Patrick

"The Army?” Marie Elise exclaims, bringing a hand to her décolletage, “Why would the Army see need to send you here?” Her piqued interest is genuine.

 

William starts to speak “Well Madame..my original assignment..”

“He was sent to quiet that incident that happened in Colfax.” Patrick states smugly.

“That’s correct.” As the heat rises up his neck, William tries to gain control of the conversation.

Damn Patrick, can you keep your mouth in a closed position for once?

 

Patrick undeterred, continues, “Yes, he was sent specifically to make sure the peace was secured. He was so successful, Madame as the sun rises, the Army sent him here to make sure the same thing did not happen to us. Those damn carpetbaggers. No offence William.”

 

“Really Pat, it wasn’t that impressive” William is seething, Why am I even here?

 

“Well, Captain Lyon, I hope you visit the Chambre often.” Marie Elise smiles wryly, but not before handing him her much coveted card. A man of that importance surely couldn’t be bad for business.

 

“ See,  I told you she would be impressed!” Pat said grinning like a ten year old lad with a prized bull frog.

 

William adjusts his hat and tips it at the butler before he closes the door, He turns back to Patrick “What do I need with a place like this?” exasperated he starts walking. His six foot frame creating a long stride and Patrick hurrying to keep up, starts shouting, “What do you mean a place like this? Good God man, of all men on this earth, you do!”

 

“Just what are you implying?”

 

“Will, you are almost twenty seven years of age, and the closest you’ve come to a wife is the Army.”

 

At this William throws his head back and lets out a howl “Oh that is rich my friend, and what do you have, that place?”

 

“You forget, I’ve been down that road, one I do not intend on visiting anytime soon.” Patrick had married a daughter of a Spanish landowner from the Republic of Texas, but alas after a rocky year of fighting and a lack of consummation, it ended. She was quickly dispatched to Texas on the Iron Horse, with her dowry and virginity intact. Patrick smiles for a moment, remembering the dark eyes, heavily lashed. Ah if only it had worked, he thinks.

 

Williams stops abruptly, mostly to get his bearings and to allow Patrick to catch up. Half glaring, half smirking he stares at his friend, bent over out of breath. He certainly was not the wiry pal of his youth. At the end of the War of the States, Patrick Harris and William G Lyon both enlisted to serve at West Point. One from the South, one from the North. One out of tradition and one out of necessity. It was a curious friendship, and not one without disapproval. Georgiana Harris, the matriarch of the Harris clan, was none to happy that her one and only child was fraternizing with the enemy, but after meeting the tall blonde Yank, who’s polite and quiet disarming charm, softened any misgivings she had towards him. She remained as doting to Williams as to Patrick until her death and swore that God had sent her another son.

 

 

 “Ow, it is not so bad there” he motions back to house “The ladies are as fine as the bourbon that Madame pours. Only the best you know. And besides, it’s where I conduct my best business acquisitions.”

 

Patrick left the academy, with a degree in harbor engineering, to join the family business of shipping, a business made lucrative after contracts were made with the Union in 1862. The year New Orleans had fallen. Kip Randal Harris knew that in order to save what fortune he had amassed before the war, he would have to make an alliance and make it fast. Some would later view his shrewdness as betrayal, but most found forgiveness when the money and jobs began to surface. Jobs created with the rebuilding of the harbor.

 

William surveys his friend, shakes his head. Oh Patrick, what have you become, he thinks to himself.

 

“Oh don’t give me that look.” scowls Patrick ‘ Besides, I saw you.”

 

“Saw what?”

 

“You noticed her, didn’t you?”

 

Sensing that he wasn’t going to get off easy, William quits evading.

“ Ok, I give who was she?”

“Whew” Patrick lets out a breath, “My friend, that is Christine.” slapping his hand on his shoulder and walking past him, heads towards the Harris mansion.

 

 

Reviews

[Jet Lag]

good job of sprinkling in dialogue with the fill-ins.

[Otter]

Still like it, waiting for more. Well writen and easy to follow.