannin' on goin' ta church services are ya? Devout jasper that you are," she was back to teasing him, she enjoyed doing that.
Luckily for Brendan, Caroline wasn't insistent on the shooting lesson today, because he would probably have skipped out on work completely if she'd asked. However, she cared about him enough not to ask him to put his job on the line like that, but instead suggested Sunday. And followed it up with a tease, of course.
Brendan's nose wrinkled and he made a disgusted face. Church might be fine for some people, but not for him. "Not on your life!" he said indignantly. "Only thing I'll be doin' on Sunday is sleepin' in and takin' you out to shoot some cans."
He sat up and wrapped his arms around Caroline's naked body, tilting his head to kiss her neck as he left the warmth of the bed covers. "And maybe a little foolin' around thrown in there too, hm?" he murmured.
They decided then to do the gun practice on a Sunday since neither of them worked. Course she teased him about church going.
"Not on your life!" Brendan said indignantly. "Only thing I'll be doin' on Sunday is sleepin' in and takin' you out to shoot some cans."
"Ahh, them cans better watch out then," Caroline chuckled.
He sat up and wrapped his arms around Caroline's naked body, tilting his head to kiss her neck as he left the warmth of the bed covers. "And maybe a little foolin' around thrown in there too, hm?" he murmured.
"If practice goes well, sure. But shootin' comes first and then, once we're done and I'm shootin' like a gunslinger, then you can shoot off that gun of yers between yer legs"
"Slavedriver," Brendan grinned, releasing Caroline as he tucked a bit of hair behind her ear. "You take all the fun out of it." He groaned as he got up, stretched to his full height, and started to gather up his clothes. "Sunday it is." He got dressed, splashed some water on his face from the little pitcher at Caroline's vanity, and ran his fingers through his hair. "See ya around," he said as he ducked out the door.
*******************
Brendan slept in late Sunday morning, knowing Caroline would do the same, and moseyed over to the saloon a little past noon. He carried a sack that clinked and clunked as he walked from the collection of cans he'd scrounged up from the Wigfalls. The sack also held his revolver and a partially-emptied box of cartridges. He entered the saloon through the back door as had become his habit and peeked into the kitchen to see if Caroline was there.
@ [Wayfarer
She was. Caroline had finished her breakfast and even her coffee but was washing it all down with a shotglass of whiskey. While she would never admit it, the young woman was well on the road to being an alcoholic.
"Ahhh, there ya are. I thought you maybe were gonna chicken out on me? Like I might shoot ya by accident or something," she grinned at her ruggedly handsome friend.
She sort of missed Lt. Greene still but he had wanted something she could have never given him. A marriage and a respectable life. Her life was here in this saloon. Brendan was more her sort of person. They got along great and neither had any real expectations of much more than that. She had even shared her secrets with him and he still accepted her and enjoyed her companionship.
"Ya know, I was thinkin'. Maybe while we're pluggin' away at those tin cans a bunch if Injuns might come along and I can blast a few of them off their horses. Hope they will stand still though...not sure I can hit a moving target," she now stood up. She wore an older more subdued color of dress, off gray, but no hat. She made it a point to never wear any hats. Mostly because she knew proper women were supposed to wear hats in public and she liked to stick it to traditions like that.
Oh, so Caroline thought he'd chickened out, did she? Brendan shook his head in mock disappointment. "Brendan Connelly may be many things, but a chicken ain't one of 'em. Not about this, anyway." It could be argued that in the past he'd chickened out of hard things, but he was learning from his mistakes.
He leaned over Caroline's shoulder and eyed her empty whiskey glass, tsking his tongue. "Isn't it a little early for that? That ain't your special concoction from up front." There was nothing wrong with drinking, and in fact Brendan happened to like getting drunk. But drinking and guns weren't a good combination, especially when the person holding the gun didn't quite know what she was doing with it.
But Caroline was ready to go, and her imagination was working overtime so that she almost sounded like Arabella making up some grand scenario. Brendan grinned while she spoke. "We'll work up to moving targets," he said easily. "Might take a few more lessons but someday you'll be able to blast anyone off a horse, Injun or no."