by Lynn Donovan
May chuckled. “Alright. I’ll come by.”
“Good.” Miss Mavis held up the six spools of thread and five cards with buttons attached. “Put all this on my tab, Olivia.”
Mrs. Stewart looked at the items as if she were memorizing what Miss Mavis held. “Will do.”
She held up the basket to May. “Here’s the smaller items on your list. Now, let me get Henry to get your larger sacks of goods.”
“Thank you.” May turned to look out at the street. “Hoyt will be here with the wagon soon as he’s done at the smithy’s.”
“Of course, dear. No hurry.” Mrs. Stewart disappeared behind a curtain. Soon her husband came out with a sack of flour over his shoulder and flopped it on the boardwalk outside the store front. He returned to the back and soon returned with a sack of corn meal, laying it next to the flour, he turned to gather the feed sacks from the pile he had arranged next to the doors. “How’re you and Hoyt doing, Mrs. Cole?”
May smiled. She still loved being called Mrs. Cole. “We are good.”
“And your folks?”
“Momma’s fine. Papa’s been down with a fever. But Missus Franklin’s been making her garlic-chicken soup. She swears it'll cure what ails him.”
“Yeah.” Mr. Stewart commented absently. “Hear tell a fever’s been going around, even the mountain folk have been coming in saying they lost one or two good men to it.” Mr. Stewart looked startled. “That don’t mean you Papa will succumb to it. Them mountain folk rely on their mountain medicines, I’m sure it’s not nearly as powerful and Missus Franklin’s garlic-chicken soup!”
May nodded, her eyes focused on the street. “It’s alright, Mr. Stewart. I know you didn’t mean nothing against my papa.”
Hoyt pulled away from the blacksmith’s shop and was trotting the mule toward the General Store. Her heart soared at the sight of him and she waved. “Here comes Hoyt.”
“Oh, good. I’ll stay here and help him load the wagon.”
“Thank you.” May waited. Her mind wandered back to Miss Mavis’s offer to make her a gown for the Sweetheart’s Dance. It would be wonderful to get a new dress and not have to pay full price, since she was going to use extra fabric left over from another customer’s order. Hoyt might appreciate the resourcefulness of the bargain the Pettigrew sister had offered. He wasn’t big on handouts, but this was a reduced sale price. May smiled as Hoyt pulled up to the boardwalk and leapt from the buckboard. “Hello, you.”
She giggled. “Mr. Stewart has your sacks ready to load.”
Hoyt bounded toward Henry and the two of them tossed the sacks into the wagon while May climbed onto the bench. The smaller items she held in a box and waited until Hoyt climbed in and pulled away.
“Have you heard about the Sweetheart’s Dance?”
Hoyt turned his head to glance at her. “Yeah. You want to go?”
“Oh, I might. Do you?”
“S’up to you. If my May Flower wants to go to a sweetheart’s Dance then I’ll take her.”
May smiled. “Miss Mavis said the darnedest thing.”
Hoyt steered the mule through Belle and reined her toward the Cole Ranch. “She did? What’s that?”
May laughed. “She said she had some leftover material she could use to make me a Dance gown for a reasonable price since the fabric was all paid for. All she’d want from me was labor costs to make the dress.”
“Huh? That sounds like a splendid deal.”
“Really? Do you mean it, Hoyt?”
He put his arm around her and pulled her closer. “Whatever my May Flower wants.”
May grinned, tucked in close to Hoyt. Maybe she’d tell him the big news at the Sweetheart’s Dance.
Chapter Two
Sweetheart’s Dance, Saturday, February 11, 1882
“Honey!” Evan Harris tapped on Nellie’s hotel room door. “Are you ready to go?” Like most of the families who lived on the outskirts of Belle, the Harris’s had rented rooms at the newly built Paradise Hotel where the Sweetheart’s Dance was being held.
“No, Daddy!” Nellie hollered. She sat at the vanity table, ready to go, but she did not want to be early or on time. She wanted to enter after everyone was in the ballroom, which was actually the hotel’s dining room rearranged for dancing. A buffet table had been set up to the left and a stage for the band was centered along the back wall. It was lovely with red and white hearts hanging among the simple but elegant Italian chandeliers on the ceiling. The Paradise Hotel was perfect for this, its first big event.
To make an entrance that made everyone gasp, Nellie had dreamed about this moment for a long time. Ever since her humiliating crawl from the chapel when Hoyt jilted her and married May Tanner instead.
Like a beautiful princess all the people had waited to see, she would float into the Sweetheart’s Dance and be inundated with requests for a dance. She’d giggle in a pretty way and tell them she was only one woman and they had to wait their turn. She’d smile graciously at the girls whose beaus were paying her too much attention and shrug innocently. Was it her fault she was like nectar to a bee?
“Honey?” her daddy coaxed. “I understand being fashionably late, but—”
“No. Daddy! I have this all planned out. I want to be the Belle of the Dance and I can’t do that unless I’m the last to enter the room.”
He sighed heavily. “Could you be so kind as to knock on the adjoining wall when you are ready? I’d like to relax for the time being.”
“Of course.”
His footsteps faded from her door.
She glanced at her watch lying on the table. It wouldn’t fit over her elegant, full-length gloves. Fifteen more minutes. She patted her pretty hair, drawn up in an intricate design. The chambermaid had talent, she had to admit. Even if she was a grouchy-grouch old woman.
Nellie pouted at her reflection in the mirror. Then applied a touch more rouge to her lips and pressed them together to distribute the color evenly. She stood, gazing at her beautiful gown. The color was perfect and made her eyes sparkle a radiant blue. The bodice molded to her petite figure, enhancing her tiny waist. The delicate cream lace covered her shoulders in a modest, but alluring peek-a-boo fashion. The train would be a little problem while she moved about the ballroom floor, but she didn’t care. It made her entrance all that more regal.
Holding out her gloved arms, she spun, making the skirts fill with air, like a bell. It was the most beautiful gown Nellie had ever seen. Miss Tillie had outdone herself!
Glancing at the watch. Five more minutes. She sat down and turned her head to and fro to see the design woven into her hair. That chambermaid was gifted.
A lighter tap at her door, grabbed her attention away from her reflection. She sighed. “What?”
Her mother’s voice was calm, but stern. “Nellie, Dear. It’s well past the hour of appropriate arrival. We are slipping into rudeness. Please, let’s go down to the Dance.”
Nellie shoved to her feet with a weighted sigh. “Fine.”
She opened her door, and her mother gasped. “Oh, darling. You are the Belle of the Dance!”
Nellie grinned and took a deep breath. This was what she had hoped for.
Her father stood behind her mother. As she swished out of her room, he positioned himself between them, with his elbows extended. “It is I who will be the envy of the Dance.” He chuckled. “I am escorting the two most beautiful women in all of the Wyoming territory.”
Nellie lifted her chin and walked beside her father. Her silk dress swished as she walked. She loved that sound. Descending the stairs and nearing the double doors to the ballroom, she could hardly breathe deep enough to keep up with her pounding heart. This was her moment.
Two bellhops hurried to the double doors and opened them wide for the Harris’s to enter. Music spilled out as the doors parted. One step at a time, they moved through the doorway. Nellie now held her breath, anticipating everyone’s reaction. She smiled her best graciously exquisite smile.
; Couples swirled in dance to the music. Others milled along the left side, picking at the buffet full of foods. Still more sat along the walls, watching the sweethearts sway and twirl. Claude Goodman stepped up to her daddy and put out his hand. Her daddy had to pull his arms away from Nellie and her mother in order to properly shake the man’s hand. “Great to see ya, Evan. Come on in.”
He glanced at Nellie and then addressed her mother. “Don’t you look lovely, Mrs. Harris.” He glanced at Nellie again but returned his gaze to her daddy. “Your daughter is a sight for sore eyes.”
They laughed. Nellie’s eyes went wide. Sight for sore eyes? She turned to see who would come to her first to ask for a dance. But all the eligible bachelors were dancing… or eating. A few couples were sitting on the right side and a few more were under the arches recently built for this ballroom effect. Some were engaged in lewd, inappropriate nuzzling.
Nellie pressed her brow together in confusion. She looked around. Another man approached her parents and whisked them away.
She stood alone. The most beautiful woman in the room...
And no one noticed!
Her dearest friend, Audrey James rushed up to Nellie. “Oh! My! Goodness! Your gown is gorgeous!” She flapped her hands as she spoke like a baby bird on the edge of her nest.
Nellie smiled through the disappointment. “Thank you.”
Jasper McGill slid up behind Audrey, glanced at Nellie with an awkward smile.
Nellie smiled back. Sorry, Audrey!
But he took Audrey’s arm. She turned to him and then back to Nellie. “Oh, I promised Jasper a dance. I’ll catch up with you later.” The two of them walked out to the center and began to sway.
Nellie felt the heat of anger building in her stomach. She breathed in and out, but it only stoked the flames. Her eyes burned with tears. She staggered back to the wall, angrily kicking her train out of her way.
“Excuse me.” Matthew Stillman’s voice sparked excitement in her heart. She looked up from the wad of silk fabric that was her gown’s train and batted her eyelashes. “Yes?”
“I left my hat on that table, do you mind?” He reached past her and lifted his black cowboy hat.
“Not at all.” She growled and flopped down in the chair, crossed her arms, and huffed. She turned slitted eyes to the couples dancing, and gasped. Her mother and father were out there! Dancing!
Would the humiliation ever end? She sighed, planting her chin in her palm, her elbow on her knee.
Nellie’s other best girlfriend, Eden Larson swept into the chair next to her, holding two full glasses. “Whew. Here’s some lemonade. Golly, it’s hot in here.”
Nellie glared at the cup of lemonade and then took it. She didn’t want it but she took it, then sat it on the table where Matthew had taken his hat. She sighed again.
Eden’s eyes remained on the dance floor. She patted her foot and bobbed her head side to side in rhythm with the band. “This is so great!” She said without looking at Nellie. “How come you were so late?”
Nellie closed her eyes and let her lungs deflate.
Just then, Rocky Bastille approached them. Here was Nellie’s chance to be swept out onto the dance floor. Too bad poor Eden would be left behind. Nellie coyly smiled at him.
“May I have this dance, Miss Eden?”
“Sure!” She leapt to her feet and was gone without a word to Nellie.
Nellie glared at them until they were engulfed in the swirling bodies.
“What are you doing over here against the wall?” Her daddy said too loudly. “I thought you were the ‘Belle of the Dance,’ get out there and dance with some handsome young man!”
“Daddy!” She hissed. “Shhh!” Her eyes darted to see who might have heard him. “You’ve been drinking!”
“No! Your mother and I are just having fun.” He laughed too loud. “You should be having fun too. This is the Dance you’ve been looking forward to since Christmas!”
“Daddy! Please!” Nellie closed her eyes and wished everyone, including her daddy, would disappear.
The double doors opened. She turned to see who was arriving so incredibly late.
“We’re gonna have a baby!” Hoyt Cole pranced in, holding May’s hand high in the air as if she had won a prize. She blushed profusely and slapped his arm in the boyish way that May always acted. Nellie blinked.
May’s dress was made from the same blue silk material as Nellie’s special-ordered gown! It was simpler, no lace, no train. It looked more like a Sunday-go-to-meeting gown, but it was the same material of which she had insisted Miss Tillie buy two bolts so there would be enough to make her skirt and royal train big enough for the effect she wanted.
The people all rushed to Hoyt and May, congratulating him and hugging her. Men shook Hoyt’s hand. Even the band stopped playing. Then started up again with a nursery lullaby! Everyone laughed and May blushed even darker red. The crowd of people swept May and Hoyt off to the buffet line and made May sit down while the older women brought her a plate of food and a glass of lemonade. May graciously accepted both, but didn’t eat. Soon the crowd clapped and chanted for Hoyt and May to take the dance floor. The band played a special tune, while Hoyt and May held each other and danced, as if it were their first dance, again.
Nellie fumed!
How dare she! Miss Tillie promised not to let anyone see her dress before the Dance! How could she let May buy the extra material and make her a gown? Nellie’s hands balled into fists at her sides. She pursed her lips and stared at May.
The people swarmed around May like a queen bee. That tomboy had stolen everything from Nellie and humiliated her TWICE, now. Who did May Tanner Cole think she was? Taking everything away from Nellie!
Everything!
And now, she’s in a family way! AHH! That should be Nellie’s baby! Hoyt should be her husband!
This was not fair! Nellie stamped her foot, but not one single person in the ballroom noticed. She puffed her cheeks and blew out, trying not to scream. Tears filled her eyes and spilled over her lashes. Turning to look at the doors, she took a step, then another. Before she knew it, she had shoved the doors open and was running out of the hotel.
She looked around. The streets were empty. Everyone was at the Dance. She ran between the buildings toward the woods beside town and kept running.
Dazed with despair she had no idea where she was going. Just far away from this stupid Dance and that woman who continued to wreck her life! May Cole could die for all Nellie cared. In fact, she hoped she died in childbirth! Nellie bit her lip for thinking such a horrible thing. But she did wish it! Then Nellie and Hoyt could be married and raise the child…
She touched a rough birch tree as she darted between them, moving higher and deeper into the wooded forest beyond the town’s limits. The lace on her skirt caught in a rabbit bush and tore away from the silk. She didn’t care. The Dance… the dress… the moment… was ruined anyway!
She pushed on, running higher and higher into the woods. She didn’t care anymore about this stupid gown, or her delicate slippers, or the royal train that dragged behind her, collecting sticks and leaves in its delicate weave. She yanked out the pins in her hair and let it tumble across her shoulders. Sprigs of blonde fell into her eyes, but she just did not care! A snowflake fluttered to the ground, then another.
She paused to consider the sight of snow, shivered, and started running again. She could hear the gurgling of a river. It sounded like someone gargling, or drowning. She envisioned May drowning and felt glad for it.
Where was the water? She’d never been this direction… or this far. Only the mountain men came from these woods. It was said they knew the mountain like the back of their hands.
Soon she saw the river. It crossed the path in which she was going. In these slippers she could not wade through it. There was no bridge or a fallen tree where she could cross. So she turned and ran along beside it. The rushing, splattering water made the air colder. More snow fell and ice formed along t
he bank of the river. She paused.
Where was she? This was a mistake. She needed to go back! The snow caught in her eyelashes and she blinked it away. The icy flakes stung her eye.
She turned to go back the way she came but her slippered foot went out from under her. She slid out of control into the river. Screaming, she tried to claw her way out of the rushing, freezing water. Biting at her gloves, she fought to get them off her hands so she could get ahold of the bank and pull herself away from the water. Her dress quickly saturated with river water and became heavy. It pulled her down with the stream. She screamed again. “Help! Help me!”
But there was no one to hear her.
Her body trembled violently. The water was so cold! Her legs were numb, her hands were blue, and her teeth chattered. She felt so tired, but she knew she had to get out of the lethal stream. Digging her fingers into the dead winter grass, she clawed and pulled. Her knee found turf, she pressed it hard and crawled away from the deadly river. Huffing and puffing, she was exhausted, but she was out of the water. Her gown clung to her legs.
At least she wasn’t trembling anymore. She closed her eyes and then forced them opened. The snow continued to fall. She needed to find shelter.
Crawling with every ounce of strength she had left toward a huge tree, she drew up in a Dance. The branches above caught most of the snow, but then the wind picked up, whipping the snow into her face. She reached down and took the top layer of her gown and pulled it over her head. Maybe this would provide some shelter, like a tent. She prayed God would keep her alive until somebody found her.
Which brought to mind the song she had sung in church last December. Her lips were cold and stiff, but she muttered, “Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask thee to stay. Close by me forever, And love me, I pray…”
Her throat hurt and her voice was scratchy. She struggled to continue but just couldn’t. A sob escaped her lungs and she lowered her head onto her arm. “Please, Lord Jesus.” She mumbled. “Don’t let me die. I swear I don’t really want May to die. I just want to be happy too.”