Mary sent the horses to Fairplay with Dan a week before the show. When she, Ken and Jane landed in Denver, the weather had turned cold.
“Never known it to fail,” Mary said. “Thirty below zero is Stock Show weather.”
Ken had gotten a suite at a hotel not far from the Stockyards. Jerry Pinsky was due to arrive at the end of the week to see Jane compete. Meanwhile, Jane had the bedroom next door to Ken and Mary´s. In the morning, they had breakfast in Ken and Mary´s room.
“Sleep well?” Mary asked.
“Sort of. I kept waking up.” Jane said.
“That could be the altitude, Jane,” Ken said. “Often keeps people awake the first couple of nights.”
“I heard you laughing. Was something funny?”
“Oh, God. Jane, I should have warned you. Uh ... well, you see, when I have an orgasm, it always makes me laugh like that.”
“Oh ... You mean you and Ken were ...”
“Jane, Mary and I were making love last night. We took a long time about it, the way we like to. She´s likely to come several times when we do that. I´m sorry if it bothered you.”
“Well, it didn´t exactly bother me. It sounded so happy, so wonderful. It made me feel good. I sort of hoped you were ... doing that.”
“Jane,” Mary said, “We call it making love, or screwing. I know a lot of people call it fucking, but somehow that word doesn´t work for me.”
“Yeah, I noticed that. It´s okay to say ‘screwing´?”
“Sure. You can say anything you want, Jane, I just wanted you to know how we say it.”
“What are we doing today?”
“Today, we go out to Fairplay and pick up the horses. Henry´ll be glad to see you.”
“I´ve never seen a ranch.”
“We could stay overnight, if you like. We´d still be back in time to get the horses in stables and pick up your father.”
“Could we?”
“Sure.”
.oOo.
Jane spent most of her time at the ranch with her mouth open. She looked at the horses in their winter quarters, watched the hands ride out – bundled up – to check on the herds. She rode a lot herself, warming Henry up slowly as she and Mary rode across the bare, windy highlands. Chance rode with them on Hero.
“Jane, now you know one reason why I set up a stable back east. This weather has never been my favorite.”
“Mine neither, Chance,” Mary shouted against the bitter wind. “This is why I never wanted to be a rancher.”
“Me either,” Jane said. She thought about correcting what she said, but it was just too cold to matter.
After dinner, Bessie and Beth sat talking with them all in front of the fire. The altitude, the weather, and the exercise had Jane dozing in the warmth, and they all went to bed early.
In the morning, they risked frostbite getting the horses loaded in the trailer and drove back down to Denver.
“Mary,” Jane asked as Ken drove carefully down the long I-70 descent toward Denver, “How come Beth sleeps in the bunkhouse? Don´t the hands sleep there?”
“Yes. She sleeps with them. Has for years.”
“All three of them?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Geeze.”
.oOo.
Jerry arrived, and after dinner the four of them went to the Stock Show to see the rodeo, the Denver Belles and the Grand Prix Jumping. It was late when they got back to the hotel after checking on the horses, but Jerry and Jane joined Ken and Mary in the bar for a nightcap.
“Can I have a huge cup of hot chocolate?” Jane asked the waiter, “‘I´m still freezing.” She got a big thermos jug with her cup.
“What did you think of the show, Jane?” Jerry asked her.
“Well, I´ve seen jumping, and I like that. That´s about the only kind of eastern riding I do like. The rodeo was fun, but I can´t believe cowboys really work like that.”
“No, we don´t, Jane,” Mary said. “I´ll spend a whole day team-roping calves with Manuel and never go faster than a walk. Rodeos are fun, but they aren´t what the real thing is like.”
“I guess the Denver Belles were what I was really interested in. They´re sort of like what we do.”
“Well?”
“Mary, I´m glad we don´t do that. I can see the riding is hard. Tricky, I mean. They must have forty horses and riders in the ring at once. But all they do is circles to the left and right and figure-eights. We do a lot more than that in our demonstrations.”
“You sure do, Jane,” Ken said. “Mary decided early on you had to be more than circle riders. Not to say those girls can´t do what you all do, probably can. But she wanted you to go out and show those easterners what real horsemanship is like.”
“Is that what I did, Chance?” Mary smiled at him indulgently.
“Mary,” Jerry said, “I don´t know anything about horses, but I do know, from what I saw tonight, that you´ve taught Jane, all of them, a hell of a lot in a short time.”
“Thanks, Jerry. Yes, I did want you to show off what you learned, Jane. People back home think you just climb on and ride off. That´s not good enough. But don´t get me wound up. I´ll go on all night. Now, off to bed. We have to be out at the yards early to get the horses groomed and be ready when our events start.”
They rode up in the elevator and went to their rooms. Jane said, “Good night, Mary, Ken. Sleep well.” Before she turned to follow Jerry into their room she gave Mary a knowing smile and a big wink.
.oOo.
They spent all weekend at the Stock Show. When they weren´t competing or waiting to, they watched other competitions, wandered around the hundreds of booths with vendors of everything from junk to treasure, depending on how each shopper defined it. They looked at the cows and horses and sheep. Jane collected a few souvenirs and Mary made sure to buy something for every one of the Riders.
They worked hard in the competitions. Mary finished in the top ten in all her events, Jane placed well, too.
“You did just about what I expected, Jane,” Mary said at the end of one day. “How do you feel about it?”
“I did all right, Mary. I did my best. The other guys were just better. I´d like to get better. Next year, if I can come back, I´ll do better.”
“We´ll try to give you that chance, honey,” Jerry said.
Ken came walking over with an older man who wore western clothes, boots, an expensive Stetson and handsome sports jacket.
“Jane,” Ken said, “this is Ben Tipton. He´s with the Stock Show. I´ve been talking with him about letting the Riders do a show here next year. He wants to talk with you.”
“Hello, Mary, nice to see you. How´s Bessie? Mr. Pinski. How do you do, Jane?” Tipton said. “Jane, Ken tells me you and Mary have a group called the Still Waters Riders.”
“Yes, sir. Well, Mary started it, and I´m a Rider.”
“How long have you been riding?”
“I´ve been working with Mary since fall a year ago. Before that, I´d had stable classes for about a year and a summer at an eastern-style riding camp. Uh, I don´t really count that much.”
“Well, Ben,” Mary said, “she did have good basic knowledge.”
“But you´ve really only had, say a year and a half of Western Pleasure Riding experience and competition just last season?”
“Yes, sir. That´s right.”
“I saw you compete today. Considering that the people who beat you grew up on horseback and have been doing junior competition for years, you put in a remarkable performance. Congratulations.”
“Thank you.” Jane said, her face wreathed in a delighted smile.
“Would you do me a favor, Jane?”
“Of course, sir, if it´s okay with Mary and Dad.”
Tipton turned to the others, “I like the way she put that.”
To Jane, he said, “I´d like you to bring your horse over to the other building, there. Ring 4 isn´t being used right now. I´d like you to show me the demonstration you do.”
“Well, Mr. Tipton ...”
“Call me Ben, please.”
“Ben, we do the demonstration with all fifteen of us, and change horses every move. And there´s only me, here.”
Mary said, “Ben, Jane and I will fake it for you, give you some idea. Okay?”
“That will be fine, Mary. I´ll see you there in an hour?”
Jane and Mary worked with Ken and Jerry to groom their horses and get them to Ring 4. They showed Ben Tipton the latest version of the Still Waters Riders routine.
When they had finished, Tipton said, “I like that, Mary and Jane, I like it a lot. Aren´t enough people who learn the fundamentals that thoroughly. Tell you what I think ... I want to see the whole show, of course, but if it´s anything like what you´ve shown me, you should come here next year ... Now, I don´t want you to do your show at the evening performances. First of all, that´s the wrong place for it, and besides, I don´t want to get the Denver Belles mad at me. My daughter´s on their Board.”
They all grinned.
“What I want is for you to do your demonstration here in the show ring, say once a day. Put you on the program as a good example of training in basic horsemanship.”
“Ben,” Mary said, “That´s wonderful. We´d love to do that.”
“Not finished, Mary. Got a hook in here.”
“Aunt Bessie warned me about you, Ben ...”
“Good thing ... First, I´ll come and check you out at one of your shows back East this spring. Say, around Easter. Make sure you´re really that good. Second, don´t plan to bring your horses unless you´re going to compete, as you did today.”
“What do you mean, Ben?” Ken said.
“I want to say to the crowd – they´re mostly horse people, you know – ‘These kids have never seen these particular horses before they got here this week. They´re going to deal with them as complete strangers.´ We´ll provide a string of suitable horses – they just won´t be the ones you are used to, and vice versa. What do you think? Can you do it?”
Jane was the first to answer. “Ben, that´s a sneaky thing to do. But I´ll bet it´ll be fun – if I don´t get my ass kicked.”
“Young lady, if what I see at Easter is anything like what you´ve shown me, you´ll be out here next year, and you´ll be the one kicking ass.”
Ben shook their hands and hurried off.
Jerry said, “Jane, for God´s sake ...”
“No, Jerry,” Ken said, “I´ve known Ben Tipton for years. Jane said just the right thing. Now, all we have to do is get the rest of the girls as feisty as Jane.”