Chapter 36

The serving woman came back by to check on us then and I noticed she had a fresh bruise on her face. I made her sit down and I asked her about it.

"I've got to where I don't much care about it any more. Things have really gone downhill here since the new Mayor got elected. My real husband got kilt soon afterward and I had to take up with that little shrimp you tended to earlier - the one who acts like he's running this place," she said.

"He isn't really the owner?" I asked.

"Oh, he's the owner all right. The new Mayor's town guard killed my husband, and since a woman can't really own property the Mayor gave our place to him."

"Well, I'm sorry I didn't kill him earlier then, instead of just whipping his ass."

"I don't guess it really makes much difference. If'n he gets killed the new Mayor would just turn this place over to someone else.

"Janey. What are you doing out front there? Get your ass back here and get to cleaning up this mess in the kitchen," a voice from the back of the place called out.

The serving woman tried to get up then, but Terri held her in place and then told me, "Why don't you go on back there and finish the job you left half done earlier."

"I don't mind if I do, but I think I'll let him do the cleaning before I get finished with it," I said, and ambled on back to the kitchen.

I found his nibs sitting in a chair like he was directing a play or something. I used my foot to usher it out from under him and gave him a swift kick in the ass while he was down.

"You've got a little cleaning to do yourself big mouth. I just came to learn how you came by this place and I'm not pleased."

"I don't care whether you're pleased or not. It's my place. The Mayor gave it to me."

"Well I've just had a little experience with Mayor's myself lately and you know what I found out?"

"No."

"I found out Mayor's will die just like anybody else if you cut their head off. For now though I'm gonna find out just how much abuse you can take before you decide to do the cleaning back here like I told you to," I said, and then grabbed him by his scrawny neck.

He yelped and then tried bluster as I walked him over to the big cast iron cook stove. He was begging as I forced his face down near the cook top and screaming and begging after I forced his face onto the hot metal. He was more than willing to get started cleaning when I let him up.

"Now, don't get any ideas about stopping anytime soon. My next trick will be cutting your dick off and cooking it on that very stove. I'm going to teach you some manners or kill you really slow doing it, and most of it will come tonight," I told him, and then took his seat and watched him get to work.

It didn't take long for me to get tired of that crap so I took a look around the kitchen and found there was only one door leading out of it while there were no windows at all big enough to let him escape.

"I'm going back out front to check up on the rest of the place, but don't even think about trying to slip off. I promise you we won't kill you if you do, but I'll probably catch you and burn some more skin off you. Your best bet is to keep working."

"You just wait until the Mayor comes over here to get his super. He always comes in late and he'll settle your hash when he gets here," the idiot said, and I thanked him for the warning.

When I got back out front I was in hopes the Mayor had already arrived. There was a short dandified looking little man ordering from Terri where she was manning the counter.

"Excuse me sir, but you wouldn't happen to be the Mayor would you?" I asked him when I left the kitchen.

"Why yes, I do have that honor."

"Do tell. I'm assuming you appointed the town guard we've heard so much about?"

"Yes indeed. I had them scouting the road coming down from the north this afternoon in fact."

Hell, it was right out of his mouth as if he were proud of it. I hit him as hard as I could with a straight right hand and I'm afraid it knocked a few of his teeth out while it was putting him back on his ass. He tried to complain, but another kick to his wind stopped all that, and then I was helping him up.

"You know your honor. You might ought to think about the kind of things that can happen to you when you set out crooks and thieves and try to pass them off as a town guard. People might come along who would take offense.

"Like me and my party for instance. Your town guard tried to attack us earlier today. You can imagine how we felt about it after killing them and finding out they were the town guard when we stopped in here to eat. Why, after we killed the reserve we were upset with you, as I'm sure you can understand. Come on back into the kitchen and you can try to make amends," I said, picking him up and throwing him in the proper direction.

Turned out the Mayor thought cleaning up the kitchen was beneath his dignity too, but a treatment with his face against the hot stove convinced him to help after all. It was a good thing too, since the kitchen was pretty nasty for only one man to clean up by himself.

I stepped back into the front room for a minute and called Janey back to make sure they were doing a good job. She was quite surprised to see who was tending to things, but she finally got hold of herself and showed me the small cat of nine tails the first turd I'd put to work had used to encourage faster work.

"You mean you think they might work harder and faster if I gave them a dose from this?" I asked, swinging the cat against the doorjamb.

"He's used it on me enough," she said.

"Well good. There is a lot to do and it looks like they could go faster with a little encouragement," I said, and started handing some out.

At first I thought their clothes were detracting from the effect, but soon I noticed the cat was ripping the offending articles of clothing off so I just hit harder. I must say it did seem to hurry them along quite nicely. I had to slack off on my application after a while though since it seemed when I overused it the pace slowed down a little instead of speeding up.

I decided to take a break for a while and I went back to the tables to sit down and have a cup of wine. I sat by Janey and she seemed like she wanted to talk a little.

"It's really nice what you're doing for me mister, but things will just go directly back to shit once you've left," she said.

"That's all the more reason for you to come with us. We only have a short errand down this way and we'll be returning to Jacksville as soon as it's over. I can assure you a good job there and you'd probably end up with a good husband before long.

"The town guard there is really in the business of guarding the town from troublemakers and not troubling visitors."

"But I'll have nothing to even take with me. That jackass who owns this place would never let me keep what my real husband gave me," she said.

"You won't have to worry about a thing out of him. He won't live much past sunrise if he even makes it that far. Why don't you go pack what you want to take with you and I'll make sure you get to keep it. Take everything from here you want, because it is likely we'll burn it down when we leave," I said.

"Then why are you making them clean up the kitchen?" she asked.

"It gives them something to do to keep me from killing them for being underfoot," I said, and I'd finally made her laugh, a little at least.

Terri had served a few more customers lately and they actually looked like they were normal people. She had even shown a few men into the kitchen to let them know it was being thoroughly cleaned. One of he gentlemen came over to warn me though.

"Mister, you're shore doing something that's needed did for quite a while, but that Mayor has eight tough men working for the town guard and they're likely to come give you trouble over this before long.

"Well, as long as he didn't have any more than twelve all told, in the town guard and the reserve, I'll make it ok. We killed the guard and reserve before we got started," I said.

"You've done this town a world of good mister. The only problem around here left is that man who calls himself the colonel with the farm outside of town. His riders act like they own this whole town and even the guard wouldn't do nothing agin them," he said.

"You never can tell. They might do something to piss me off too," I said, and he left after that.

He got me thinking though. If the Colonel had a good tight place outside town it might be hard to take on. When daylight came I'd wander out that way and see just how far out it was. I knew one thing for sure now though. We'd be up tonight until Terri got tired of waiting tables. She already had Janey up helping her and she had twelve or fifteen decent people eating. She was making sure they got good service too.

I went back into the kitchen to check on my workers then and I had to dispense a little more encouragement, but not as much as you might think. I even gave them a little something to look forward to when I told them as soon as the place was clean enough I was going to let them go. I didn't mention I would be letting them go out back on the midden when I was done with them, but hell, you live and learn. Of course in their case they weren't going to get the chance. Not to live anyway.