Winter was coming up and there I was riding the grub line. The place I'd been working had decided to lay off people for the winter and it was a case of last hired, first fired. Reasonable, I suppose, but being reasonable didn't make me any happier about losing my job.
I was slowly heading towards a city, figuring that there's always work available in a city if you're prepared to put some effort into it. Meanwhile I was just going from ranch to ranch, cadging a meal and a place to stay overnight in exchange for a few chores. Right now I was riding up to what looked like a small ranch, the sort of place run by a single man, possibly with the help of one hand.
By the time I reached the house the sky was darkening. Not because night was approaching but because it seemed a hellacious storm was coming up. I banged on the door and a woman answered, demanding to know what I wanted.
I pointed out the storm approaching, my hungry state, and my willingness to work for a meal and a place to stay for the night. I didn't mind if I had to stay in the barn because it would be dry and probably fairly warm.
The woman stepped out of the house and looked in the direction of the approaching storm and sighed.
"I suppose I'd better let you stay but you'll have to earn your meal." She turned and bellowed, "Tracy."
Two young ladies popped out of the woodwork. It took me about one second to deduce that they were twins. I'm quick that way. I see two perfectly identical people and my brain immediately says twins.
"This young man has just volunteered to help you feed the stock," her mother said. At least, I assumed that the older woman was her mother. "Put his horse in one of the boxes."
One of the girls was dressed in overalls and a flannel shirt, while the other wore a crimplene dress. I was guessing that the girl in the overalls would be Tracy
"Okay," she said, stepping out. "Come on you. Bring the horse. I assume that is a horse you're riding."
"Close enough," I agreed. "He's a jackass."
She gave a startled look towards my valiant steed and then an irritated one towards me.
"I suspect that you're the jackass," she grumbled.
"I'm Tim," I told her with a smile. "I take it you're Tracy."
"Wow. You work that out from mother calling my name? Well you're right. My sister's Leonie and my mother is Marcia. My sister and I are twins, which you've probably already guessed, you being so sharp and all. We're nineteen. Marcia is twenty nine. Our father and Old Joe are driving some cattle up into the hills for the miners up there. They'll be back in a couple of days."
"Hold on a moment," I said as we entered the barn. "You say you and your sister are nineteen?"
"Yes. What's wrong with that? Don't we look nineteen?"
"Don't ask me. I'd never dream of trying to guess a woman's age. If you get it right, she's offended. If you guess too high and she wanted you to guess low, she's offended. If you guess too low and she wanted you to guess high, she's offended. It's a mugs game. But for all that I've got to say that if your mother is twenty nine she got started awfully early on having kids."
Tracy looked blank for a moment and then laughed.
"Yeah, I see what you mean. Technically I should say that Marcia is our step-mother."
"That does make more sense," I agreed.
We got to work feeding the animals and doing the general work required in the barn. I found it quite an interesting experience as the top couple of buttons on Tracy's shirt were undone. All fine and demure while standing but when bending down the shirt sagged away, letting me have a fine view of her breasts.
We had effectively finished and Tracy was looking around to see if there was anything we'd missed. Personally, I was just looking at her.
"Tell me, Tracy," I said softly. "What would be your reaction if I started taking off your overalls and shirt?"
I could see her tense up, eyes flickering towards me and then towards the barn door, relaxing a little as she realised that I was leaning back against the wall and she had an easy run to get out of the barn.
"Why would you want to do that?" she asked warily.
"Are you really that naΓ―ve?" I asked, smiling at her.
"Oh," she said, blushing. "And if I say I'll scream or fight you what are you going to do?"
"Nothing. I'm very easily discouraged. I have a very sensitive ego that goes off and sulks if it gets rejected. Alternatively, if you say you're just going to stand there so that I can look at your naked body then I will be only too happy to start taking your clothes off."
"You don't really think I'll let you do that, do you?"
"If I don't ask you certainly won't let me. If I do ask you might, which means I could pet you a little and see where things go."
"I am not having sex with you," she stated quite firmly.
"Maybe. Maybe not. But you are thinking it might be fun to stand naked in front of a man, aren't you. What could it hurt?"
I could see she was thinking about it, not really ready to agree. That was fine by me. I just needed her not to disagree. I pushed away from the wall and moved in her direction until I was standing in front of her.