Missy squealed in delight as Victoria spoke, cupping her hands over her mouth attempting to maintain the privacy she’d orchestrated. Rocking in her seat, booted feet kicking in amusement, she’d turn an entirely nonreciprocal level of enthusiasm at her hostess. “I knew it! Had me fooled for a minute there. But I knew.” Squinting at the glasses between them -one empty, one full- she cornered her lips as she thought. She’d never been able to stand the taste, herself. Nor the blurry, loss of control that came with it. She’d be a fool to take even a sip if she intended to keep the pace.<br/><br/>“But they do, don’t they?” She pressed herself against the table, leaning close, “<i>listen?</i>They hang on your every word. Where’d they go when they had no place else to turn? Who’s been keeping ‘em sane?” Placated seemed a more accurate term, but she didn’t say that. “It wasn’t that tubby fella I gave the…” she reached for a term that she’d thought heard used, “what fer. No. No, no, no.” She slashed her hand through the air. “Cuz!, he’s just as useless as the lot of ‘em. Standing around, waitin’ for the solution to come up to them.” She sneered at the thought of the Mr. Jacobs who’d come groveling to her. He’d found her, covered in more than a fair amount of blood but luckily in high spirits for the bones she’d broken only shortly before. Last she’d saw, he’d been shuffling back up the hill on a fool’s errand she’d created to be rid of his presence.<br/><br/>“D’ja hear? They got us voting up in Wyomin’.” Smiling lazily, spinning the still full glass of whiskey between her fingers. “Women, if you can believe it. With our<i>delicate sensibilities</i>and<i>weak constitution</i>.” She snorted, rather unamused with her own sarcasm. “It’s a miracle we ever made it this far without a faintin’ couch nearby.” She pushed the glass away from her with a single finger, sliding too with it more of her intention. “<i>We’ll remain out of the Union a hundred years rather than come in without our women.</i>”<br/><br/>Missy was no longer smiling. Not even residually as she burned into Victoria with an intense, blue stare. “I wonder what …<i>Dusky Belle</i>gave him the gumption to say all them pretty words.” A tiny, noncommittal shrug followed. “Which<b><i>is</i></b>my business, Miss Freeman.” The shift back into her false accent came seamlessly. “I am a solution. To many problems, the list of which I am still adding to. Vigorously. An investor, of sorts, if you prefer.” She turned her eyes to the open door of the saloon and to the dry, lifeless dirt beyond. “Not of businesses or concepts or anything so pedestrian. But of ability.”<br/><br/>Maybe Miss Victoria had been stared at with an intensity that rivaled the blonde’s then. Some time, not long ago even, when a man had set his attention on her so furiously that the line between animal and man was gone.<br/><br/>“This land is worthless, Miss Freeman,” she announced as though it were beyond debate. “Utterly worthless. Nothing will ever grow here, and the only beings suited to living in such miserable, inescapable heat are rodents and reptiles. And when that mine dies -and it will, I assure you, Miss Freeman- this town will consume itself. Until there is nothing left but scrap.” She was breathing a touch heavier than she had been only moments before, blinking in firm, punctuated strokes between the spaces of her sentences. “And who will they come to then? With pitchforks in hand and murderous envy in their eyes?”<br/><br/>Missy inhaled, collected herself and reigned in long enough to make the shift in her pitch less jarring. “The ...<i>colored</i>girl who’s been gathering money like they do flies?” Puffing away a strand of flaxen hair, she widened her eyes in theatric horror. "This is<i>your</i>world, Miss<i>Free man</i>.<i>Our</i>world." Suddenly, with a quickness that rivaled the feline intensity of her stare, she reached out to clutch at Victoria's forearm. "Build it. With blood and bone if you must." She was whispering, hissing nearly. Just as casually, she released and waved at the idea; a passing fancy perhaps.<br/><br/>"For now, the whiskey is yours. All I have. I imagine you'll turn a better profit than I ever will." She paused, attention caught on Taggert's tail as it swished from outside. "In return, I'd like nothing more than to ...rent your establishment. For the evening.<i>For</i>the town -whatever is left of them anyhow."