Mistletoe Courtship (5 page)

“I've been taking Danny with me.”

“I appreciate that,” Colter said and then realized something. “I haven't paid you yet for taking care of everything. And the bank's closed now.”

“Monday's fine,” Virginia said as she stood up, too.

Before he knew it, she had said good-night and walked back up the stairs.

Colter supposed it was for the best. Virginia deserved a newly minted penny, not an old beat-up coin like him. So far, he was doing all right by Danny and Patricia, but they had even fewer expectations of life than he did. Someone like Virginia was different though. She'd grown up with china dolls and tea parties—and those pianos she talked about. She should marry a man who could give her those things again. She hadn't talked much about her life back east, but he'd noticed she had a way of doing things that showed she'd known some fine things in life. She was very precise in her movements.

She'd certainly never had much to do with ex-gunfighters who were trying to be fathers. That much Colter could guarantee. He was better at trail grub than normal meals. He'd been meaning to get Danny a regular shirt, but he'd never quite made it to the mercantile to do it. Frankly, he wasn't even sure how he was supposed to make a home for the two children he was taking on. He'd been raising Danny in this saloon here, but it wasn't suitable for Patricia. Besides, he didn't have a taste for that kind of life anymore himself.

Maybe in church tomorrow he'd talk to Jake Hargrove, his old friend who lived over by Dry Creek. Jake had gone from a trapping life to raising his nieces and it hadn't seemed to hurt him any. Of course, he'd convinced Elizabeth to marry him shortly after his nieces came to live with him so he was probably making out just fine. A wife would make all of the difference.

V
irginia woke up and almost screamed. Thin streaks of morning sun were coming in the window and a purple bird was staring down at her. She blinked to clear her vision and noticed the bird had odd feathers. And a little girl's nose was sticking out of its beak, quivering with excitement.

“Well, who do we have here?” Virginia leaned up on an elbow so she could be eye to eye with her visitor. “I wonder if anyone wants fried chicken for breakfast.”

That made the nose and the beak shake even more with barely stifled giggles.

“This looks like a nice plump bird,” Virginia continued, pretending to consider the idea. “I bet it tastes good.”

With that, Patricia put down the feathered mask that must have come from her mother's trunks and giggled freely.

“Are you finished trying to terrify me?” Virginia asked as she stretched.

“You weren't scared. You were hungry. My mother would have screamed.”

“I'm sure she'd have swooned from fright,” Virginia agreed.

Patricia was silent for a minute. “Sometimes she liked to play if she wasn't busy.”

Virginia nodded. And sometimes purple birds came to visit at dawn. No matter how much Patricia loved this mother of hers, Virginia didn't think much of the woman. She reached out to sweep a stray feather out of Patricia's hair.

Then she pushed the covers off and swung her legs around to the floor. “If you get dressed, I'll show you how to make a sock doll this afternoon.”

The girl shrugged. “Okay.”

Patricia was leaving the room when Virginia remembered. “And put on your best clothes. It's Sunday today and we're going to church.”

Patricia turned around. “My mother doesn't take me to church.”

Now why aren't I surprised?
Virginia thought.

“Well, it's time you went then,” was all she said.

Virginia knew it wasn't really her decision to take the children to church. Colter was their parent. He should make that decision. But since she was going to church regardless of who else did, she decided she would wear her best gray wool dress with the brass buttons trailing down the front and the small bustle in the back. And, of course, her black hat and gloves.

Even when she was giving lessons to the Wells girls, she dressed like a lady. She was afraid to relax her standards for fear she wouldn't fit into her world anymore when she was able to return. Being caught without a corset yesterday was lazy on her part. A lady had to put the proper effort into dressing. Her father, she couldn't help thinking, would be appalled if he could see her now. He had expected more from her.

Virginia heard Patricia's footsteps going down the stairs while she put the last pins in her hair. If she knew Danny, the boy was already up and dressed for going to church.

When Virginia got to the stairs, she looked down and wondered what had happened. By the smell of things, pancake batter was burning somewhere and a gray barking dog was chasing an animal—it must be a cat—around the tables. Colter had just opened the doorway coming in from the back room. He was holding a wooden spoon in his hand and ignoring the smoke starting to billow out behind him. He must have heard the children. Danny was sitting in one of the chairs laughing as a wild-haired Patricia threatened to throw a small spittoon at him. If it was the spittoon from the bar, at least it was clean.

Virginia walked down the stairs and over to the piano. She didn't have much experience with chaos, but she did know sound. She reached for one of her deepest bells and rang it sharply. The pure sweet note floated over the saloon. Then Colter shut the door to the back room, closing the cat and dog in there. Patricia sat and gazed up at the bell with a look of rapture on her face. Even Danny had stopped laughing.

There was blessed silence in the room.

 

Now how did she do that?
Colter asked himself as he walked over and set his spoon down on a table. When he'd gotten up this morning, he'd figured he'd make some pancakes for breakfast just like he used to do every Sunday morning for him and Danny. Two more people to feed didn't worry him.

But then Patricia had come down and opened the front door to get her morning breath of fresh air, something she claimed her mother always advised. A gust of wind made her hair blow this way and that. Then, Danny started to laugh at her hair and the cat ran inside, trying to escape that dog following her. Before Colter knew it, everything was out of control.

With one bell ring, though, Virginia had brought it all back to normal.

He hadn't realized until this very minute that he was a fool
to think he was ready to be a father to two children. When it had just been him and Danny they had done all right. But how would he manage with Patricia as well? He didn't know anything about girls.

“How'd you do that?” Patricia was demanding of Virginia. Colter needed to sit down. He'd faced ambushes with less panic than he was feeling right now. How did ordinary men manage to raise children like these? A person couldn't just put them in a corral like spring colts. Or let them scatter like chickens. Could he?

Fortunately, Virginia rang the bell again and Patricia walked slowly over to the piano.

 

Life was full of surprises, Virginia thought to herself. Who would think that a slip of a girl more familiar with a spittoon than a musical instrument would be blessed with such an exceptional ear for music. By the look on her face, she figured the girl had also heard the slow slide of the bell tone. Most ears didn't pick that up. “The note's a D. It can also do this.”

By hitting the bell slightly differently, Virginia made a lighter sound.

“It's beautiful,” Patricia said as she stopped in front of the bells and reached out to touch one of them reverently.

“My mother's father had them engraved.” Virginia smiled as she stepped closer to the girl. The etched cross was surrounded by curls on the front of the brass bell. “He was a change ringer with a cathedral guild in England. Very proud he was of it, too.”

Virginia handed a bell to Patricia and the girl ran her finger around the rim of it.

Virginia guessed that, even if they hadn't started lessons, the girl was now a student so she should tell her more. “My grandfather's job was to mark the hours of the day and other impor
tant times and places. The different series of rings were called changes. He was most grateful for these small bells because he could use them to practice at home in front of the fire instead of in the church's cold bell tower. He left them to my mother when he died and she left them to me.”

“I wouldn't have minded the cold,” Patricia said.

Virginia smiled. “If you turn the bell over you'll see a mark. That means they were made by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in England.”

Virginia loved to teach about music. She picked up a couple of more bells and rang out part of a scale.

“Does the church here have bells?” Patricia asked. “I didn't know churches had bells.”

“We have an organ, too. We're not planning to ring the bells until Christmas Eve. And we're not doing any changes, we're playing ‘Silent Night.' But the organ plays every Sunday.”

“Then I'm going,” the girl said simply.

Virginia nodded. She knew what the love of music could mean to someone. It was too bad that Patricia couldn't go back east and discover the richness of the music there. Virginia sighed. She wished her father could have met the girl. It might have made up for some of his disappointment with her if she could have brought him a student with a natural talent for music that might even have rivaled his.

 

Colter felt his heart ease as he watched Virginia talking to Patricia. Maybe he wasn't as alone as he had thought. Virginia sounded as though she was willing to help Patricia. The girl needed affection almost more than she needed musical training, but he wouldn't tell either one of them that yet.

The only reason he knew how barren the girl's childhood had been was because he'd gone to Rose before he'd brought Patricia back here. That woman was drunk when he talked to
her or she probably wouldn't have admitted she hadn't been sure he'd go to the Golden Spur, especially when the girl wasn't even his daughter. Rose had laughed like crazy at that, saying he should have asked the girl her birthday. He'd remembered Rose as being irresponsible, but he hadn't known she could be cruel until then.

On the ride back to Helena, he had decided he wouldn't mention birthdays. Or tell Patricia what her mother had said about him leaving her if he wanted. Colter figured God had tapped his shoulder to help the girl and that was that. He'd already learned with Danny that feeling like a father didn't always have much to do with the facts of the matter.

Colter shook his head as though to clear it. Patricia was safe with him now and, in time, her mother would become a distant memory. A little smoke was still in the air so he excused himself and went into the back room. The door to the outside had been pushed open by the escaping cat and dog so most of the smoke had left as well. He decided he'd just make oats for everyone for breakfast. If they were all going to church, he wouldn't have enough time to make pancakes now anyway.

He put the water on to boil and went back into the main room.

“Braids,” Patricia was demanding. “I want braids.”

“I think brushing your hair will be enough.” Virginia was proceeding to do just that.

“But it tangles,” Patricia protested. “Unless I wear my hat.”

“No hats,” Virginia said.

“Why not? He's wearing his.” Patricia eyed Danny.

Colter noted that the boy did have his hat on. That was unlike him. He was probably making sure no one took a comb to him though. Or a spittoon.

“Oh, but you have such pretty hair. We don't want to cover it up.” Virginia said to Patricia as she untangled everything.

Colter wondered when Virginia would notice they had bigger problems than Patricia's hair. He hadn't truly seen how ragged her clothes were until she sat next to Virginia. As near as he could tell, Patricia was wearing a cut-down man's shirt cinched in with a piece of cowboy rope. Her trousers were made of coarse wool and were starting to fray at the seams.

“You'll have to sit by me in church,” Colter told Patricia. People wouldn't notice her clothes so much if she was sitting by him. At least they would be less noticeable than if she sat by Virginia.

How did that woman manage to always look so good anyway?

“I think there's a community dinner after church services today,” Virginia remarked as she started to guide the brush through the girl's hair. “Elizabeth Hargrove is making her doughnuts, too. She passes those out between Sunday school and church.”

“My mother made doughnuts once,” Patricia said with longing in her voice. “She said doughnuts are the way to a man's heart.”

“Yes, well—” Virginia hesitated and looked up at him. “If it's all right with Colter, we'll invite the Hargroves here some afternoon and make doughnuts with Elizabeth and Spotted Fawn. I don't know if they'll make their way to any man's heart, but they sure are good.”

Patricia started to frown. “Spotted Fawn? Is that an Indian name?”

Colter wondered if he should have said something to Patricia earlier. He'd grown so accustomed to the Hargrove girls now that he often didn't remember they were part-Sioux.

“She'll be in church?” Patricia asked.

“We hope so,” Colter said.

Patricia frowned as she looked up at him and then back at
Virginia. “My mother won't let me sit down with no Indians. They can't even get whiskey at her saloon. They're no good. Everyone says they're a regular bite upon the face of the earth.”

“The word's
blight
and it's not true,” Virginia said with some heat.

Patricia still looked undecided.

“Spotted Fawn is a lovely girl. And you'll treat her politely.” Virginia looked over at Colter. “That is, if your father agrees.”

“Of course I agree,” Colter said, wondering what was going through Virginia's mind. “You don't need to ask me if I agree with every little thing.”

“They're your children,” Virginia said.

“Well, yes, but—” he stammered to a halt. He could hardly admit he was adrift in that particular job and wasn't sure he could be trusted to decide all of those questions.

“I don't know if we can fix any of my dresses to fit you, but we can try.” Virginia bent down to say to Patricia.

“I have my own dress.” Patricia stood up. “I'll show you.”

Colter watched as his daughter ran toward the stairs. “I should have bought her a dress before I left Helena.”

Virginia got a worried look on her face. “Her mother must have given her the dress then.”

Colter shook his head. “Everyone at the saloon there thought she was a boy. I doubt she has a dress.”