"Packing your case? And what are you planning to do, runaway from the doldrums of saloon life, or as a precaution if Priest does manage to upset the electorate come September?" Phin quizzed. "Seems to me you have quite the following with your piano playing, and with Miss Mundee's vocalizations."

"Oh, I'm comin' back in the evenin's to play for Cara, but in the daytime I'm workin' fer Mr Jolly instead o' scrubbin' floors and emptiyin' spitoons. I'm gonna live with Bridget Monahan." she explained matter-of-factly. Phin displayed the level of interest he had in the girl's domestic arrangements by immediately getting back onto the subject of the Mayoral elections. 

"I agree that people here tend to take the path of ;least resistance about most things, makes life easier that way. It's hard enough as it is, but when it comes to the Mayors position, well, I'd like to think that's different, and I'd hope political parties aside, the best man for the job would take it, not the one that sounded like he was clergy."

"You got a mighty high opinion of folks, Mr McVey... especially fer a newspaper feller." she grinned. McVey's articles weren't exactly flattering about a lot of folks who made the news - herself included!

"Of course, you understand that no one's stumping yet..."

"'Cept Bridget" Arabella said, under her breath.

"..., a bit too early for that sort of thing, but I expect things to get lively once they do. Be good to hear what they have to say, except for Cole Latham, nobody understands his legalese anyway.'" He stated.

"Bet Mr Reeve does. That feller's a lawyer in a place called Virginia City. I got excited at first, cause I thought he meant he was from Old Dominion, like me, but it's just some place round here." she sighed, taking a last look around the room to see if she'd forgotten anything. 

Arabella had begun to suspect that Mr McVey was not so much asking her questions now as thinking out loud, trying to come to terms with the, admittedly odd, situation and maybe also filtering out what could and couldn't go into his newspaper. 

One thing she could help him with did come up then:

"While I remain suspicious of his motives, I struggle to uncover any other reason for his presence. Not like there was a girl he had followed here. That would be reason enough, to be sure. It's just I can't put my finger on it." Phin was not the most trusting of souls, so having his doubts about Mister Reeve was normal for him, given the situation. "As far as Latham, well, that would be the one I would think Reeve would be for backing, but, he's not."

"Ooh!" Arabella said excitedly "Maybe there is a girl involved!" She stopped packing and came and sat on the bed again, for she had a tale to tell.

"Like I said, when I've been round there, that Mister Reeve was always real polite to me and Jemima, but he was especially nice to Anæsthesia Orr: those two was spudlin' up just as cosy as two little bugs in a rug, I mean, I don't blame him, she is real pretty." Arabella sighed "He must have met her when her Pappy's will was read. And I told Hector Wigfall all about it and he looked green with jealousy, because I think he likes her, too, but that's probably just because he's on the rebound from bein' rejected by Miriam Kaufman!" she said with evident satisfaction.

All this gossip about the love life of the Town's younger folk was surely not what the reporter was there to hear, but Arabella pushed on.

"I reckon it's one o' them there 'Eternal Triangles'! You ever been a pointy corner in one o' them, Mr McVey? Or ain't you big on torrid love affairs?" she asked the grizzled looking newspaper man.

"Torrid love affairs? My, yes as a matter fact I have, and been in more than one of those pointy corners, as I expect you will over the years, or perhaps not if you marry." Phin began.

"Really?!!!" gasped Arabella, open mouthed. Politics was interesting, but the idea of Mr McVey having once had (presumably in some long ago, antediluvian past) some kind of a lovelife was absolutely fascinating. As for the idea of her getting married: well it sure would be a funny wedding! She actually imagined it for a second, Miriam and herself turning up in the same white dress, the Reverend Evans conducting the service and getting all mixed up with the words, Mr Flandry giving her away, Caroline and Miriam's little sister as their bridesmaids, Frances Grimes playing the organ, Jemima as bouncer on the door... oh, if only such things could be. 

But there would be no 'eternal triangles'. Oh no no no. Arabella would never, ever, ever... Mr McVey's voice brought her back into the room. 

"But you have now peaked my interest about Mister Reeve in a completely different light."

"Why, d'ya think he's in a external triangle?" she asked.

"You say something to the effect that Reeve and Miss Orr have just met, but that perhaps he is sweet on her? Am I correct? She inherited well I presume? So, a pretty young woman..."

"I'll say!" agreed Arabella.

"... now the beneficiary of her fathers will, a charming suitor, if in fact he is one, and she with some wealth? Am I making any sense Arabella? Does it not strike you a bit odd, or not?"

"Sure, you reckon Mr Reeve's a placer miner - pannin' fer gold." she nodded. "Well, he got something in Mr Orr's will too, so he'd'a been there when they read it out: he'll know exactly what Miss Orr's come into." she rubbed her hands together and licked her lips like she was looking at a tasty slice of pie "Oooooh, the intrigue!!"

"Maybe he's gonna marry her and as soon as he's got his hands on her money he'll be all chuckling and rubbin' his hands together and muttering 'ho ho ho, in me power!'  And then he'll make some dastardly plot to kill her, or no! I know, I know, he'll make some dastardly plot to drive her mad, or think she's mad or something, and she'll hang herself - like what Mrs Potee did - and he'll be all pretendin' to cry at the funeral but then this mysterious, beautiful woman will appear at his side, all dressed in black and she'll lift her veil and it'll be his evil girlfriend what put him up to it!" 

"Oooh - and he's even got a top hat, too!!" she added, for good measure.

This would actually make a good play, Arabella thought, and she would be in it and play the evil conniving girlfriend, of course, with her 'palid beauty and raven-black hair'. 

She jumped up of the bed and held out her hand to him.

"Come on! We need to warn her before it's too late!! He's probably gas-lightin' her right now!!"

Mr McVey threw cold water over all of Arabella's far fetched and somewhat slanderous theories about Mr Reece and Miss Orr, the old meanie.

"Those kinds of accusations without some sort of proof can be dangerous."

"Well it ain't like I'm sayin' it to anyone important" she reasoned "Just you."

"Now if he is indeed on the up and up, which is highly possible we needn't intrude upon them. What we can do is keep an eye on him. But to suggest that a handsome young man and a beautiful young girl are headed for some sort foul play is for the moment, ludicrous. I should not have mentioned it."

"Yea, you wanna be careful, puttin' ideas like that into the head of a girl like me!" she agreed "Some of the fellers say I'm highly strung. Or 'should be strung up high' one or t'other." she informed him as she jumped off the bed. 

"Well, that's it, you can stay here if you like. But I'm off to move into my new place." she grabbed her spare bonnet and other things that would be crushed in the case. "You can carry my trunk if you like, unless you're worried people might talk: think you're moving in with a girl a quarter of your age! Well, you know people and their wild gossip and theories."

Mr McVey was chattering away as Arabella grabbed her non-packable items: two dresses, spare bonnet, basket and three large round circles made of bamboo. These were very hard to carry and to manoeuvre through the doorway. 

"You and I disagree on a number of things, yet, we agree on others. Mister Reeve is certainly one to keep an eye on. And I would say, he is dangerous in another way, to the political atmosphere in Kalispell. He is an odd fellow, yet, so is Mister Pettigrew. Perhaps the goal of him running is to slit the vote? I'm not exactly confident on that assumption."

"Now don't you be mean about Mr Pettigrew, Mr McVey, he's been right nice to me: teachin' me all about how to speak proper and act like a lady." she objected. Pettigrew had taught her something else, too, something more important than those surface embellishments, something at her very core. 

He hoisted the trunk that was surprising lighter than he would have expected. "As time moves on, we'll have a better idea of Pettigrew's purpose in the grand scheme of the elections this fall." He added, then, "I'm following you, Arabella."

"Hold on, I'm all tangled up!" she yelped, the three bamboo circles seemed to have minds of their own and were doing their darndest to stop her getting through the doorway. "I'm takin' these hoops with me, in case crinolines come back in!" she informed him. 

Eventually she got herself through the door and down the stairs, with a shout of "I'm goin' now, I'll be back at seven!" at Caroline's door. When the two of them reached the bar, there was a ragged cheer from some of the rounders who were regulars "Don't worry, I'll be back at seven, boys!" she assured them.

"Oh damn!" one of them joked. 

"You movin' in with him?!" another joshed. Arabella laughed and didn't say yes and didn't say no: well, Phin had said he didn't care if people talked!