Chapter 3 #2
She got the feeling that he was holding back. Well, perhaps he was. They were on Mrs. Odenkirk’s porch, and unless Lucy was seeing things, the lace curtain in the window had twitched aside ever so slightly when Robert arrived.
Robert smiled and awkwardly gave her hand a squeeze. “I’ll stop by tomorrow and see how you’re doing.”
“That will be great,” Lucy said.
He left then and she returned to her room. Dinner was at seven, and it was just her and her landlady.
Mrs. Odenkirk had made stew, for which Lucy was very grateful, and then Lucy went up to bed. She was tired from the long day and fell asleep with little trouble at all after saying her prayers.
The next day Lucy woke early and lay in bed, wondering what she should do. It was the first time in a long while that she didn’t have a job to go to. What did someone do when they had no real reason to get out of bed?
Get up and go find a reason.
She got up. Lying around wasn’t something she did; not unless she was desperately ill. Mrs. Odenkirk didn’t believe in breakfast, and so Lucy set off into town to see what she could rustle up.
There was also a very good chance that she would run into Robert just by walking around town.
She was looking forward to that. It had been so wonderful to see him and talk to him in the flesh.
In truth, she’d been dreaming about the day when she would hear his voice, see his face, and get to know the man who had been so central in her thoughts for months now.
However, Robert was nowhere to be seen.
Not deterred, Lucy went to the bakery. There she met a lovely lady named Grace and a man named Herman who smiled constantly.
They sold her something called a breakfast bun. It was a roll with scrambled egg, tomato, onion, and a decent amount of grated cheese inside it. It was delicious and Lucy ate it with enthusiasm, watching the men building the town hall.
She sat on a rock, listening to the sounds of saws and hammers and thinking how quiet this place was. Sitting by the construction site was about as close to the noises of Boston as she could get here. Well, minus the seagulls.
Lucy found it comforting, and she needed some comfort.
This was the first time since she started her journey out west that she was really all alone with nothing to do.
On the train, she’d been moving. In the cart, she’d had bandits to shoot at and new folks to meet, but now, at her journey’s end … She was at a loose end.
She wondered what was going on in Boston.
Was there a wanted poster being printed now and sent out to all the many places they might think she’d go?
Was her name being telegraphed across the country in connection with a murder she would never have committed?
What were her parents doing? Were they feverishly trying to find the real killer?
There were simply too many questions, and sadly, Lucy had no answers.
When she was done with her breakfast, she decided to head to the general store. There were several things she needed.
Entering the store, she quickly took in the layout. There were a couple of rows of shelves that stretched into the store itself. They were packed with things like cans of beans, candles, tins of lamp oil, and boxes of laundry soap flakes.
Behind the large counter that split the room was a different section entirely. This space held sacks of things like flour, rice, and so on.
Mrs. Odenkirk had told her firmly that she would only supply one candle per week, and since Lucy suspected she would be reading well into the night, as was her custom, she took a pack of candles. Then she wandered through the shelves.
As she approached the back of the store, she heard voices.
“… are you sure?” a female voice asked uncertainly.
“Oh, definitely,” a young male voice replied. “This … um … taffeta is good for a suit.”
“What?” Lucy exclaimed, stepping out from between the shelves.
Two startled faces turned her way.
Lucy held up her hands. “Sorry, I couldn’t help but overhear. Do you know anything about sewing?” she asked the young man, who looked as though he was still too young to shave.
His face began to turn red. “Um … of course,” he said very uncertainly.
“Only, as I’m sure you know, the woolen fabric on the shelf there is far better suited to making a suit,” Lucy said. Then she turned to the young customer. “Who is the suit for?”
“My husband,” the woman said. She hardly looked old enough to say the word husband, let alone have one.
“Ah, you’ve never done this before, have you?” Lucy asked.
The woman shook her head. “No, can you help us? I get the feeling you know a lot more about this than we do.”
The clerk nodded. “I don’t usually work this section, but my sister is off sick today and?—”
“That’s fine,” Lucy said, stepping closer.
She’d forgotten how much she liked to work with fabric.
It was the feel of it in her hands that she really enjoyed.
Making clothes from it was secondary to the feeling.
“Okay, what you’re looking for is either a good linen or wool.
The wool is a little warm but usually cheaper than the linen. ”
Lucy walked over to the rack where a couple of bolts of cloth were stacked. She rooted through them and found a decent navy wool.
“What is going on here?” a stocky man with a red face asked, striding over.
Lucy noticed the look of terror that shot into the young clerk’s face. She turned to the man and smiled.
“Hi, I’m Lucy,” she said. “I’m a seamstress, and I couldn’t help but overhear that this young man needed a bit of assistance.”
The man frowned. “Ben?” he asked, speaking over her. “You said you could handle this.”
“I know, Mr. Di Aventura,” the luckless Ben said. “I didn’t realize that folks would ask questions.”
Mr. Di Aventura sighed and shook his head. “Well, I guess I should say thank you for helping him.”
“Well, it’s not like I’ve got anything better to do,” Lucy admitted. She lifted the wool from the rack and took it to a worktable in the middle of the area. Then, turning to the customer, she said, “Do you know how much fabric you’ll need?”
She helped the young woman as best she could. The suit was most likely going to be a disaster, but the newly married Trudy seemed determined to make one for her husband. They had moved from one of the farms and were eager to start a new life in Unity.
When she was done, Mr. Di Aventura took Lucy aside and, to her surprise, offered her a job.
Lucy accepted on the spot and just like that, things were looking up again.
Thank you, God, for your mercy, she prayed silently as her new employer showed her around the store.