by Annie Lane
Charlotte tied the reins off and doubled checked the knot by giving the leather a quick tug. She smiled at Beth, and they walked through the diner door, where they were met with the most wonderful smell of fresh coffee brewing and an oven full of freshly baked treats.
“Good Morning,” said Louise, looking up over the counter when she heard the bell chime. “Take a seat and I’ll be right with you.” Louise was glad to find Beth’s eyes not nearly as puffy as she’d imagined they might be, though it did little to lessen the feelings of guilt she felt from the previous day’s events. “Coffee for you both?”
“Yes please, Louise,” nodded Beth, pulling out a chair and resting her small purse on the edge of the table.
Louise filled two cups with the strong, steaming brew. She sighed as she placed them down on the crocheted tablecloth in front of the ladies. “I can’t begin to tell you how very sorry I am for what happened yesterday, Beth. I’ve been awake all night with worry. Never did I suppose Earl would ever...”
Beth shook her head and reached for Louise’s hand. “No, I won’t hear of it. You’re in no way responsible. I don’t imagine anyone is, not really. Not Junior, not me ... not even Mr. Mason himself if I’m being totally honest. Please don’t bother yourself with unnecessary regret.”
Charlotte mumbled something then that Beth didn’t quite catch, but she guessed it had something to do with the middle aged woman scurrying toward them from the opposite side of the room. The clipboard she had tucked tightly under one arm suddenly landed on the table and knocked Beth’s purse onto the floor.
Without a hint of an apology the woman ignored the spill and started talking like there was no tomorrow. Like she’d never get it all out in time if she delayed for even a moment. “The details ... I simply don’t know how I’ll cope with all the details. I’m a busy lady you know, Charlotte,” Mabel paused, allowing a reasonable amount of time for Charlotte to agree, but when she got nothing in response she just kept on talking, turning her attention to Conrad’s newest dweller. “It’s Beth isn’t it?” She laughed and shook her head. “Well, of course it is. The way young Charlotte here was screaming it from the top of her lungs; I’d wager they know your name all the way back in Helena.”
“Was there something you needed Mabel?” Charlotte had already grown tired of the woman’s company and was looking for a way out. She wanted to spend some real friendship time with Beth before she left town. “We have a busy day planned.”
“Oh, of course, how very impolite of me. I won’t keep you long, I was just wondering if Beth will be staying a while or leaving forthwith. If she’ll be here for the Harvest Bazaar then I’ll need to assign her a task...” Her eyes ran over the list a few times. “I still require someone to toffee the apples or perhaps she could glaze a ham? Either way I have to know immediately so I can finalize the details. I simply can’t keep up with the details ... it’s the details that are killing me.”
“We should be so lucky,” Louise mumbled. She spoke so softly Mabel almost missed it, and anyone else probably would have too, but Mabel was more attune to Louise than she was given credit for.
“Is sarcasm just one of the many services you offer here, Louise? You might want to reconsider your sunny disposition. Once the post office reopens — and it’s only a matter of weeks now — you might just find yourself begging for patronage and I could be one of those who simply turn their backs and walk away. You’re not the only one around here that can bake a pie.”
“I don’t blame you for misreading my wit as sarcasm, Mabel ... fools often do.”
Knowing she was getting herself into a war of words, a battle she’d likely lose, Mabel Clay snatched her clipboard up and swung around toward the door. She marched straight through it with her nose stuck in the air, just as Zeke walked in from across the street. He jumped back against the wall and clutched at his heart. The unexpected fright, and the wind in his hair, and the knock he’d just taken to his elbow, all set his hands to shaking even worse than they usually did. He watched Mabel storm back down the street and disappear in through the door of Doc Lawson’s surgery. Once he was satisfied she wasn’t coming back any time soon, he turned around and walked inside toward the others.
“Mor ... Morning ladies.”
Louise poured another cup of coffee and set it down. “Good Morning Zeke. Beautiful day isn’t it?”
Zeke usually took his coffee back over to the Barber’s store with him. “It sure is Louise. I’ll … I’ll uh, I’ll bring the mug back later this afternoon. If ... if that’s alright with you?”
“Always is Zeke, no need to be asking every time. You been busy over there? I noticed you had a few customers in at the crack of dawn. Anything exciting going on I should know about? ”
“Just those hot-headed Clarkson brothers. They got their court case comin’ up later today and their Ma dragged ‘em in by the scr ... scr ... scruffs of their necks. Said if they looked half presentable they ... they might have a fighting chance.”
Louise shook her head and wandered back behind the counter. “Fighting’s what got those two dim-wits in trouble in the first place. Don’t know how the poor old duck puts up with ‘em?”
Zeke simply shrugged and nodded his head in the polite way he always did, stopping only to bend over and pick up Beth’s purse on his way, before he made for the street again with his coffee.
Charlotte and Beth finished up their morning coffee, bid a fond farewell to Louise, and ventured into the Mercantile, where they took their time in choosing the perfect fabric — a pale blue calico with tiny navy spots — figuring it to be not overly feminine for Thomas's down-to-earth tastes but still attractive enough to make the house feel more like a home rather than the museum it once was.
After paying for the fabric and picking up a few other items, Charlotte needed to make a start on the curtains, so the pair proceeded back across the street toward the cart. The morning was slipping away from them and Charlotte knew she still had a number of things to finish off back at the ranch before she started on preparing the lunch.
But she could certainly spare a minute or two and hesitated outside the Barber’s store. Charlotte hadn’t had a chance to formally introduce Zeke yet and she wanted Beth to meet him. He’d been so kind to her when she first arrived that she wanted Beth to have the pleasure of his humble nature.
Zeke wasn’t one to prosper from another’s misfortune and had deliberately made himself scarce after church the previous day — especially once voices started to mount and tears started to flow. Wasn’t his idea of a good time at all.
Zeke had just picked up a broom when the door opened and Charlotte walked through with an enormous smile on her face and Zeke instantly felt at ease.
Well, as easy as Zeke had the capability of feeling.
The incident — as he referred to it — had shot his nerves to pieces and he’d never quite recovered. If he thought about it hard enough, the incident that is, he could still feel the cold tip of the rifle pressed hard against his temple. He could still hear the desperate, pleading cries of his young daughter as she struggled to breathe through the open wound in her throat, and he could still see the terror so fresh in her eyes, right before they glazed over for the very last time. She was gone. Lifeless and grey.
The incident happened over thirty years ago and it still filled his heart with dread. A group of outlaws had held up his stage coach while he was on a return trip from Yosemite. He’d had business to attend to and had taken young Daisy with him as a treat for her tenth birthday.
The filthy scoundrels had robbed him of everything he owned. Not least of which was the life of his only child. Zeke’s wife was never the same once he returned, and she walked herself into the creek just months later. She made sure to wear her thickest coat and her heaviest shoes. She wasn’t coming back. She needed to be with Daisy.
“I’d like you to meet Miss Elizabeth Edwards. You let me blather on about her for hours last time I was in, so I think it only right yo
u two get acquainted.”
Zeke’s thoughts snapped back to the present and his hands finally stilled. He placed the broom against the wall. As his legs found their strength and he walked across the room, Beth took the opportunity — being that the man was as slow as a wet week — to peek around at all the dust and the grime that’d built up over what seemed to be a lifetime. Misplaced gadgets and scissors and bottles of solution she knew nothing about were scattered along the long worktable. The mirror behind it was so smeared with water-spray she could scarcely make out her own reflection.
“Mighty fine to meet ya, Miss Beth. I’ve ... I’ve heard so much about you.”
“All good I hope?” Beth smiled at Zeke and he was instantly mesmerized. Never had he seen hair so thick and wavy and his fingers itched to touch it. Long, red curls fell all the way down the girl’s back and set a hue around the store that hadn’t been there just a few minutes ago.
He nodded. “She said you were an angel, and I see that’s no fabrication. Now, please take a seat and tell me of your plans. I ... I think this town could do with the likes of you a while longer. Why don’t you stay and get settled in. You might find you like the place after all.”
Beth ignored his request to sit and instead wandered around the room, skimming her fingers across every surface. She frowned as she wiped the muck off against her skirt. “Well, I don’t know that I’d be much use to the people of Conrad as a whole, but I could sure help you out some. This place is downright filthy, Zeke. If you’re looking for someone to give you a hand cleaning up, then I might be just the ticket. In fact ... that’s about the best idea I’ve had in a really long while.” Beth rolled her eyes then. She felt like adding, well obviously, but she decided it best to keep that part to herself and instead just raised her brows and smiled in the most encouraging way she knew how.
Zeke paused. He wasn’t sure. “I can’t afford to pay you much.”
“I’ll work for whatever you can spare and I’ll save every cent of it. I’ll have the funds to purchase a ticket back to Seattle in no time, should only take a few weeks. What do you think?”
“What experience do ya have?”
Both girls giggled then at his naiveté, and Charlotte spoke up. “The life of an orphan is testing to say the least, Zeke. Trust me when I tell you that Beth’s no stranger to rolling up her sleeves and getting her hands dirty. I’ll vouch for her myself.”
Allowing the idea to settle a while, Zeke finally nodded his head and held out his hand. “Reckon you’ve just landed yourself a job then. When can you start?”
“First thing in the morning?"
“Perfect. We open at eight and bring your tenacity with ya ‘cause I figure you might just need it.” He took a quick glimpse of his surroundings. “Don’t know when things got so away on me?”
Beth shook Zeke’s hand and promised to be right on time. As the two friends pranced back out into the street with a new lease on life, Charlotte suddenly realized that she’d not picked up any blue cotton to start on the curtains with and only had a spool of white in her sewing box. “I just remembered something I need over at the Mercantile, Beth. Wait over here by the cart and I’ll be back in no time at all.”
Looking both ways to cross the road, Charlotte noticed Gabe Calhoun on the opposite side of the street, sauntering down the sidewalk in that long, lanky way he always did. Gabe’s hands were buried deep in his trouser pockets and his hat was tipped off to one side, his messy curls bouncing around his shoulders with every step he took.
For a man as busy as he was, he never seemed to be in any great hurry. It just didn’t make sense to Charlotte. He was so casual about everything and she couldn’t help but wonder how Thomas and Gabe had stayed such good friends over the years, being that they were so different in so many ways.
But then again, who was she to talk?
Chapter 17
Earl Mason’s jaw twitched as he stared through the open window. While he wasn’t certain of what it was he was feeling just yet — tight in the chest and ready to pounce being just part of it — he knew it had something to do with Gabe Calhoun. In fact, on second thought, Earl guessed it wasn’t just something to do with Gabe Calhoun, but everything to do with Gabe Calhoun.
Earl had spent the best part of the morning thrashing out beef costs and slaughter rates with William Tyrell, the local butcher. The two men had haggled back and forth before finally settling on an amicable price. A dozen sides had been ordered and a note was drawn as a holding fee. The sum of which would likely keep food in the pantry and clothes on Junior’s back for most of the season.
William was just moments away from signing the blessed thing when they were interrupted by Mrs. Clarkson. She was in a glorious mood for a change and looking to purchase something for a special meal she was preparing — perhaps a steak or two for her boys in celebration of their successful day in court.
But her constant chatter was ringing around inside Earl’s head like bees within a hive and he wasn’t the least bit interested in how they’d escaped punishment. Earl figured it had more to do with the fact that Mr. Clarkson was the mayor of Conrad, and less to do with the justice system, but he really couldn’t care less in that moment.
He couldn’t tear his eyes away from the street.
Gabe Calhoun was talking to Beth over by the Ackerman cart. Earl had sensed Beth’s proximity before he’d had the good sense to take a peek through the window. Her hair was blowing about in the breeze and he knew he couldn’t look away even if he’d wanted to.
Gabe had one hand placed strategically on the horse’s back, petting its silky mane and rubbing circles into the animal’s thick hindquarters — more likely than not trying to show off his own muscles. The other hand was waving all about like he was telling the most elaborate of tales and Beth was laughing with so much joy on her face that you’d have thought a clown had ventured into town with a traveling circus.
Beth’s smile was wide and her cheeks were flushed and the sight of it all melted Earl’s steely demeanor. He suddenly had an urge to dash across the street and snatch Gabe’s enormous arm clean from the air.
“What’s he doin’ wandering around town this time of day?” Earl whispered the words to himself with a furrowed brow. Mrs. Clarkson was still jabbering her nonsense to William and neither of them was paying him the least amount of attention.
His thoughts bothered him though. What right did he have to be jealous? He had no claim on Beth. She wasn’t his to begin with and as far as he could tell, she never would be. Though there was some small part that wanted her to be. A part that was growing bigger and bigger every time he considered it. That’s the crazy thing. Images of Beth would plague him at odd times. He saw her face every time he closed his eyes. And just when he’d decided he might talk to Beth , and maybe see if there was anything to it, Grace’s perfect face would burst into his mind and the guilt of it all had him starting back at square one all over again.
Earl stood there watching the encounter a while longer, trying to silence the annoying voices in his head. And then the unthinkable happened.
Gabe suddenly held out his hand for Beth, and Earl watched on in horror when he politely helped her up into the front of the cart. Never had someone’s hand been more envious of another man’s than in that moment.
After a beat, Earl released a defeated breath and Charlotte appeared back in his line of vision. He watched her skip across the street, waving to Gabe as she loosened the reins and stepped up into the opposite side of the cart. As the horse pulled away from the railing, both ladies giggled and glued their heads together like they were sharing some private joke that no one else was privy to.
Completely unaware that he was under surveillance, stealthy as he was, Gabe simply stood on the side of the road watching the wagon disappear off into the distance. His eyes squinted as they became reacquainted with the sun, and when he turned slowly back in the direction he was originally intended, an enormous smile was plastered on his face. He
glanced up then and found Earl standing over in the butcher’s doorway ... staring back at him. He waved just as friendly as always.
Earl didn’t wave back.
Chapter 18
The month of November arrived before anyone even saw it coming, bringing with it an unseasonably warm spell. The bright sun couldn’t seem to decide whether or not it was time to retire for the year, or hold onto its strength for just a little while longer. Regardless of the fallen leaves crunching underfoot, the cloudless sky was still blue and clear and spread as far as the eye could see.
Days slipped seamlessly from one to the next and before Beth knew it, she’d been working with Zeke for two whole weeks. Together they’d accomplished a great deal and the Barber’s store was now shining bright like a brand new penny fresh from the mint.
For hours at a time, when business was slow and Zeke’s nervousness wasn’t playing up, the two of them had scrubbed floors, washed windows and polished the mirrors so as they might finally serve their rightful purpose.
Beth had already earned almost half of what she’d need for a train ticket and while the thought of heading back to Seattle wasn’t something she enjoyed, being that her feelings for Earl hadn’t waned any, she knew it was inevitable and there was simply nothing she could do about it.
Beth had certainly come to enjoy her time in Conrad and she was going to miss it terribly when she was gone. She’d also miss having Charlotte so close by. The two girls had fallen into a familiar routine of cooking and sewing and chatting well into the wee hours of the night, just like they used to do when they were children. While Thomas certainly didn’t seem to mind, Beth knew she couldn’t stay forever and it was only fair he got his wife back all to himself before he came down with a nasty case of the irrits.