Chapter 7 #2
The kiss was everything that Anita had read they should be. It was warm and sweet, and it did things to her that she had never experienced before.
By the time they parted, she was quite out of breath.
“Good heavens,” she said. “Is it always going to be like that?”
“I don’t know,” Kevin said. “Should we try it again?”
She smiled, and soon they were back in each other’s arms.
Kyle didn’t interrupt this time.
That evening, at five o’clock, Anita and Kevin were ready to go to the campfire party. Anita wore a pretty floral dress with yellow daisies printed on the fabric.
Kevin wore a green shirt and gray trousers. He had tried to comb his hair, but it was so curly and unruly that despite his efforts, it quickly returned to its wild ways. Anita found that she quite liked it that way. He had neatened up his beard a little though, and looked quite respectable.
“Do we have to wait for Kyle?” she asked as they stood outside their back door in the yard.
“I suppose we do,” Kevin said. “He was tasked with getting us there. He’s not good at being punctual though.”
“I can see that,” Anita said. She slipped her hand in his, and they entwined their fingers. She smiled at him. “I’m very glad I answered your advertisement.”
“I’m glad too,” Kevin said, kissing the top of her head so tenderly that she sighed.
Just then the jangle of a harness filled the air along with the thudding of hooves, and Kyle drove the cart into the yard. He was dressed in a dark blue shirt and light brown trousers, along with a smear of shaving soap on his cheek. Anita wondered whether she should tell him.
“There you are,” Kevin said with a smile. “We thought you’d forgotten to come and pick us up.”
Kyle chuckled. “Funny,” he said. “Come on.”
They climbed up onto the driver’s seat, Anita wedged between the two men. She took out her handkerchief and handed it to Kyle, deciding someone should say something. “There’s shaving soap on your cheek,” she explained when he looked surprised.
“Thanks,” he said, wiping his cheek. “That’s when having a woman of my own sure would come in handy, to tell me things like that. See, I dropped my mirror, so I was trying to shave in a shard of it. Not that easy, let me tell you.”
“Why are you so dressed up?” Kevin asked.
“Because some of the ladies from the farms we buy our goods from are coming to this little shindig, and I thought, since I’ve had limited luck with my advertisement, I would see if there was a daisy worth plucking.”
“How can you make something so innocent sound so lewd?” Anita complained playfully.
“It’s a gift,” Kyle said. “Oh, and have you noticed? The bull is starting to eye the cows. I think we could have a whole lot of calves soon.”
They rode in silence after that, with Anita dreaming about the little calves that would be born on her farm.
The town went by in a flash, and Anita was dragged from her reverie when the cart’s wheels hit the wooden bridge.
She had a basket at her feet that held crackers and cheese. A tingle of fear filled her. What if no one liked the cream cheese? What if they said it was terrible?
That was ridiculous. She knew her cheese was good. She was being silly. Anita forced herself to relax as they neared the camp.
It was an odd assortment of tents and ramshackle buildings that surrounded the campfire.
“This is where we all lived when we first started the mining camp,” Kevin said. “Now, only a few folks are left here. They’re the ones who are still building their houses on the other side of the creek.”
“What will happen to this place once everyone has a house on the other side?” Anita asked.
“There’s talk of it turning into a whole mining complex,” Kyle said. “There are plans to expand the smelter and to build some actual offices for the overseer and manager and all the other officials so that mine business and town business can be separated.”
“Who will run the mine?” Anita asked.
“Andrew,” Kevin and Kyle both said.
“And the town?” she asked.
“Michael,” they said in unison again.
“Oh?” Anita said. “No voting?”
“No, we can’t even vote on a name for the town,” Kyle said. “No one liked my suggestion. It was more of a joke, really.”
“And what was your suggestion?” Anita asked.
“Trouble,” he said. “Because that’s what it has been since we got here. Nothing but trouble.” He chuckled. “No one picked up that it was a joke.”
“Some jokes just aren’t funny, Kyle,” Kevin said. “Especially when they’re true.”
Kyle shrugged. “I guess.”
They reached the campfire, which was already burning brightly as, overhead, the sunset painted the sky orange, yellow, and pink. They parked the cart, and Kyle unhitched the horse and led him to a paddock, where a few other horses stood.
Then they made their way to where quite a few other people had gathered around a long table. It was starting to fill up with all kinds of dishes. There were tarts, pastries, apples, pies, a couple of cakes, corn on the cob, salads, freshly baked dinner rolls, cuts of meat, and a whole lot more.
Anita took out her cheeses and crackers and laid them on the plate she had brought. Each flavor was on its own plate. She arranged them nicely, and then they took the basket to the cart. By the time they came back, several crackers were gone.
“See,” Kevin said. “Folks know something good when they see it.”
She smiled and slipped her hand into his again. She held on tightly, feeling very anxious as she always did when faced with a lot of people in a strange environment. If she could just get through this evening, then all would be well.
“There are Julie and Emily,” Anita said. “Who are they talking to?”
“Oh, that’s Hunter,” Kevin said. “He’s one of our most experienced miners. He’s been down a mine since he was fourteen. We were lucky to get him.”
They walked over to the little knot of folks talking, and Kevin introduced Anita to Hunter. The man smiled and greeted her politely.
“So, Hunter was telling us that he has asked the lady who answered his advertisement in the paper if she would ever consider coming out west,” Julie said.
“Really?” Kevin asked with a smile. “Good for you.”
Hunter smiled. “Well, I figured we could use a baker here, right? And Grace seems really nice. I mean, she writes lovely letters. How do you know though? If she’s the one, I mean?”
“Oh boy,” Emily said with a chuckle. “You don’t, Hunter, until you meet her.”
Kevin patted the man on the back. “That isn’t necessarily true. I knew. Come with me, Hunter. I’ll tell you how it really is.”
And off the two men went, with Anita gazing after him happily. Then she noticed that both Emily and Julie were holding mugs of something that was steaming.
“It’s chamomile tea,” Julie said once they had dispensed with the greetings. “Dull, I know, but anything else gives me terrible heartburn.”
“Would you like a cup?” Emily asked.
She accepted a cup, and for a while, they talked about the town.
As they talked, Anita looked out for Kevin, just to know where he was.
He was talking to Kyle again and another older man, whom Emily said was her uncle Felix.
A little while earlier, she had seen Andrew, Michael, Troy, and another man heading into one of the tents.
She wondered what that was about and if she should ask about it, then decided not to.
It was probably mine business and none of hers.
“We tasted your cheese,” Emily said, turning to Anita. “It’s delicious. Are you going to sell it at the market in two weeks? It’s out in a farmer’s field, and we usually buy whatever we need there.”
“You really should think about it,” Julie said. “You can make a little extra money.”
“That’s a good idea,” Anita said. She thought about the café and what it would no doubt cost to get it going. She and Kevin would need a lot more money, she suspected.
“Yes, I think I will,” she said.