Chapter Fourteen
Sam entered the tailor’s shop and immediately recognized the voice. The hairs at the back of his neck stood up on end and his previously good mood instantly soured.
“Why are you here?” he asked Walter with a firm tone as he came up behind him. Walter jumped and spun around. He pushed out his chest and raised his chin.
“I’m talking to my niece and that’s none of your business!” Walter exclaimed.
“It is if you make it about me!” Sam responded harshly. He stopped merely a foot away from that despicable man, forcing him to retreat backwards.
“Well, I found out some very uncomfortable things about you and I thought it necessary to warn my niece,” Walter replied superciliously.
Mr. Pemberly walked around the corner, holding up both of his hands. He was a few years younger than his wife and looked to be in great physical shape.
“Would you please keep it down?” he asked politely, looking at both men with a scowl on his face. “Or I must ask you to leave the premise!” His short graying dark hair and mustache as well as his stiff posture and crisp white shirt gave him the air of a high-ranking military man.
Walter pulled a face at Sam, almost baring his teeth.
“I am already leaving,” Walter said with subdued anger, still glaring at Sam.
Turning back toward Sadie, he waved his long finger close to her face.
“Heed my word! You should reconsider your choices, niece! Don’t make a fool of yourself!
That man is no good! He’s going to ruin you!
” Sadie stared at him with a blank expression.
Whatever she was thinking, it was a complete mystery.
Sam released a low growl and Walter finally turned and stormed out of the store, still loudly lamenting about the injustices in this life. When the door slammed shut, shattering the window right beside it, Mr. Pemberly exhaled a deep sigh.
“I’m very sorry about that. Is everybody all right?” he asked with an apologetic face. Sam was surprised about the owner’s reaction.
“Why are you apologizing, Mr. Pemberly?” Sadie asked. “My uncle has no manners, so it should be me who apologizes to you in the name of my family for causing such a ruckus.” Mr. Pemberly waved his hand and shook his head.
“We both have known your uncle for a long time, Sadie,” the owner replied with a gentle smile. “You should never have to apologize for that man. You’d never be able to stop.” Mr. Pemberly sighed again, then he turned around and walked back to his side of the store.
Sam gritted his teeth. He couldn’t shake his annoyance at seeing Walter here.
“What did he want?” he finally asked when the owner was gone. “And where is Ruby?” Ellen released Sadie’s arm and started walking backwards.
“She’s getting her measurements taken,” Ellen said, as she pointed toward the backroom. “I’ll give you some privacy while I’m going to check on her.” Sam inhaled sharply when he heard that. He hadn’t even seen his daughter yet.
“I don’t know,” Sadie replied with a shrug. “He suddenly showed up.”
“That’s exactly the reason why I don’t want Ruby out and about on her own!” Sam said exasperated, as he pulled his Stetson from his head to comb his long fingers through his long dark hair.
“Well, she wasn’t on her own,” Sadie clarified as gently as she could. “She was surrounded by Mrs. Pemberly, Ellen, and I. At no point was she ever on her own.”
“Forgive me for saying that, but I don’t trust your uncle,” Sam said with a grunt. “Not even a little bit. And this today proves that I am right to worry about him.”
“He said the same thing about you,” Sadie replied. She pinched her eyes shut and held both of her hands up, as if she regretted saying it.
“What did he say?” Sam questioned her. He remembered some of the things Walter had said when he walked in. “Why does he think I’m untrustworthy?”
Sadie looked back over her shoulder, then she shook her head.
“We should talk about this when we get back home,” she suggested, which made Sam even more suspicious.
He narrowed his eyes, trying to understand her hesitation, though he did appreciate her being mindful of their privacy.
Whatever Walter had told her was probably just another lie anyway. He sighed.
“All right,” he agreed reluctantly, annoyed that he’d have to wait.
Then he heard Ruby giggle and his mood instantly changed. He could hear the tiny pitter-patter of her running around in the other room and the tension in his shoulders dissipated.
“Papa!” his daughter called out to him as she came running toward him. He kneeled down and opened his arms wide, pulling her into a tight hug. Her little arms wrapped around his neck. It was the best feeling in the world.
“How are you, Sweetheart? Did you have fun today?” he asked curiously. She pulled back and beamed at him, nodding so enthusiastically that her loosened blonde curls bounced wildly around her face.
“I got so many pretty dresses!” she exclaimed excitedly. Sam tensed again. He shot a quick glance to Sadie and Ellen, who were both watching them. When he saw their guilty faces, he immediately knew what had happened here.
“What do you mean by ‘so many dresses’?” he asked tentatively. “Did you get more than two?” Ruby burst out laughing and cackled so hard, it almost made him laugh too.
“I got this many,” Ruby said, awkwardly holding out eight of her fingers. “They are so pretty! And then I got shoes and boots and a coat for winter and…”
“Wait, wait, what?” Sam asked in shock. He stood, picking his daughter up. His eyes shot back to Sadie and Ellen, who both shrugged their shoulders in unison.
“She needs them,” Sadie declared matter-of-factly. “Winter is approaching fast and she can’t be out there in that flimsy-looking cardigan she’s got.” Sam sighed deeply.
“She has a winter coat. It’s in her trunk,” he said, fighting to remain calm. “How much is this going to cost?” he asked then, not at all hiding his disappointment.
“We’ve tried it on,” Sadie told him calmly. “It doesn’t fit her anymore.”
“Here is the order,” an older woman said as she walked into the room, handing Sadie a piece of paper.
“With the deposit you already paid, I’ll have at least half of the dresses ready for you in about a week,” she told Sadie with a warm smile.
“The shoes, boots and hats will be delivered to your house…”
“Hats?” Sam asked, bewildered, but was ignored as the women spoke among themselves.
“…as soon as I’ll get them, though, the coat might take a little longer. I’ll make sure it’ll get done as quickly as possible,” the older woman explained. “Once you have received your complete order, we’ll settle the finances. Does that sound good?”
“Yes. Thank you, Mrs. Pemberly,” Sadie said gratefully, with Ellen repeating it just as heartfelt. “That’s perfect. As always,” Sadie added, quickly giving the older woman a hug. Then Mrs. Pemberly approached Sam and Ruby, tickling his daughter underneath her chin to make her giggle.
“Oh, how much fun you are, darlin’,” she said directly to Ruby with a big smile, before her gaze landed on Sam. “Are you the father of this sweet child?” Sam nodded.
At this point, he was a little overwhelmed—and worried about the “settling of finances”—though he acknowledged the woman with a warm smile.
“Yes, I am,” he confirmed proudly.
“It was a great pleasure to serve this young lady today,” Mrs. Pemberly told him, which made Sam proudly grow at least an inch or two. “Please let me know if you’d like to make changes to any of the orders. Bye, my little darlin’,” she said to Ruby, then she said goodbye to Sam, Ellen, and Sadie.
Once Mrs. Pemberly turned to leave the room, Sam walked over to Sadie and snatched the piece of paper from her. He walked toward the front door and then straight outside toward the buggy that was still waiting in its original spot.
Sam stopped in front of it and glanced at the order form. His eyebrows shot almost all the way into his hairline. The amount of clothing they’d ordered was not only absurd, it was at least triple if not quadruple the amount he’d agreed to.
He spun around as soon as he heard the doorbell chime and Sadie and Ellen walked out of the store toward him.
“Please tell me that most of these dresses and shoes and whatnot are also for items you ordered for yourself and not just for Ruby,” he confronted Sadie. Her smile faded a little. Then she shrugged.
“Yes, I’ve ordered some things for myself,” Sadie replied nonchalantly. Ellen’s grin didn’t really fill Sam with a lot of confidence in her answer.
“How much do I owe you for Ruby?” he asked Sadie. Her face pulled into an annoyed mask.
“We’ll discuss this at home,” Sadie replied, snatching the piece of paper right out of his hand again as she marched straight past him to climb into the buggy.
Sam groaned, but he left it at that. They were in the middle of a village square and he didn’t want to cause a scene.
He lifted Ruby, who was happily babbling away, into the buggy, then he returned to his horse.
The ride back home was exactly the same as it had been on their way into town, with Ruby, Sadie, and Ellen cheerfully talking and laughing as if nothing was amiss.
Meanwhile, Sam was frustrated about everything.
He was angry at the fact that Walter had been there when he’d walked into the store, spewing lies about Sam to get into Sadie’s head. And now the financial burden of having to pay for all these extra clothes his daughter didn’t really need.
On top of that, his talk with the sheriff hadn’t been very fruitful, because the leads Sam thought he’d had—a barn fire and a robbery at a local tavern—had already been solved before he got there that morning.
Since he and Ruby had moved in with Sadie, he hadn’t been able to put a lot of time and effort into pursuing his chase for Elizabeth’s murderers, which left him feeling a little lost.