Posted April 7, 2021 / F. Falmer Browne

"Common sense?" Addy couldn't help it, even though she knew that wasn't what he meant. Grinning, she laughed, although she had to allow as that he had a good idea.

Falmer Browne stifled a laugh, but then had to burst out in mirth himself. Ah, Adelaide Chappel, beautiful and funny! How was he to survive a trip to Helena and back without falling madly in love with this woman?! The Work! He must always remember the importance of the Great Work! His petty infatuations must take second place to that, always.

"Could talk ta Doc Boone an' Doctor Danforth ta see if they need anything?" There might be medications or equipment that they hadn't considered getting, since the logistics were too complicated.

“Hmmm, esoteric medicants and pharmaceuticals, indeed. Good thought!” the man nodded, impressed with Addy’s acumen.

She shrugged. "We can ask around if anyone is wantin' somethin'. "Maybe th' saloon might want some'a that fancy liquer, or th' cafe might need somethin'?" It would be easy enough to ask.

“Oooh, yes! We could bring along an extra crate of Ald Smellie for a start and sell that to them. I would go in there more often if they had that on their shelves!” he added, even though the businessman in his cried out against selling something, only to buy it back again at a greater price.

He looked at Addy admiringly.

“I must say, my dear Miss Chappel, you would make a splendid businessman, er, businesswoman. As it is you make a more than splendid…” he searched for a suitably descriptive term for her job which also encapsulated her deliberately hidden but undeniable feminine charms “… conductrice.”

Posted April 9, 2021 / F. Falmer Brown

"Don't rightly know what 'condritress' is, but if ya say so, I believe every word!" She held out her glass for a refill. "Ya keep usin' them fancy words yer liable ta turn a gal's head...or get shot by some jasper that thinks yer insultin' him." She chuckled. "'Course, ya keep th' libations flowin', all should be good!"

Falmer Browne dutifully filled Addy's glass while the sound of Weedy and Jemima's squeals of laughter sounded from the greenhouse at whatever antics pocket gophers got up to, when let out of their cages. The Wigfall girl was a simple but pleasant soul, and so reassuringly plain (crueller souls might even say 'ugly'). Browne blessed the day he had found a maid so utterly un-fall-in-lovable to scrub his floors and scrape out his grate.

Miss Adelaide Chappel on the other hand ... no ...NO. The Work! The Great Work!!

She downed the next glass of whisky and grinned brightly. "Did not know whisky could taste so good! I'll surely need a bottle'er two'a this fer myself. How long ya plannin' we'll be in Helena, anyway?"

"Oh, I shall have the entire shipment ready to go with my agent there" the man assured her "We can stay as long or as short a time as you see fit, Miss Chappel, for you are the Mistress of all on this land-voyage. La conductrice par excellence!" he suddenly held his head.

“Oh, do forgive me: for some reason the combination of good whiskey and the presence of a beautiful woman always brings out the Frenchman in me!!” he said, trying to focus on less romantic notions.

“Ahhh… what of young Mr James? I presume that you have a safe haven for him while you are way on such visits. I can’t help but notice that you have a very proper and healthy concern for the young fellow’s safety and you must no doubt fret for him whilst you are sur le … er, ‘On The Road’”.

Posted April 11, 2021 / F. Falmer Browne

"Boy was on his own, pretty much, when I first come here...just a little sprout...like a Weed." She grinned at the memory. "He started comin' 'round th' barn, askin' ta help an' all...didn't take long ta figure out he was lookin' fer food...sometimes a safe place ta stay."

“Oh. I’m sorry to hear that.” Said Falmer Browne gravely. He had enjoyed all the advantages of a stable home and a loving home as a boy, and the more he saw of the misery in the world, the want and neglect, the more he realised what a lucky hand he himself had been dealt.

Sighing, she shrugged. "His ma was..." no use defaming the dead, "she just wasn't meant ta be a ma, an' I never did know what become of his pa. But I'm not th' only one in town that looked out fer him. He was with me most th' time, but he always had a meal, a place ta sleep, someone ta get him his needs."

To know what this bright, intelligent, curious boy had been through fair brought a stinging tear to the older gentleman’s sentimental eye. “Poor fellow.” He muttered “Poor fellow.”

The town really had come together for the boy. "His ma was killed in Whitefish, so he's mine now, I reckon. There's folks I can ask fer help...got my intended, an' there's Marshal Guyer, Miz Emeline at th' Lickskillet, an' her intended, Deputy Pike...Doc Danforth..."

“… and I hope, Miss Chappell, that after our joint venture to Helena, you will not think too little of me to include my name in that fine company!” he said with a sincere smile. He wanted to reach out and squeeze the good woman’s hand in approbation of what she had done for the boy. But more than just the normal rules of propriety restrained him. One of the persons that she had mentioned as a very present help in her hours of need caught his ear more than the rest.

“Oh! Your intended… er, would I happen to know this enormously fortunate gentleman?”

Posted April 16, 2021 / F. Falmer Browne

"All th' interestin' things ya got here, it's gonna be more th' boy overstayin' his welcome," Addy chuckled, "he'll be here all th' time, but I reckon if he learns somethin', can't argue that. An' he'll wanna pay ya back, doin' chores." Laughing, she shook her head. "Well, he might not want ta, but he will...always understood that sorta trade."

“Oh, no need to do chores here, he’ll be putting poor Jemima out of a job!” laughed Browne amiably. There was pause for thought behind that laugh though; for many years he had obtained ‘money for nothing’ by exploited unknown, unseen others. But payback had come: not in financial terms, but in moral bankruptcy. It pained him yet. Maybe ‘Weedy’ would be better off paying his dues.

"'Course, sometimes I think he's usin' chores as an excuse not ta do his homework!"

“Ah, I must talk to him about his academic studies! Is there any subject that the little fellow is particularly interested in? I may have some books he would find of interest.”

Addy then answered his question about her intended.

Again, she laughed, then shrugged. "Th' enormously fortunate gent's Jay Ryker, he does odd jobs here an' there, mostly carpenter stuff." She wasn't sure the man would know Jay, and certainly he wouldn't know about Jay. "But he talks kinda funny, like you...real pretty accent...ain't from th' South, nor Germany, can tell ya that!"

“I can assure you, Miss Chappell, that I am a pure American, born and bred, all the way from Amherst, Massachusetts. But yes, I have not had the pleasure of being introduced to your Mr. Ryker, but I have heard his accent, en passant, and yes, an Englishman, from the Midlands of that nation if my ears do not deceive me.”

Posted April 18, 2021 / F. Falmer Browne

"I do know Massachusetts," Addy declared, "'though I ain't never been there, an' I know England's over th' Atlantic Ocean, but didn't know it had a 'mid-lands'." Chuckling, she added, "Well, I reckon every country's got mid-lands, an' up-lands, an' down-lands of some sort!"

“Yes, indeed” chuckled Browne “I suppose that we’re sort of in the Midlands of America here, well, the top of the midlands, anyhow.” He looked around the room, like it represented Montana.

"Might well wanna go ta England some day, see all them castles an' whatnot," she said, grinning, "see real knights in armor, an' London...seen some pictures once, in a stereoscope, so they seemed really real, like ya could just reach out an' touch 'em!"

Falmer Browne had visited Europe, but he felt it would sound like crowing if her talked about that at this juncture. He was sensitive like that. But he did venture one factette. “You know, I met a knight once, Sir Thomas Fleming, in New York. Poor fellow, everybody he was introduced to was disappointed that he was wasn’t wearing a full suit of medieval armor! I owned an iron foundry at the time and offered to have a suit made to measure for him, but said he was scared he might fall into the Hudson when he was wearing it and sink to the bottom!”

He also forbore to mention that he had a stereoscope somewhere, too, as he couldn’t remember which set of double photographs he had left in the viewer. It might have been “Views of the Rappahannock” or something slightly saucier.