‘My, my! You are one pretty little filly. However did a girl as pretty as you manage to be stuck in a crude slap-dabble town like this?’
‘I beg your pardon,’ Belinda Holdridge mumbled, moving to go around the man standing in her way.
Instead of allowing her to pass the man moved closer, blocking her way more effectively. ‘Aw, now, that’s no way to treat a lonesome gentleman,’ he remonstrated. ‘You could at the very least afford me a few minutes of polite conversation.’
Put off by his forwardness, but simultaneously intrigued by his smooth speech and flawless English, Belinda hesitated. ‘I’m sorry. I am not in the habit of visiting with strangers on the street.’
‘Well now,’ the man responded, ‘that’s commendable. But on the other hand, who do you know that didn’t start out being a stranger to you? Aside from my parents, every friend I have used to be a stranger.’
She looked directly at him for the first time. His eyes were bright and clear. He was plainly not intoxicated. A slight smile played at the corners of his mouth, but his look was neither taunting nor threatening.
She almost stammered as she said, ‘But at least they were all introduced to me by somebody. I don’t believe we have been introduced.’
The man swept off his hat, stepped to one side, and motioned to the spot he had been standing. ‘In that case, Madam, may I introduce you to Mr Jarvis McCrae, presently of Headland, Wyoming Territory.’
Then he stepped back into the spot he had so recently vacated and extended his right hand, while still holding his hat in his left. ‘Why thank you, sir. And to whom, may I ask, have I just this moment been introduced?’
Belinda giggled in spite of her best effort to remain stern. ‘M-My name is Belinda Holdridge, Mr McCrae.’
In spite of the fact that she had not extended her own hand, he reached out and grabbed her right hand. Instead of shaking it, as was the custom for both men and women in that country, he simply lifted her hand slightly and bowed over it. For the barest moment she actually thought he was going to kiss her hand. Then she wasn’t sure whether she hoped he would or wouldn’t. She drew her hand back from his, knowing she had turned bright red.
‘Is that Miss Belinda Holdridge?’ he asked, ignoring the fact that she had jerked her hand away from him.
‘As if it were any of your business, yes, it is Miss Holdridge. If it were any of your business, I would also tell you that I am engaged to be married. Now please stand aside and let me pass.’
Still holding his hat in his hand, he stepped to the very outer edge of the board sidewalk, bowed deeply with a sweep of his hat in the direction she had been trying to go. ‘Of course, Miss Belinda Holdridge. It has been such a pleasure meeting you. I do hope I will have the pleasure of more of your charming company in the near future.’
Unsure how to respond, she said nothing. She walked on past, and he did nothing to impede her passing. A few steps later she glanced back over her shoulder. He was standing there smiling, obviously waiting for her to turn. As she did, he lifted his hat to her again.
She whirled back in the other direction and collided with Hildagarde Swenson, who was just exiting Lowenberg’s Mercantile Store with a bag of merchandise.
‘Oh! Oh, my! Oh, I’m so sorry, Mrs Swenson! I … I’m afraid I wasn’t watching where I was going. Are you all right?’
‘Oh, of course, my dear,’ Mrs Swenson replied. ‘I’ve been run into harder than that by one or another of my children every day of the week.’
As she answered she looked back over Belinda’s shoulder at McCrae, who was grinning broadly. ‘Is that a friend of yours?’ she asked, her voice almost accusatory.
‘Oh, no! No. He just … just … well, I’m not really sure what he just did.’
‘Whatever do you mean? Did he bother you?’
‘No! Yes. No. Not really. He … he just, sort of stopped me as I was walking by. He managed to introduce himself to me and to ask my name, and … and, well I’m afraid I was just a little bit flustered.’
‘Why, how forward of him!’ Hildagarde huffed. ‘A lady can’t even walk down the sidewalk these days without being accosted by some ruffian.’
‘Oh, I don’t think he is that,’ Belinda protested. ‘He … he talks like he’s very sophisticated.’
‘Hmmph! If he had any measure of sophistication he certainly wouldn’t be causing sidewalk collisions between respectable ladies.’
‘I think he must be new in town.’
‘Hmmph! Half of the people on the street are new in town these days. Why, one hardly knows whom to speak to and whom to avoid. You must mention the incident to Dwight. I’m sure he will have more than just a passing interest in a stranger who accosts his betrothed on a public sidewalk.’
Belinda almost giggled at the self-righteous umbrage that was so incongruent in such a raw and often crude place. She managed to conceal her feelings, however. ‘Well, I apologize again for almost knocking you down, Hilda. I am, as a matter of fact, just on my way to Dwight’s office. He’s taking me to supper tonight.’
Hildagarde brightened at once. ‘Oh, how nice! You’ll be eating at Sven and Helga’s?’
‘Uh, no, I think he mentioned being hungry for something that Ling Xao makes.’
Hildagarde’s visage darkened instantly. ‘Oh. I see. I much prefer good American food, myself.’
Belinda couldn’t resist the urge to say, ‘Yes, like lutefisk and lefse.’
Hildagarde missed the sarcasm entirely. ‘Oh, my, yes. Exactly. So much better than those foreign foods, made out of goodness knows what. Well, I must be going. Please do say hello to Dwight for Soren and me.’
Before she told Dwight anything else, Belinda related her conversation about the competing eating establishments, and Hildagarde’s failure to grasp her almost snide humor. He laughed aloud at the picture.
Then Belinda told him the reason for her near collision with Hildagarde, and his visage darkened instantly. ‘Did he bother you? Did he touch you? I’ll beat him within an inch of his life!’
She laid a hand on his arm. ‘Oh, darling, don’t be so protective! Of course he didn’t touch me. He only wanted to wrangle an introduction.’
‘Did you let him know you was taken?’
‘Taken?’ she asked, arching her eyebrows. ‘Taken? You mean as if you lined up the eligible women in Headland and said, ’I’ll take that one,’ like you were picking out a heifer for a herd of cows?’
‘You know what I mean,’ he replied, growing angry because he knew his face was suddenly red. ‘Did you tell him you and me are engaged?’
‘Why, darling, I do believe you are blushing! Yes, dear. I made sure to tell him I was engaged to be married. I did not tell him that if the man I am engaged to doesn’t get around to making a married woman out of me pretty shortly, I may well change my mind, however.’
He gaped at her as if he couldn’t believe she had said such a thing. ‘But … but … but we agreed that we needed a place to live an’ all that, afore we went an’ tied the knot.’
‘And just what do you call your house? Isn’t that a place to live?’
‘Well, yeah, but … but … well, there’s some things I been savin’ up for, that I really wanted to have in the house afore I went an’ asked you to go ahead an’ marry me an’ start livin’ there.’
She giggled at his discomfiture. ‘Stop stammering, dear. I know exactly what you are doing. But I am getting tired of waiting. I want to be your wife. I want to have children. I’m not getting any younger, you know.’
At a loss for an adequate answer, he opened and closed his mouth a couple times, then changed the subject completely. ‘I … had another guy shoot at me today.’
‘Oh dear! Another one? I didn’t even hear about it. What happened?’
He took a deep breath. ‘Plumb outa nowhere. Tried to bushwhack me from between a couple buildings. I caught a flash o’ sun off’n his gun barrel just afore he shot. I took a dive an’ he missed. I shot back, but I was just shootin’ blind into the space he was in. Didn’t hit ’im. It seemed almost like somebody’d sent ’im into town just to get rid o’ me.’
‘Oh, dear!’ Belinda said again. ‘Oh, dear! That’s what you thought about the man you had to shoot the other day, too. Why ever would somebody do that?’
He frowned. ‘Danged if I know. Worries me, though. He showed up just after this other fella shows up an’ comes to me askin’ where he might find a job. Most folks never think o’ asking the marshal about jobs. Then this other fella bothers you. You said he was a stranger in town, too? What did he look like, anyhow?’
‘He’s about your height, maybe an inch or two shorter. Brown hair. Brown eyes. Wears a hat that’s sorta different from most.’
Dwight’s eyes widened. ‘Sorta small for a Stetson, but bigger’n a bowler or a derby?’
‘Yes. Do you know him?’
Instead of answering, Dwight said, ‘Does he talk kinda highfalutin’. Real proper English and all that?’
‘Yes. You do know him.’
Dwight frowned. ‘That’s another guy that came to me to ask about findin’ work, oh, maybe a week ago. Jarvis McCrae, I think his name is.’
It was her eyes’ turn to widen. ‘You don’t suppose there’s some connection between his talking to you and his talking to me, do you?’
He said nothing for a long moment. She could not figure out the direction of his thoughts. She frowned. ‘Is there something happening in town that you’re not telling me about?’
He took a deep breath. ‘Nothin’ that I can talk about.’
She opened her mouth to reply, then shut it again. Abruptly he said, ‘Let’s go over to Ling’s and see if he’s got any lutefisk.’
Belinda giggled. ‘Ugh. I tasted that stuff once. Once is enough.’
‘I never got past the smell, myself.’
Arm in arm they left the marshal’s office and headed for the café. The niggling little worry that kept turning over in the back of Dwight’s mind had Lester Goode on one side of it and Jarvis McCrae on the other side of it. Part of the worry was wondering why either man worried him. He had a strong hunch he would know before long.