Cold Steel and Hot Lead [How the West Was Done 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) by Karen Mercury Read Free Book Online Page B

Portuguese explorer who had gone to India. Alameda found some whiskey in the sideboard, which she served the men. She took some herself, but Montreal Jed could only tolerate sarsaparilla. They had fetched him from his hiding spot in Rudy’s hotel room, and he draped himself weakly in a wing chair, his gaudy vest askew on his skeletal frame.
    Rudy said, “I’m glad we don’t have to venture to New Mexico Territory to figure out what Albuquerque meant.”
    Derrick shared a conspiratorial look with him. “Percy said we would find out more in Albuquerque. What do you think he meant?”
    Alameda exhaled. “Now, who is this Percy fellow you keep mentioning? He told you to venture to Albuquerque to find out more about Kittie? Then he must know me or my sister, but I’ve never heard of any Percy here in town.”
    Rudy had been figuring out how to explain the Phenomenal Percy to her. He hadn’t come up with anything satisfactory, so now he said, “He’s a sort of spirit guide, a mentor you might say. So he didn’t have to necessarily know you to suggest we might find answers in Albuquerque. He can see things other people can’t. “
    “And sometimes people can’t see him ,” Jeremiah said with disgust and a shudder.
    “Jeremiah,” said Rudy, to change the subject, “I’ve been thinking that you might be neurasthenic. You tire easily, and you’re plainly not cut out for the showman’s life. Would you be agreeable to me treating you with my animal magnetism?”
    “Animal magnetism?” Alameda sat up straighter. “You have healing powers?”
    “Indeed,” Rudy answered grandly. “I have healed many people of trivial ailments such as headaches and women’s disorders and have even seen improvements in cases of consumption, insanity, and typhus.”
    Alameda said, “I do wish you’d been around while my mother was ailing of consumption. But we tried everything, including healers who laid their hands on her, and nothing helped.”
    “I’m so very sorry,” Rudy said. “But it can’t hurt to try, can it? Jeremiah here is much too fatigued to even rejoin his troupe or help us search for Kittie.”
    “I’m sure,” said Jeremiah, “my fatigue is partially due to the shock of actually seeing The Phenomenal Percy. In the flesh, if you will.”
    “Now, now,” said Rudy. Standing, he moved his wing chair near Jeremiah’s. “Let’s just give this a try. It’s called animal magnetism because it controls the fluid that moves in the bodies of animate beings.”
    Jeremiah cringed back into his chair. “But I don’t want my fluids controlled.”
    “Relax. I barely have to touch you.” He took his seat and expounded more to Alameda than to Jeremiah. “Health is the free flow of life through thousands of channels in our bodies. Illness is caused by obstacles to this flow, like in your asthma. Restoring this flow produces a crisis that restores health.”
    Jeremiah wailed, “But I don’t want a crisis! I’m sick to death of crisises!”
    Rudy cocked an eyebrow. “ Crises . Well, you just said it. You’re sick to death and will be dead soon if you don’t do something about this. Now. Since Nature is failing to aid you, I am just provoking her efforts.”
    Jeremiah squealed, “I thought you weren’t going to touch me!”
    Rudy had only touched his knees to the patient’s. “I said barely touch. Relax. This isn’t bodily fluid we’re talking about. It’s a fluid that is the basis of the cosmos, the basis of which matter is made. It’s an energy, a life force. When it circulates, we’re healthy. When it’s blocked, we’re sick. Trust me.”
    “Trust him,” Alameda echoed. She sat so far on the edge of the couch she was nearly toppling off. Rudy was proud that she was so interested. Then he despised himself for caring what she thought.
    “Now.” Staring into Jeremiah’s fearful eyes, Rudy made passes with his hands hovering about an inch over Jeremiah’s form from his shoulders down his arms. He