"Your father sounds like a good and honest man to me. I hope I get the pleasure of meeting him one day." He tightened the grip on Charlie's arm. "For now, I think my stubborn brother should be taught a lesson in manners."
The younger man continued to whine but Clara paid him no mind, much more interested in the gentleman of the pair. After all who didn't like compliments and now he had gone and praised her father.
"Why yes sir, he certainly is but then I might be accused of bias on that score. I hope you get to meet him too," she smiled.
The pair went on for a bit before the man turned to her, " "It seems my brother is in need of a keeper. I can assure you that the next time you see him, he will apologise for his loutish behaviour."
Clara was content - well mostly - she was not going to get an apology from that lout but she did decide to at least try for introductions before they parted ways. It was a small town and afterall they might run into each other again. Good to have a name to connect to the face.
"I shall not hold my breath but if you ever meet a gentleman by the name of Aurelian Redmond - that is my father. We have a farm outside of town by the lake. I am Clara Redmond, the older of his two children. My brother is but a child."
I always feel I belong where I am.
"I shall not hold my breath but if you ever meet a gentleman by the name of Aurelian Redmond - that is my father. We have a farm outside of town by the lake. I am Clara Redmond, the older of his two children. My brother is but a child.
"Nice to meet you, Miss Redmond. My name is Sam Wentworth and this is my brother Charlie."
As he glanced at this brother, his face showed his disappointment. Even though they all liked a drink, each of them had learned what their limits were early on. Now, it was Charlie's turn and he was finding out the hard way. His attitude towards the young lady was being fuelled by the amount of liquor he had been drinking. Sam knew this because he had almost been the same way when he was Charlie's age. Both Matt and Mike had been around and had helped him to work out that any more than three drinks would bring out the worse in him.
Self-control was something Charlie was in lack of at the moment. It was going to be a hard lesson for him to learn but he would do it. Once again, turning his attention to Clara, Sam smiled, "Miss Redmond, if you ever come across my brother in this state again, please let me or one of my other brothers know. It would help us out greatly."
Clara smiled, "Hello Mr. Wentworth, it has been a real pleasure making your acquaintance."
She ignored Charlie as he wasn't willing to engage in polite conversation anyhow.
It seemed before they went their separate paths, Sam had a request of her regarding that younger brother of his. Clara understood why he would ask such a thing, he was afterall a concerned brother but she was going to have to disappoint him.
"A reasonable request and you are within your rights to make it but I am sorry but I am going to have to decline to agree with it. For you see my father has long preached in our family that tattletales are both childish and unappreciated. I know I certainly feel that way about my younger brother. He no doubt feels the same about me. So your Charlie here need not worry I shall be doing any such thing. Of course if he is doing something truly dangerous or the like, I would then be compelled to act but I doubt he is ...........that bad."
She eyed Charlie for an instant.
"I am going to put this incident today down to his drinking and let bygones be bygones. Hope you understand, Mr. Wentworth."
I took an oath for this job. The oath says bring him in. That's what I'll do.
The effects of his drinking was starting to wear off and Charlie was beginning to realise that he might have gone too far. Or maybe it was the fact that he was in trouble and his brothers would be seeing to it that it wouldn't happen again. Whatever it was, the fight in him had died. He still didn't like the girl and hopefully they wouldn't be crossing paths again for a long time.
He looked at Sam, "All right, I get the message. We might as well get this over and done with now."
As Sam loosened the grip on his brother's arm, Charlie stepped forward to address Clara, "My apologies, Miss Redmond for my behaviour. You can be assured that I won't be bothering you again."
It took long enough in Clara's opinion but finally this Charlie, as she now knew his name, seemed to come around and decide to make an apology...of sorts. The words he prefaced it sounded very reluctant though. Still she stood there and looked up at him to make eye contact. Her father had always stressed the importance of eye contact when dealing with people.
"My apologies, Miss Redmond for my behaviour. You can be assured that I won't be bothering you again."
Clara paused, so wanting to blurt out 'that was so insincere' but her father also counseled that she needed to learn more tact. And besides the other Wentworth was such a fine gentleman.
"Very well, apology accepted. I will take your word for it on that last part,"she nodded then.
"Good day to you gentlemen," Clara then smiled.
I always feel I belong where I am.
"Good day to you gentlemen," Clara then smiled.
"And a good day to you Miss Redmond," Sam replied sincerely.
As the young lady walked away, Sam turned to his brother, "Well, you've really done it this time, Charlie. Mike warned you while we were on the trail to watch how much you drink."
Charlie nodded, "Yeah I know. Guess I'm in for it now."
"'Fraid so. You have to learn the same lesson me, Mike and Matt did. Our father may be many things but this is one good thing he did teach us. Us Wentworth men have our limits. I don't know why we react the way we do when we drink too much but for some reason we lose all sense of propriety and if we let it go too far, we can be downright mean."
A frown appeared on Charlie's face, "Mean?"
Sam sighed, "It's a long story. We went through it and we aim to make sure you don't. But for now, let's go back inside and get a good cup of black coffee down you."
Charlie looked at Sam for a moment, not sure what to say. For now he would do as he was told and he started to make his way back inside.
Standing and watching Charlie go in, Sam remembered the time when he had found out about his family's particular weakness. The doctors that had been consulted over the years offered no real answers. It wasn't just the usual affects of alcohol that most people had when they got drunk, it was something more where they were concerned. Until, they knew more, the Wentworth's had to work out what each of their limits were.
For him, he knew the limit was three. He was a little bit younger than Charile amd it was at Thanksgiving. On this particular night, he was out with friends, going from bar to bar. The more he drank, the bolder and meaner he got. From what he could gather later on, the night had almost ended in him killing one of his friends. Fortunately, both Mike and Matt who were home on visit had somehow gotten wind of what was going and rescued him just in time. After that, his father had told him that they had hoped that whatever it was that caused him to act the way he did was in all of them. Knowing that one day, Charlie might have to face the same thing, they all agreed to work together to prevent. It was one of the rare times, that their father was working with them instead of against them.
Seeing the way, Charlie was acting towards Miss Redmond, had thrown up warning flags. He might have been over-reacting but he didn't care. There was no way in hell, that Charlie was going to through what he did. Mike and Matt would be total agreeance with him. Hopefully, Mike would be back soon with news about work. The sooner they got Charlie away from town, the better as he would need time to think about what he would be learning very soon.