Against All Odds

by Marian L. Jasper

  Patrick laughed, “You obviously made quite an impression on the ladies, Liza. I’ll leave you to it as I’ll be late otherwise. Goodbye boys and goodbye Caroline, and good luck. I’ll see you later, Liza,” and he kissed her and left laughing.

  “Take no notice of him, Caroline; of course you can borrow the dress but are you going to have time to alter them?” asked Liza.

  “I have Mrs Long coming in shortly, but I’m going to have to burn the midnight oil to get everything done in time and some of the dresses are going to need more than slight alterations to make them anywhere near what yours looked like,” said Caroline.

  “You know that young Ellen is very neat at stitching. It may be worth asking if she can help you,” said Liza.

  “That would be a great help. I’ll call in and ask her when I leave here. By the way, I’m going to redesign your dress slightly. There is method in my madness as you just have to trump the red dress and I want people to know that this next one is down to me. Can you call in later today and I’ll show you what I have in mind, although I know that you probably have ideas of your own and between us, we can have the ladies of Benson rushing to my place in droves,” said Caroline.

  “Well, I’d be the last person to quash any enterprise, so I’ll be along later to see you. In the meantime, I’ll just go and get my infamous red dress,” laughed Liza.

  Liza was meeting Angela, Kathy and Ada at the school house. They were going to put the place back in order. All the food had been moved but there was a great deal of arranging to carry out. The room looked as if a herd of buffalo had rampaged through it and when they arrived, the ladies just stood and looked at the debris in despair. George appeared miraculously on the scene, but they needed another strong man to help.

  “I wonder what Greg’s doing,” said Liza. “Or do you know what young Sam is up to, Kathy?”

  “I’ll go and see,” said Kathy and she returned a short while later with both Greg and Sam. With their help it took very little time to get the place back in order.

  “I hear Ellen is helping at the dress shop,” said Greg suddenly.

  Liza nodded to him, “Yes, Caroline is inundated with requests for alterations by some ladies and time is running out before New Year’s Eve.”

  “I have heard that a lot of ladies want dresses like yours, Liza,” said Ada.

  “So I’ve heard,” smiled Liza and when they had finished at the school she went to see Caroline and between them they redesigned her new brilliant green dress into something that was going to mesmerise. It was going to be off the shoulder but shaped to the contours of Liza’s breasts. It was going to remain open in a v shape nearly to the waist but held together with green and silver twisted laces. The bodice was going to also go into a v shape into a full skirt from her hips down. The back was also going to have laces going down beyond her waist matching the v also at the back of the bodice to the skirt. Long sleeves were going to be worn independently of the dress. It was all very innovative and a little daring. Both Caroline and Liza looked up from their artwork and grinned at each other.

  “That should set the tongues wagging,” said Liza happily, “and increase your profits.”

  “Do you want an overdress so that Patrick can take that off again?” asked Caroline.

  “I think that would be taking it one step too far, don’t you? When he did that at the Christmas Party, it was purely spontaneous, I don’t think it would work again,” laughed Liza. “I was quite taken aback when he did that.”

  “Nobody else was, we had all heard how he had dreamed of it when he was with those deserters,” said Caroline.

  “It seems to be that the whole of Benson are very good at keeping things from me,” said Liza almost to herself.

  Caroline laughed, “Yes, we were all very good at keeping yesterday’s secret from you, weren’t we?”

  “Hmmm, so you were,” smiled Liza. “I see you have Ellen working with Mrs Long.”

  “She’s very good, Liza. I wonder if she would like to make this a career,” said Caroline.

  “Well, you could always ask her, although she did mention once that she would like to teach and help children, but you never know, she may change her mind if she finds that she enjoys dressmaking. She’s always been very willing to learn anything new,” said Liza. “How is she getting on with Mrs Long?”

  “Very well. I noticed that Greg appeared quite keen on her yesterday,” said Caroline.

  “Yes, young love is good to see, but it’s very early days for them,” said Liza.

  Liza rushed off home then, as Patrick was probably already there as he was only working for the morning and Boxing Day should really be treated as a holiday, and she wanted to spend time with the family.

  The house was warm and welcoming when she arrived. Patrick and Zelma were chatting and watching the boys while they were eating and everyone looked up as she entered full of apologies for not being home sooner.

  “I know you’ve been at Caroline’s. I dread to think what some of the ladies are going to look like in revealing dresses like your red one,” said Patrick. “There are very few women who could carry off wearing something like that.”

  “They’ll look fine,” said Liza. “What you’ve got to do is make sure I look acceptable in what Caroline is creating for me. She asked if I wanted another overdress so that you could take it off me again. I told her that I thought that would be a step too far.”

  “You certainly created a talking point, Patrick,” said Zelma.

  “So, Caroline is building her reputation on you. Good for her. You don’t mind that, do you, Liza,” said Patrick.

  “No, it’s very enterprising of her. It’s nice to have someone who is business minded. Besides, it’s fun,” said Liza.

  Gabriel called in with Si and said that he could do with going to his office for a couple of hours and as always Si was just part of the family and no trouble to them. They arranged that Gabriel would eat with them when he returned. Later Kathy and Joe called and they too would stay to eat with them. Kathy thought about it and disappeared only to return with freshly baked bread and a couple of apple pies for afters. Both Liza and Patrick looked around and were happily surrounded by their extended family. Sean was on duty that day, so he was the only one missing.

  Gabriel returned and they all sat around the table chatting in a relaxed manner; the boys were allowed to talk at the table when they were in this company, as long as they didn’t shout and scream. Patrick suggested that they had a glass of wine and the boys’ lemonade and everyone thought that was a good idea and when this was organised Patrick stood up and said that he wanted to propose a toast.

  “I want to say that I’m really happy that you are all here around our table. I’m only sorry that Sean is on duty today and can’t be with us. Joe, you made a fine speech yesterday and I have only one thing to add to it,” said Patrick and Liza looked at him frowning.

  Patrick smiled and carried on, “I feel very lucky to have you all, not only as friends but you are really my family now and I have Liza to thank for that. Without her we would not all be sitting here now, but I’m not proposing a toast to her, I’m proposing a toast to all of us and long may we spend happy times like this together. Until I met Liza, I had nobody to call family, so let’s raise our glasses to the family and include Sean in that toast.”

  Everyone raised their glasses and the boys were delighted to be included in what they felt was an important moment. Liza kissed Patrick on the cheek and said, “That was lovely Patrick. You’re getting very sentimental in your old age.”

  A little while later, Sean came in after being on patrol and when told that they had included him in the toast for the family he beamed with pleasure, sat in one of the rocking chairs and put his feet up and everyone laughed at him taking it all so literally.

  ***

  Over the next few days poor Caroline was worked off her feet; she used Ellen whenever she could and Ellen seemed to enjoy being in the shop with Mrs Long an
d they talked about Greg quite often. Finally, all the alterations were completed and during the day of New Year’s Eve, Liza had the final fitting of her redesigned dress in the privacy of her home. It was, indeed, magnificent but rather risqué, Liza laughed and Caroline had made a matching shawl so that she could keep warm if necessary during the evening.

  Greg’s two sisters were looking after the boys and Dr Tom’s twins for the evening. Once again Patrick was ready early and Zelma and Liza finished dressing in the bedroom. Zelma went down and both Patrick and Gabriel told her how beautiful she looked and Zelma’s comment was that it was nothing to how Liza looked in her new dress. Patrick took the opportunity to race up the stairs to see exactly what Liza was wearing. He found her standing looking at herself in the mirror with a quizzical look on her face.

  “Oh Liza,” was all he said.

  “I know, it’s too revealing, isn’t it?” she said. “I’d better change into something else.”

  “Oh no, my Liza, it’s absolutely perfect. Only you could wear something like that. You look so beautiful and it makes your eyes look so very green,” said Patrick.

  “Are you sure I don’t look like a tramp, Patrick?” asked Liza.

  Patrick laughed, “No Liza, you don’t look like a tramp. Caroline has excelled herself. I have a feeling that everyone is waiting to see what you are wearing. Ah good, there’s a shawl; I’ll be able to take that off you sometime during the evening. Come on, let’s go and show you off to Gabriel; I’m sure his jaw is going to drop.”

  He was right, Gabriel’s jaw did drop and he was lost for words. After a moment he laughed and said, “Well, Liza, I thought you couldn’t better the Christmas dance, but you have managed it. Come on; let’s go because I can’t wait to see the reaction of everyone.”

  Patrick helped her with her shawl and then her cloak over the top and off they went joining a stream of people going out to the fort for the evening. Kathy and Joe shouted their greetings from their buggy, and Tom, Hannah and Ellen were following them. Greg and his mother were some way in front with Caroline. It was all very friendly and conversations were being shouted from one group to another.

  Ada and Bea were standing with the colonel and captain when Liza and Patrick arrived. They seemed to be waiting expectantly knowing that they were not going to be disappointed. Caroline rushed in as she wanted to see the reaction of the guests. Patrick took Liza’s cloak and then looked around and saw that many people were waiting and watching her and she was pulling her shawl closely around her shoulders. He walked over to her, smiled down at her and removed the shawl to what seemed like a collective sigh from around the room. Caroline laughed; the reaction was just what she wanted.

  “You’ve done it again then, Liza,” said Ada. “That was quite an entrance. I don’t think that you’ll be without a dance tonight.”

  Patrick was now standing with Sean, Ben, Paul and Rufus and they were all watching Liza whirl around the room with Gabriel and Gabriel was laughing. “I think we are being watched Liza; it must be my immaculate suit that people are admiring.”

  Liza noticed that several ladies had dresses similar to her notable red dress. None were in red, but they were in diverse colours and patterns. For an instant it reminded Liza of Felicity who turned up to every event in a dress like one that Liza had worn at a previous function. But this wasn’t done vindictively and Liza took it as a compliment and was pleased that it had created extra work for Caroline. No doubt there would be a few made similar to the one she was wearing that evening.

  Gabriel led her back to Patrick’s side and he then went to Zelma and led her onto the dance floor. Patrick pulled Liza to one side and said, “You’ve managed to conceal your underclothes, Liza. The back of your dress is very low, how have you done that?”

  Liza grinned up at him cheekily saying, “Who says I’m wearing any?”

  Patrick groaned inwardly visualising Liza without her dress. “Well, let’s hope the dancing doesn’t get too lively.”

  Liza laughed as she was whisked away by her next dancing partner.

  Halfway through the evening, the musicians decided to liven the evening up and announced that they were going to see how everyone got on with the equivalent of a hoedown at a barn dance.

  “Isn’t that ‘yee hawing and dosey dowing’ and other things, Patrick?” asked Liza.

  He nodded, “I believe so. I know I won’t be able to join in, my ribs won’t allow it.”

  “Hmm, it should be fun,” said Liza. “Have you been to a barn dance hoedown, Rufus?”

  “No, but I’m willing to give it a try,” he said.

  “Who has?” asked Liza. She found that Bea had, so had Ada, Laurie, Bart and Ben, so they organised that Ada would partner Sean, Laurie with Captain Graves, Bea with Gabriel, Caroline with Bart and Ben with Zelma, leaving Liza and Rufus, Tom and Hannah and Greg and Ellen not knowing anything about hoedowns.

  Patrick, the colonel and Paul were standing together watching how the couples were organising themselves. “I have a feeling that this is not going to turn out too well,” said the colonel.

  The couples were lining up. Patrick said, “I suppose your shoulder stops you doing this, Paul and I’m pleased my ribs do as I think this is going to be a disaster.”

  The music started and the lead musician started calling out instructions and it seemed that most of the dancers were incapable of either taking or listening to instructions. It was ten minutes of utter chaos, Liza could be heard shouting, “No Rufus, my left, your right. Oops, sorry, Tom.” Even those familiar with what happened in such a dance were unable to keep in any sort of step. Somebody called to Greg to get up from the floor. Ada and Sean bumped into Laurie and Captain Graves. Caroline and Bart seemed to be the only ones with any dignity left. Tom and Hannah managed to bump into every other dancer and Gabriel guided Bea unceremoniously into a table with rather too much force. Ben and Zelma didn’t get very far as they were laughing uncontrollably. As the music was nearing an end, the whole room seemed to be in uproar. Patrick was laughing so much that his ribs hurt as did Paul’s wounded arm. The colonel had a bout of coughing and everyone was afraid that Brigeta’s forthcoming baby might come early.

  Rufus and Liza were laughing as they came back to where Patrick was standing and he too was still laughing. The lead musician said, “Well, that was fun, but I don’t think we’ll try that again tonight,” which, for some unknown reason, set the party goers off laughing uncontrollably again.

  Liza sat down and Patrick joined her. He leaned across to her and whispered in her ear, “You told me a fib, Liza. I could see your underclothes when you were doing that excuse for a hoedown, but it’s still a mystery how you keep them hidden at the top. No doubt, I’ll find out later.”

  “You most certainly will, Patrick. I’m going to get myself something to drink. I’m not sure whether it was the dancing or the laughing but I’m really thirsty,” and before Patrick could say that he would get it for her, she was off towards the drinks table, talking to everyone on her way.

  Midnight came and everyone was wished a Happy New Year, and Liza thought that it had to be better than the last one. It had started out with such hopes and then had been so sad in so many ways. She looked at Ada and the colonel and could see that they were probably thinking the same thing, but now they did have their granddaughter to look forward to and Liza wondered when she would be arriving. The spring would be better travelling time for her and that was only three months away.

  As everyone was leaving, a slight flurry of snow started and they all wondered whether the winter would be as severe as the previous winter.

  Greg was following them with Ellen. He was going to pick up his sisters from both Liza’s house and Tom’s. Gabriel and Patrick checked on the boys and Zelma was making coffee for them all and Liza kicked her shoes off. Patrick and Gabriel came into the room laughing.

  “What’s funny?” asked Liza.

  “You,” said Patrick. “We were just laughing at you
r antics during the hoedown.”

  “I wasn’t the only one trying to keep up with the music,” said Liza.

  “No, but you were the only one hurtling around shrieking ‘Don’t you dare let me go, Rufus’. The colonel, Paul and I and several other men positioned ourselves ready to catch you. Several ladies moved rather quickly out of the way as you were bearing down on them at great speed,” said Patrick.

  “I wasn’t the one who crashed into the tables, was I, Gabriel? You did a fine job at that with Bea, and Greg fell over. I thought Rufus and I did quite well considering we didn’t know what we were doing,” said Liza.

  “I don’t think anybody knew what they were doing,” said Patrick.

  “Well, they didn’t have to join in if they didn’t want to,” said Liza.

  “Liza, you told everyone who they were dancing with. You organised everybody’s partners for them and they didn’t get the chance to refuse. Don’t get me wrong, they all seemed to enjoy it, but they were going to dance whether or not they wanted to. Do you know the colonel nearly had an apoplexy laughing at everyone, I thought he was going to stop breathing,” said Patrick.

  “I don’t like to think that I made anyone do something that they didn’t want to,” pouted Liza.

  “Don’t worry, Liza, they all enjoyed it immensely; those who were trying to dance and those who were watching. I think it’s going to be talked about for quite some time to come,” said Gabriel.

  “And there were no serious injuries. I think Bea might have a few bruises and Greg’s posterior might ache a little, but my dear, Liza, you did it again. You made the party go with a very definite swing although I don’t think the lead musician will ever try a hoedown again. You’ve got to admit, it was absolute chaos,” said Patrick laughing.

  “Yes, I suppose it was really, but it wasn’t all completely down to me. Those who said they had been to barn dances before should have taken more control of their partners and the rest of us did very well considering we were totally lost as the first note was played,” laughed Liza.