Aurelian pulled up his two horse wagon next to the Wigfall boarding house and applied the brake, probably not really necessary, his horses were so used to this sort of thing they knew to wait. He was dressed for the occasion, wearing a dark suit with a tie and his good hat, he looked the part of a town gentleman rather than dirt farmer he really was. He had trimmed his mustache and what passed for a goatee, his dress shoes were shined.
He had debated bringing along some flowers to present Lucinda but Clara felt that might be a bit too much, it's not like he was courting afterall. Just a friendly visit then a home cooked meal. Sometimes Aurelian thought he was more of a romantic than his no nonsense daughter but then she had fallen for a boy and gotten herself...............umm, married. There was a time when Aurelian thought the girl might never even meet a boy she liked...let alone marry one. Granted, in his opinion, the town and local ranches didn't exactly have a wide choice of suitable young men. The stress was on suitable not actual numbers.
As he then approached the front door to the place, he mentally rehearsed his greeting to the woman. One did not want to say the wrong thing and she think him an idiot. The next thing was now that he had arrived, did he knock on the door or did he just go right on in - it was a boarding house afterall not a private residence. Hell if he knew, he had never visited a boarding house before. With a last second pause of indecision he decided to knock, there was a convenient door knocker there. He gave it a few raps then cleared his throat and waited.
"THERE'S SOMEBODY AT THE DOOR!!!"
The door opened to Jemima Wigfall, wearing her dowdiest smock and mop cap and her filthiest pinny, clutching a dustpan and brush. "What?!" she started shortly, then saw who it was. "Oh, howdy Mr Redmond." she greeted the handsome widower.
For one brief second the dream that he was calling on her flitted across her yearning heart, but he soon disabused the poor girl of that fantastic notion and she called back: "MRS DEITRICH! MR REDMOND'S HERE FOR YOU!!!" in a voice loud enough to alert both Lucinda, the rest of the inmates of the boarding house, and the neighbours on either side.
"You look nice." she told him while they waited: her voice its usual flat and toneless self, but amour sparkling in her piggy black eyes as she looked him up and down. "Going anywhere special?" she asked, so she could later imagine herself in Lucinda's place.
The shout had roused the bored inhabitants of the building. From the front parlour came Hector Wigfall and a couple of curious guests, and Mrs Wigfall from the Kitchen, all crowding into the hallway. "Howdy Mr Redmond!" Hector called past Jemima "How about the price of them turnips?" Mrs Wigfall pushed her daughter out of the way, rather roughly, "Oh, won't you come in for a macaroon while you wait, Mr Redmond" she gushed. "My, don't you look nice? Are you going anywhere special?" "I asked him that already" complained Jemima, trying to fight her way to the front of the crowd.
"Here she comes!" shouted one of the guests as a female clomping was heard on the stairs. But it was just the sweet old lady from room 7, come to see what the noise was about. Well, entertainment was short in Kalispell these days, since the feud had died down.
Lucinda had meant to be waiting by the door to eliminate a scene like the one that confronted her now, but fiddling with her hair and the collar on her blouse had put her upstairs in front of her mirror when Aurelian knocked.
Poor Aurelian. Being ambushed by the Wigfall clan alone was bad enough, but all the other boarders where standing around now. She descended the stairs quickly, brushing past everyone and picking up the last few questions thrown at Aurelian. How nice he looked...he was all dressed up.
She tried to hide the excitement that lit up her eyes, and brushed her hands over her favorite wine-colored skirt to brush her nerves into place. Aurelian was no damsel in distress, but he should not have to face such a barrage of questions alone.
Reaching for her hat beside the door, she gave Aurelian an apologetic smile and then turned to face Jemima. "Mr. Redmond has kindly agreed to give me a tour of his homestead," she said calmly. Then to Mrs. Wigfall, she said, "We have plans for dinner so I'm afraid we can't linger."
She just ignored Hector.
Turning to Aurelian, she held out her arm. "Shall we?"
The look on Aurelian's face, though he did try to disguise it, showed he was less than pleased to have to now spend time with the whole Wigfall family plus some of their boarders whom he did not even know. Frankly it was none of their damn business.
He did reply with a simple "hello" back to Jemima and was surprised when she hollered for Lucinda that he had arrived. How the devil did she even know that? Apparently Lucinda must have told the Wigfalls.
"Thank you," he replied to her compliment of how he looked.
As to her question about where they were going, that was something she did not need to know so he simply gave no reply. By then the others had flooded up like the circus was in town. Mrs. Wigfall then repeated her daughter's questions .
"Perhaps," he answered, leave 'em guessing.
Mercifully, there came Lucinda then down the stairs, looking very nice in that dress too. He smiled up at her, ignoring his inquisitors.
"Mr. Redmond has kindly agreed to give me a tour of his homestead," she said calmly. Then to Mrs. Wigfall, she said, "We have plans for dinner so I'm afraid we can't linger."
"Indeed," Aurelian nodded tersely, his eyes firmly on the woman, paying no mind to the herd.
Turning to Aurelian, she held out her arm. "Shall we?"
"I do believe we shall," and arm in arm they quickly exited the building.
"THERE'S SOMEBODY AT THE DOOR!!!"
Mrs Wigfall, Hector Wigfall, Jemima Wigfall, the sweet little old lady from Room 7, and the two boarders from the parlour all spilled out onto the street after them, some waving them off with their hands, some waving handkerchiefs, with generic and well meaning shouts of "Goodbye!" "Have a great time!" "Safe travels" and Hector's unmistakable sardonic voice warning cheekily "Don't do anything I wouldn't do!" Even a couple of passers-by stopped to pull out handkerchiefs and join in the waving.
As mentioned, entertainment was a commodity hard to come by in Kalispell, in those far off days.
"Oh don't they make a lovely couple!" beamed Mrs Wigfall, who had a great blow to her romantic life of late, and felt the resultant void deeply. "You can almost hear the wedding bells."
"She's not right for him." replied Jemima flatly, jealousy writ large about her peevish features.
Lucinda adjusted her hat after Aurelian, being the gentleman that he was, helped her into the wagon. She didn't know how far it was to the Redmond farm, and it wouldn't do to get sunburn on the way there.
"Will Clara be joining us today?" she asked, blocking out the noise of her building-mates' good wishes and Hector's unsettling advice. There was a lot of grey area in what he wouldn't do.
Her stomach jiggled a little uncertainly, like the filling in a chicken pie right before it got put in the oven. This was the first time she'd been out with a man in a situation like this, and society's expectations were different out here. Back home, she wouldn't have gone out without a chaperone.
She laughed at herself and waved at one of the people waving handkerchiefs. Back home, she'd been unmarried. Here, she was a widow. Surely that made her riding out with Aurelian all right. Even if it was all right or not, she was doing it. And she was goin
Aurelian offered his hand to help her up onto the passenger seat of the wagon, she clambered on easily enough. All the while they seemed to have a send off crowd. Honestly, was life in town that deadly dull to merit this? As he got back on up himself and released the wagon brake, Lucinda had a question for him.
"Will Clara be joining us today?"
"Yes she is. In fact she is back at the farm right now, no doubt deep in preparing our dinner. I let her alone in a kitchen. I was in the war you know but I'm not a brave enough man to meddle in her cooking," he smiled.
Once they cleared the town outskirts he turned to her, "I hope this visit idea of mine is not going to cause you any scandal in town? I know there are some very real busy bodies and gossip mongers in Kalispell."
"I would hate to be the cause of any grief on your part."
Lucinda sat back against the wagon seat and nodded, pleased that Clara was willing to come out and cook for her visit. "I know very few men who would be brave enough to get between Clara and her cooking!" She laughed and watched the houses pass by as they made their way out of town.
Apparently Aurelian had thought this through more than she had, since he had concerns about what ramifications her visit would have back in town. She hummed thoughtfully in her throat and was quiet for a minute. Would it cause a scandal? Back home, it surely would have if she had been an unmarried woman. But what were the societal expectations for widows out here?
Finally she said cautiously, "I don't see why it should cause any scandal. We've both been married before, so there's no worries of you ruining my 'reputation.' And neither of our spouses are living, so I think we should be safe from accusations of adultery."
Here she smiled a little, in spite of the the pain of thinking of her deceased husband. "So any gossip that gets out should be easily put to rest. Don't you think?" She glanced at Aurelian, lifting one eyebrow as if inviting him to dispute her logic.
"I don't see why it should cause any scandal. We've both been married before, so there's no worries of you ruining my 'reputation.' And neither of our spouses are living, so I think we should be safe from accusations of adultery."
"All good points alright," Aurelian nodded.
"So any gossip that gets out should be easily put to rest. Don't you think?" She glanced at Aurelian, lifting one eyebrow.
He met her glance with a smile, "I'm not sure gossip is logical or can even be put to rest by the truth. But I like your confidence. As for me, to be honest, I do not care about what people say and I learned that from a wiser person than me. My Katherine."
***
The ride was not a long one and soon enough they were approaching the Redmond farm. Nothing fancy, a single story cabin with a large garden in the back, a small barn, a chicken coop, enough fencing for a corral, and of some importance, a well. While none of it was fancy, true enough but all of it was well kept up. They had passed a few fields too and the crops looked hale and hearty with a promise then of a good harvest.
"Well, here it is. It's not much but it's mine," he declared with a touch of pride.
Lucinda surveyed the farm as they rode up, her face breaking into a smile. "It's wonderful," she said happily. It was wonderful. This was what Francis had wanted: a place where they could be self-sufficient and have everything they needed.
How long had it taken Aurelian and the previous owners to prove everything up like this? Based on what the Dietrich homestead had looked like when she'd abandoned it, making the farm this established must have taken many years of hard work.
She started to get down from the wagon, then stopped and folded her hands in her lap. Although he was a farmer, Aurelian was also a gentleman and would help her down if she just waited. Even though she was perfectly capable of getting down by herself, there was nothing wrong with availing herself of Aurelian's help. Nothing wrong at all.
She glanced sideways at Aurelian from beneath her hat, a dimple dancing in her smile.