Choke, Peep, and Pinch went back into the church kitchen to find Brother Barrelmender slumped in his chair at the table. His writing kit was in disarray in the middle of the table, with a half-full bottle of ink spilled onto a fresh sheet of paper inside it. A horrible waste.
In front of Barrelmender was a small potato wine jug, uncorked.
“Well, fuck. That’s just great,” Peep said.
Barrelmender’s head snapped upright.
“Don’t you dare lecture me. Any of you. After the week I’ve had,” he said. While his eyes were fairly unfocused, he did not slur too badly.
“No. Fine. It’s fine, Brother,” Peep said, moving around the table to pick up the jug to see how full it was. “Just remember that ye have to burn that bitch downstairs first thing in the morning. Dawn, ye told her. That sneaks up on ye when yar into this shit.”
Peep flicked the jug as she set it back down in front of him.
“Thank you for your concern, Otilla. But I can hold my liquor, thank you very much.”
“Yeah, we saw how well ye were doing with it before. Whatever. It’s yar show.”
Barrelmender glared at Peep but chose to let the dig pass. He groaned and shoved himself upright with the table. Swaying just a little, he grabbed his jug.
“I am going to go to the outhouse. Unless you have anything terribly urgent to discuss, I will thank you to be gone from here when I return. You may come to rouse me just before dawn. Good work today. Now, shove off.”
Barrelmender lurched to the back door and let himself out.
“Do yarself a yarself a favor and drink some water when yar out there!” Peep called after him. Then she heaved a heavy sigh as she looked to Pinch and Choke. “Fuck me. Last thing he knew from us, we was heading out to ambush Sneed. He couldn’t give a shit.”
Choke nodded and set Thad’s gift box down on the table. He began carefully cleaning up Barrelmender’s writing kit.
“He spills his ink, but managed to get that hootch into him without losing a drop,” Pinch snorted.
“It’s like one of the little kids at the orphanage!” Choke exploded. “Spilling their ink and soiling themselves because they don’t want to do their lessons. Thinking that if they do a bad enough job of it and make enough trouble, they won’t have to do it anymore!”
“Yeah, and they were right,” Pinch said. “Ye remember Knuckle? He can’t write and he can barely read. They had him mucking out the stable and moving rocks around within a couple of weeks of us starting our lessons.”
“Well, the Brothers knew what they were about there. But Barrelmender is no child. He is meant to be a Brother himself!”
“Yeah, I think that’s what bugging him. It isn’t that this week was so tough on him with everything he’s had to do. It’s that he did it, and did a good job of it. He’s been a proper Brother again. And that’s freaked him out, because he’d rather just be a drunken failure,” said Pinch.
Peep snorted. “Ye guys are thinking too much. He’s a fuckin drunk. Drunks get drunk. That’s it.”
Peep and Pinch watched Choke finish cleaning up the writing kit.
“At least he didn’t soil our report,” Choke muttered as he packed everything away.
“About that: are we gonna send a rider to catch up to the caravan?” Pinch asked.
“Fuck no,” Peep said. “Who ye gonna send that we can trust and, at the same time, we don’t mind Sneed clipping? Just for the sake of getting those three little sluts back to their daddy safe and sound?”
Pinch smiled to himself. Peep caught exactly what was on his mind.
“Yeah, all ye guys are gonna have real fun with that, I know.”
“Peep. Please stop cursing in the church. Please!” Choke exclaimed.
“What? I didn’t.”
“Yes, you did!”
“What? Here? This is the kitchen. The church is over there, aint it? Who doesn’t swear in a kitchen? And besides, Barrelmender yelled at me to shut the fuck up just this morning. Right here,” Peep pointed at his chair.
“Enough! Just don’t, please.”
With the writing case packed up, Choke was now glaring at Thad’s heretical box on the table.
“We can’t leave this here,” he said. “I’m just going to burn it now. And Barrelmender should have some stugroot ready. Just in case he wants to come to his senses.”
“Great. Drunk and stugged up. Always a fun mix,” Peep said.
Choke ignored her and opened up the stove. He grabbed a piece of wood to mix up the remaining coals inside and shoved the ink-spoiled sheets of paper inside. He quickly followed with a layer of smaller kindling and thinner split logs. There was just enough room on top of those for the box, which he jammed in roughly before slamming the stove door shut.
“Can you clean up the pot and fill a jug with water, Pinch?” Choke asked as he started prepping another pot of stugroot. “And you may as well check on him out there, just to be safe.”
Pinch nodded and went out the back with the stugroot pot and an empty jug.
“Speaking of them sluts, we’d better move them into the cottage there right away. Then we’re gonna need a guard on them that aint gonna fu— uhh… that aint gonna hop right on them. So I guess Mariola’s gonna need to be minding them, for the most part.”
Choke sighed deeply but nodded his assent.
Peep got the whetstone from the bench and sat down with it at the table to sharpen Lisbet’s dagger. She and Choke worked silently at their respective tasks until Pinch returned.
“He’s singing in the outhouse,” Pinch reported.
“That’s good. Means we got a minute here,” Peep said.
Choke dumped the finely chopped, dried stugroot into the pot and filled it up with water. He set the pot on the now roaring stove and sat down at the table with Peep and Pinch.
“What are we going to do?” he asked.
“Well, Bob didn’t show,” Peep said. “We got Gabe coming any minute, I hope. We’ll get him to bring Babs and Ballan around. See if they can’t keep their ear to the ground for us a little better. Then, I think we gotta work them hoors.”
Choke and Pinch both looked at her with confusion.
“What do you mean, work the hoors?” Pinch asked.
Peep answered as she continued to work the dagger’s blade over the stone in a smooth and easy rhythm:
“Shane’s right. Mya’s a trifling dipshit that’ll stay wherever she’s put. But Annica? That bitch is salty. And she thinks she’s smart. And like all idiots that think they’re smart, she’s gonna fu— I mean, mess herself up trying to act on how smart she thinks she is. That little show of hers out in the square just now? She thinks she’s up to something. That bitch thinks she has something over us. And because she’s an idiot, she tipped her hand showing us that. This is more than just her planning to help Sneed. I reckon she thinks she has him in her pocket,”
Peep straightened up and checked the dagger’s edges with her thumb. She nodded in satisfaction and put it away.
Both Pinch and Choke thought over what Peep had said. Pinch was the first to speak:
“So, okay, Annica is up to something with Sneed. We figured that already, didn’t we? So, what are ye getting at?”
“I’m just thinking on it. Back when we took down Tully’s was the last time Sneed was here, right? So, let’s say I’m Sneed. Me and my boys have just killed Dixon and shot Choke at the Crotch. The rest of us get the hell outta town to Spitzer. Barrelmender’s at the church, but I’ve got free run of this whole place, otherwise. Tully’s is burning. First thing I’m gonna do is round up them hoors and find out exactly what happened there. Right?”
“Yes, that makes sense,” Pinch said.
“And remember what I said: Sneed was real comfortable at Tully’s. He knows them girls. And Shane just told us that Annica hates us for killing her man Tully. So Sneed obviously woulda asked her to keep her ears open on us. He’d a pumped her up as being real important to him. Get her focused. So, as soon as he can, he’s gonna have a word with them. Then, maybe, he’ll try to use them to bait and clip you or Knuckle. But, for sure, he’s gonna wanna have a good long talk with Annica, at least,” Peep said, with a predatory gleam in her eye.
“Yes, that’s what we were figuring. Shane’s at Big Rock now because of it. But who’s to say Sneed hasn’t seen her already?”
“Maybe,” Peep shrugged. “But probably not. If Thad was telling the truth, and I believe he was, Sneed showed up yesterday and spent the day in Bristlenook spreading money around on us. We heard the same thing from the teamsters, too.”
“Right. And that was yesterday. Thad didn’t show up here until mid-morning today. So, probably, whatever Sneed had planned to do today is what he’s been doing. If getting information is his priority, then talking to Annica would be important, wouldn’t it?” Pinch said.
“True enough. But, again, if I’m Sneed, I’m probably gonna wanna have a pretty long talk with her. So I aint gonna wanna do that at her new place, right here on our stoop. He’s gonna wanna pull her outta there where he can take his time and have full control over her. And besides which, he aint gonna know right off where she’s at now. That won’t be hard for him to find out, but it’ll take a minute. And Annica and Mya were up here with everyone else, gandering at Thad. If Sneed did pull her aside for a word this morning, maybe he got her back in time for her to get up here when she did, but I doubt it. Plus, ye think Sneed’s three boys are gonna come back from a long stretch in the bush, pull a hoor or two outta town, and then only talk with them? That don’t make sense to me. They’re gonna wanna partake,” Peep said.
Pinch nodded thoughtfully. Peep continued:
“Anyways, even if Sneed talked to her already, that don’t mean he aint gonna wanna do it again before too long. We gotta figure out a way to keep an eye on them two hoors in a way that doesn’t tip them off. Try to figure out a pattern there. Maybe track them to wherever Sneed takes them. Or set up on Big Rock to hit whoever is going with them. That’s what I mean by working them.”
“So, basically, they are bait,” Pinch said.
“Right. We leave them be. We want Annica thinking she’s got us bamboozled.”
“Speaking of patterns,” Choke interjected, “have you and Knuckle been visiting them with regularity?”
“That’s a good point,” Peep said.
“Yeah, but, not really,” Pinch responded. “Knuckle and Osgar a couple of times. But now Knuckle’s been waylaid by Shasta. And I haven’t been going to them.”
“Good. So, do we forbid the men from going to them?” Choke asked.
Peep shook her head.
“No. That would tip them off. But, the guys only went this last Sunday afternoon after they got paid, right? I guess some of them could go on the free day they get after night duty, but we haven’t been letting them leave the barracks. So, if we stick with that, the girls might tell Sneed to expect some of our boys next Sunday. That would be a good time to be set up at Big Rock.”
“So, use our own men as bait as well,” Choke said darkly.
Peep nodded.
Pinch leaned in to interject:
“I’ve heard some of the guys talking about wanting to go and see the girls after their night watch. On account of skipping Sunday because they didn’t want to do the whole… ye know.”
“No. I don’t know. Not wanting to do what?” Peep asked.
Choke was looking at Pinch questioningly as well, until he figured out and flinched into a scowl.
“Ye know, they don’t want to do the sloppy seconds thing,” Pinch said, embarrassed.
“Oh, is that all? From everything I seen, I figured ye guys were into it. Mostly,” Peep said, giving a nod of exclusion Choke’s way.
“I don’t know! How am I supposed to know what these animals are into? Not me, anyways,” Pinch exclaimed. “It doesn’t matter why, they’ll just get mad if we don’t let them leave, is all I’m trying to say,” Pinch said.
“Well, too bad. They can suck each other off if they’re that particular,” Peep said.
Choke’s scowl deepened as Pinch cracked a grin.
“What? Suck aint a swear word, is it?” Peep smirked.
“Could we move off from this topic, please?” Choke said wearily.
“Sure,” Peep said. “So, here’s a cheery thought. We know Dugnut’s probably heading this way, right? Sneed’s plan’s gotta be to rile us up with him and then bring him around here to use as bait. So we probably got just a few days, at most, before Dugnut and his crew is in the mix here.”
“Yes. Great,” Choke said.
“So, if Sneed’s move wasn’t talking to the girls today, what was it?” Pinch asked.
“Okay. Sneed’s thing is definitely sending a swarm of dipshits at us first,” Peep said. “That’s how he operated before, and that’s what Dugnut’s gotta be about. So if he aint here to come at us direct, obviously he’s gonna be setting up his eyes and ears. He’ll wanna know everything about what we get up to. So, if it aint the hoors, who would he be looking to get after today?”
“Damn it!” Choke slammed his hand on the table. “This is a conversation we should have been having weeks ago!”
“Settle down, man. Another Barrelmender we don’t need,” Peep said. “We’ve been full up with getting the men and the palisade sorted out. Which is all shit we had to do. We’re talking about Sneed now, when we need to. Or, instead, d’ye wanna get into something ye think might be important a month from now? Maybe we should plan for how we’re gonna handle the goblins.”
Choke waved Peep off with a scowl.
“Bob,” said Pinch.
“Yeah? What about him? He didn’t show— oh… shit,” Peep said, as she put it together, too.
“Bob,” Pinch repeated as Choke sighed and buried his face in his hands. “If I’m Sneed, day one I talk to the Bristlenook folk to get a feel for everything around here and settle down my home base. Day two, I’m going to talk to the teamster boss I have in my pocket. For sure.”
Peep nodded. “Yeah. For sure. So we got Gabe coming, and we’re gonna pull Babs and Balan in. So, let’s have them reach out to Bob to have another quiet sitdown. Find out how Sneed gets in touch with him. That’s probably a solid angle. Of course, that’s assuming Sneed don’t smell a rat and clean house.”
“You see?” Choke exploded. “We should have been on top of this already!”
“Hey!” Peep yelled back. “Don’t ye bark at me! I aint the one that’s been spending all my free time balls deep in Mariola!”
“I know! It’s not you I’m angry with, Peep!” Choke slammed his hand on the table again.
It was quiet for a while as all three of them sat with their thoughts. They startled as the back door was yanked open and Barrelmender burst into the kitchen with his potato wine jug.
“I don’t suppose it has occurred to any of you to respond to those alarm bells, has it?” he asked.
Muse Vassal 