Want... dolls!
Posted November 23, 2020 | Bridget Monahan | With: Pronto, Emeline, Jay
"There you have it!" Emeline declared with a laugh, "Bridget will help with the cooking, and Barnabas can try our efforts to make certain that they are as good as they should be." Then she added with a playful grin, "And Mr. Pike can do the dishes as well, he's quite the expert at that!"
Bridget opened her mouth in amazement at this (she was pretty easily amazed, though, it had to be admitted).With his shiny badge and all, she expected he must be an important man; certainly too important for doing the dirty old dishes.
She laughed again and gave Barnabas a quick kiss on the cheek. "Or you can just make certain that we behave ourselves and don't burn down the kitchen!"
The ginger girl giggled and hid her mouth, seeing them kiss and carry on like this. It was nice, though. Not like when that man tried to kiss her in Deadwood, not that bad kind of kissing. The dark cloud of a life before this pleasant move to Kalispell must have suddenly crossed her face.
Then she patted Bridget on the arm. "Don't worry one bit, we will have fun, we won't do any harm, and we can make whatever you like...well, so long as I know the recipe!"
Bridget immediately brightened and remembered that Arabella was always going on about never being able to get something called ‘bear sign’ in these parts, and the way she had described the thing made it sound like a virtual manna from heaven.
She held up a finger and moved it in a circular, donut shaped motion.
“Want Bear Sign… make Bear Sign.” she intimated to Em.
Suddenly, she saw Mr Ryker heading in their direction, and she started to wave furiously at him, hoping to catch his eye: he looked like he was heading somewhere to attend to some seriously big business, so she hoped to catch him before he stomped past.
She kept waving at him, but risked a side-whisper of explanation to Pronto.
“He mended me.”
"Everybody can feather their nest, but it's not just anybody that can lay an egg!"
Posted November 23, 2020 : Arabella Mudd | With: Brendan, Charlie, Clara
"Sorry," he said as they moved through the motions of the dance, "but she ain't the opposition, really. Here..." He smiled down at her. "There...happy now? Ooop..."
Brendan might not be able to tell much from people’s eyes, but Arabella could, and the way the man from Mississippi kept glancing over to Clara (or to Charlie perhaps, in a way it amounted to the same thing) told her something.
When the jigging and giggling part was over, they moved into another straight polka round in circles and Arabella was able to get to work on the earthy nature boy.
“How d’ya like my friend Bridget?” she asked “Nice ain’t she?”
“… an’ you know what they say about redheads!” she threw that into the pot as well.
She wasn’t sure herself what exactly ‘they’ said about redheads, but hoped it was more fuel to pique his interest. Somewhere in the back of her butterfly brain, something tugged at her conscience: why was she pressing the suit of the strange, almost ethereal crippled girl over her alleged ‘bosom friend’? The thought appeared and died again like a mayfly in Spring, but it would flutter into her heart again in time.
They danced around some more and Arabella tipped him the wink.
“All right, this is the walky part!” she explained “Just ignore them!” she heard herself adding, and almost jumped with surprise at the sound of her own voice, terse and didactic. “I mean, let’s pretend to be snooty!” she said with more fun in her voice, saving the mood, and the actress in her managed to pull a funny nose-in-the-air face as they turned and paced toward Clara and Charlie walking at them the other way.
Posted November 23, 2020 | Pronto Pike | With: Emeline, Bridget and Jay
"There you have it!" Emeline declared with a laugh, "Bridget will help with the cooking, and Barnabas can try our efforts to make certain that they are as good as they should be." Then she added with a playful grin, "And Mr. Pike can do the dishes as well, he's quite the expert at that!"
“Man need ta have his options. Dish washin’ mine, when my hands’er too slow for gun work.” He winked an nodded. “Yes sir. Options.”She laughed again and gave Barnabas a quick kiss on the cheek. "Or you can just make certain that we behave ourselves and don't burn down the kitchen!"
“Reckon I can handle that as well. Some don’t appreciate taste testers. Sorta an art form, down Persidio way. Texas.” He stood straight, face straight, then he looked at Em. “Didn’t know I was fully trained, did’ja?”
Then she patted Bridget on the arm. "Don't worry one bit, we will have fun, we won't do any harm, and we can make whatever you like...well, so long as I know the recipe!"
Posted November 23, 2020 | Leah Steelgrave | With: Jonah Danforth
"All the more reason to get to the ladies early," Jonah commented, "so they know where the ideas are coming from, and are in the groundwork, so they feel like they have a stake in things."
“Exactly Jonah! Pull them in to this like the partners they are, make them understand this was not some man’s idea, nor a woman’s for that matter. It was us, together, last winter, you and I, and then came Doc Boon to join in. It’s not Saint Steelgrave’s Hospital, it’s Kalispell Hospital.” She paused and took a sip of punch for more reasons than one. He voice had risen.
But this was a party, a time to have a good time and set that sort of thing aside. "Tell me, just how modern is Helena? In comparison to, say, St. Louis? I wouldn't mind getting away for a day or two, maybe see a play or an opera."
“Helena? Why Helena’s no Saint Louis, or Baltimore, or New York. On it’s way though. Montana’s a bit behind, but it’s got it’s comforts, it’s opera house, and fine dining. Might be dirt streets still and a great deal false fronts like we have right here.” She smiled then. “But it’s there, and we’re here, so point taken. She paused again, setting down the cup. “Wait for a stage, as unreliable as they can be, or hire a carriage?” She took a sip looking over the rim of the cup at him. “Perhaps a day to think on it?”
As much as Kallispell suited his needs, he was craving a little civilization!
Posted November 24, 2020 | Clara Redmond-Lutz | With: Charlie, Arabella, Brendan
:: on the dance floor ::
Smiling, Charlie nodded, "Yes, I am having fun."
Well there ya go! No issues at last, Clara was pleased, she was getting all she had really wanted out of this dance - a chance to dance with a boy. Actually she hoped to dance with more than one before the night was over but you had to start someplace.
"You actually are a smooth dancer, Charlie," she complimented him sincerely.
Soon the dance devolved into the next part where the individuals had to separate once more, then thread past each other as they faced their other partners, in other words Arabella and Brendan. A glance at the orphan girl and she was looking all serious even snooty so Clara did not bother but instead caught Brendan's eye, giving a clear enough nod of acknowledgement. And then they were past each other again.
The dance was almost over now, a pity, it had been actually quite exhilarating!
Posted November 24, 2020 | Matilda Devereau | With: Col. MacKenzie
"Did your escort abandon you?"
There he was, the dashing colonel in his fine uniform. Matilda smiled but shook her head in the negative.
"No he did not. The good doctor had requested a dance with me, I had agreed, we danced, and now the dance is finished," she explained the obvious.
Glancing around, she spotted Danforth, "Looks like he is in the process of asking someone else to dance. Pretty much how a dance like this is supposed to operate you know?"
"Now as for me, I am a woman of my word, and I also promised you a dance. Shall we do just that when the next one starts?" she figured that was what he was leading up to anyhow.
The current dance was well along and given it's nature jumping into it in the middle was not practical, unlike a simple waltz. They could chat though until the next one.
"So did you go to West Point, colonel? I would imagine teaching our military leaders how to dance would have been high in priority at such an illustrious institution?" she grinned.
Posted November 25, 2020 | Jonah Danforth
"I hadn't really thought about that," Jonah answered, "although I suppose a buggy would be more comfortable, relatively." Neither vehicle was luxury, but at least in a buggy you weren't crammed in with strangers and no one would fall asleep on your shoulder!
"But I suppose, too, it depends on how long it takes to get there, and if there are suitable towns or way-stations along the way, and that I would defer to you, since you've been there."
He hadn't actually planned on going, but now that he was talking about it, it was sounding more interesting, especially if Leah might accompany him.
"What would you suggest?"
Retired Characters and NPC Writer.
Posted November 25, 2020 | Jay
On his way to the bathroom he saw someone waving their arms out of the corner of his eye, so he looked up to see what was going on. Apparently the generous wave was directed at him. For a moment he wondered why the girl was trying to get his attention. Did he know her?
Then he suddenly recognized her as the bed ridden strange young lady with only one leg, who had been so dramatic. She looked very different now in a nice dress and standing upright.
Jay offered her a smile and tipped his head, then he noticed she was headed his way. Was he rude enough to say he didn't have time?
Not really, so he waited for her and said. "I see that leg is coming along alright. Are you enjoying your evening?"
Posted November 25, 2020 | Brendan Connolly | With Arabella Mudd
As Brendan and Arabella continued to polka, she asked him what he thought of Bridget. Brendan, caught off guard by her question, had to think about that for a minute. What did he think of Bridget? And what did they say about redheads? None of it was very complimentary.
"Yeah, she's nice. Good at waltzin'." He realized as he was saying it that Bridget was more than nice. She was sweet and innocent, and there was something about her that made him treat her differently than he would treat other girls. The redhead had wakened some of the big-brotherly feelings that had been dormant since he left home, but she had also stirred some other part of him, and he wasn't sure how those two feelings could exist at the same time.
When they got to the "walky part," Arabella had another idea. "Just ignore them! I mean, let’s pretend to be snooty!”
"Good idea." He grinned before adopting a haughty expression, jutting his chin out and puffing up his chest as they neared their opposite couple. But he couldn't keep from glancing at Clara to see how she reacted to their snootiness, which spoiled the act a little bit. She nodded at him and he arched one eyebrow, trying to maintain a reasonable amount of snootiness.
"She could give us lessons on bein' snooty," he whispered to Arabella, breaking out into a grin before putting on his haughty expression again.
Posted November 25, 2020 | Emeline Pike | With: Bridget, Pronto, Jay
"Bear sign?" Emeline mused, "I'm not certain what that is...I've heard of bear claws." She shrugged and smiled. "Well, we'll just have to ask, and then see what we can come up with!" Then she laughed and playfully nudged Barnabas. "And we have a skilled, brave taster to let us know if what we make is good."
Bridget seemed to be distracted, though, and whispered something to Barnabas, then moved away from them toward Jay. "What did she say to you?" she asked, "she seems to know him, maybe he'll convince her to dance?" He was a fine young man, she'd known that when he'd helped them rescue old Mrs. Anderson in Whitefish, even though he'd been injured himself, and besides, Addy liked him, and she was an excellent judge of character. "Goodness, I fret so much over a stranger, I pity our children!"