All Of Life's A Stage...

All of Life's a Stage......
Leonie — 22 Sep 1998, 8:19 PM

And we are all mere actors. Actresses to be more precise, we all have a part to play. As Lee-Marie came down the stairs into the front room and met Mr. Chakotay Torres in front of Ms Kathryn and Mr. Tuvok, she couldn't help but realize that this indeed was the truth. She and Miss Kathryn were acting out their part, and the men in the room did not, and would not even realize the magnitude of the confrontation which was going to ensue. Even before looking at Mr. Chakotay, Lee-Marie was looking at Miss Kathryn. Her mouth had dropped. She recovered quickly, but Lee-Marie still saw it. It was too dark in the front room to see the triumphant glint in Lee-Marie's eyes, but she knew if anyone could imagine it there, it would be Miss Kathryn.

The gentlemen's eyes were on her. If the Marshal's eyebrows went up any higher, they would have made a new hairline on his head. Mr. Chakotay had difficulty closing his mouth after the customary two seconds. A fly almost landed in it.

Miss Kathryn found her voice first.

"Miss Leonie-Marie, you look very ......different." Kathryn was not going to give her the satisfaction of a compliment. She couldn't believe her eyes. A woman who had always worn pants and had never, ever bothered to powder her nose had just come down the stairs with the grace and the poise of a Lady, looking like she had been one all of her life. Miss Kathryn's eyes narrowed.

*Always remember Lee-Marie,
Don't lie down and play with the puppies,
You'll always get up with the fleas*

Her Mama was a wise woman.

"Thank you. That dress looks very lovely on you Miss Kathryn. The Marshal is a lucky man to be taking you to the ball tonight."

A fleeting look of embarrassment crossed Miss Kathryn's face.

"I share the same fortune as Mr. Torres. Miss Leonie-Marie, you are dressed exceptionally well for the evening." The Marshal came forward and faced her. Automatically, Lee-Marie extended her hand and said very softly. "You are most kind Marshal." It took all the effort that the Marshal could muster to keep his other eyebrow from elevating. He took Lee-Marie's outstretched hand and kissed it.

He did so quickly, he felt the look of death on his back and did not want to turn to face it. He felt it leave him and turned in time to see it rest on Chakotay. Lee-Marie caught all of it.

"Miss Lee-Marie, I must say that you look breathtaking."

"Thank you Mr. Chakotay." *I wish I could say the same for you, what did you do? roll around in the hay with Intrepid!?!* Lee-Marie bit her tongue hard as she saw the physical evidence of the fights that he had been involved throughout the day. She was going to the dance with Mr. Chakotay, it was enough.

He smiled.

*D@mn, it makes a grown woman weak, those dimples and that outfit!!!* Indeed it did. Mr. Chakotay did look particularly handsome in his tailored pants and dress shirt. She wondered where he got it and why. Lee-Marie guessed that it was for some other event that he and Miss Kathryn had attended together. There was a reason for that assumption. Miss Kathryn was intensifying "The Look" to the Cajun setting and it still wasn't doing any good, from the time that Lee-Marie descended the stairs, Chakotay had not looked at Kathryn even once.

RE: All of Life's a Stage pt 2...
Leonie — 22 Sep 1998, 8:21 PM

"Shall we leave?" Chakotay crooked his arm and Lee-Marie placed her hand on it lightly as if it belonged there. He still didn't look at Kathryn.

"Of course" Lee-Marie kept her eyes on him. The fight with Kathryn was over as far as she was concerned, for now. She had won, for now.

Kathryn stopped "The Look". She was beginning to get a real headache. Something about this whole evening seemed surreal to her. She was going to have to begin to watch Leonie-Marie a little more closely in the future, but right now she had a Marshal's brain to pick over in order to help Sevenita.

"Chakotay, I hope you don't mind, but we took the last buggy out of the Ranch, and I don't think Larson's has another buggy with the Ball being on tonight an' all" Kathryn could not help fire one last shot.

Chakotay looked dismayed. Lee-Marie gave his hand a gentle tug and smiled at him. Then she turned to Miss Kathryn with the smile still on her lips.

"That's quite all right Miss Kathryn. This dress is a lot smaller than yours and I will be able to mount a horse quite easily. Mr. Chakotay and I will be just fine. We'll take JTM."

*What is it with this woman? First she's making moves on a man who has doted on me for the better part of four years and now she takes my favorite stallion. Not to mention the fact that she has dressed me down twice.*

Miss Kathryn was steaming. She had personal picked JTM over all objections that he was too old and should be put out to pasture. She had never regretted her choice. But time had been getting away from her and she hadn't been riding him as often as she would like. She knew from Chakotay that Lee-Marie rode no one else but him. Sometimes she swore that Chakotay was jealous of that horse!!!! He couldn't understand how Lee-Marie could control him the way that she did. No one else on the Ranch could and it drove him crazy that a woman could ride better than he did Talk about delusions of grandeur. A pig could ride a horse better than Mr. Torres did. Hmm maybe if he rode tonight....... Besides it wasn't really true that no-one else really knew how to ride JTM besides Lee-Marie. She had known how to a long time ago.

"You don't mind?" Chakotay asked.

"Why not at all." Lee-Marie answered.

"Miss Kathryn, Marshal we'll see you at the dance." With that Chakotay left the room with Lee-Marie, without looking at Miss Kathryn once.

*Now if I can only find some way of taking the reigns. Firm butt or not, this man is NOT going to make me arrive at the dance with one hair out of place, or one smudge on my dress because of his incompetent riding!!! Haven't they invented interventions yet!!! This man should be barred from riding a horse. Especially myhorse!!!*

***

Miss Kathryn knew better than to try and digest what had just happened there. She shook her head and concentrated on what she had to do.

"Shall we Marshal?"

"Of course." Kathryn almost made a fool of herself by putting her hand out to take the Marshal's arm. He simply stepped behind her and waited for her to go through the front door. It then hit Kathryn that not only was she not going to the dance with Chakotay. He wouldn't even miss her.

She moved quickly.

Maybe when all of this is over, she'll take JTM for a nice long gallop and a slow, vigorous rub down after that. It would be a good stress reliever.