Look, I travelled all the way from Texas with a herd, and was wondering if I might be able to spend a little time with the lady.
Winona gently rests a gloved hand on the guard's arm and says, "My dear friend here is such a patron of the arts, he was deeply moved by Madam Montreiul's performance. Please don't take his comment about riding the herd to mean that he's an unsophisticated man."
From the room you can here Mademoiselle Montreiul say in a slight French accent"Its alright George, We wouldn't want to disappoint such a patron of the arts". With a look back, the man, George apparently , moves out of the way. The room you see is not a large one, its filled with a few trunks, a mirror vanity and a changing screen. The room has a high ceiling and lite with an electric lightbulb.
Mademoiselle Montreiul sits in front of the vanity. She is a small woman, petite in size but her beauty and presence seems to fill the room. She has her dark hair down and seems to have been bushing it when you arrived. The room feels almost too small for Rufus and the sent of roses feel the room.
Miss Montreiul I am honoured to meet you.
Rufus blushes slightly as he passes the sad looking bouquet of flowers over to her.
I am kind of wishful that I could have managed a better set of flowers for such a beautiful woman.
Winona gently tugs Flying Eagle back a bit so that Rufus can make his smitten introduction and get himself into trouble .
Mademoiselle Montreiul takes Rufus flower "Oh but these are lovely sir, maybe a bit battered, but their beauty still shines though. Its the imperfections that make things truly interesting. " She looks up at Rufus and its like the sun after a dark and stormy night has passed [b] Don't you think so sir?[b] She says to Rufus.
For his part, George seems to step back and fade into the background, Although Winona can tell he is keeping an eye out. Watching Rufus and flying Eagle with a warry eye.
Winona wraps an arm around Flying Eagle's and says, "Why don't we go for an evening stroll? We can reconvene at the hotel later."
Flying Eagle whispers quietly right into Winona's ear "No! I know what I saw! Even if she's not the source, she's got to be involved. I will not leave Rufus alone with her. You're the diplomat, come up with some reason why we all need to leave right now!"
Like anything, beauty is everywhere one can look. However, a lot of people don't have the eyes to look to see it.
He pauses briefly
Can I have the honour of escorting you to dinner if you have not got any plans at the moment
Winona tugs Flying Eagle to one side so that they can converse quietly without arousing suspicion. Fortunately, since it looks like they are just giving Rufus a little space to work his mojo, that shouldn't draw any questions.
She whispers back, "You know theaters always have a back exit, right? For loading sets and for actors to leave without going through the crowds in front? Rufus can't go to all of this trouble to bring her flowers and then not try to win her attention, but we can slip around back and sneak back in and listen in on the conversation and keep an eye on them surreptitiously."
Whispering : "No, I did not know that. I'm an uncivilized savage, remember?" he says with a wry grin. But it sounds like they're about to go to dinner, so how can we listen in then?"
"Double date!" says Winona. "Or, for the uncivilized savage, two couples socialize together."
"I don't like this, but we can't just accuse these people of being in on a supernatural plot. Let's follow them to dinner and see if we can listen in."
Mademoiselle Montreiu smiles at Rufus, which is like beams from heaven to him. The most lovely thing he has ever witnessed. "it is late but this seems to be such a modern city, I am sure we could find a meal. She places her hand on Rufu's arm "I am sure you would have such interesting tails to share. I think dinner sounds lovely" She looks behind her and smiles at George and says "tell the others Mr.Rufus here is going to show me what Denver has to offer" to Rufus she says "Shall we?"
The Mademoiselle seems to ignore Flying eagle and Winnona, George seems to glance at them and stare as they whisper, but seems to mostly keep his eyes on the Mademoiselle.
Aloud to everyone : "Well, I guess it's time we left as well...what do you say, Winona?"
With a blush, Rufus turns towards the exit
Well, Miss Montreiul I am not completely familiar with the city, but I found a decent place with table cloths and everything just up the road.
He then leads her out the back door, and makes his way at a slower pace to allow her to keep up towards the restaurant that he noted when they first came into the city.
Once at the Restaurant he seats her, then takes a seat on the other side, and waits for the server.
During this time, he makes some small talk, just trying to get to know her better.
"So, Winona - how do you want to handle this? We just happen to show up at the same restaurant as Rufus? Do we get a table near them to hear what they're saying? That's going to be pretty obvious, right?"
Mademoiselle Montreiu chats with Rufus over dinner, making him feel blessed every time she smiles at him. She tells him about her travels in America. She and her Troup first arrived in New York, but for the last few months have been travelling father west. She regals him with tales such as a trip on a river boat, which she found to be both novel and enchanting mods of transport. With her every word Rufus seems to sink deeper into her eyes. "What about your Travels" She asks "Surly you must have seen much of this land driving cattle."
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Back at the theater Flying Eagle and Winona watch Rufus and the Mademoiselle disappear into the night. You see a few theater stragglers holding conversation. Behind you the theater looms with the staff seeming to be cleaning but an unease seems to still settle on flying eagle.
"Winona, you know what, let's hope that Montreiu doesn't enchant Rufus into her slave during dinner, and let's you and I investigate the theater some - I'm still getting a bad feeling from it..."
"Very well," says Winona. "I was thinking of suggesting a double date, but it would prove difficult... checking out the theater may be a bit simpler by comparison."
The great doors in front do not seemed to be locked, And there are several sets to allow the crowd to leave easier. At lest one side door you can see, likely for staff and three in the rear of the building, one with a few cast and stage hands smoking and talking around it. This gives you a few ways to enter and sneak around.
Mademoiselle Montreiu chats with Rufus over dinner, making him feel blessed every time she smiles at him. She tells him about her travels in America. She and her Troup first arrived in New York, but for the last few months have been travelling father west. She regals him with tales such as a trip on a river boat, which she found to be both novel and enchanting mods of transport. With her every word Rufus seems to sink deeper into her eyes. "What about your Travels" She asks "Surly you must have seen much of this land driving cattle."
Rufus goes on to describe the land, and how it feels both at night, and during the day.
He completely glosses over the hot dustiness of following the herd, but he does explain some of the risks that they have while they are driving the herd.
Mademoiselle Montreiu seems utterly enchanted with Rufus's tales. She reaches to touch his hand when he gets to the dangers "Oh my, this rivals any tale of the stage. How exciting your travels have been. How Brave and cunning you have been!" Her very words swelling Rufus heart.
Flying Eagle approaches the group of actors by the back door, and engages them by asking about what roles they've played, etc. He then asks if he and his companion could look around backstage, because neither of them have ever seen the inner workings of a theater.
While Flying Eagle tries to get back stage, the hands seem to misunderstand and think he wants to sneak into the ladies dressing room. The idea of a savage trying to peak into a good Christian white woman's dressing room is just to much outrage for the men. One of the hands pushes Flying Eagle back and he stumbles and lands on his rear. The stage hands seem to gather and are yelling about the perverse savage trying to sneak into a ladies room, which drawls a crowd.
Flying eagle can try to defuse the crowd of very offended white people or run. This however is a distraction Winona could use to easily slip inside as more of the workers come to see what's going on.
Seeing as his diplomacy failed the first time, now that everyone's riled up he figures it'd be even harder to calm them down, and so he gets up, protesting his innocence as he backs away, and as soon as he's out of reach of everyone, he turns and runs out of the alley.
Taken completely off guard, Rufus sinks further into her charms as she takes his hand.
He is so distracted by her attractiveness, that he doesn't even hear the shouting going on in the alley just down the block.
Flying Eagle runs down the ally with insults and he thinks that was a shoe following him. He has to run a few blocks, and ends with himself out of breath and very tired behind a closed business with an yowling cat who thinks he is violating its space.
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Almost feeling drunk Rufus and the Mademoiselle take a stroll though the streets. He really doesn't recall his surroundings but follows like a love sick puppy and when she suggests they retire to her room he is powerless to say no to such an offer.
As Flying Eagle is occupied with the white man's racism, Winona takes the chance to sneak into the ladies' room to see if she can garner a better idea of what kind of nefarious shenanigans are going on.
Winona Prowls the halls and back stage of the theater, almost being caught a few times and needing to duck behind seats, a prop and one time a dressing room in which she almost interrupted an amorous interlude. After sneaking away from that bit of business, she finds the cast in the backrooms. They seem to be carefully packing pottery of some type into hay filled crates. Each of the large vases are wrapped in blanket before being placed into an individual crate. The cast has the look of having done this task before and carry about mostly in silence with a workmen like efficiency. Every now and then conversation in French can be heard.
That night, flying eagle dreams of beasts chasing him, of terrible storms, of cities burning, of love ones long gone being torn apart, of things wearing their faces taunting him. He awakes, tried with a massive headache.
Rufus has similar dreams, of things stalking him or try and failing to protect someone, something that means everything. He awakes with a scream, covered in sweat and so very tired. But the room is not his room and there is a lovely form laying in the covers with him.
Winona wakes up with no recollection of any dreams she may or may not have had and well rested.
Tangled in the sheets, and with a cold sweat, Rufus takes a moment to gain his bearings as his left hand finds the handle of one of his pistols.
He looks around before his heart rate settles, and then places his pistol back on the nightstand.
Sorry about that, I was having a really nasty dream that I cannot cannot fully explain
He rolls out of bed, and paces around for a little bit before relaxing enough to crawl back into bed.
He places his arm around her, and settles in to some more disturbing dreams for the rest of the night.
Winona yawns and stretches as she wakes up. Then she realizes that she has no memory of getting back to her hotel room, and she has no idea how she wound up in bed. She sits bolt upright, glancing about to make sure that she's in her own room. Then she clutches the sheet and pulls it up, realizing that with no memory of how she got here, she may not be alone.
Rufus notices that Flying Eagle is asleep and didn't hear him, but is tossing and turning in the bed, like he is having nightmares too.
Rufus
Mademoiselle Montreiu snuggles next to Rufus "A man of action I see" before thinking of things to keep Rufus mind off his dreams. In the morning, a Very Tired Rufus makes his way from the room after she said she needed to get dressed and meet her troupe around noon and said he was "simply to much a distraction " with a seductive smirk.
Winona
Her last memories are from the theater, but no recall of how she got to her room. Her cloths and guns lay spread across the floor as if she shed them on her way to bed.
Flying Eagle
With a clearing of his head, Flying Eagle sees Rufus bed is untouched. Dreams must have cling to him like angry spirts.
The Last thin Flying Eagles Recalls is running though the ally. Maybe he has distorted dream like images of going back to the hotel, but they are just fragments of memories he isn't sure wasn't a dream.
Winona glances around the room. There's her dress... her stockings... her gun. Casually flung about like she was drunk or so tired that she just stripped everything off while climbing into bed. What happened? She can't recall... she puts one hand to her head and closes her eyes again, letting the sheets sag perilously. Is she still dreaming? It's hard to make out much memory of last night after sneaking around the theater.
Something about the hotel room doesn't quite seem right, though. The walls? The coloration, or the pattern, something is off...
This isn't her room.
She hisses with an intake of breath as she realizes that somehow she got into the wrong room, shed everything and climbed into the wrong bed. She drops the sheet and leans over in preparation to slide out of bed and grab her clothing, then freezes when she sees that there's someone else over in the other bed.
She is paused in this position when Flying Eagle opens his eyes, filled with hazy and indistinct memories, and glances over at what was supposed to be Rufus' bed.
Flying Eagle's blurry eyes pop wide open when he sees Winona, and in a state of undress. "Oh!" he exclaims, and rolls over to look at the wall. As he's turning, Winona can see that he's beginning to blush. What he doesn't know is that in the process of turning over in the tangled sheets, his posterior is left uncovered.
"Winona! What are you doing here, like that? Ummm...am I in your room, or are you in mine?"
Flying Eagle hears the quick scramble of Winona pulling the sheets close again, then she says in a slow, dry tone, "I think I'm in the wrong room. I don't remember how I got back here, though. After investigating the theater... it's all a blur."
"I don't know where Rufus is. Hopefully those dramaturges didn't do anything nefarious to him."
"We uh... do you know if we uh... did... anything last night?"
Still facing the wall, he says "Well, take a look around - do you see my and Rufus' bags, or your own? And, I was about to ask you the same thing about if anything happened, I have no memory after the crowd chased me.
I'll stay turned around, why don't you collect your clothes and get dressed first?"
"My clothes are all over the floor, but there's no sign of my luggage. I guess I stumbled into the wrong room last night," says Winona.
"Bad sign. I hope Rufus is all right. Just give me a moment."
She slides off the bed and retrieves her clothes to re-dress.
"All right, my turn to turn around."