The Fire Within a Ninjago Cowboy

Chapter 14 - Monday at Dawn

Chapter 14 - Monday at Dawn

Kai opened his eyes. Daylight shone into the jail cell from a small window above.

He found himself laying on his side on the jail cell's twin size bed. One arm was folded under his head, like a pillow.

The other arm was resting on the waist of a blonde-haired, blue-eyed beauty. She was lying on her back, peacefully sleeping, her head resting against his chest.

Propping himself up on his elbow to gaze at her, he smiled at the memory of exchanging sweet kisses with her just a few hours earlier. How he had so desperately wanted to explore more of her charms, especially when she softly whispered his name. If only her title was Mrs. Kai Smith.

He told himself he would work on turning that wish into reality when they got back to Ninjago Town.

"Hey!" a voice interrupted his thoughts. It was Archer, carrying a tray of food. Their breakfast.

"You spent the night with a woman and you didn't have fun with her? What kind of a man are you?"

At the sound of Archer's loud voice, Sam's eyelids started to flutter open. She lifted her head groggily.

"Well, now, ain't you a purty one first thing in the morning. Wouldn't mind waking up with you next to me," Archer chuckled.

Kai stood up quickly and stomped over to the door of the jail cell, his fists clenched. He could barely tolerate the personal insult he just received, but he would not tolerate vulgar talk aimed at Sam. "Stop talking dirty to the lady, or else I'm gonna clean your plow!"

"Is that a threat?" Archer questioned. "In case you forgot, cowboy, I got one of these" - he pulled out his gun and pointed it at Kai - "and you don't."

Archer set the tray on the ground and kicked it under the door with his boot. "Here's yer breakfast." He put his gun away and left.

Kai took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. He bent down to retrieve the food tray and turned to Sam.

By this time she was sitting up on the bed, though her feet were tucked under her to avoid contact with rats on the floor. Kai set the food tray on the bed, then seated himself next to it.

"Good morning, Sam," he smiled at her with his charming lopsided grin. As he focused on her, the memory of his encounter with Archer just a minute ago was quickly fading.

Sam recalled what she and Kai were doing a few hours ago. Her eyes sparkled and her cheeks blushed as she warmly smiled back at him and said, "Good morning, Kai."

"You look pretty this morning," he told her, and he meant it.

"Oh, thank you, but I must look a fright," she said as she looked down, her cheeks blushing a deeper pink. Her hair, which had been neatly pinned up yesterday morning, was halfway falling down after the long ride and the thunderstorm. Without a mirror available to fix it back up, she decided to just let her hair fall. She began to remove the hairpins from her tresses.

While she did that, Kai surveyed their breakfast. "The bacon and eggs must still be fairly warm 'cause the plates are still warm. Same with the coffee in the pot. Want me to pour you some?"

"Yes, please," she smiled, removing the last hairpin and using her fingers to loosely comb her hair in an attempt to neaten it. She didn't quite know what to do with the pile of hairpins next to her but she felt like she didn't want to lose them. Because she had been taken from Ninjago Town without any of her beauty accessories or grooming tools, she felt like the hairpins were one of her last reminders of the civilized society that she and Kai lived in before being thrown into this foul cell.

Kai handed her a tin cup half filled with coffee. "Better hold it from the top so it's not so hot on your fingers," he suggested as he silently admired her unpinned golden tresses. He had seen her wear her hair this way before, but that was in the middle of the night during the whole thing at the saloon outhouse, not in the daylight like now.

"Thank you," she replied, taking the cup from him. The sip of coffee she then drank was indeed still warm. If the food was still at a decent temperature, then maybe this would actually be an adequate meal.

"So, Sam, tell me a little bit about your life in the east," Kai said, taking a bite of eggs. "Like about your family and growing up and such."

"Well, everybody now knows, thanks to Morro, that my daddy made lots of money running a successful company. What folks don't realize is that he worked very hard to build the company, and in the meantime while he was doing that, he was trying to raise me by himself. My mama died when I was a baby."

Kai gave her a sympathetic look.

Sam took a bite of her eggs and continued. "Daddy spent as much time with me as he could, but I still spent a lot of time with nannies and later went to a private boarding school. Not having any siblings, I got a little lonely sometimes but Daddy did what he could and I appreciated it. My life was comfortable."

"So what made you come out to Ninjago Town then?" Kai inquired before taking a bite of bacon.

"I discovered that when you have money, you can't be sure if people like you for you or for your money. Like for example, there was this young man who was courting me, and Daddy had suspicions about him. Turns out his father declared bankruptcy just a few weeks after I turned down the son's marriage proposal."

Sam ate the last forkful of her eggs and set the plate aside. "Then when Daddy died and I sold his company and settled his affairs, I felt like that was the time to go somewhere where people didn't know my background and would just know me for me. So I decided to take a train out to Sasnak City, and the only person I told my plans to was my lawyer. In Sasnak City I read some help wanted advertisements in the newspaper and saw Morro was looking for a saloon girl. So I figured Ninjago Town would be a place in which I could make a life for myself."

She looked down and added, "And maybe find true love."

Then she looked up again, directly into his soft brown eyes. "And I did."

Kai swallowed, but it wasn't because he had food in his mouth. He set his plate on the bed and stood up. Then dropping on one knee on the stone ground in front of her, he took her hand.

"Samantha, I know I don't have a engagement ring to give you right now, but..." he began.

Sam gasped and placed her free hand over Kai's mouth. Tears welled up as she said, "Kai, don't do this now."

A cloud of disappointment started to form in his eyes, so she quickly explained.

"I don't want to have to tell our children that you proposed marriage to me in a dirty jail cell."

It took him a second to process what she was saying. Our children. Our.

With a loud shout of "Yee haw!", he leaped up from the ground with a huge grin. He put his hands on her waist and lifted her in the air and twirled her around as she squealed.

"Put me down, cowboy," she laughed.

He set her on the ground but kept his hands on her waist. "All right. I'll wait to propose."

She threw her arms around his neck. "But I hope the right time will come soon."

"I hope so, too," he smiled as he leaned in to touch his lips to hers.

As they kissed, they heard a voice say, "I see we're interrupting something."