Camino del Monte Sol Ch. 10 (with OBTS) -- PG-13

[librarian_7]

Author’s Note: This story is a collaboration between OnceBitTwiceShy and myself for Champagne Challenge #128: Reader/Writer II. OBTS provided the idea of Josef visiting Santa Fe in the 1920’s, and running into…well, you’ll have to read the story. The settings are as accurate as I can make them, having been in Santa Fe myself many times, and also using various resources on the City Different, as they call it, and its inhabitants back in the ‘20s. While I could find no record of a hotel located in Sena Plaza, such a place does exist, and who knows? It could have housed a small hotel at one time. The artists’ colony, and their compound on Camino del Monte Sol, are documented. There will be a thread with a set of pictures and links to places, costumes, cars, posted after most chapters. My thanks to OBTS, not only for the idea, but for her encouragement and input as the story progressed. I don’t own Josef, or any of the historical locations and personages mentioned in the story. Any errors or misrepresentations of fact are mine.


Camino del Monte Sol

X. Camino del Monte Sol

Stephen paused outside Nash’s studio and smirked as he shot his cuffs. He was going to enjoy this. After a week of preliminary work, he figured he was entitled to see how it was going. He walked in, whistling a little, and three pairs of eyes got wide. “How are my three graces?” he said, admiring the grouping.

Dorothea was front and center, standing with her heels on a piece of wood, so that she looked as though she were on tiptoe, arms stretched above her head. At her left, Patrice stood facing away, with her head turned to look back over her shoulder in a coy and fetching pose. And on Thea’s right, Louise was trying and failing to stand still.

“Ladies,” Nash thundered from behind his easel, “hold your pose!”

“But…Stephen,” Lou Lou squeaked.

Nash frowned at her. “Miss Parker, are you failing to understand plain English?” he asked. “Again?”

Lou Lou giggled, and Stephen had to admit, the sight of that fair flesh shimmying with laughter was beyond entrancing. Nash put his charcoal down on the easel stand with a clatter.

“All right, all right,” he said. “Take a break.” Patrice immediately craned her neck to stretch it a bit, while Thea reached up toward the ceiling beams, and Louise bounced on the balls of her feet.

Nash turned to Stephen with a sigh and a shake of his head. “I don’t see how you do it,” he said.

“Now, don’t tell me my graces aren’t being good obedient models,” Stephen replied with a smirk.

Nash laughed. “Dorothea,” he said, nodding toward the young woman who was now draped across a chair, wrapped in a silk dressing gown, “that one understands what a model needs to be.” He pointed at Patrice, who was doing a few stretches. “Miss LeBlanc—Miss LeBlanc should be posing for cheesecake pornography, not for an artist. But she obeys moderately well.”

“And what about my kitten here?” Stephen asked, looking down at Lou Lou, who had scurried to shelter under his arm as soon as she grabbed a robe. She was currently playing with the buttons of his suit vest, studiously ignoring Nash.

“That one will be the death of me yet,” Nash said, feigning an angry look in her direction. “She’s got the patience of a five year old.”

Louise grimaced at him. “That’s not fair,” she said. “Just because I can’t hold a pose as long as Thea…”

Nash couldn’t help it, he had to smile. “She’s a pill,” he said.

“Ah,” Stephen replied, “she’s just effervescent.”

Lou Lou sidled closer. “I knew you’d understand.”

“Yes, but Louise,” he said, looking down at her, “now you know you’re going to have to make an effort here. How else am I going to have you immortalized? It’s not every fr-friend of mine that ends up on my wall.” He’d made the semi-slip deliberately, for her benefit.

She crinkled her nose at him.

“We’ll talk more about it later,” he said, privately. He gave her a pat on the fanny. “Now, you’ve had your turn. I want to talk to Patrice.”

If Lou Lou was playful, and Thea relaxing on her break, Patrice was sulking. And Stephen knew he’d better soothe her ruffled feathers sooner, rather than later. She didn’t say much, just flowed into his arms with an audible sniff when he approached her.

“Now what’s this,” he said, for her ears alone. “Patrice, love.” He started rubbing circles on her back, soothingly. “You know and I know, your worth to me, and what does anything else matter?”

“But…pornography, Stephen?” she said with a sigh. “That’s unfair.”

“I know, sweetheart. But I’m telling you, don’t give it another thought.”

She quirked up one side of her mouth, with a look of chagrin. “Yes, Stephen,” she said.

He hugged her a little tighter. “Now,” and he looked up at Nash, “so tell me more about what you’re doing.”

Nash was wiping the charcoal dust from his hands with a stained rag, and he shrugged. “Preliminary sketches,” he said. “I think this pose is going to work. I’ll do several sketches, and then I won’t need the girls on hand for most of the painting process. I wasn’t sure how long you were going to be in town.”

It was Stephen’s turn to shrug. “My business is not going to be concluded for awhile, so it’s hard to say. And I’m still waiting for a reply or two to some feelers I put out.”

“Concerning?”

Stephen suppressed a twinge of annoyance. Who was this man to inquire into his business? Still, there was one iron in the fire that would interest Nash and his colleagues, and Stephen was willing to share that. “The Chicago Art Institute. And the Los Angeles County Museum.”

Nash raised his eyebrows. “Those two are hardly in the same league, are they?”

“You might be surprised,” Stephen said with some asperity. “The Los Angeles collection is getting more impressive every year.”

There was a knock on the door and Bakos called out, “Everybody decent?”

“Come on in,” Nash replied, raising his voice. “Kostan’s here.”

“Ah!” Jozef Bakos smiled as he came into the room. “The man who drowns us in beauty. Ladies, you’re all looking lovely today,” he said.

“Thank you, Jozef,” Dorothea replied, her voice warm.

Stephen frowned. There was something in her tone he didn’t care for much. “I was just telling Nash, here,” he said, drawing attention away from the girls, “that it was, um, about time for me to be hearing back from the Chicago Art Institute.”

“Really?”

“Well, I spoke to the director on the phone the other day, and he is interested in mounting an exhibition of your art there. All five of you.”

“That…would be a wonderful opportunity,” Bakos said. “Truly a wonderful opportunity.”

Stephen released Patrice, and shoved his hands in his pockets. “I have a few useful connections.”

Bakos frowned. “I don’t wish to insinuate anything, but Chicago has a certain reputation these days.”

“Heh. It does indeed,” Stephen laughed, shaking his head. “Look, if it makes a difference to you, my money is not in bootlegging.” He paused, and seemed to radiate menace. “And don’t even think about suggesting it’s in prostitution.”

“You are travelling with three women,” Bakos pointed out, his tones carefully reasonable.

Stephen chuckled again, humorlessly, shifting his eyes at the girls. “Ladies, I think your virtue is being questioned.”

Patrice was the first to respond. “My, but this is a banner day. Stephen, are you planning to have someone accuse us of robbing banks, next?”

“I call bribing judges,” Dorothea added. “Or mail fraud.”

Now it was Louise’s turn to pout. She came again to Stephen’s side, and he slung an arm around her. She said nothing, looking up at him with enormous eyes.

“I’m sorry,” he said to Bakos, “I’m trying to figure out how this is your business.”

Nash broke in. “Bakos. This man is trying to make our careers. I don’t care if he prints his money in his basement.”

Bakos held up his hands in surrender. “Forgive me. I forgot myself. I didn’t mean to insult your friends, Kostan. Especially not the tiny one.”

Lou Lou turned and looked at him, her eyes cold, but said nothing.

“All right,” Nash said, “ladies, I think we’ve rested long enough. If you men will step out, I think the ladies will be more comfortable.”

Stephen dropped a kiss on the crown of Lou Lou’s head, and stepped away. “I’ll see you girls later.”

It would seem, he thought, that every town was complicated.

[cassysj]

I love his interaction with the freshies He gives each one the attention they need.

Questioning their virture Harummph Bakos needs to watch his step.

[francis]

It's good that Stephen was there to help his freshies out, or they would be really mad for being questioned. On the other hand if he hadn't been there they wouldn't have been adressing that topic. Oh well...
I want to see that painting when it's ready.

[librarian_7]

What really blows my mind, is that I was in New Orleans over the weekend, and in a restaurant I spotted a painting of three women in 1920s attire...who absolutely looked to me like Thea, Patrice, and Lou Lou!

I took a picture of it with my phone, and will see about getting it transferred and posted....there may be another story with those three waiting out there somewhere. Evidently, Stephen and his three graces got around...

Lucky

[allegrita]

Well, it's about time Stephen stopped by to see what his freshies have been up to. It looks like Thea and Jozef might have a bit of a thing going there... although if Bakos is going to accuse Stephen of being a gangster, or worse a pimp (and his freshies of being his, um, stable!) he's not going to stay in her good graces for long.

Interesting, how these guys forget sometimes that they need to be polite to a benefactor. And yeah, every town's got its politics.

[darkstarrising]

I really love the way this story is unfolding, Lucky, and how you have each of the main characters interacting.

It would seem, he thought, that every town was complicated.

Not only is the town complicated, but keeping three freshies happy and content is no small feat, especially when the virtue (and value) is being questioned.

I like Nash....he's honest...not just about the problems of getting three vivacious ladies to sit still for him but about his desire to get ahead, whereas Bakos is 'biting' the hand that's trying to feed him.

Nash broke in. “Bakos. This man is trying to make our careers. I don’t care if he prints his money in his basement.”

Stephen is a dangerous man, something Bakos doesn't understand....he also doesn't understand that 'hell hath no fury as a woman scorned'. Beware angry freshies, gentlemen

[eris]

Never insult the freshies.

Especially the tiny ones.

Though I suppose there must be something redeeming about Jozef since his name sticks with J for years to come

[jen]

Fabulous, fabulous chapter!

Josef...excuse me, Stephan is having trouble helping these starving artists with their careers? Now, that is an interesting turn of events.

The portrait of the three graces is in the formative stage and I know you will tell us where it is now hanging at the end, but waiting for that detail is hard.

[NightAir]

Nash is blunt and Bakos is tactless. And the emotional undercurrents between his freshies and the artists is disturbing Stephen. Yes, complicated.

Lucky, you'll definitely have to tell us how the painting of Stephen's three graces ended up hanging in a restaurant in New Orleans.

[MoonShadow]

What really blows my mind, is that I was in New Orleans over the weekend, and in a restaurant I spotted a painting of three women in 1920s attire...who absolutely looked to me like Thea, Patrice, and Lou Lou!

I took a picture of it with my phone, and will see about getting it transferred and posted....there may be another story with those three waiting out there somewhere. Evidently, Stephen and his three graces got around...

Lucky

And you thought these stories were just figments of imagination??? pshaw

[RangerCM]

I think it's only natural that a casual observer would have a difficult time trying to figure out what business Stephen is in.