Posted July 26, 2021 / Clara Redmond Lutz
Miriam wanted to try the new machine but also would not take such a step without their employer's say so on the matter.
Jemima just screwed up her face in distain. "He won't give us any trouble!" she predicted confidently.
If he was as intimidated by Jemima as Miriam was, she believed it! The two girls saw Ned approach and soon were off to Kalispell again leaving behind Jemima who decided first off to see to the donkey. Clara went back into the cabin, even for an active soul like herself it had been a long hard day of work. She wondered too if being pregnant might have something to do with it too?
~*~ ~*~ ~*~
Jemima re-entered the shack then and spoke up to Clara, "Quiet without 'em."
"Indeed, quiet is not something one can enjoy when Arabella is about. Loquacious thing, that girl but she means well. I try not to get mad at her though I admit I do fail at times," Clara nodded.
"So you work with the new girl? I am happy for Arabella to have found a new friend. What do you think of her?......Miriam that is.........not Arabella."
She wanted to go to sleep fairly soon but there was still time for some talk.
"THERE'S SOMEBODY AT THE DOOR!!!"
Posted July 28, 2021 / Jemima Wigfall
Jemima re-entered the shack then and spoke up to Clara, "Quiet without 'em."
"Indeed, quiet is not something one can enjoy when Arabella is about. Loquacious thing, that girl but she means well. I try not to get mad at her though I admit I do fail at times," Clara nodded.
Jemima nodded. "She seems a little calmer since she's palled up with Miriam" she offered, having to bite her tongue not to call her 'Miss Kaufmann' as that is how she referred to her when working at Pettigrew's, just as Miriam had to refer to her as 'Miss Wigfall'.
"So you work with the new girl? I am happy for Arabella to have found a new friend. What do you think of her?......Miriam that is.........not Arabella."
Jemima nodded as lugubriously as ever to indicate her understanding of the question, and gave her habitual preliminary sniff. "I didn't like her at first, and not just because she's a Jew. I thought her too meek for the front of store work, but she's startin' to show that she's tough in her own quiet way."
Jemima knew that the painfully shy little seamstress had even managed to do a little modelling work for Pettigrew when the Saloon whore, Caroline Mundee, had come in for a fitting, and she was starting to roll out the patter for the customers without going bright red and quaking in her boots these days.
"They say still waters run the deepest." she said about Miriam although, truth to tell, the same adage could be applied to the pregnant Clara.
Posted July 29, 2021 / Clara Redmond Lutz
"Somebody who can calm Arabella? Now that is good to hear," Clara had to admit, "I never had any luck with that."
She then asked what Jemima thought of the newcomer.
"I didn't like her at first, and not just because she's a Jew. I thought her too meek for the front of store work, but she's startin' to show that she's tough in her own quiet way."
"They say still waters run the deepest," the other girl added.
"Interesting. Of course that makes Arabella pretty shallow," Clara quipped but in a deadpan fashion, "I am just teasing. I do like Arabella even though she thinks I do not. You see, I am not a very demonstrative person. "
"Jacob is helping me with that flaw of mine though," she had to point out.
"THERE'S SOMEBODY AT THE DOOR!!!"
Posted July 29, 2021 / Jemima Wigfall
"Somebody who can calm Arabella? Now that is good to hear," Clara had to admit, "I never had any luck with that."
Jemima frowned with interest, Clara seemed to agree with her that Arabella was a fibbertygibbet: someone who never stopped talking or asking questions or coming up with odd plans and ideas and notions. Miriam seemed to have made her a little more inclined to stop, look and listen.
Then on to Miriam, the new, quiet girl in town whom her brother seemed to have a quiet little crush on. Jemima smiled a little maliciously to herself, thinking what a wrong tree he was barking up there.
"They say still waters run the deepest," the other girl added.
"Interesting. Of course that makes Arabella pretty shallow," Clara quipped but in a deadpan fashion,
Clara was laying in to Arabella again, Jemima noted.
"You really don't like Arabella much, huh?" Jemima ventured. This was interesting, the saloon girl was always referring to Clara in conversation as 'my bosom friend' and telling her and Bridget how Clara hardly dared take a step out of the door without consulting Arabella on what to wear or how to do her hair or a myriad other things. She even reckoned that she was responsible for getting Jake and the new Mrs Lutz together in the first place.
"I am just teasing. I do like Arabella even though she thinks I do not. You see, I am not a very demonstrative person. "
Jemima nodded. If Clara was 'not very demonstrative', Miss Wigfall was virtually inert!
"Jacob is helping me with that flaw of mine though," she had to point out.
"How does he do that?" Jemima wondered out loud, with honest interest "I can't let myself go, either. Except when I'm fighting my brother." she admitted.
Posted July 29, 2021 / Clara Redmond Lutz
She did not want Jemima to get the wrong idea about her and Arabella. They were such disparate personalities is all.
"Honestly if Arabella ever found herself in trouble or in dire need of a friend, I would certainly step up to be that friend," Clara assured the other girl. She then admitted part of the issue was her very own issue of not being- as she labeled it - demonstrative.
"Jacob is helping me with that flaw of mine though," she had to point out.
"How does he do that?" Jemima wondered out loud, with honest interest "I can't let myself go, either. Except when I'm fighting my brother." she admitted.
"I can see where your brother would bring that side out of anyone," Clara thus far was not impressed with Hector. Handsome, yes. The rest, ugh.
"Well, I have long...especially after my mother's death...had an aversion to human touch even signs of affection, love, call it what you will. I get uncomfortable with such things as hugs, handshakes, you know," Clara started.
"Then Jacob came along and he gave me my first kiss, he held my hand...hands, he...well, suffice it to say I liked it. I even craved it and then there was Mrs. Blakesley...excuse me...Mrs. Pike. She hugged me, I liked it. I began to realize human contact was not a bad thing. Now I - on occasion - even look forward to such things. Wait til the baby comes, we shall be inseparable I feel,? Does all that make sense?"
"THERE'S SOMEBODY AT THE DOOR!!!"
Posted July 31, 2021 / Jemima Wigfall
Jemima listened - impassive looking, but all ears, as Clara explained quite candidly, the changes in her that the gangly young man had wrought in her. Jacob, whose attentions, platonic though they were, she had once commanded solely.
"Well, I have long...especially after my mother's death...had an aversion to human touch even signs of affection, love, call it what you will. I get uncomfortable with such things as hugs, handshakes, you know," Clara started.
Jemima nodded her understanding. She felt exactly the same way at the touch of her mother, or that unwelcome and surprisingly frequent and unnecessary visitor to their house, the odious Uncle Dick.
"Then Jacob came along and he gave me my first kiss, he held my hand...hands, he...well, suffice it to say I liked it. I even craved it and then there was Mrs. Blakesley...excuse me...Mrs. Pike. She hugged me, I liked it. I began to realize human contact was not a bad thing. Now I - on occasion - even look forward to such things. Wait til the baby comes, we shall be inseparable I feel,? Does all that make sense?"
Yes, it cut her to the quick, that the foolish young boy of 14 who had bizarrely proposed to her three years ago was now giving his love to another: a much improved model on herself, you could say. But she no longer resented Clara for it, now she had met her and worked together with her and knew her as a real person.
"It's like you were maybe just waiting for the right person to come along to... to kinda heal the wound. I think Jake... Jacob..." she used his, to her, 'new' name. He had always been Jake at school "... is the same. He's been sort of lost since his Ma died: it's like he was waiting for you to come along: the right person."
Funny, she suspected that Jacob had used his courtship of Joanna Coltrane as an excuse to dump her as soon as he had gotten over the initial shock of his mother's death and come to his senses a little. He had been very gentlemanly about it, offering to go through with his rash boyish promise to marry her. But when he had first set eyes on Clara Redmond, serving up pie in the diner, he had unceremoniously dropped poor Joanna like a sack of spuds.
"Maybe this is the year for finding the right person." she said, wistfully enough for her "You and Jacob, Mr and Mrs Pike, Arabella and Miriam. Maybe there's hope for me yet." she had added the last couple without even thinking about it.
Posted July 31, 2021 / Clara Redmond Lutz
As they talked and Clara listened to what Jemima had to say, it occurred to her that this young woman was a whole lot more intelligent than most people of Kalispell realized. No doubt they judged her for her looks and that was unfair. Clara found herself admitting her innermost thoughts regarding her relationship with Jacob and more. And Jemima responded with her own interesting and thoughtful take on such matters.
"It's like you were maybe just waiting for the right person to come along to... to kinda heal the wound. I think Jake... Jacob... is the same. He's been sort of lost since his Ma died: it's like he was waiting for you to come along: the right person."
"Oh...yes, that does make a good deal of sense," Clara nodded.
"Maybe this is the year for finding the right person," Jemima said, "You and Jacob, Mr and Mrs Pike, Arabella and Miriam. Maybe there's hope for me yet."
Clara blinked, "Arabella and Miriam? I thought we were talking about love not friendship?"
Suddenly it hit her, did Jemima mean what it seemed she did?
"Wait! You mean those two are.....?" she did not finish it because she was not quite sure of the correct wording.
"THERE'S SOMEBODY AT THE DOOR!!!"
Posted August 1, 2021 / Jemima Wigfall
"Maybe this is the year for finding the right person," Jemima said, "You and Jacob, Mr and Mrs Pike, Arabella and Miriam. Maybe there's hope for me yet."
Clara blinked, "Arabella and Miriam? I thought we were talking about love not friendship?"
"They aren't just friends." said Jemima flatly.
"Wait! You mean those two are.....?" she did not finish it because she was not quite sure of the correct wording.
The Wigfall girl pulled a face like she was smelling something unpleasant and nodded. "Oh well" she shrugged philosophically "Less competition for the boys." She didn't think Arabella would have many suitors, but she had gathered that Miriam had at least one admirer already in the form of her horrible brother.
"I thought you'd have realised about Muddy." Jemima added pointedly.
Posted August 1, 2021 / Clara Redmond Lutz
Jemima boldly declared the two girls were not merely friends. So that meant........Clara tried to wrap her mind about such a revelation. Had not Arabella talked about experiences with boys and Clara had even heard rumors that the girl had had a crush on that Evergreen hand, Billy. Talk about poor taste though in Clara's opinion.
Jemima seemed to feel it was a good thing as it meant less competition for boys. She also added, "I thought you'd have realised about Muddy."
"No, not at all. Say you do not think that maybe this Miriam unduly influenced Arabella in this sort of .........well.......behavior?" Clara suddenly had a theory.
"THERE'S SOMEBODY AT THE DOOR!!!"
Posted August 1, 2021 / Jemima Wigfall
Jemima seemed to feel it was a good thing as it meant less competition for boys. She also added, "I thought you'd have realised about Muddy."
"No, not at all. Say you do not think that maybe this Miriam unduly influenced Arabella in this sort of .........well.......behavior?" Clara suddenly had a theory.
Jemima merely barked out a dry "Ha!" at this notion. "More like the other way around!" she laughed somewhat humourlessly.
"Oh, I'd like to say I've been suspicious of Arabella ever since I first got to know her. You know: realised something was wrong about her from the beginning, but I was as blind as you were until she told me outright. Course, she's never liked me in that way!" Jemima said this as if it was something to be especially proud of.
"Then again, I ain't pretty like you, and I never saved her life and nursed her back to health and all those things she always does run on about you, Clara." she added, tellingly.