" So, yer wileys figger ta have me all wrapped up an' worshin' dishes, that it?"
"Did I say that?" She smiled up at him sweetly and shrugged. "I don't think that's what I said...nope!"
"What if i was ta tell you I had other plans fer you an me? What if I was ta tell ya I got the really honeymoon all planned out so's we got that time tagether we talked about, an' I can take care of some bidness that needs tendin' to? What about that?"
"Is that so?" She looked up at him, a bit surprised, but then, she wouldn't put it past him to have planned something. And now she was curious. Of course, chances were good that if they didn't do something now, the livestock would arrive, then, with luck, a child, and the chance to get away for any length of time would be gone.
"So this here bein' enslaved? As Depitty Town Marshal I could arrest you ya know." He said,aking a hollow threat.
"Oh, but then we couldn't go on that honeymoon, and you wouldn't be able to get to your business, and then we might end up losing the ranch, and with me letting Clara and Jacob use the apartment above the cafe...why, we'd be out on the streets!" She sighed and batted her eyes. "All because you felt compelled to lock me up!"
"Well, if you don’t get your affair out of this flux place you can always stay at our’s. We got a room empty," Jemima offered straightforwardly enough, with a sniff.
"Oh, thank you but I doubt it will come to that," Clara had no intention of spending her wedding night in a thin walled boarding house. She wanted some privacy with her new husband.
"Well, Bridget, we will be cutting the wedding cake soon. You will not want to miss getting a slice, Mrs. Pike baked it and did a magnificent job decorating it too,"
“Cake!” beamed Bridget “Cake, ‘Mima!” she smiled at the morose Wigfall girl. “Make you fat.” replied Jemima.
"Oh nonsense, Bridget is not even near fat. One thick slice of wedding cake will not make a whit of difference," Clara immediately disagreed.
"Well, I really do need to go and make my rounds with visiting the other guests," the bride now decided.
Townsfolk, employee at Lick Skillet
Role
Primary
Nickname
Clara, she does not like nicknames, believing them to be frivolous.
Jacob was sure of it. Well, at least the legal fact of it.
“Yes Sir, Seventeenth of September, that’s my birthday. I’ll be eighteen and the farm’ll be legally mine. O’ course, Granny’ll think she’s still running the place but…” he shook his head thoughtfully.
Well then, why not be a farmer. It's what you know, how you've been brought up. Clara knows a lot about farm life too," to Aurelian that was a bit of good news even if the boy didn't seem to think so.
“I might well keep it on” Jacob nodded “Either to supply the White Rose, or maybe turn the whole place into a cannery.” Well, he certainly thought big! “Traditional farming’s going nowhere and the big cattle ranges are on the wane too, as far as I can see.” he opined.
“It’s not all fully formed as a plan, Sir, I’m still looking, and listening: it would mean a lot if I could get your advice in future: as I feel my way forward.” Jacob frowned.
"I'm on your side, Jacob, I really am. You can always come to me," Aurelian assured him.
“My Pa used to give me advice, and I didn’t like a lot of it. He used to say: das ist immer der beste Rat ... that’s‚ that’s the useful kind“.
Aurelian nodded, "Well, one thing that I won't be doing, I won't be advising you in German. I don't know the language."
Jacob laughed. “Well, me and Lee only keep it up as a kinda secret code language ‘cause Granny doesn’t understand a word of it, either.” He admitted.
"Look I'm glad we talked, I think we set a foundation for doing this on a regular basis and that's a good thing. But discuss all this with Clara now. Try and come to decisions such as these as a partnership. In the long run, you won't regret it," he patted the boy on the back.
“Thank you, Sir.” Said the lad, and he meant it. There was something else, though.
“Oh, and about Lee, er, Leonora. Well, Sir, you know she’s awful busted up over all of this. I think she feels even worse than Clara and me about, well, you know.” He shrugged a little. He couldn’t really say me getting your daughter pregnant out loud. “It’d mean the world to me if, well, if you could speak to her, sorta put her mind at ease that you don’t blame her for everything. I know her way of thinking isn’t…, well, she’s a woman and she doesn’t always employ logic the way we men do.” he reasoned, indulging in a nice bit of 19th Century misogyny. “Your opinion of her seems to mean a lot to Lee, Mr. Redmond.”
Then Granny Miggins was on them.
“Come on you two, stop gossipin' like two old wimmin! Cake’s bein’ cut! An’ you’ve both got speeches to make – but don’t make ‘em too long, mind! It’s nearly time for my nap. And you…” she prodded Jacob “Remember, you’re meant to compliment the bridesmaids, even if one of ‘em is that dreadful Mudd girl.”
"I can't see why not." Was the retort. "I'd jest take in chains. Be a lot cheaper thata way. I mean, well, there's the clothes we wouldn't have to worry about, or anything else really. I'd jest drop ya at the jail where we're headed and that'd take care of meals an' such. Hardly a problem at all, really." He smirked and shook his head.
"As far as Clara an' Jacob, well, they'd be welcome to it, cuz by the time we got back, the house an' out buildin's'll be done, an' the stock on the way." He again feigned sorrow, "But alla that bein' dun, well, that'd be somethin' to lookfor'd to, when ya get out, a'course."
Young Jacob assured Aurelian he was indeed gaining himself a farm come his birthday which was not that far away. Funny, Aurelian thought Clara was slightly older than this lad but nope, didn't really matter either way though. He was full of plans yet again, keeping the farm besides the White Rose possibility and a cannery now too? Too much ambition, not enough experience and reality. However he had to hope Clara, normally so sensible (this recent event showing she was not ALWAYS sensible) would keep him grounded.
"Son, they will always need farmers, people like to eat," he had to point out to one of the young man's declarations. Here he had thought the boy lived and breathed farming, it did not appear to be the case. That was worrisome.
“Oh, and about Lee, er, Leonora. Well, Sir, you know she’s awful busted up over all of this. I think she feels even worse than Clara and me about, well, you know.” He shrugged a little.
"Well, it certainly is not her fault, we both know whose fault it was don't we?" Aurelian was blunt on that assessment and he wasn't just blaming Jacob, Clara was also at fault.
“It’d mean the world to me if, well, if you could speak to her, sorta put her mind at ease that you don’t blame her for everything. I know her way of thinking isn’t…, well, she’s a woman and she doesn’t always employ logic the way we men do.” he reasoned, “Your opinion of her seems to mean a lot to Lee, Mr. Redmond.”
"Oh, certainly, I can do that," Aurelian nodded immediately. To her credit even Lenora had suspected far more than he had and tried to head it off while he had been oblivious, counting on his perfect daughter. And it turned out she wasn't. She was a human being. And he loved her dearly regardless.
Granny Miggins then trundled up in a foul mood (when wasn't she), telling them it was time to cut the cake. And also reminding them to compliment the bridesmaids. Whatever, Aurelian just agreed, "Fine, be right there."
Poor Clara, she and the old woman were NOT going to get along.
Everyone had been gathered so that they had a view of the nice cake Emeline had done such a superb job on and on very short notice too. Now it was time to cut into it, Clara thought it so exquisite she almost felt badly about having to destroy. Her brother on the other hand was just plain hungry and sighed at the announcement.
"Alright everybody, before we all have a piece of this here fine cake, thank you again Mrs. Pike, we need to have a couple speeches. I don't know about Jacob, but I'm gonna make mine a short one so here goes..." Aurelian announced.
"I have been blessed with the most wonderful daughter anyone can imagine in Clara. I hate to give her up. She will always be my little girl to me. That said no one was a better help here on our family farm, Wyatt and I literally depended on her for so much and no one was more diligent than Clara. I hope Jacob realizes - and I think he does - what an excellent asset to the marriage he is getting."
"So let me close then - I told you it would be short," he smiled then continued, "by wishing these two young people a long and happy marriage. I told them they can count on me for whatever assistance I can give them. But in the end, it's up to them, it's their lives now. I'm confident they are up to the task. Good luck, Clara and Jacob."
Clara now clapped with an actual big grin on her face, Wyatt joining her.
Jacob’s effort was the usual Groom’s speech, thanking the vicar for the service, and the new father-in-law for his speech and for his lovely daughter’s hand and for having them all over, etc. It was incumbent upon him to lavish masses of praise onto Clara too, of course, and that was no effort to do, she looked so beautiful.
“It’s also my job to thank the Maid of Honour and Bridesmaid, and that’s easy, too.” He smarmed, a little awkwardly. “Mrs Pike, if you’re used to that name yet Mam, you look radiant, Mr Pike is a very lucky man…” that got a low murmur of approbation and from somewhere he produced a neat little bouquet of flowers which he walked over and handed to her and gave her a kiss on each cheek.
“I’d better be getting one o’ them there posies, too.” Arabella’s voice could be heard telling someone. Jacob seemed to relax a little at this interruption.
“Yeah Reb, you got one too.” Jacob laughed, fishing out an equally nice little bouquet and handing it over to her, with the obligatory kisses. “You scrubbed up pretty good.”
“All the ladies here today look lovely and I wish I had flowers for them all” he continued, looking a little serious again “… and there’s one lady I would like to mention particularly that… well, if it wasn’t for her, I don’t think that I’d even be here today, let alone in any fit state to be married. As most of you know, both Clara and I lost our mothers when we were of an age when we most needed their help and advice. From what Clara’s told me, I know that Mrs Pike there’s been like a second mother to her and well, I know Clara would want me to say Thank You from us to her for everything that she has done, not just today but over the last year.”
“As for me” he continued “When my Ma died, I gotta admit, I went through a very rough time…” he shook his head, almost in a trance thinking back to that dark, dark time in his life “… and there was one special lady who got me through it and, well, all I can say to her is…” Both Granny Miggins and Leonora sat up a little more proudly in their makeshift seats, expecting to be the recipient of this benediction “… well, just Thanks for Everything, Jemima.”
Hector Wigfall later admitted that this bizarre revelation at the end of Lutz’s oration nearly put him off his stride when he came to make his own speech, but like all good raconteurs, he made lemonade out of lemons.
“Yes, that’s right folks, my sister can provide everything you need for a wedding: suit, boutonnieres, bouquets, you name it, everything but a beautiful bride.” It was a pretty cruel joke, but it had the ameliorating effect of making it sound like all his horrible sister had done was get Jacob’s outfit and the flowers together. Hector also had mighty big suspicions about the ring Jacob was wearing, too, but he didn’t mention that.
The rest of his turn (once he’d done the joke about having ‘only prepared a short speech’ and then getting out a massive sheaf of notes) was pretty standard Best Man fayre, including jokes about all Lutz’s previous girlfriends not being able to make it today, as there wasn’t room in the church for them all, and some pretty near the knuckle innuendo about what would be happening later tonight and Clara’s ‘interesting condition’*. If not everybody thought his jokes were funny, Arabella more than made up for it by laughing uproariously throughout, and loudly explaining to Bridget what each of the jokes meant.
Once this ordeal was over, everybody could relax again and give a cheer as Jacob and Clara, together holding what looked like an enormous bowie knife, cut the cake.
Barnabas swelled with pride at the mention of his new bride in conjunction with the Lutz wedding, but then he should not be surprised, after all, the two, Em and Clara, were very good friends. Clara had been an integral part of his own ceremony, and he had been glad of it.
He was happy for the couple, even if it seemed sudden, it was the way things happened. Man meets woman, boy meets girl, something happens between them, and the next thing one knows, their wed, and starting a family.
Posted June 14, 2021 / Thomas / Rtd. Player: Boshmi
Aurelian gave his speech, shortly followed by Jacob and the Wigfall boy, and while Thomas had spent the last few minutes engrossed by the wide assortment of quality foodstuffs at hand, even he had to lend an ear to the more impassioned moments of the newly-made Mr. Lutz's presentation.
He nodded humbly at the thanks he was given, and when the time came for the couple to cut their cake, he joined in on the cheering chorus, raising a glass to their prosperity and happiness.
"Thank you, Jacob...Mr. Lutz." Emeline beamed brightly, finding it a bit strange to think of either Clara or Jacob as a married adult now, but she had no doubts that they had a good chance at making this work. While they were still very young, they had some good elders to go to when they needed to, and they were both sensible (mostly) and hard-working.
Silently, she wished them all the best, and she would do what she could to help them, whether they wanted it or not! After all, Clara was like a sister to her, and she knew the girl had a good future ahead of her.
As for destroying her cake...well, that was unavoidable!