The Silver Bullets of Annie Oakley by Mercedes Lackey

Author:Mercedes Lackey [Lackey, Mercedes]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Astra Publishing House
Published: 2022-01-11T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

The Colonel had made a calculation that no one would be interested in the show on New Year’s Eve when there was serious drinking to be done. New Year’s Day, however, was a different proposition, and he reckoned they could do both a day and an evening show.

And the day after that, everyone was exhausted from doing two shows in the cold. Annie had decided that doing two shows in succession was even harder in the middle of winter than it was in the middle of summer.

So it was a very good thing indeed that the Graf had suggested that they wait until the fifth of the month before making the move. He evidently sent someone to speak with their landlord on the third, because they came back from the Saturday show to find him waiting for them.

“I will be very sad that you are leaving us,” he told them, as he conducted them to a table himself. “But to be a guest of Von Hirschberg! It is a thing marvelous! And not to be saying nein to.”

He didn’t seem all that upset that they were leaving him, which was something of a relief to Annie, who had been torn between saving all the money they were paying in food and lodging and depriving a kind working man of that same money.

But Frida had a perfectly good explanation for why he was not upset that they had found other lodgings. “Oh,” she said casually, when Annie mentioned it the next day. “Theodor will have sent gratuity to the landlord, and probably bought enough barrels of beer from him to make the man’s temper sweet. So he is not as out of pocket by your leaving as you think. In fact, he may have made a tidy profit on the beer.”

“It is good beer,” Annie said tentatively.

“It’s very good beer! And the Graf goes through a lot of beer. No one is coming off the worse here.” Frida patted her head like a child. “Don’t worry about it. Everything will be fine.”

And so it was. In fact, it was all handled so smoothly it seemed to be a different sort of magic. They walked to the show rehearsal as usual in the morning, leaving everything packed up but still in the room, and when the rehearsal was over, Frida and Jack joined them in riding to the Graf’s mansion rather than staying for supper. There were two grooms waiting right at the front door to take their horses. Aside from the fact that the street was very quiet, the mansion looked as it had on Christmas Eve. But once they stepped inside the front door, what a change from the night of the Christmas party!

The decorations had all been taken down, and some hall furnishings that must have been taken away that night were back. These were mostly tables with very large and ornate vases on them; Annie thought they looked fragile, and it had probably been a good idea to get them out of the way for the party.

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