"A good plan to assemble all of the needed materials for the building beforehand," Alice agreed, "And since we are already into fall the weather is always a threat the father into October we get, well, rain at least. I'm sure there will be a good turnout for the raising. It does take a community to raise a barn, unless it is hired out, as some do. But that, that is expensive."
If worse came to worse, perhaps she and Speed to help defray the cost of construction, should the idea of a barn raising fail for whatever reason, though the weather could derail any kind of plans they might have.
"The law is the law."
"Mining's not everyone's choice of hobbies, it just happens to be mine."
"Well then, there is a good deal going on, I think sending a wire to Governor Houser rather than travel there.” Speed announced. "I need to be here in town, let people see both Pike and I are on the job where they need us to be.” That was certainly important, and a wire would serve the purpose, whatever the answer, it would be the same in person as it would be in a wire.
“If the Governor will appoint us then we can investigate this attack with the assurance that we could follow up the investigation with arrests, and a trial instead of sitting here unable to do anything legal about the barn burning.” He added, then he continued along a different vein,
“The wedding day will be here soon enough Arabella, we just need to get some things accomplished before that can happen. Life is firmly in the way at the present time, and that is really the problem. But it won’t take long to get everything worked out, and in order, right Alice?”
Alice smiled. “Why, of course. Why wouldn’t it?”
Clara listened to the marshal and his wife to be. Their hearts were certainly in the right place. She had no doubt whatsoever that the marshal wanted to find out those who were guilty of the attack on her father's farm. However.....
Maybe she was a cynic but she did not really believe anything would be done in the end. The Evergreen bunch and their malevolent leader, Elias Steelgrave, would still be scot free a year from now. Until something actually happened, words didn't mean much.
So Clara nodded, "Yes, of course, marshal. You are the expert."
Now as far as the barn-raising, that would indeed happen and fairly soon too. Father was busy on it and was already finding himself with lots of community support.
"The entire concept of a barn raising is so one does not have to hire the labor. People show up of their own accord. Father is not worried, in fact he is quite heartened by the level of support in Kalispell."
She really did need to get back into that kitchen though lest any food cooking did not burn.
"I will be back soon," she excused herself.
"Everybody can feather their nest, but it's not just anybody that can lay an egg!"
Arabella watched Clara go.
"Isn't she amazing? Running this place all on her own and carrying a baby in that big ol' fat tummy of hers?" She leaned forward conspiratorially and whispered to Alice "We need to make sure she doesn't over-do it at this barn-raising shin-dig. She's not the type who accepts helps easily. Whenever I walk into that kitchen and offer to help her make a Brunswick stew or rustle up some chitlins and turnip greens, she hustles me out quicker than you can snap your fingers." she warned the other woman.
She returned to the subject of Clara's upcoming stork delivery.
"Between you and me, they're thinking of naming the baby after me... Arabella..." in case they didn't already know "... and asking me to be her Godmother. You can tell it's going to be a girl by the way she carrying her bump so high. Oh sorry, Marshall, I hope all this talk of Mrs Lutz's delicate condition isn't embarrassing you at all!"
As so often with Miss Mudd, wishing something might be true so transmogrified into thinking it was true in her pea sized brain.
"Isn't she amazing? Running this place all on her own and carrying a baby in that big ol' fat tummy of hers?" She leaned forward conspiratorially and whispered to Alice "We need to make sure she doesn't over-do it at this barn-raising shin-dig. She's not the type who accepts helps easily. Whenever I walk into that kitchen and offer to help her make a Brunswick stew or rustle up some chitlins and turnip greens, she hustles me out quicker than you can snap your fingers."
"It is quite the responsibility running this cafe while Missus Pike was away, and I'll just bet she is glad that the pikes are back." Alice stated, as it was true of anyone caring for another's business for whatever reason. "And you're right, we can't allow her to ver do it out there, and we won't, if we can help it."
"Between you and me, they're thinking of naming the baby after me... Arabella..." in case they didn't already know "... and asking me to be her Godmother. You can tell it's going to be a girl by the way she carrying her bump so high. Oh sorry, Marshall, I hope all this talk of Mrs Lutz's delicate condition isn't embarrassing you at all!"
Speed smiled and took a drink of his coffee, "Why no, Arabella, not at all. Ladies preparing to give birth is a natural and exciting time for both the wife and the husband. It is hardly embarrassing. The fact is, I find it beautiful."
"The law is the law."
"Mining's not everyone's choice of hobbies, it just happens to be mine."
"Well Alice, best we get to the job at hand, which is in the mining office, I'm sure the books are fine, Ada is excellent at what she does, and then, over to the Marshall's Office to see what's waiting there for us." Speed said thinking all that would be necessary would be an overview to get him up to speed on what had been happening.
Across the street might be a different story what with arrest reports in the log, fines collected in the ledger, and any new circulars while he had been recovering. That could be a lot to go over. "Maybe we stop at the hotel and get a couple of rooms as I'm sure this will run late, and it's a long ride back to the ranch."
"That's true on all counts, but we'll see what Charlie got done and what is left." Alice offered, "You're idea of the hotel makes perfect sense because I too agree about how late this all might so." Then she chuckled, "Like anything would go smoothly in either office."
"Don't I know it, but I'm glad to be back on my feet and able to get things done once more. I do trust Ada and Charley to have done the best they could without me." And he chuckled, "I am in despensible you know."
"Only in certain areas of your life Mister Guyer!" She said forcefully.
"Zat so? Well," He fished out a silver dollar, "This ought to cover it, thank you, Clara."
@Wayfarer