"Ladies should be seen and not heard"
"I believe you have a very valid point, Lewis. And maybe we can get something done about this." Speed agreed, "There would be those with a more intimate knowledge of her situation with her father than either of us, that's for sure. Now why and how she vanished is a true mystery."
"Well, I'm riding down to Helena tomorrow to talk to her. I'll see what I can get out of her." he said glumly. Meanwhile, Alice was asking Anaesthesia about the unwelcome subject of her mother.
Alice almost shuddered at the statement about her and her mother. And your mother? How is she? I don't see her here tonight, not that I was looking for her and an escort, you understand. Just that she would be hard to miss in this crowd." And that was the truth, the woman could dress!
"Ugh, don't even talk about her!" the girl sniffed. Frankly, she found her mother an embarrassment.
The blonde confection soon cheered up, however, as she saw the next couple enter the lobby, it was Jacob Lutz and his wife. She more or less grabbed the former.
"Oh Jake! Fancy seeing you here, and don't you look smart in your collar and tie!!" she declared, shoving a dainty white gloved hand in his face, so that he was perforce to let go of Clara's arm and take it and, owing to it's proximity to his face, kiss it.
Anaesthesia's eyes darted all over the nicely decorated interior of the theatre lobby.
"Why, doesn't this just remind you of that silly school play we were in together? Why don't you remember? The one where we had to kiss each other?" she giggled "Oh, how the other children teased us afterwards!"
She finally acknowledged Clara's presence.
"I have to say, Mrs Lutz, your husband is a very good kisser. I'm sure you'll agree."
And here Jacob had thought the worst part of tonight would be sitting through a long biblical epic wearing an itchy shirt and tie in an uncomfortable seat.
@[Flip] Wayfarer
Caroline just smirked, "And you should just shrivel up and die." But the pair kept walking til they reached the two ladies.
"Sally...Constance."
"I've just been doing Miss Mudd's hair!" Sally blurted excitedly, showing off a little "We're very close you know..." she bragged.
Poor Sal, if only she'd known that she was talking with the three people in the room who had actually shared a bed, at one time or another, with the vivacious little actress. To be fair, Caroline had been drunk at the time, and Brendan had been comatose.
"Not as close as Miss Kaufmann, of course, those two are very special friends."
Little did the innocent girl know how true she spoke, although, again, Caroline, Brendan and Constance all knew the true extent of that particular friendship.
"Isn't this just the most exciting thing in the world?!" she asked, then immediately blurted out "OH! Look, it's Justus and Cade" she somehow made the latter's name drag out for a whole minute, lingering over its cadence.
"Mister Brodie is doing me the honour of escorting me in tonight!" she said proudly.
Poor Sally, what a skinny, tatty haired stick of nothing in her faded smock she looked between the beautiful and curvaceous, attractively dressed Constance and Caroline. Cade Brodie would perhaps think that he'd drawn the short straw here.
"The law is the law."
"Mining's not everyone's choice of hobbies, it just happens to be mine."
"Well, I'm riding down to Helena tomorrow to talk to her. I'll see what I can get out of her."
"I don't envy you the ride, but listen, while you're there, and should you have time. Look up Mister Dutton Peabody in the Governor's office, see if he can't be of some help. What is it you call it, a change of something or other, but if there's help in Helena, it would be him." Dutton had come through before, and there was no doubt he would be willing to do so again. "He practiced law here before he was tabbed to be on the Governor's staff. A good man whose heart is likely still here in Kalispell.
"Oh Jake! Fancy seeing you here, and don't you look smart in your collar and tie!!"
The young lady had to make sure the lobby heard her address Clara's husband and nearly tore him away from his wife. Alice watched for the reaction that was bound to come.
"Why, doesn't this just remind you of that silly school play we were in together? Why don't you remember? The one where we had to kiss each other?" she giggled "Oh, how the other children teased us afterwards!" She went on, Alice trying not to allow her smile to be seen by raising her hand to recover her mouth.
It was most certainly one thing to be cordial and acknowledge a person you had known for years, quite another to tear him away from his wife. and then, quite surprisingly she acknowledged Clara. Alice braced herself for what might be next when Anaesthesia pushed it one step further,
"I have to say, Mrs Lutz, your husband is a very good kisser. I'm sure you'll agree."
Hearing that Speed looked around to see who had uttered that sentence.
"There are the boys...they look good, don't they? They'll have all the girls swooning!"
Emeline laughed, shaking her head. "That is, if they don't swoon themselves!" It was odd to see the hands whom she was accustomed to in dirty, sweaty work clothes looking all fancied up, although she did have to admit that they both made fine specimens, and while they might not be accustomed to all the nuances of a soiree like this, they were well-mannered and would do just fine!
"No doubt, and they don't look bad all shined up for this swaray." He replied, "But me? I got the real prize." He bragged, "An' there' Speed with the lawyer fella what took over for ol man Orr after he passed. Maybe we'll avoid that for the moment. Let 'em get at whatever it is their jawin' about." Then, as if a light came on, "I'm sorry, Em. I sound like, well, like I have no better way of speaking, and that does you a disservice. Not like I'm out on the range with the boys."
"You can speak however you wish," Emeline murmured, giving his hand a squeeze, "so long as you continue to flatter me!" She did know that his speech was more relaxed with 'the boys' on the ranch, but he could fit in with the best sophisticates around! "It actually looks like there's a good turn-out, this should be interesting. Having some culture..."
Well, she couldn't help but laugh at that! "Imagine, 'culture' and Miss Arabella in the same room!"
"Best we look out for lightning!" Pike said. "I mean no offense really, just, well, it is Arabella after all. Anything is liable to happen especially in this biblical type of play. And her with the lead. But I should hold my thoughts until after the play has concluded."
Arabella and the bible seemed a risky combination at best, even though he was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt for the time being. Perhaps under that veneer of boisterous self-aggrandizing, there was a real actress who was trying to get out. Stranger things had happened, though he would be hard-pressed to lay a finger on one.
"And have I told you just how beautiful you look this evening, Misses Pike? If not, please forgive the oversight."
Well, Clara got her wish, she had wanted to go see the theatre opener, to support her friend, Arabella, more than the play itself. Jacob agreed rather reluctantly, citing expense and not wanting to wear decent clothing. Clara found neither argument valid. First of all she was paying for the tickets out of her money from her dining job and secondly, he wore the same clothing to Sunday services, why was so it so much more uncomfortable wearing it to the theatre. But Jacob was a dutiful husband and now they were in the lobby. Along with a whole lot of folks!
As they moved arm in arm thru the crowd, who should they blunder upon but ugh...Miss Orr, one of Clara's least favorite people and that list was an extensive one too.
"Oh Jake! Fancy seeing you here, and don't you look smart in your collar and tie!!" she declared, shoving a dainty white gloved hand in his face, so that he was perforce to let go of Clara's arm and take it and, owing to it's proximity to his face, kiss it.
Clara tried not to glare but simply remained stoic. For once she agreed with the blonde though, Jacob did look smart. One thing about Clara, she had always been proud of being associated with Jacob, to her he was handsome as any man and a decent husband and father.
"Why, doesn't this just remind you of that silly school play we were in together? Why don't you remember? The one where we had to kiss each other?" Miss Orr giggled "Oh, how the other children teased us afterwards!"
Clara silently endured allowing Jacob to speak for himself.
She finally acknowledged Clara's presence.
"I have to say, Mrs Lutz, your husband is a very good kisser. I'm sure you'll agree."
"Yes, yes I do. Especially since our kisses do not require a school play but are done out of the devotion of husband and wife," Clara replied.
"Yes, Dear"
"I have to say, Mrs Lutz, your husband is a very good kisser. I'm sure you'll agree."
"Yes, yes I do. Especially since our kisses do not require a school play but are done out of the devotion of husband and wife," Clara replied.
Anaesthesia gave a high pitched little "Hmph!" at this and, at a loss for an answer to this clever retort, turned on her heel and walked back to her cousin.
Jacob grinned like a Cheshire cat and grasped Clara's hand. "Hey, you showed her!" he exclaimed with a sort of excited pride in his wife's cleverness and then, looking a little more thoughtful, he searched her eyes and uttered something that, in the hurley burley of everyday life and work and babies and... well everything, he often forgot to say: "I love you."
Then something rather strange, but also rather magical happened: from out of nowhere came music... strange almost ethereal music. For a moment Jacob wondered if it was just the sight of Clara that made him hear it, but then others around him started to comment on it and broke the spell. In fact, it was only little Frances Grimes, playing the piano behind a curtain, some of the newer French pieces by Camille Saint-Saëns and César Franck.
She didn't play so loud as to drown out those who wished to carry on talking but, somehow, even to those who weren't really listening intently to it, the music started to carry people away from the everyday life outside the doors of the theatre and into a different place entirely, a place of magic and dreams and ideas and stories...
"Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadows" - Helen Keller
"Best we look out for lightning!" Pike said. "I mean no offense really, just, well, it is Arabella after all. Anything is liable to happen especially in this biblical type of play. And her with the lead. But I should hold my thoughts until after the play has concluded."
"Well, I wouldn't be surprised if there was lightening!" Emeline agreed with a chuckle, "and I've no doubt this will be an experience either way." Arabella had always been prone to hysterics, so it seemed that acting suited her just fine! "We'll just be prepared to duck!"
"And have I told you just how beautiful you look this evening, Misses Pike? If not, please forgive the oversight."
"You haven't!" Smiling, she gave his hand a squeeze. "But then, I know I am, and I can forgive you this once!"
Looking around, she spotted Clara and Jacob, and nodded that way. "There's Clara and Jacob. Should we go say hello? It's good for them to have a chance to get out, do something different." Well, that held for most of the folks in Kalispell, and that was one good thing to be said for Arabella and her antics...it kept life interesting!
Jacob grinned like a Cheshire cat and grasped Clara's hand. "Hey, you showed her!"
"That I did," Clara savored her verbal victory as the blonde did a quick retreat, no doubt to go annoy someone else. But Jacob added something else too.
"I love you."
Clara now gave him a soft smile, "I know you do and I love you too. However proper decorum forbids me giving you a kiss in public, dear."
"And thank you for taking me to this, I actually am quite intrigued to see Arabella up on that stage. She is melodramatic enough in reality. I can only imagine.......or perhaps I cannot imagine...what she will be like up there."