Jacob Lutz

Other Characters by this Player

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1. 

   A New Broom Sweeps Clean or The Littered House on the Prairie

   August 15

   She could not resist one interruption, "Well as far as Hector calling the man an ignoramus, it takes one to know one."
    
   Jacob laughed. The way Clara delivered these pithy comments with her dry serious frown was hilarious. "Aaah, he's not as stupid as he looks." he ruminated, surprised to hear himself say it. 
    
   "Any how, there was a girl called Possum Fat, dunno if she was the Chief's daughter or wife."
    
   "Terrible name," was all Clara would say (for the moment).
    
   Jacob shrugged. "Better than 'Fat Possum'" he ruminated.
    
   "I mean, that part of Heck's story is true: she was very pretty and, erm, what's the word?... vivacious! Yeah, vivacious, that's it. And she did seem to take a shine to me. Father Ignatius tried to translate what she was saying to me, but I don't think the poor old feller quite had the vocabulary!"
    
   Clara glared, she was angry....not jealous, no, not at all. Just angry.
    
   "Vivacious huh? And suddenly she was all set on the likes of you? A white boy...a stranger," she still wasn't swallowing all this.
    
   Jacob gave a frown of deep thought. "Yeah... seemed that way."  
    
   "Well..............go on," Clara had to hear it all out, like it or not.
    
   "Well, it was just wonderful, Clara. I looked at her, so pretty and... and vivacious and there was I miles away from you and... well..." he actually started to tear up a little "... I just though of how much I was missing you and how I couldn't wait to get back here and hold you again." He looked up at her, his eyes shining. "And I'm just so happy, I'm just so happy because, well, men are men, you know: they..., they usually have a conscience until they're faced with temptation, but I wasn't tempted at all. I just... I just want you. Forever."
    
   He stood and approached her. 
    
   "Clara. I'm sorry, I was teased you a little before and, well, I know that's not... well, teasing's the sort of fun that's a little off of your range, and I'm going to try and stop doing it. But please believe me, you are just everything to me. So beautiful and wonderful and... I love you, and I will always love you and, well, Western Union want me to ride express for them and it's a little dangerous but the money's good but, if you don't want me to do it, I'll turn it down. No question."
    
   @Wayfarer
   
2. 

   A New Broom Sweeps Clean or The Littered House on the Prairie

   August 14

   Lutz was learning a lot about Clara: for one, she clearly didn't believe in 'love at first' sight. Nor had he, until the day he saw her. She was also getting het up about Hector's Arabian Nights angle on their visit to Lake Koocanusa.
    
   "Oh my god! You are not going to go with that fantastic story again? There is no way I believe that you rode up to these hostile savages, offered to take them all on and then had some....princess ....rush up and want to marry you. I have done some reading on those people and that is not how Indians act," she snapped. Just when she was almost to the point of believing him, he had to go back to this fairy tale?
    
   He laughed despite himself, although part of him was intrigued; Indian-hating Clara reading books about them? He'd never seen a book about the subject himself. 
    
   "Nah, Heck was just trying to make it sound more interesting than it was. We checked the lines and then took some presents to a bunch of Bitterroot Salish up by the Lake out there. Boy, you should see it Clara, it's like looking out onto the Sea of Galilee, or at least how I'd imagine the Sea of Galilee'd look! One of the Elders had died, and we wanted to make sure the rest of them were still well disposed toward the company. Catholic priest there did the translating. Father..." what was his name again? "...Father Ignatius. 'Father Ignoramus' Heck calls him. To be honest, most of the bribes and presents were for him." 
    
   As he relayed all this, he started to kick his boots off. He was dog tired. 
    
   "Pretty friendly bunch, considering what the Government's done to them. Some of the younger fellers wanted to wrassle and try our guns, and we tried theirs." he gave a low whistle of appreciation at the shooting irons the hunters of the tribe had possessed. "They've all got the new needle guns, make our old things look like blunderbusses. Any how, there was a girl called Possum Fat, dunno if she was the Chief's daughter or wife."
    
   He couldn't help tease Clara a little bit - like the idiot who can't resist skating to the middle of the pond where the ice is thinnest. "I mean, that part of Heck's story is true: she was very pretty and, erm, what's the word?... vivacious! Yeah, vivacious, that's it. And she did seem to take a shine to me. Father Ignatius tried to translate what she was saying to me, but I don't think the poor old feller quite had the vocabulary!"
    
   @Wayfarer
    
   
3. 

   A New Broom Sweeps Clean or The Littered House on the Prairie

   August 14

   "What? You approached me to dance when you had already were going to marry another gi- well, her?"  Clara definitely felt uncomfortable about that. Not that it was her fault in any of this, she had no idea until just now. Had she known that back then, she would have declined his bold offer.
    
   "Oh no, I went to her the first time I ever saw you, through the diner window, dishing up a slice of pie. I told her I'd just seen the girl I wanted to marry, but if she wanted to hold me my promise of years before, I'd stand by it." he thought back to that wonderful day when he had first seen his wife. He remembered the relief he had felt at the reply that Jemima had given him. 
    
   "She said she was glad that 'the soul I had been waiting for had finally come along'." he frowned a little pondering the odd phraseology the odd girl had used.
    
   He told her the whole sorry tale of the beginning of his strange courtship of the misfit girl, two years older than himself.
    
   "Oh Jacob....how could you?" she sighed, "You deserved that black eye too."
    
   "Yep." agreed her teen age husband "But at the time, I felt like I deserved a whole lot more punishment than that. I took a long hard look at myself, and I didn't like what I saw."
    
   "I am sorry about your mother but she did not die because of your cruelty, I simply refuse to believe God works like that," Clara declared. Although she always felt guilty for her own mother's death, blaming it on herself.
    
   "I know, I know" Jacob sighed wistfully "But you know how it is: a body doesn't think straight at a time like that." He knew Clara had been through something similar at the same age as he himself had.
    
   " I did everything I could think of to make it up to the poor girl, took her flowers, took her walking, wrote her poems, asked her to marry me, the whole shootin' match" detailed Jacob.
    
   They talked a little of it, but then Clara hit him with a question that, though not unnatural in the circumstances, he had just never even considered.
    
   "Jacob, did you bed her?"
    
   By the look of horror on his face at this suggestion, she might as have asked him if he'd slept with his sister!
    
   "And do not be offended that I am asking such a question. Afterall you deflowered me the first time you came out to see me at the farm."
    
   'Deflowered'?! Jacob winced, it made him sound like a stage villain. 
    
   "Not that I am blaming you for that, I wanted it as badly as you did. It was equally my sin. And remember, we are telling the truth here and now. As we had agreed to when he talked about marrying.
    
   "No, no... it was nothing like that with Jemima... she... all I ever did was put my head in her lap sometimes. She was nice to me: she looked after me, got me through it. After a while, I... drifted away. Walked out with other girls. But when I saw you that first time, I knew I had to finish things with her... officially, like. That's the truth."
    
   "Though I do not believe you told me the truth about this excursion you went on. I believe you withheld things about it from me and that is tantamount to lying," Clara spoke calmly enough.
    
   "Ahhh, you don't wanna listen to Hector, he's full of... well, I guess what he said was sort of true, but he made it sound a whole lot more hair-raising than it really was! I swear, I was in absolutely no danger from Possum Fat at any time!" he assured her.
    
   
4. 

   A New Broom Sweeps Clean or The Littered House on the Prairie

   August 12

   "Good heavens? Really? Wait...and she turned you down?" Clara found that even more surprising given Jemima admitted she was so desperate to find a man, boy...somebody male.
    
   "Oh no, she accepted!" he said simply . "But she... she let me off when I met you."
    
   "May I inquire how old were you when you did this? I mean you are not 17 yet and I am the second person you already asked to marry?"
    
   He was already seventeen. In fact he would be eighteen in September, but this was going a lot better than he had feared, so he didn't risk annoying Clara by correcting her on this minor matter.
    
   "Guess I'd have been around fourteen" he said, doing a quick calculation in his head "I promised I'd marry her soon as I was sixteen. I was kinda, a little crazy at the time. I..." Oh Lord, how much of this sorry tale did she need to hear? 
    
   "I'd been mean to her. Jemima used to get bullied something awful by the other kids at school: Hector, Amnesia, all those other bigger kids. One time they tricked her, said they were all going swimming at the water hole ... our lake. Once she was undressed they made fun of her and threw stones at her..." he gulped and looked down at the floor, ashamed. "I joined in. Wanned to impress the older kids, be like them." he peered at the floor, hating his former self, not able to look at Clara, imagining that she had never been a horrible little child.
    
   "Well, a friend of mine, Quince Quarternight came along and saw me doing that and, well, God bless him, he not only rescued Jemima, he gave me a black eye." Jacob nodded in approval at the remembered punch.
    
   "I went home that evening feeling pretty well chastened and ashamed of myself. When I got back, they told me my Mother had died that afternoon. I... well, after that I went a little crazy, like I say. I got it into my head that it was punishment for being mean to Jemima, I did everything I could think of to make it up to the poor girl, took her flowers, took her walking, wrote her poems, asked her to marry me, the whole shootin' match"
    
   He sat for a second and then looked up finally at Clara.
    
   "Pretty dumb, huh?"
    
   @Wayfarer
    
    
   
5. 

   A New Broom Sweeps Clean or The Littered House on the Prairie

   August 11

   "Oh yes, Ara came with Jemima and also some new friend of hers. Some dark haired girl named Miriam. She seemed .....nice enough..." Clara answered though paused.
    
   Jacob nodded, none too concerned about Arabella's ever-growing social circle, but just glad Clara had enjoyed some company and that the hefty and loyal Wigfall girl had been there to bolster his wife's defences if Indians or any other undesirables, had struck. From what he's seen of the country west of here, though, there wasn't too much to fear from Indian attack.
    
   "They all worked very hard to help me fix the place up.  Probably rather unnecessary too, as I told them, since we will not be staying here long. But...look at the floor and the fireplace, see how much better it looks," Clara broke the embrace so he could look around more easily.
    
   He looked around, it was true: the place looked completely transformed. If they had a mind to, they could do this place up completely in the future if necessary and actually live there: or have it as a place to stay when they needed to visit the farm or even... the mercurial star in Jacob's horoscope throbbed in the back of his mind... kick Lee and Granny out here while he and Clara and the kids took over the main house. He quickly put that idea into the back of his mind: but it would now be there as a future option.
    
   "Jemima even stayed the night while Ara and her........friend went back to town. It was all very kind of them. I will owe them."
    
   Jacob nodded, but a slight frown creased his brown, and not just because of the curious way Clara kept saying 'friend' when refering to this Miriam person. No, it was something else. He didn't know if what he was about to say would cause a shrug or a divorce, but he decided to say it now anyway.
    
   "You and Jemima got along together all right, then? I mean... listen, Clara, there something I think I should tell you. It's not really important but, well, it just might sound a little funny if someone should mention it to you one time and you didn't already know about it..." he slouched a little, trying to look nonchalant. "It's just, er, well, me and Jemima... well, we kinda sorta used to be engaged, I mean, I asked her to marry me one time."
    
   He realised that his face was suddenly very hot and probably looked very red indeed, despite his attempts to look casual.
    
   @Wayfarer 
   
6. 

   A New Broom Sweeps Clean or The Littered House on the Prairie

   August 10

   Clara let him hug her then, she could only respond for the moment with one arm but she buried her face into his chest.
    
   Jacob took Clara in his arms and sank into her warmth, kissed the top of her head and smelt her hair. Nothing else mattered, she was perfect: this was perfect, he could have stood like this forever. But she was sad all of a sudden instead of angry.
    
   "Oh Jacob, I was so worried for you," she declared with a sniff, she had been determined not to get emotional but now that all fell aside as she began to sob into his shirt.
    
   "Hey..." he cooed comfortingly "... didn't you just hear Wigfall tell you what a big brave hero you married?" he said ironically. "It was fine, it was you I was worried about: I asked Arabella to get Jemima to come out and stay with you, didn't she come?"
    
   He half wondered if Jemima had come, but been sent away: he knew Clara didn't like such things to be foisted upon her unexpectedly.
    
   @Wayfarer
   
7. 

   A New Broom Sweeps Clean or The Littered House on the Prairie

   August 9

   "And not just the chief but this squaw spoke English? Because I know for a fact Jacob does not speak Indian," Clara only took time to point out one little flaw in a tale swollen with them. 
    
   "Are you sure about that?" asked Hector, his eyes twinkling with mischief.
    
   "Do you think I am a little child to believe that fairy tale? Get out of my house, Hector, leave right now - I am warning you!" even as Clara glared at the brazen story teller she backed up closer to the table and her father's Dragoon Colt then grabbed it.
    
   "Whoa whoa whoa!!!" yelled Hector shaking his hands and backing out the door "I'm going, I'm going! Hey, Jake, come by the office as soon as you can! I'm going to tell Pa how great you were, you'll be able to take you pick of the special delivery jobs! Deawagawik!!"
    
   "Deawagawik, Diiawachisshik!" echoed Jake, grinning at Hector's unceremonious retreat from his wife. Boy she looked beautiful when she was on the war path. 
    
   With the door slammed behind the Wigfall boy, Jacob threw down the apple core and approached Clara, arms wide.
    
   "Thank goodness he's gone, huh? I can't wait to hold you!" he said, hoping she had exhausted her anger (about something! Who knew what?!) on poor old Hector.
   
8. 

   A New Broom Sweeps Clean or The Littered House on the Prairie

   August 8

   Setting the gun down on the table once more she then crossed her arms like many do when they are angry and glared at the door.
    
   "Clara?!"
    
   Jacob pushed the door open gingerly and popped his head around. The one thing that he really hadn't expected was to find Clara in a towering rage when he got home, as he hadn't even been there to annoy her!
    
   "What? You can gallivant all about Indian territory in the middle of the biggest uprising in years but you cannot open a simple door? I am not going to shoot you - I make no promises about Hector though."
    
   "Wha...?" he came inside and started to raise his arms to hug her, as he'd been looking forward to doing for the last two days, but hitting the frosty glare and forcefield emitted by the folded arms, sort of faltered back.
    
   "What's wrong?" he asked puzzled and concerned for, like most men, when his wife turned frosty for no reason, there was a battery of sins somewhere out there that she might have found out about to haunt him! 
    
   Then Hector either saved the day or made things worse by sticking his head around the door with a jolly shout of "Someone mention my name? Oh, howdy Clara, ain'tcha glad to see old Lutzy then?!" Even his socially inept brain couldn't fail to recognise the less than ecstatic reception the poor feller was receiving. 
    
    
   @Wayfarer
    
   
9. 

   A New Broom Sweeps Clean or The Littered House on the Prairie

   August 6

   From without the cottage came an Indian war whoop: a woo-woo-woo! But then Jacob's unmistakable voice could be heard shouting "Shut up, Heck! That's not funny!" "Oh, she can take a joke!" "You won't be laughing when she blows your brains out, like you've got any!" 
    
   They were climbing off their horses and Hector tied them both up while Jacob bounded to the door of the shack and felt himself veering to the right and tapping it from the side, in case she really did shoot him with her Pa's enormous Colt Dragoon through the door.
    
   "It's all right, it's just me! Jacob!" he yelled. "I'm back!" he added, rather needlessly. 
    
   "Clara?!" he asked, a note of panic in his voice when she didn't answer immediately, feeling a taste of what she had perhaps been going through the last few days.  
    
   @Wayfarer
   
10. 

    Married, Yes.... So Now What?

    July 4

    "If your friend," Clara didn't much care for Jacob's friend Hector, so did not say his name, "is so good at climbing and knows everything why doesn't he take the job?'
     
    "They can't spare him at the office, hes... [yawn]... best operator."
     
    "Oh yeah, they inspect 'em on a regular basis, it's just that the time's come round again. Every couple of months... or... [yawn]... years or something..."
     
    "Gosh...all the yawning. Did I wear you out that much tonight?" she actually managed a devilish grin without too much effort, this was hardly the Clara of even a few months ago.
     
    "Hmmm, I can never get tired of you... us... just the whole day's been... so... we'll never forget today. Still, gotta think of tomorrow. This'll be good money, get saving for the baby..." It wasn't hard to pretend to be tired because now he'd started, he realised just how exhausted her really was. They had spent most of last night getting Granny's wedding ring off her finger, there'd been little time for sleep.
     
    "Very well, we can certainly use the money," she conceded because marriage was a partnership and they had to work together.
     
    It was hard to tell if the noise that Jacob made was a snore or just a vaguely positive grunt.
     
    "But promise me you will be careful. I do not know what sort of a climber you are," she was going to worry no matter what.
     
    As he started to drift away into dreamland, Jacob was pleased that Clara had jumped to the conclusion that the biggest danger in this job was going to be falling off the top of a telegraph poles, rather than the main task of negotiating with the surrounding tribes not to molest the strange sacred trees that lined the prairie.
     
    @Wayfarer