"I'm sorry Clara.  Maybe I should have made my intentions more clearer but I thought you were and are still too young.  To say that I am pleased about your marriage would be a lie."   Clara frowned but that sounded turned into a glare. And after she had just told him she wished for the very best for his new law career.   "The only thing I can offer you is that I hope that your husband will do his best when the future comes and that you won't suffer if he doesn't."   She was not going to stand here and be hurt like this. Oh, she wanted to say more but what good would it do and what difference would it make? None.   "We are done here. I will never make the same mistake again of trying to talk to you. We have nothing further to say. Good day to you, Deputy," she said thru gritted teeth then stepped to one side of him and kept on walking.  

Brendan flew over the crest of the rise on Fiona with the rest of the riders and tried to pick out the rustlers from where their gunshots were coming from. It was hard, with the intermittent flashes from the gunfire giving only a little clarity to their attacker's figures. He rode bent low on Fiona's neck and stretched his pistol out in front of him. Somewhere on the way to the paddocks he had lost track of José, but there was no time to worry about him now.   A spattering of gunfire came from ahead and in the resulting light, he caught sight of a fellow on a horse across the paddock. He pointed his pistol and squeezed the trigger once. In the dark, with the motion of his horse, and the uncertainty of the whole situation, there was no way of knowing if his shot would even hit. He shot again in hopes that he would at least hit something.   Shooting in the dark was a lot different than shooting at rattlesnakes or beer bottles in the daytime, and neither of those things he'd practiced on ever shot back. These men would shoot back.

Brendan chuckled. "Dream? Nah, my dream is to lay around all day with nothin' to do. But this ain't so bad." Now that he thought about it, he didn't really have a dream. Besides being rich someday. There wasn't anything wrong with drifting, but it certainly wasn't the dream.   He led the way into the stable and pointed to an empty stall. "That one can be hers. Oats are in the corner over there if she wants any." He pointed this time to a large sack labeled "oats" stacked on several others like it.   Then he went over to his horse's stall. "This here's Fiona. She's mine." He patted her chestnut nose fondly and entered the stall to start putting her tack on. He was in no hurry to get out on the range, and José's horse needed some time to be fed and watered, so he took his time and even brushed Fiona's coat a bit before putting the saddle on.   "You ever ridden for a place this big before?" he asked, glancing back at the Mexican. It was highly unlikely. Steelgrave had one of the biggest places in Montana and probably in the whole of the territories. Probably.

Jay was listening, Addy was pleased with that, and he seemed to understand what she was trying to say, and that made her happy, but then he hesitated and she tried to explain a bit more.   "Yer different, Jay, I didn't never think any man could..."   But then he took her hand and was kneeling in front of her, and her head started screaming, 'No, no, no...don't...'  But her heart was soaring, and her head eagerly followed...   "Addy, do you want to become my wife?"   "I do that."  Grinning, she nodded and squeezed his hands, then pulling him up into a hug.  As much as she had resisted, she'd been wanting this for some time, and she knew he had too, so as quiet and simple as this was, it was all she'd ever hoped for.   And since the words had already been said, it was time to kiss, so she did!   @Jack        

Miriam duly reported her sale of the pair of gloves so that her employer could put it down in the books, accurate accounting was important in any business such as this one. He seemed pleased but suddenly informed her he had a 'tip'.   "Oh? Of course, sir," she duly nodded.   "Whenever you sell kid gloves, ask the customer if they'd like to buy some special cleaning spirit of  turpentine, special offer 50 cents!" He rummaged on a shelf and brought down a fancy bottle of blue glass.   "Fifty cents?" that seemed expensive to her reckoning, though she could hardly claim any expertise in such things.   "It' just ordinary turps, 10 cents a bucket from the general store, but some ladies'll buy anything as long as it comes in a pretty container."   "I see," she duly noted though to her it did seem a bit.......dishonest? Still he was the boss, far be it for her to challenge him, "I will remember that in the future, sir."   "Hmmm, Miss Lutz. Was she trying to get you to go to Church?"   Miriam had not seen that coming alright.   "She mentioned how active my friend, Arabella...you know...Miss Mudd...the one who came with Miss Mundee...........is in their church and encouraged me to come sometime to hear and see for myself'" Miriam dutifully answered.   "I told her Papa would not approve."  And to her that settled the matter then and there.