Posted November 17, 2020 | Brendan Connolly
"But we’re Southerners, Mr Connolly, we’re used to fightin’ agin the odds fer lost causes.”
"Ain't that the truth," Brendan muttered, once again finding his attention wandering to Clara and whoever the man she was going to dance with was. But Arabella didn't let his mind wander for very long before she jumped right in to a lesson on the galop quadrille.
He stumbled along as she went through the different parts of the dance, until she came to the polka, that is. He knew that one, all right. Arabella was good at giving instructions, and her examples made him grin. Now if only he could keep track of all the different parts of the dance once it started.
Arabella's last bit of advice was probably the most disconcerting thing he'd heard in a while, and that was saying something, coming from an Evergreen hand. "That’s about it. But listen, Pard, this thing's gonna get real ugly real quick, so use your elbows, ‘member to smile and like they say in the boxing matches, protect yourself at all times!"
What had he gotten himself into? He'd come to dance, not to get in an elbow match with everyone else in town. He rubbed his hands on his jeans and then cracked his knuckles.
"Hold you real tight, feint left, dart right," he repeated, trying to get everything down in his head and unknowingly rhyming. "Touch her hand, use my elbows. Lordy. All right, Arabella, here goes nothin'."
He held one hand to her and put the other on her waist, pulling her close so she could direct them. Then a thought occurred to him. "Hey, shouldn't I be leadin'?"
I took an oath for this job. The oath says bring him in. That's what I'll do.
Posted November 18, 2020 | Charlie Wentworth
"For crying out loud, simply answer my question. Do you or do you not know how to lead for this kind of dance?" Clara repeated her inquiry yet again just as the music started. The world wasn't going to wait for them.
"And I told you already that I did," Charlie answered in a disgruntled tone.
Taking a good look at Clara, Charlie realised that even though she dressed up and looking far older than she really was, she was still a child who wanted her own way. It was evident that she still saw him as the drunken buffoon he was the first day they had met. All he really wanted was answer to his question. If she answered it, then maybe he would be able work out his own feelings towards her.
Taking another deep breath, he once again looked at her and said softly, "Clara, do you trust me?"
Posted November 18, 2020 |
Posted November 18, 2020 | Jonah Danforth | With: Matilda, Leah & Speed
"An orphanage? Do we really need one of those, the town is not that big?"
"There's always a need, sadly," he explained, "and even if it's for only a few, it's worth it." Jonah shrugged. "And as the County seat, we'll need to take on that responsibility. Besides, there is the possibility of children who aren't orphans, but their parents can't afford to keep them for a time, for whatever reason."
It was a sad fact of farm life, that occasionally, children had to be seen for, either by family or neighbors. The Orphan Trains were a good example of that, many of those children were not orphans at all, but children from households of a dozen kids, and there was just one or two too many to feed.
As the dance ended, he gave Matilda a slight bow. He'd had a great deal of fun.
"I do suppose we have more children than normal right now who lost people in the Whitefish disaster. I have taken in a young girl of ....I think 14 or 15 though she doesn't look it. She is quite the handful and here I thought I was a firecracker at that age. She came from Whitefish," Matilda revealed.
"Is that so? I wasn't aware. I know there's the lad, Weedy, although Miss Chappel is seeing to him." He shrugged. "I'd be happy if that was something we didn't actually need."
Smiling, he kissed her hand lightly. "I enjoyed our dance, but I see a young lady I'd like to speak with, and you have another gentleman waiting. "
With that, he moved over to where Leah and Speed were. "Marshal...Miss Steelgrave." He took Leah's hand and place a light kiss there. "Do you mind if I steal your partner for a dance, Marshal?"
Posted November 18, 2020 | Emeline Pike | With: Bridget, Barnabas
“Can’t dance.”
Well, she could, Emeline had seen her with Brendan, but she wasn't going to counter her. "Well, then, would you want to just walk around the floor with me, or listen to the music?" she asked, "or we can go back to the cookie and pie table and relieve Mr. Pike." She chuckled. "I think he'd be happier chasing bandits than serving cookies to people!"
Didn't matter what they did, she just wanted to make sure the young lady wasn't alone, and hoped maybe she could boost her confidence.
"Goodness, it doesn't seem as though Brendan dances quite as well with Miss Arabella as he did you." Not that she was surprised, he likely didn't know the specifics of the dance, and Arabella could be so...Arabella-esque!
"Everybody can feather their nest, but it's not just anybody that can lay an egg!"
Posted November 18, 2020 | Arabella Mudd | With: Brendan
"Hold you real tight, feint left, dart right," he repeated, trying to get everything down in his head and unknowingly rhyming. "Touch her hand, use my elbows. Lordy. All right, Arabella, here goes nothin'."
Arabella listened nodding. “That’s it! Especially the 'holding me real tight' part, that's important!” she concurred “You’re a natural, big feller, this goin’ ta be all right!” she beamed. She certainly liked his positive, have-a-go attitude: and if it was all a complete shambles, who cared, she couldn’t help feeling that they were going have darn good chuckle trying.
He held one hand to her and put the other on her waist, pulling her close so she could direct them.
“Oooop!” she exclaimed as the handsome cowhand pulled her in close to him. “Oooh, well this feels real nice!” she said (it did!) “But we gotta bow to each other and the couple opposite first. Well, you bow, I curtsey, o’ course.” She reluctantly freed herself from the embrace of his strong arms.
Then a thought occurred to him. "Hey, shouldn't I be leadin'?"
“Oh usually, sure. But this is a Leap Year, so sometimes ladies can lead” (this was a complete lie, of course) “… like they can also ask gentlemen to dance with ‘em, or even propose and ask a gentleman to marry ‘em!” she grinned, then added. “Oh, don’t look so worried, Cowboy, you’re safe from me. Even a big handsome feller like you can’t break my heart, it’s already broke.” she sighed with what she hoped was a look of romantic resignation on her juvenile features.
Want... dolls!
Posted November 18, 2020 | Bridget Monahan | With: Pronto, Emeline
… "or we can go back to the cookie and pie table and relieve Mr. Pike." She chuckled. "I think he'd be happier chasing bandits than serving cookies to people!"
Bridget pointed over to the nice man with the shiny badge to check that was who she meant, and when that was confirmed, nodded her head vigorously. Mister Pike, Mister Pike, Mister Pike. She said the name ‘out loud’ in her head several times to try and get it to stick.
She walked back to the table with Emeline arm in arm, basking in the comforting manner of the woman: her voice so calm and reassuring, her face: young and pretty yet somehow motherly. She couldn’t remember her own Mother properly. Her own memories started months after her accident when she woke up in a sickbed, minus her leg, her memories and the ability to string a sentence together. But Emeline was how she liked to imagine her Mother might have looked.
"Goodness, it doesn't seem as though Brendan dances quite as well with Miss Arabella as he did you." Not that she was surprised, he likely didn't know the specifics of the dance, and Arabella could be so...Arabella-esque!
Bridget glanced back at the dance floor, even though she feared the sad, painful pang she knew that she would feel seeing Brendan dancing with someone else. She didn’t realize that Mrs Blakesly was just being nice to buoy up her spirits. Brendan looked all right, but she assumed that the older woman must be correct.
“She’s too fast!” she confided in Emeline’s ear.
When they reached Pronto, Bridget felt she owed him some kind of explanation as to why they had returned so precipitously. Furthermore, she was determined to say it out loud: he had looked a little bit discombobulated when she’d whispered in her ear before.
This was no small undertaking for the speech impaired girl and every time she tried it, she felt like Blondin walking the tightrope over Niagara Falls. But she remembered her lessons with Mr. Fa and some experiments she had tried with Arabella and, almost trembling with fear of doing it wrong, and rocking slightly back and forward to kind of count herself in, finally said in quite a loud voice.
“I am slow”
She nodded, as if having to confirm after each statement that it was correct.
“Dance is fast”. She hoped that explained it, but she was so happy at speaking it out like that, that she finished with an extra flourish. “Mister Pike!”
She turned to Em’ with the widest of smiles at her own achievement, all heartache over Brendan forgotten for the instant.
Posted November 18, 2020 | Leah Steelgrave
“Hello Jonah, of course not, it’s why we’re all here.” Speed said relinquishing the woman.
“Good evening Jonah, I thought perhaps you had abandoned me.” She chided. “The Marshal was kind enough to rescue me from the doldrums of reviewing the presentation for the Town Council meeting, and you’ll be pleased to know, I have been invited to speak at The Kalispell Ladies' Society tea at the hotel. That could well give us traction with our detractors.” A kind way of avoiding saying the name Town Council.
Posted November 18, 2020 | Pronto Pike
Pronto was not quite sure about the point the girl was making, other than the speed of the dance, which he agreed was fast. “It is that Miss, perhaps a bit too fast for everyone, but then, there are those as we can all see, that enjoy the fast dance.”
He acknowledged that there was something not quite right with the young lady, and in that acknowledgment, he endeavored to pay closer attention to what she was saying, that he might have a clearer understanding of her meaning.
Posted November 18, 2020 | Clara Redmond | With: Charlie
"And I told you already that I did," Charlie answered in a disgruntled tone.
He had? If so she missed it in his recriminations. Still, despite her surprise that this cowpoke would even know this dance, that was all she needed to know. Least she could have one dance tonight.
"Well then good, excellent in fact," Clara gave a quick nod.
Taking another deep breath, he once again looked at her and said softly, "Clara, do you trust me?"
"Now that is such a general question, I would have no idea how to answer it without you getting into specifics and we do not have the time. The dance is starting," Clara sighed.
She held out her hand to him, "Lead me out there then. I trust you know how to do this dance."
It was all pretty simple to the practical minded girl, she just wanted to dance, was it that big an ask?
Posted November 18, 2020 | Weedy | With: Wyatt Redmond
"I don't mean for swimming yet," Weedy explained, "just visiting, and we can climb trees or skip stones or something." He surely didn't want to wait until it was warm enough in the lake to swim...that could be months!
"He stayed with us for awhile when Whitefish got wrecked. He seems nice. I don't really know Addy much but Pa sez she is a hard worker. You probably know this but.... when they all went hunting that big bear, she was the only woman along and she was the one who ended up baggin' him. Clara was so happy to hear that you woulda thought she got it. "
"She said something, but didn't talk about it a lot," Weedy shrugged. "She sure don't take any guff off anyone!" He grinned proudly. She may not be his ma, but she was as good as! "I like Jay, too, he's real nice, and smart, he got to be on a ship to sail here." Maybe the next best thing to being a captain?
"Say 'yes' to what?" he suddenly asked, clueless.
"To me coming home with you." Weedy glanced at Wyatt. "We don't have school tomorrow, so it would be good...or..." he had a sudden thought, "We can stay the night in Addy's barn and she can take us to your house tomorrow?" Well, technically, the barn belonged to the Millegan Stage Line, but Addy lived there, so...