Posted September 23, 2021

"He was my employee," Emeline chuckled, "when he wasn't working at his job as a deputy. And I've no doubt there is a fine man who will take care of you, although you seem to be pretty self-sufficient, and once you are settled in your own home, you'll do well." After all, once she learned her way around an area that didn't change, it should be fairly easy to find her function.

Frances was surprised to hear that the lady's husband was a Sheriff or Marshall's Deputy, an important and responsible, if not always respected, office, but also a menial dish-washer under his wife's thrall. Mrs Pike must really wear the pants in that relationship, she supposed. Frances, to be fair, had rather conservative and conventional views on marriage: an institution that she had taught about, more than actually experienced in practice, due to her upbringing in a special school for the blind.

She expressed her hope that the two of them might be friends in the future.

Returning the girl's squeeze, Emeline smiled. "I'm the one who is lucky, I think. I had no plan to marry again, but then he came into my life...sometimes these things just happen without you knowing it until you do."[/i] The best kind of love, she supposed, when you were friends and it took time to realize you were more.

"Then I must be an incurable romantic, for I hope to be quite swept off my feet by a 'tall dark handsome stranger'" she admitted, a little giddily. Gosh, why was she saying all this to a someone she had only just met? Probably because the kind-sounding lady in the dress shop was the first interested ear she had met with in quite some time.

"And I'm certain we'll be great friends, I look forward to it." By the time they were back in Kalispell, Miss Frances and her brother should be well-settled. "Tell me about Virginia City, is it a nice place?"

"Oh. Mrs Pike, it is a terrible, sinful place: as are all such mining cities that are founded by those who seek riches above all else, including decent moral Christian conduct. When the whole town burnt down last year, we moved our belongings to the church, hoping that it would be protected above all other buildings: but the evil men in charge of the fire-fighting turned all their attention to saving their precious lucre-belching mine shafts!" Her demeanour suddenly turned from righteous anger to a sort of despairing sag.

"All our possessions were destroyed: my clothes, the musical instruments I depended upon to earn our keep, and my precious, irreplaceable embossed books: the only ones I can read. Oh, oh Mrs Pike, my entire life was destroyed that day!" she sighed and the poor little blind girl, her shoulders heaving, dissolved in unstoppable, salty, sightless tears.

Posted September 26, 2021

She heard the kind stranger offered her condolences and Frances pulled herself together. She didn't usually cry like that, maybe it was Emeline's very kindness that had sparked her off.

"I'm sure you'll do just fine, especially with your brother's help," Emeline tried to reassure her, "and there's a fine church that has an organ that I'm certain they would let you play on Sundays." And pianos in the saloons, but she didn't mention that, as those places weren't appropriate for a lady.

"Oh, an organ!" beamed Frances, delighted "Most churches out West just seem to have an out of tune piano or a broken down old harmonium: an organ would be splendid." To be honest, her interest was as much pecuniary as religious or musical; when she and her brother had reached San Francisco after being burnt out of Virginia City, the kind proprietor of a Beer Garden on Jackson Street had allowed her to play a benefit concert on his quite newly installed Schoenstein pipe organ. The proceeds from that had kept the wolf from the door while she found more permanent work that she could do.

Frances had found it a little disturbing that the best organ in the city was in a beer garden rather than a church, but pecuniary matters had taken precedence over morals; beggars can't be choosers; and she she had received the money gladly.

At that point, Miss Eleanor returned with the packages. "Here you are, dear. Are you going to need help with these?"

"Oh, please let me feel them." Frances said, standing up and holding out her free hand to where the proprietress's voice seemed to emanate from. "I can manage those, she nodded." Actually, they were a bit of a handful with her stick as well, but she didn't want to be offered help carrying them where she would then be obliged to give a tip.

She immediately dropped one of the light, but awkward shaped packages on the floor and bent to feel down to the ground for it. Luckily, she didn't have tight corsets on.

Posted September 27, 2021

"It's just to your right. Would you like some help?" There! An offer, but Frances' choice.

Miss Grimes flicked her stick to the right and struck the package, bending down to retrieve it. "Oh, thank you, Mrs Pike, I have it." she smiled picking up the package and feeling it over for tears. "I hope none of it is peeping out, it is some undergarments and an old dress that needed repairs. I can sew but it's a laborious process for me, and we will be on our way to Kalispell tomorrow."

She managed to bundle up everything in one arm, packages, stick, and stuck out the other to somewhere near Emeline again.

"Goodbye, I hope to see you in Kalispell when you return" she did not shy away from using the 'S' word "And I shall certainly look up Mrs Connolly at the Diner."