by Savanna Sage
Chapter 6
Curtis could not have contrived a lovelier picture than the one laid out before him. Eleanor knelt by her mother, her face turned toward him, lovely eyes wide, soft lips slightly parted in surprise. It was a picture of sweet devotion and utter vulnerability. He imagined himself the object of her affection, feeling honored to keep her safe from whatever sorrow had dampened her eyelashes.
Then something twisted inside him. Wasn’t that what he’d felt for fair-haired Annabelle? She had presented herself as needing his love and protection, and how had that turned out?
“I think you know Ellie,” Jesse said with a grin.
“Isn’t it Eleanor?”
“That’s what David calls her,” Jack said, looking rather wilted as he walked in behind his brother.
“We usually call her Ellie,” Linnea said, rising to her feet and wiping her face with her patchwork apron. “Ellie, when did you make this gentleman’s acquaintance?”
Ellie got to her feet with small stops and starts, then stood rigidly. Curtis could only guess that she was fighting not to show the aches she must be suffering. “He was at the train station this morning,” she replied. Turning to their visitor, she said, “I’m sorry, Mr. Locken, we have every intention of laundering your coat.”
“Oh,” Curtis said. That was the last thing on his mind right now. “That won’t be necessary.”
“Oh, but it is,” Linnea insisted. She moved toward Curtis, gracefully dodging the table. “I’m Mrs. Ransom, mother of Ellie and Jesse and Jack.”
Curtis nodded. “Pleasured, ma’am. I’m Curtis Locken, recently of Georgia.”
“Charmed,” Linnea said, extending her hand. Curtis took it with gentle fingers and kissed the back of it. He was gratified when Linnea giggled. Seeing a woman’s sorrow brought back around to happiness always made his efforts worthwhile. A smiling woman was a beautiful one, no matter her age or clothing style.
He stole a second glance at Ellie. With her hair down, she looked younger.
“Would you care for some tea?” Linnea asked him.
“Mama,” Jesse interrupted, “I told him you make the best chicken in the world, because he’s not had supper yet.” Before Linnea could reply, Jesse explained, “Lest you worry that I drag every hungry man to your door, Curtis was already coming up the walk when we got back.” He nudged Jack’s shoulder. “Isn’t that so?”
Jack nodded. “Said he was coming to check on someone named Eleanor, and asked if he got the right house.”
“Figured it would only be neighborly to invite him in for a bite to eat, since we’re all so hungry,” Jesse added.
“Ma’am, I don’t mean to impose myself on you,” Curtis protested. “I can get something at the hotel.”
“Nonsense,” Linnea said. “You are already here. It makes no sense to go back to the hotel on an empty stomach. You can ask after Ellie while sitting at the table.”
Curtis did not miss the look of dismay that crossed Ellie’s face. He couldn’t help wondering what she was thinking. Was she embarrassed by their earlier encounter? Or was her mind working like Annabelle’s, trying to think of how she could play him for a fool? Or was she really as she seemed, a spirited girl who was devoted to her family?
“I was going to eat in my room,” Ellie whispered to her mother loud enough for all of them to hear.
“I daresay if you have enough energy to remonstrate me for Mr. Haun, then you have enough energy to sit in a chair for 30 minutes. I won’t make you serve or clear up. Just sit.” Then Linnea’s eyes widened, “Oh, but your hair! For goodness sakes, go and do something with your hair.” She hurried to her daughter, grabbed her arm, and steered her toward a door next to the kitchen. Pushing Ellie through, Linnea followed and shut the door behind them.
Jack and Jesse got on either side of Curtis and led him to the wooden table. Curtis couldn’t help noticing the unusual design of the table legs. “This is beautiful,” he said, bending to examine the handiwork more closely. “I’ve not seen carvings like that before.” Fanciful vines ran up each of the four sturdy legs, with what looked like little faces peering through the leaves.
“Papa made it,” Jack said, dropping into a chair.
Curtis wanted to ask about Papa, to make sure he wasn’t taking his seat in case he should come in and want to eat, too, but Linnea hurried through the doorway at that moment and bustled over to the table. Curtis jumped to his feet.
“Are you quite alright?” Linnea asked, gazing up at him in surprise.
“Yes, ma’am. Where I come from, a gentleman stands in the presence of a lady who is on her feet.”
“Oh,” Linnea said, her eyes going round with surprise. “Well, I don’t know that you need to keep standing while I get supper on.”
“I’d be honored to be of assistance, ma’am.”
“Oh, no, you’re a guest!” Linnea insisted. “I’ll just be a minute.”
Jesse and Jack rose to their feet, casting uncertain glances at their visitor while their mother hurried to the stove and scooped chicken onto a platter. When she returned with the golden fried chicken balanced in her hands, she took another look at her sons.
“Jack?” she asked, “are you alright?”
“Yes.”
Even though he’d just met the young man, Curtis thought that Jack’s answer was anything but convincing.
“Did anything go wrong at the Bremmer’s?”
Jack glanced at Jesse, who grinned back at him. “Not to speak of,” Jack said with a hint of sarcasm. “Just that Jesse would make a fine courtroom orator.”
Curtis stood behind the empty chair, feeling more uncomfortable with each word the brothers spoke. They sounded too much like him and his cousin.
A brief knock on the door didn’t give anyone time to respond before the door swung open and David clomped inside with a dozen wilted wildflowers clutched in his hand. He stopped to stare at Curtis as if he were a marauding grizzly bear.
“You!” David jabbed the flowers at Curtis. “What are you doing here?”
“Having supper,” Linnea said, “and if you’ll go wash your hands, you can have some, too.”
“Just how big a chicken did you cook, Mama?” Jesse asked.
“Big enough to share with friends.” Linnea picked up a bowl of potatoes. “Scoot, David, do as I say.”
On his way to the kitchen water bowl, David dropped the flowers on the table. Then he dunked his big hands in the water with such force that it splashed out over his boots. Stepping back, he mumbled a mild oath.
“David!” Linnea scolded, while Jesse covered his mouth with his hand to hide a smile.
Even though it wasn’t his house, Curtis couldn’t bite back the words, “That’s no way to talk around a lady.” If he had spoken like that at his house, he would have been thrashed, and doubly so if a lady was present.
David stared from Linnea to Curtis and back again. Finally, he shook his hands out over the basin. “Sorry, Miz Ransom,” he muttered. To Curtis, he said, “How long you plan to stay before going back to where you came from?”
Curtis was wondering if he should even reply. This David character was certainly free in expressing his feelings. Was it the way he was raised, or was he missing some mental component in his brain?
Before Curtis could decide on the best course of action, Linnea said patiently, “David, that is not the proper way to speak to guests.”
“Sorry,” David grumbled. “He just doesn’t belong here.”
Curtis had to agree that the sharp, clean Colorado air was different from the hot, moist days he’d spent as a child in Georgia. Yet he felt a freedom here that his home had somehow lost in the tangles of war.
“Go ahead, sit down, and we’ll all feel better once we eat,” Linnea promised.
David looked at Curtis, Jesse, and Jack all standing behind their chairs. He remained standing, too, until Ellie slipped out of her room, dressed in a plain dark gray dress, her luxuriant hair pulled back and tied at the back of he
r neck with a white ribbon. She looked simply beautiful.
“Come and sit, Ellie,” Linnea said as she set down a bowl of green beans. “None of these gentlemen will take their chairs until we do.”
As she moved toward an empty chair at the table, Curtis couldn’t stop himself from calling out, “Allow me.” He hurried around the table to hold the chair for her.
When Ellie looked up at him with surprise, he smiled at her and nodded. Ellie sat down stiffly, as if she wasn’t sure what was expected of her.
Before Linnea could seat herself, Curtis moved to her chair and held it for her. ”Why, thank you,” she said, and sat down at the head of the table.
Perched stiffly on a chair next to Linnea and across from Ellie, David muttered, “They could have done that themselves.”
Jack was next to Ellie while Jesse took a place next to David. Curtis hesitated as he returned to his chair at the end of the table across from Linnea. “I hope I'm not taking Mr. Ransom’s place.”
The sudden stillness made him pause and look around the table in confusion. Had he said something wrong?
Linnea looked at him with barely a smile. “Mr. Ransom is no longer with us.”
Ellie looked as if she was about to speak, then dropped her gaze to her hands gripping the table.
“I’m sorry,” Curtis said, feeling a flush climb up his face.
“How were you to know?” Linnea asked with a thin smile. “Go ahead, sit down.” She gestured to his chair. Curtis sat. It seemed as if everyone around the table took a breath, except David, who grinned savagely at Curtis.
Once the blessing was said, Jesse and Jack dug into the bowls, scooping food onto their plates while Linnea asked, “Well, Mr. Locken, what brings you to Colorado?”
Curtis hesitated. He didn’t feel the need to give her details, but he didn’t wish to be dishonest. “It was time for a fresh start, ma’am.”
“I see.” Linnea glanced down, smoothing the table cloth with her fingers while she said, “Sometimes there’s nothing left but to start over.”
“What is your profession?” Jesse asked.
“You might was well tell him,” Jack said. “He’ll ask in all kinds of different ways until he finds out what he wants to know.”
“I’m in the importing and exporting business.”
“What type of imports?” Linnea asked.
“I’ve already had a hand in moving merchandise from India, England, Europe, and the Mediterranean.”
Imagining him standing on the bridge of a ship headed to exotic ports, Ellie asked, “Have you been to all those places?”
“Not personally.”
Jesse shook his head. “Seems you’d get to those places faster from the east coast than here.”
“My uncle owns a shipping line, and he and my cousin have brought home many treasures.” Curtis’s face clouded. “But after, well, certain events, I’ve worked toward starting my own line of goods. Besides bringing hard-to-find products here, there is quite an interest back east about the western frontier. Many people don’t want to travel through the wilderness themselves, but they want the experience of owning objects from the wild west. Some restaurants offer food like buffalo, and some people are looking for lamps or chairs made from elk and deer antlers.”
“That’s very interesting,” Linnea said.
Jesse leaned forward. “Do all those fancy fellows in Georgia hold chairs for ladies?”
“Someone does,” Curtis replied. “Once it was slaves, but as slavery is illegal, the gentlemen have stepped in.”
“Why do it, if they’re able to sit down by theirselves?” David asked before taking a large bite of a chicken leg that was gripped in his fingers.
“Common courtesy and respect,” Curtis answered. “Some women are in a… delicate condition. Standing by as they are seated allows assistance should the need arise.”
“Fancy talk,” David grumbled past a mouth full of partially chewed food. “If someone held my chair, I’d think they might pull it out from under me.”
Curtis managed to hide a smile. Life in the untamed west certainly provided some contrasts to what he was used to. But the food looked good. As he served himself a piece of chicken, he said, “Mrs. Ransom, this smells divine.”
Linnea smiled and dabbed her mouth with her napkin.
As soon as dinner was over, Ellie stood and began gathering dishes. Curtis stood, too. He could not imagine Annabelle offering to do anything as distasteful as washing dirty dishes.
“You really needn’t,” Ellie said, looking up at him. He gazed back at her. Surely Ellie couldn’t be masking her true behavior just because they had guests, as this appeared to be a normal routine for her.
“No,” Linnea said, rising and placing a hand on her daughter’s arm. “You’ve been up long enough. Go on to your room.”
“I would be honored to help you clear up,” Curtis offered, picking up his plate.
“Go on with you!” Linnea scolded good-naturedly. “Do you want to discredit me? If word got around that I let a guest clean up after his own meal, I wouldn’t be able to show my face in town.”
Curtis didn’t know how to make her understand that he’d learned that position in society and titles didn’t matter. Not anymore. But he didn’t want to cause her any distress. “No, ma’am.” Curtis replaced the dish and stood awkwardly.
“We shall return your coat once we launder it,” Linnea promised.
“I can have a washer woman do it,” Curtis offered.
“It’s already soaking in my special laundering solution,” Linnea said. “It will be returned to you like new.”
“You are most kind, ma’am.” Curtis turned to Ellie. “Miss Ransom, I hope you will feel better very soon.”
Ellie looked at him curiously. He wished with all his heart that he could tell what she was thinking. Were her thoughts truly as pure and innocent as they appeared, or were they like those of someone else with an innocent face, but who had harbored a craving inside to get attention at any cost?
He didn’t know yet, but he was determined to find out.