Free Sapphic Cowboi by K'Anne Meinel Page A

affectionately from several of the men
at the table. Perry stood up though and said “Ariana, I’d like you
to meet our new horse master Maggie O’Malley.”
    Maggie stood up and wiped her hand on her
pants even though it was already clean but it was a nervous gesture
from meeting new people. In the past twenty four hours she had met
a lot of new people and she wasn’t sure she would ever get used to
it. She looked up in the darkest of eyes, the woman had black hair
like her own, whereas her hair was cut short, Ariana’s was long and
back in a bun making her look elegant in her sun dress.
    “ Hello Maggie, call me Ari,
everyone does” she said in a pleasant and well-modulated
voice.
    “ It’s a pleasure to meet
you” Maggie said shyly realizing she was in the presence of a real
lady. Ari was very pretty, had on a light bit of makeup and not at
all like she had seen on other women in the circus this made her
looks enhanced and not detracting from her natural beauty. She was
fine boned and in Maggie’s mind she likened her to a thoroughbred.
She found she had been staring and she quickly let go and looked
down wondering if she should just sit down.
    “ What are you doing today
Ari?” one of the others asked and Maggie took the opportunity to
sit back down but she didn’t eat. She didn’t know how to behave
around another woman and didn’t want to make a fool of
herself.
    “ Oh, I thought I’d go
shopping in Columbus while we have this opportunity. Daddy said I
could use one of the horses and a buggy.”
    Maggie looked up at the word ‘horses’
wondering at the others that were in the circus and realized the
woman was looking directly at her with a teasing glint in her eye
and not understanding it at all.
    The others caught on right away and started
chuckling.
    “ I don’t think I could stand
on the back of the horses like you did last night but that was
impressive” Ariana said admiringly.
    It was then that a suspicion started in
Maggie’s mind, the woman was looking for a horse to hook up and
take her town and while her blacks were trained for that as well
the audacity of them assuming they could borrow them when they
wanted made her angry. The compliment and the look in Ari’s eyes
though negated any ill-will. Maggie wasn’t sure how to take what
she was saying so she stayed quiet.
    Ariana grinned showing she was teasing the
shy woman. She had found it fascinating when Cecil had told them
all about the new horse master and that it was a woman. She thought
the choice of Maggie as the performer for the act the worst choice
but it wasn’t her decision to make. She turned to the others and
showed she knew them all of long standing as she teased and talked
with each of them. She left them after she had spoken with each of
them. Maggie noticed they all were affectionate with her as she
resumed eating her now cold meal.
    She was curious who exactly Ariana was as she
saw her drive away with a slick black buggy and being driven by a
brown horse of non-descript coloring and disposition. Everyone else
was at work getting ready for that night’s performance. Some were
still making money off the crowds that came to look at the animals
they had in, some of the carny people taking in their money by
offering services such as palm reading or games and events, making
it a carnival and not just a circus come to town. Perry had
explained they didn’t normally have the luxury of three days in one
place but the fairgrounds had been empty and the town large enough
to make some money off of side-shows so the carny’s had set up
their booths to make money.
    “ So are you ready for
tonight’s show?” Cecil came up rubbing his hands. His father had
been pleased at last night’s performance.
    Maggie smiled from where she was feeding her
horses and checking on them, a constant thing for her to hide among
them and avoid the crowds that wandered around looking at
everything. She had closed up her tent only to keep out the