For Time & Eternity

By Curlly

Part One

Curlly thanked the men that "helped" her with her luggage by extending two fingers for each of them to shake smiling her most I'm-a-helpless-female smile. Men are so easy! On the train from Boston, she somehow managed to use her feminine wiles to get the necessary help with her massive amounts of luggage. After packing her trunks and bags under the porch they went off to get some beer thinking themselves manly men.

Feeling that now would be a good time to check her appearance, Curlly pulled a small mirror out of her reticule. She assured herself that her hat was still at its properly jaunty angle. She was rather proud of her hat. Her hat maker had argued with her about using feathers and fake cherries, but the result was stunning, as she knew it would be. Feeling rather smug, Curlly put her mirror away and straightened the line of her clothes, admiring the way they showed in the sun.

She looked up to find a rather handsome man standing not three feet away with an amused expression on his face. He had been so quiet joining her on the porch that he gave her quite a start. "Oh glory!" exclaimed Curlly.

"Sorry to startle you, ma'am," said the man.

"It's of no moment sir."

"Which town are you moving to in the great Wild West?"

"Me? Move west?" She allowed a truly amused laugh to escape her. "I am just visiting a friend for a month or so," she finished primly.

"Oh of course."

Just then the stagecoach pulled up. The middle-aged man driving climbed down and asked for passengers. The man and Curlly handed the driver their tickets. The driver looked at Curlly squinting slightly for Curlly stood with the sun behind her and said, "Is this all your luggage ma'am?"

Curlly looked at the monstrosity of luggage proudly and said, "Yes it is."

Spitting a foot from were Curlly stood, "Well that be a problem. You can only take five bags with ya."

"I only have one bag, please let my remaining space go to the lady," spoke up the man; even thought he knew the lady had more than nine bags.

Curlly smiled at the man and said to the driver, "Could I pay you an additional fee for the remaining half of my luggage?" Curlly saw the way the driver's eyes filled with greed. "Why don't you and I go around the corner and talk options of payment?" suggested Curlly.

Once they were out of sight Curlly turned so her back was to the street and started to pull her bodice down suggestively. The driver's expression started as a leer and ended face down in the dirt of the alley with a knife against his neck. "Lady, your dead the minute yu 'et me up!" snarled the driver.

"That is assuming you ever get up," said Curlly calmly. "Now, You are going to agree to transport me and all my luggage on your coach. If you don't... well I'm sure you won't miss your daughter too much. The trip to Cracked Rock takes three days, correct?" The man just swore under his breath. "My, this knife is heavy," said Curlly allowing the knife to cut a thin ribbon along the back of the driver's neck.

"Three days," ground out the driver.

"Good. If I don't arrive within five days a man will go find your daughter and do with her whatever he will. Whatever it is, you'll never see her again. If I do arrive in five days, I will go telegraph him not to with the directions that if I don't return to my hometown in two months to proceed with the original plan. Will you take me and mine?"

"Yes."

"Good." And Curlly left him in the alley and returned to the porch. "Well the driver said it would be about twenty minutes to load the luggage and then we can leave. My name is Mrs. Curlly Bradshaw," she said her traveling companion.

"Mr. Sinjn Tyler, at your service ma'am."

Mr. Tyler noticed that when the driver came back he looked mad as thunder and was dirty all down the front of his clothes. He just looked speculatively from Mrs. Bradshaw to the driver. Mrs. Bradshaw sure did look awfully smug. Sinjn thought this sure would be one interest'n trip.

Before stopping for the night, Curlly and Mr. Tyler road for six hours. Mr. Tyler alighted first in order to help Mrs. Bradshaw out. "Thank you, sir."

"Pleasure ma'am."

Curlly turned to the driver and asked, "What time do we depart in the morning?"

The driver said, "7:00." Then he spat his tobacco at their feet.

Sinjn started towards the man angrily but Curlly stopped him and said, "That will be satisfactory. Please stake the dark brown trunk to the best room you can find in this town. You may collect it at 6:45 tomorrow morning."

"Mrs. Bradshaw, you're in a strange town, would you like an escort?" asked Sinjn.

"Why that's awfully nice of you to offer, but I'll be fine." The driver snorted. Ignoring him Curlly continued, "I'm going to the church I saw back there and I'm sure the priest will see me to the hotel." Sinjn inclined his head and strode off down the street. Ignoring the scowling driver Curlly walked off to the rather surprisingly wealthy looking church.

Curlly entered and went to go to the confession box. After a few minutes the priest went into his half of the confession box. "How may I help you my child?"

"Ummm, my name is Mrs. Bradshaw."

The elaborate wooden lattice that separated the two people suddenly slid silently to the left. "Do you have it?" asked the priest. "Mrs. Bradshaw, I don't have time for this, do you have it or not?" Curlly just sat there waiting. Finally the priest said, "Cheesecake."

Smiling Curlly pulled off her hat and pulled out one of the silver hair sticks. She then unscrewed the decorative top of and out rolled a small piece of paper. It was partly encoded and there were chunks of information missing. The priest studied it closely and told Curlly to, "come back tomorrow."

"Not a chance. You do it while I'm here." Something was wrong!

"Impossible! It would take too long."

Curlly took a long hard look at the priest and pulled a dart out of her reticule without the priest seeing her. She continued to argue and then suddenly reached out and snatched the paper from him, scratching him with the dart in the process. "Ouch!" cried the priest holding his hand protectively.

"I'm sorry I scratched you with my nail. This is just so important, and you know how woman start to get excited," finished Curlly coyly. "Since you require more time I will come to the cemetery at 2:00am.

The priest still looked annoyed but agreed. "Could you tell me where the nicest inn in town is?"

The priest said, "I'll escort you if you'd like."

"Thank you." So the priest took Curlly down through the town until they finally came to a rather respectable looking inn. Curlly thanked the priest then said in a concerned tone, "Are you okay? You're sweating and it's not very warm right now."

"I do feel a little tired," admitted the priest.

"Well perhaps you better lay down for awhile. You'll be up most of the night."

"You are probably right. I'll see you at 2:00am."

"Thank you for your escort. I hope you feel better." Then after the priest told her what a pleasure it had been she entered the hotel.

Across the street Sinjn Tyler step out from under the shadowy underhang. It seems Mrs. Bradshaw would be meeting the virtuous priest in the wee hours of the morn. Interesting.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Curlly shook her dress out and held it up to her in the mirror. It was the color of fresh baked brownies and made her hair look like spun gold. She had bought it on her last trip to France. So she was sure to be the best-dressed woman in these here parts.

So she had a tray sent up and then she got dressed and headed for the tap room where a singer was belting out horridly, men were drinking and more importantly playing cards. It was just around 8:30pm. More than enough time to earn a little pocket change.

"Hey myush wittle lovely. Woudsh you like ta 'ance with me?" leered a drunken slob hooking his arm around her waist. His sour breath flowed around her face causing her to wince inwardly.

"Well now sir," said Curlly running a finger down the man's cheekbone, "I might a little later, but could you go get me a drink first? I'll go play cards with those nice men over there. And after I've played a hand or two and I've had my drink we will have a dance." Since the drunk was more interested in Curlly's cleavage than her words he agreed like a good little puppy and went off trying to figure out the best way to get the pretty lady something to drink. Of course he was concentrating so hard that he failed to see the rather large man in front of him. And the large man and his buddies felt rather offended. Let's just say that the drunk was to busy finding his missing teeth to think about Curlly again.

Curlly went to a dark corner to observe the room. She only had to wait for about forty minutes for a table as fairly well to do men formed. They only needed one more player. Curlly walked over and introduced herself. "Gentlemen, do you mind if I join you?"

All the men stood respectfully, but they looked a little doubtful. One of them said, "Madame, not offense intended but we are putting down some serious money gambl'n."

Smiling, "None taken. But my money is just a good as yours. I’d like to join you if I may." It wasn’t a question. The man whom had spoken held out a chair for her and introduced her around. As she played she won occasionally but listened and guided the conversation in the direction of her general choosing. Whoever thought men didn’t gossip (especially when they were drunk!) didn’t know what they were talking about. Curlly learned all kinds of useful information on the area.

Just when Curlly was ready to start playing for money, one of the players decided to leave. Disappointed that they would not be able to continue Curlly’s favorite game, a voice asked, "May I play with you gentlemen and lady?" It was Mr. Tyler. A bit disappointed that Sinjn was joining them, Curlly decided to play moderately. As Mr. Tyler smiled in her direction, Curlly knew he saw the irritated look in her eyes. Men always became grumpy when they lost money, and Curlly really didn’t want to ride with one of them.

Before she knew it, it was 1:45am. Since she only had a few minutes to make it to the graveyard; she deposited her considerable winnings into her reticule and excused herself. Once she left the remaining gentlemen decided that they would call it a night too. Sinjn hotfooted it to the cemetery. He arrived just in time to see Curlly leave the graveyard and enter the church. After about 15 minutes Curlly left the church and headed back to the hotel with a very stern look on her face.

He waited until she was out of sight and entered the church. After looking around for a bit he made his way back to the priests quarters. He found the priest lying on a bed breathing shallowly. As he watched the breathing became more erratic and the priest gave one last moan and he died. Sinjn quietly left the building.

***

When Sinjn checked out of the hotel he heard two locals talking about how the priest had died of the fever last night. And how healthy he had seemed until yesterday afternoon. Sinjn just stowed all this information away as he went out to meet the coach. Something fairly interesting had happened to each man Mrs. Bradshaw had come in contact with. First, the coachman, second the priest, third, Sinjn saw a man accost Curlly and then get the crap beat out of him, fourth the men she had gambled with seemed happy to lose their money to her. With a slightly wicked gleam in his eye he wonder what would happen to him.

*************

Part Two

They had some rather interesting conversation during the day. They ate in the coach, only stopping briefly. The town they stopped in the second night was much smaller with fewer creature comforts. Curlly walked out to meet the coach felling rather grumpy and sore from the uncomfortable mattress.

"Mor’n Mrs. Bradshaw. Your looking particularly lovely today," greeted Mr. Tyler. Curlly squinted up at him since the sun shone behind him, just grunted as he assisted her into the coach. "Since you didn’t come downstairs in time for breakfast, I had the owner prepare a extra meal for you."

"Why thank you very much sir. I wasn’t sure as I would endure until lunch," said Curlly very much pleased. After she finished her food, Sinjn kept her amused with stories.

Just as they were about to stop to have lunch a shot rang out and the coach started swaying dangerously. Sinjn pulled Curlly off her forward facing seat to the bottom of the coach, enfolding her body with his. Even though their lives were being threatened, Curlly notice how nice Mr. Tyler smelled. Sinjn had knocked Curlly’s hat off and his nose was pressed against her hair. It smelled so good he realized she must use French scented soap to wash it with. He smiled inwardly at thinking about her hair when he should be thinking about surviving.

Finally the coach lurched to a stop. The occupants held their breath for a moment and just as they started to untangle themselves the door was ripped open and a gun materialized pointed at them. "Get out real slow. The gent first," came the voice belonging to the gun. Once both people alighted the leader of what appeared to be five men motioned for Mr. Tyler to turn around. Once he complied one of the banditos tied his hands behind him. One of the men had tied the stagecoach driver to one of the wheels by then. Curlly was not considered a threat so didn’t have to suffer the indignity of being tied up.

Curlly wasn’t watching what was happening to Sinjn. She was watching the leader going through one of her trunks. Suddenly she gave off a little shriek and ran to stop the man. "Not that!" exclaimed Curlly as she tried to take a beautifully wrapped gift from the leader. One of the men grabbed her and held her tightly against him while the other three restrained Sinjn.

"Why? What’s in it?" asked the leader shaking the box.

"Stop you might break it!"

"What is it?" he asked again preparing to unwrap it.

"I don’t know. It’s a wedding present for a friend from a mutual friend that couldn’t attend the wedding! Please! If you tell this man to release me I’ll show you something far more valuable than whatever could possibly be in that box!"

"Maybe I’ll take both."

"You’ll never find the former."

The leader pointed his gun at Sinjn and said, "I’ll kill him if you don’t."

Curlly looked at Sinjn considering, "Go ahead. Just make sure he does not bleed on my frock." The leader nodded his head and his henchman released Curlly. Then to Mr. Tyler’s amazement Curlly and the leader started shopping through her many trunks for an appropriate prize. The leader started to pick something several times, but Curlly shook her head and kept going saying it wasn’t good enough.

Soon they were like to happy children sneaking into their parent’s things. Finally they settled on a spectacular necklace of rubies. The thieves took some other items from Curlly and Sinjn. And to Curlly’s great glee they took the driver’s flask of whisky. Sinjn couldn’t believe Curlly had waved goodbye to the scoundrels. Once the men left Curlly severed the bonds of the men and with much grumbling they were on their way.

Curlly had such a smug look about her that Sinjn exclaimed, "You enjoyed yourself didn’t you Mrs. Bradshaw?"

"Did you honestly think I would allow that man mess my things and take whatever he wanted? This way did I not only save your hide, but I got to get rid of those hideous rubies!" said Curlly with a twinkle in her eye.

Sinjn wasn’t amused and sulked in silence until they stopped in a small village built around a creek. The horses were too tired to go on. They would leave at seven in the morning and arrive at Cracked Rock by eleven. There was only one room left at the local inn, which needless to say Curlly got. After having dinner in her room Curlly ordered a bath to be brought in. While the servant filled it Curlly went outside to watch the sunset with a chilled glass of lemonade.

Sinjn saw Curlly leave the hotel. He had seen a group of rather rough looking men walking about town. So still feeling irritated about the hold up approached her. "Maybe should go back inside Mrs. Bradshaw," Sinjn said condescendingly.

Curlly immediately went on the attack, "Thank you, no."

"It’s not safe for a lady out here," said Sinjn with the implication that if Curlly remained she wasn’t a lady.

"But that’s what big, strong males are for. I’m sure I can find one around here somewhere," smirked Curlly as she petted a horse drinking at a watering trough.

"I wish you luck of it. Although I feel sorry for the poor sap you find." Then with a smug smirk he said, "It’s no wondering your husband let you come out here alone. He’s no doubt glad to get rid of you. I bet you’re the managing type. Or did you send him off to an early grave? I’ve never met such a shrew."

Curlly felt heated words come to her lips, but then she noticed several spectators looking their way, no doubt hoping for a spectacle. If it were a spectacle they wanted, she’d deliver. "A shrew am I? Well I’d hate to disappoint you Mr. Tyler." And to punctuate her words she threw the entire contents of her glass full in his face.

She then should have prudently backed away, but she just glared at him, distracted momentarily by the lemon slice dangling over one ear. In that one moment Sinjn struck. He lifted Curlly right off her feet and tossed her backwards into the trough of water. Curlly surfaced shrieking and flailing. Curlly's hands tried to gain purchase on the saliva-covered sides and just succeeded in obtaining leverage when Sinjn pushed her back down. As she surfaced once again Sinjn leaned over the trough placing a hand on each side to prevent Curlly from rising. "Let that show you to never throw anything at me ever again!" And with a low growl he bent down and kissed her hard. Curlly struggled back, but there was nowhere to go. As quickly as the kiss started, Sinjn ended it and stalked off. Drips of lemonade followed his progress into the stable.

Curlly blushed as she climbed out and as she entered the hotel she could almost swear steam was rising out from the water.

After sloshing up the stairs to her room, Curlly saw her bath was ready. It was a good thing, she couldn’t wait to get the horse spit out of her hair. Curlly looked out the balcony doors to insure no one could see in and opened them to allow a soft, warm breeze to cleanse the room. Curlly pulled all her clothes off and slipped into the bath. While soaking, Curlly noticed that the servant had lit candles all over the room, giving a rich glow. Starting to prune a bit Curlly washed her hair and rose from her bath. Reaching for her towel she heard the voice, "Ahhh, Venus raising from the sea!" complemented Sinjn walking over from the opened french doors.

Blushing faintly Curlly scowled wrapping a towel around her and said, "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, I just thought I’d finish what you started down there on the street," said Sinjn as he took the edges of her towel and pulled her flush against him. He lowered his head to kiss the hollow of her neck. One of his hands tilted her head gently to the side so he could trace kisses up the side of her neck to the sensitive spot behind her ear. "Mmmmm, you taste and smell so good." Suiting actions to words, Sinjn nibbled lightly on her ear.

Curlly moaned slightly and said rather breathlessly, "Me? You started it!"

Scooping her up in his arms Sinjn carried her over to the bed, "Be that as it may, I’m going to finish it. No more meeting strange men at 2am for you Mrs. Bradshaw!"

"Whatever you say Sinjn!" said Curlly impishly.

"That’s Mr. Tyler to you wench!" said Sinjn lightly as he dropped Curlly on the bed. As he went over to the corner to remove his boots, Curlly pulled on her Chinese styled robe.

As he joined her on the bed a wicked smile lit his face. She helped him take his jacket off and as she worked on his tie and buttons, Sinjn pulled a long feather out of his coat pocket. "What’s that for Sinjn?"

"I know how ticklish you are my love!"

"Sinjn no!" squealed Curlly as she lunged for the feather. She tried to get it from him, but it was no use. "Sinjn, you know you shouldn’t be in here. If someone hears us, there will be…"

Sinjn had Curlly effectively pinned, "Then I suggest you be quiet my dear. Besides, why should I sleep in the tap room with the driver when I can sleep with you?" Then he proceeded to lazily run the feather lightly around Curlly’s abdomen.

She squirmed and fidgeted, but bit her lip to keep from laughing, "Give it up sir! I’m not going to laugh."

"Hmmm, maybe I should try…" Then he started placing feather light kisses along the path the feather had run. He could feel the muscles in her stomach contract with each kiss. Some interesting noises emitted from Curlly, but she didn’t laugh. With resignation Sinjn lifted his head about to admit defeat when he asked, "I wonder what would happen if I used my tongue?"

Curlly’s eyes went wide at the thought, but couldn’t hold in the laughter any longer. "I’ve had enough saliva on me for one day thank you very much!" As laughter lighted her features, Sinjn told her how beautiful she looked. Then they both lost interest in laughter and went on to other things.

After awhile, Curlly laid her head on Sinjn’s chest and ideally swirled patterns on it with her fingernail. "Sinjn, if I hadn’t asked you to come, would you really have let me come here alone? To get some peace and quiet?" Curlly asked in a small voice.

He kissed the top of her still damp head, "Of course not. I’d miss my wife too much!" Sinjn watched his wife sigh with contentment and her eyes flutter shut.