by Lilah Rivers
“I hate to think that anything so silly would get in your way,” David said.
“Get in my way? It’s not silly. Chelsea deserves someone who is going to be able to take care of her and treat her well. Her father isn’t wrong in that. But I know that he’s seeing only that side of it. I wish he would see that I love her enough to do anything. I’ll learn any new skill I have to if it means marrying her,” Hank promised.
“Then there you have it,” David said. “You can learn a new skill. Something will come up. I’m sure of it. People in this town clearly love you and they’re not going to leave you without work.”
“But what exactly am I meant to do? Clementine mentioned that this town needs another tailor, but you can bet I’m not the right man for that task either. I’m a man for big fields, not little stitches,” Hank said.
“Nobody said that you have to become a tailor. There are other things out there. You’ve just got to find the right fit for you,” David said.
“Yeah, maybe. We’ll see. They have to be things that will also make me worthy of Chelsea and be able to afford a home for her and the children, if the Lord blesses us with any,” Hank said.
“Don’t stop dreaming about your future with her. You never know what he has in store and I’m confident that everything is going to come together for the two of you,” David said.
“I hope so. Anyway, I’ll try and have faith, even if it’s tough sometimes,” Hank said.
“Yeah, it can be tough, but has God ever let you down?” David asked.
“Not even once,” Hank replied.
“Me either. So anytime I am anxious for something, I try to remember that. He has never let me down yet. Sure, he has allowed some things to happen that I didn’t care for so much, but that’s all in this world. Being his? That’s not just a matter of this world,” David said.
“I hear you on that. But you do make me think of something else that I’ve been meaning to ask you,” Hank said.
“Oh? What’s that?” David asked.
“I was wondering about you and Miss Clementine. Has anything more come about for the two of you?” he asked.
David smiled, knowing that he was ready to admit it all to Hank.
“Nothing has really come about yet, but I think it will. At least, I’m praying that it will,” he said.
“Really? You’ve come so far as to be praying for a future with her?” Hank asked.
“Indeed, I have. You see, Mrs. Roberta made it clear that she would approve if I wanted to pursue something with her. And I think I really am coming to love her. No, I don’t think. I know it. I am falling in love with Clementine Rogers,” David said, resting into a smile as he did so.
“That’s a mighty bold statement to make. You really mean it?” Hank asked.
“I really do. But even with that, even falling in love with her, I feel like…” David trailed off, his smile faltering.
“Feel like what?” Hank asked.
“I feel like something is wrong somehow. Not between me and Miss Clementine, but something going on around us. I don’t know how to explain it, but I even had a strange sense of it before the fire. Now, of course, I am even more concerned than I was before,” David confessed.
“What do you mean?” Hank asked. “Do you think somehow the fire was intentional?”
“Oh, I don’t know. That would be quite a stretch. But I won’t deny that it crossed my mind. I mean, it seems ridiculous to suspect anything of the sort, but here I am. I’m always on edge and this didn’t help matters at all,” he said.
David was more than on edge. Now that the fire had happened, he felt as though he was truly under some kind of attack. Still, he couldn’t say why he felt that way; after all it wasn’t his barn. He was far from the only one who lived there.
But when he thought about telling Clementine about his feelings, maybe it wasn’t just his own misgivings that were stopping him. No, maybe it was the fact that he suspected there would be a problem if they did end up together.
A few hours passed and Hank and David continued talking about everything and going through the scraps and materials that they couldn’t quite place. It was long and exhausting, but necessary.
As dusk began to fall, David heard the sound of delicate feet and looked up.
She was like an apparition coming towards them. Dressed in a nice, new, apricot dress that flattered her complexion, Clementine was more than a mere vision. She was angelic.
Hank looked at David with a raised eyebrow and David only broke his line of sight to glance at his friend for a moment before he was drawn back to her.
Despite the sadness of the past two days, despite the pain and frustration and all of the unknowns, he couldn’t deny that the woman coming towards them was nothing short of beautiful.
“I’m sorry to interrupt,” she said.
“N-n-nothing to worry about,” David said.
She smiled hesitantly at him and then straightened her back, looking between the two of them.
“Dinner is ready, whenever you’re able to come in,” she said.
“Perfect. I’d love something to eat. I can’t even begin to tell you how hungry I am,” Hank said, as if overcompensating for David’s lack of speech.
“Y-yes, me too,” he added.
“Well, if you’re that hungry then I guess lunch didn’t do you much good today, did it?” she asked.
“Oh, no, that’s not what I meant,” Hank said with a laugh. “Anyway, we’ll be right in.”
Clementine walked away and Hank gave David a playful punch in the arm.
“You’d better go and get cleaned up. I don’t think a woman who looks like that is going to want to eat dinner with someone covered in soot,” Hank said.
“I don’t have anything better than this, though. All my clothes are either for church or they’re dirty,” David said.
“Then you might want to go ahead and put on them church clothes because you need to do something about this,” Hank said with another laugh.
David dusted off his shirt and realized that Hank was more than right. This was going to be a problem.
He rushed into his house as quickly as he could and found something that was clean enough. He paired one of his nicer work shirts with a pair of trousers that he would wear to church, making an outfit that was still fairly casual but still much nicer than he would wear for an average day on the ranch.
He had scrubbed his face and hands, getting all of the soot off and revealing nice, clean skin underneath.
When he came back out, Hank was coming from his own lodgings and had clean hands and a clean face, but was wearing the same thing he had been in before. David hoped that this didn’t make his own change too obvious.
They went towards the house together and made their way inside.
There were Clementine and Mrs. Roberta, sitting and chatting, having waited for them.
She really was amazing.
Roberta had dressed nicer as well and he almost wondered if there was some special occasion going on.
“Well, what do we have here? Two beautiful ladies, I see,” Hank said, breaking the ice.
“Oh, well, I figured that if we are all going to be dour and upset, we might as well try to look decent,” Mrs. Roberta said.
But Clementine was more than decent. In that dress, David thought he had never seen anyone so amazing.
And although she was a humble woman, he thought for a moment that maybe she knew it to be true.
Chapter 19
Three days had passed and Clementine thought it had been long enough that she could wear the new dress again. She had definitely noticed that David had stared at her more than once while she had worn it that last time.
Her Aunt had been right. And Wriggley was a genius.
But going out and enjoying a nice walk with Chelsea meant that she had another opportunity to dress nicely and do more with herself than she generally did when spending her days cooking and helping to clean.
&nb
sp; She hadn’t been doing much to help with the barn as everyone realized she knew nothing that could help and she was hardly going to be able to assist in fixing it. For now, Aunt Roberta was trying to prioritize what she needed to spend money on first and what she could wait on.
There had been a couple of men from town who had come down to volunteer a few hours helping to prep some of the lumber for fixing the roof, but there was no guarantee that they would be able to help with it in the long run.
By the time Chelsea arrived at the house, Clementine was ready to go and looking forward to the walk.
“My, my, you do look amazing!” Chelsea exclaimed.
“Thank you. I love this new dress. Believe me, it’s not me so much as it is the work of Mr. Wriggley,” she said.
“I think a dress is only as beautiful as the young lady that it complements,” Chelsea rebutted.
“Well, I do appreciate that. I have to say that I was happy with the response I received,” Clementine said with a grin.
“Oh! I’m truly glad to hear it!” Chelsea exclaimed.
“Anyway, should we be off?” Clementine asked.
Chelsea nodded and they started on their walk. Of course, they agreed that it would only be right to pass by Hank and David and say hello.
They agreed upon this with a significant amount of laughter and joy as they both knew what the other was thinking. After all, enjoying an opportunity to see the men was perfectly well and good.
“Good morning, gentlemen,” Chelsea greeted.
Hank’s face turned to awe as he saw Chelsea standing there. But it was David that Clementine really looked at.
His blue eyes were piercing her once again and she was glad to have the dress, even if it was only one aspect of how she looked. And for a moment, she even allowed herself to eye him with the same deep intent.
“Are you ladies heading into town?” Hank asked.
“No, just taking a walk around the property. We thought a nice walk was in store and there’s nowhere more beautiful in Feldey than Mrs. Roberta’s ranch,” Chelsea said.
“Agreed,” Clementine added, smiling and indulging for a moment in the fact that David appeared to be speechless.
“Don’t you all worry, though. We should be back before lunch. I know you all enjoy Miss Clementine’s lunches. Well, it might not be quite so good today as I intend to help her with the cooking,” Chelsea said, her self-deprecation carrying a note of humor.
“Miss Chelsea, I don’t think there’s a thing in this world that you can’t do,” Hank replied, his voice steady and comforting.
Clementine looped her arm into Chelsea’s and tugged on her friend.
“It’s nice to know that someone else can see that,” Clementine said.
“Miss Clementine, I think you haven’t even heard her sing yet, have you?” Hank asked.
“You know, I can’t say that I have. When I first moved to town, everybody was talking about that voice of hers, but here it’s been, what? A month and a half? Nearly two? And still I’ve not heard a song out of her,” Clementine said.
“The reason everyone was talking about it was because she had sung in church just the week before you arrived. But it’s been some time now, hasn’t it?” Hank said. “You just might have to indulge us over lunch.”
His eyes said it all and Clementine almost felt bad for standing there when this was so clearly a moment to be savored and held between Hank and Chelsea alone.
She looked back to David once more and he held her gaze this time. It carried with it the same sort of weight, as if Clementine could hold the world in her hands and he wouldn’t even notice it except to praise her fingers.
“Well, anyway, we had best be going,” Chelsea said.
The men both tipped their hats and Chelsea and Clementine were on their way.
“My goodness, that man is utterly taken with you,” Clementine said.
“You know, I’m pretty taken with him as well,” she giggled.
“What do you think your father would do if the two of you just up and married anyway?” Clementine asked.
Chelsea sighed. “Hank would never do it. And neither would I. Of course, we’ve dreamt about it. But my father appears to have been warming up to Hank. I just can’t tell if it’s genuine or if he’s only trying to appease me.”
“He would do that? Pretend to approve in order to keep you happy?” Clementine asked.
“I don’t know. I think so. Sometimes I feel like he just wants me happy because he misses my mother. But other times, I can sense the way he gets real stiff whenever Hank is mentioned,” Chelsea said.
“Do you talk about him a lot?” Clementine asked.
“Not me. Everyone in town loves him. They talk about him often enough. But anyway, I’m still not sure what my father thinks. I mean, he says that he is warming up to Hank, but I just can’t quite see it yet,” she said.
“I hope he means it. I hope it changes things and he really starts to show you how much he cares for you and Hank. The two of you are such a perfect match,” Clementine said.
“Just like you and David,” Chelsea said, raising an eyebrow and teasing Clementine.
“Oh, I don’t know about that. I wish, but I don’t know,” she said.
“If you want to talk about something that’s obvious, it’s the fact that the two of you are meant for one another,” Chelsea said.
Clementine blushed and thought about a day when David might express interest. She was still hoping for it, but he hadn’t actually said or done anything about it yet.
Chelsea grew quiet, but seemed to be enjoying the walk. For a moment, Clementine wondered how far they had strayed from the house and she looked back to see something in the distance behind them.
“What is that?” she asked Chelsea. “Is that a person? Or is it an animal? I can’t tell, they are too far away.”
Chelsea turned and squinted her eyes.
“I do believe it’s a person. And they appear to be moving quickly,” Chelsea said, her voice uneasy.
Clementine gripped her friend a little bit tighter.
“Who do you think it is?” Clementine asked.
“I don’t know. But I don’t think we want to stay and find out. I don’t know what kind of men there are out here,” Chelsea said.
Clementine’s heart began to race. She was growing petrified by the thought that this could be someone menacing or someone who might wish them harm.
“We need to get back to the house. Immediately,” she said.
“Yeah, but what if he reaches us first?” Chelsea asked, her voice a squeak.
“Well, if we stand here like this, he definitely will,” Clementine said.
The figure was gaining speed but they still couldn’t tell who it was as they tried racing back to the house. No longer linking arms, desperate to be quick, the two forgot propriety for a moment and held on tightly to their skirts which they lifted high enough to be able to run.
