Disclaimer: All recognizable characters and settings are the property of their respective owners. All original characters and plot are the property of the author. No copyright infringement is intended.
If anyone has an opinion on my chapter set ups I'd like to know. Sometimes I have multiple segments and I don't know if they are awkward or not. Opinions?
Delicious smells emitted from the kitchen of the Ingalls' home. Herbs and roasted chicken, cinnamon and apple pie made Charles' stomach growl impatiently as he put the last plate on the lengthy table.
"You just about ready Caroline? I'm hungrier than a cat in a birdcage."
"Almost!" Came his wife's reassuring reply.
Grumbling James brought out a pitcher of milk and a dish of freshly churned butter, "Where in the world in Carrie? This is her job…"
A call in the yard sounded.
"Albert!" Carrie's voice cried, supplying their answer.
Charles smiled and put a hand on James' shoulder then headed out to the porch. He was joined by Caroline who was taking her apron off as they walked out into the setting light of the sun.
A lone horse stood behind Albert and Carrie. He was hugging her and picking her up off the ground and she was talking and laughing at him.
Putting their arms around each other's backs, Charles and Caroline just watched.
"Glad he's back. He looks good doesn't he? My son the doctor." He gushed with pride.
"That's the brightest I've seen her in a while." Caroline said folding up her apron.
Charles nodded, "She does take a shine to him. Ever since Laura moved out, they've gotten pretty close."
Carrie was still in her lavish ensemble minus the hat and had to make quite an effort to keep up with her brother who had started walking towards the house.
"Maybe she'll stop spending so much time with Nancy, if he could pay her some attention." Caroline said, her smile faded.
Charles also looked solemn at her words. "He's been pretty busy."
As the two came closer Carrie was in mid sentence. "...Was the tallest building you went into? Did you go down 5th avenue? Tell me everything Albert! What were the ladies there wearing?" She barely stopped for air.
Albert laughed at her eagerness as he came to the steps of the house.
"Hi pa." He said.
Charles was trying to hide his grin, "Is that a new suit you city slicker?"
Albert's hands went to his jacket self consciously, "Yeah."
"Come here." Charles came down to meet him with a tight hug. Albert patted his back after a bit and broke free of the embrace.
"Something smells great, what are we standing out here for?" Albert asked pushing his enthusiasm.
"You heard the doctor! Let's eat!" His father bellowed and they went back inside.
Sitting around the table, Charles, Albert, Carrie, Caroline, Cassandra, Grace and James ate heartily. Having a particularly good year with the mill, Charles shared his dreams of taking Caroline to New York as well soon. She just smiled, knowing he would always be a dreamer, even if most of his dreams were for her.
"So when did you get back? I would have driven to Springfield and picked you and Tim up there. You wouldn't have had to ride in those dusty old coaches." His father said, taking another helping of potatoes.
Albert laughed and looked down, "Yeah Pa, cause the buggy would have been less dusty." He said sarcastically. "We came in this morning on the train and caught the first coach out."
"I'm surprised there was one running on the Sabbath." Ma inserted, dabbing her mouth with a napkin.
Albert just shrugged, satisfied not to pursue the line of conversation. Carrie, sitting next to him, had been listening and engaged the whole time. "Did you bring me something?"
"Carrie." Her mother scolded.
"I sure did." He reached into his pocket and pulled out two round jars, a larger flat one and a smaller tall one.
Her eyes went wide, "Oh Albert!"
"What is it?" Charles asked.
Carrie didn't notice the question and took them from her brother. "I'm going to try them on right now!"
She hopped up and started out of the room.
"Wait just a minute young lady, you finish your dinner with us." Charles ordered firmly.
"I'm finished Pa! Please!"
Albert leaned over to Charles, "Oh come on Pa, just this once."
Charles looked from Albert to Carrie's practically sulking face.
"Well alright but only this once." It was so hard to refuse Albert.
She giggled and was gone.
Sighing, Charles continued to eat. "Now what was that all about?"
Albert shrugged, "Just some french eye paint and pearl dust."
"French what?" Charles asked in bewilderment.
"Make-up Pa." Cassandra supplied then took a drink of her milk.
"Make-up? Stuff for your face? Why would she need that?" Charles was at a concerned loss.
Albert's countenance brooded and he heaved a sigh, "Don't worry about it Pa. It's normal now days."
No one else said anything, not even Caroline who had finished and was sitting with her hands in her lap.
"Well I don't know what I think about that. Sounds pretty silly to me."
"She's nineteen Pa. Let her live a little." Albert groaned.
All heads, accept Albert's, turned to Charles, waiting in tension.
Charles just looked at him, looking like he was about to say something, finally he blinked, turning down into his plate humbly. "Well, I don't like it. But I suppose if you brought something for the rest of your sister's and brother?"
Albert nodded, his mood lightening. "Oh sure! Here." He fished inside his jacket again bringing out two bottles of perfume and handing it to Grace and Cassandra who gasped and smiled as they took them. Then out of an inside pocket he drew a dark red, ribbon-like neck tie and tossed it over the dish of chicken to James who caught it easily. He looked at it for a moment then pushed a smile onto his face.
"Oh thanks Albert. But...I don't wear ties you know." James flushed.
"You just don't know how and for what. Girls love a good necktie James. I'll show you." Albert counseled him.
This time Charles kept quiet. He was at least happy that Albert remembered his siblings on his exciting trip, that was enough for now.
"So how'd the convention go?" Charles changed the subject.
Albert looked confused for a moment then his face lifted in realization, "Oh yeah. It was...great!" He looked back at his plate and started eating again.
"Well, what did they talk about?" Charles pressed after receiving no immediate elaboration.
Albert shrugged, "Well, medical stuff Pa." He laughed.
"I figured that Albert. Anything interesting? New?"
"Um, there's some interesting things about cold bathing...um, surgical anesthesia. Probably things inappropriate to be speaking of at the table Pa."
"I agree Albert." Caroline said. "Oh I wish you could have been at church today with us. It was wonderful."
Albert flinched a smile.
"Yes, a new girl in town sang and it was just lovely. She actually stayed here, got flushed in from a thunderstorm." Cassandra said as she leaned back in her chair.
With a sudden laugh Albert said, "You take in drifters like most people take in lost puppies. And anything's an improvement on Nancy's singing."
"Albert Ingalls…" Caroline scolded but the others, even Charles had joined in laughing as well.
Caroline glared at her husband who shrugged, "Well he's right Caroline."
With a sigh she relented and stood up, "Anyone ready for some pie? Albert?"
Albert shook his head. "I really should be going. I was going to stop by Laura's on the way home."
"But you just got here. Come on, stay the night, we'll go fishing in the morning early." His father urged.
Albert looked at him with a lame smile, "Sorry Pa, some other time. Doctor remember? I've gotta let Doc Baker have something of a retirement you know. I owe him."
Admiration and pride practically shone from Charles. "You're right. Ok Mr. Doctor. Get out there and get to heal'n."
Albert stood, embracing the rest of the family again. Carrie reappeared, almost devastated at Albert's sudden departure. She and Charles lingered at the dark window a while after he left.
Elise went up the stairs of the hotel after a quick morning ride.
The green countryside grasses blended green and dormant brown, fed by many streams, which were Titan's favorite part. He was content to stand and slurp the flowing water and Elise to listen to the peaceful music it made as it slid by. It was so different from her childhood home of the Big Thicket in East Texas. There the forests gave way to cyprus trees and swamps. Fields of bluebonnets blanketed the hillsides. Here, the cone-flowers, liatris and autumn joy flowed through the birch and walnut trees like a rainbow river.
Today she had kept moving, looking for a certain spot. One she had never seen in her life. An old, crumbled trapper's cottage on the banks of a river surrounded by black oak trees, easily spotted as soon as their leaves turned red. It was part of her father's last request, to find the little house and make it livable. It almost made her angry, why he would ask her to do such an absurd thing and not think of the trouble and effort it would require of her? Some of this strange errand she had been given she could understand but after all that she had been through up to this point, she couldn't help but feel foolish in this.
Now she walked down the hall to her door feeling stiff and weary. She had lost her father's books on Sunday. The scriptures he had prized above all his other possessions. When she had remembered and gone back into the church, the bench was empty and the books were nowhere to be found. She had asked the Reverend Alden who was in his rig and about to depart after them but he had told her curtly he had not seen them.
At the foot of her door was a stack of packages. On the brown paper wrapping was the Mercantile stamp and on the top of the stack was a little glass container with a note.
"Ointment for Ty. Once a day on hind leg wound." It read.
A pang of guilt hit her and she just held the jar. All of this she had bought with their...his money. She had little of her own that might get her train passage which she had set aside. Everything else dipped into what was meant for the Olesons. Surely she had call to get necessities though? Her parents had raised her to be honest, no matter what she thought she deserved.
Elise picked up the packages and went in her room. There were two additional dresses and a skirt. The blue skirt had a high waist band that she had always prefered. Also delivered was a worm wool coat, a white sunbonnet and a heavier brimmed hat trimmed with a linen flower.
Picking up the jar one last time she opened the lid and looked into the globish-yellow contents, the smell was familiar. The same as what Dr. Baker had put on her healing cuts that second day. Didn't Mr. Oleson say he had made it?
She didn't change her clothes but she rearranged her hair, tucking in the fly-aways and went downstairs to find Hester Sue. The dining room was still barren but a couple of meager looking customers. Hester Sue was washing a table off, puffing with the effort.
Elise walked over to her, "Here, can I help?"
The woman laughed. "It's my job hon, I can't say I'm not feeling a little spread thin for all this though. Can't hardly keep up, even with business down."
"Well that's what I want to talk to you about. I need a job and it looks like you could use the help."
Just then the front door opened and Carrie and Nancy pranced in, their conversation noisy and trivial.
"Yes she gave me this dreadful old necklace that belonged to some old lady she knew, her grandma or something. It looked like a dog's leash! About as out of fashion as those horrible dresses she keeps in the store. So when she wasn't looking, I dropped it over the bridge into the reeds in the creek by the post office." Nancy giggled as she put down a package on a nearby table.
"What did your mother say when you didn't wear it?" Carrie asked dramatically.
With a severe scoff Nancy said, "I told her it fell into Willow Pond when I was watching some ducks on the bridge. If she ever begins to scold me I just get tears in my eyes and she's very agreeable again."
"My mother would never abide that." Carrie sighed.
"Better that she's your mother and not mine." Sniffed Nancy.
Hester Sue and Elise had been standing by for the exchange and the former decided to speak up.
"Excuse me Miss Nancy." Hester Sue straightened, dabbing at her forehead with the back of her cuff.
With an annoyance in her tone Nancy said, "What is it Hester Sue."
"Elise here was wondering if she might be hired on around here to help out."
As if noticing Elise for the first time, the annoyance shifted to a cold enmity. "Work here? What for? Mother says you have plenty of money…"
She was interrupted by Carrie leaning into her, "Nancy, you can't afford to pay anyone else anyway."
Shushing her sharply Nancy scowled back at Elise, "No thank you, all our positions are closed."
Elise thought for a second. She could easily get a job anywhere in the city, but Hester Sue had been so nice to her. Perhaps that was the only reason. So she tried one more time.
"You wouldn't have to pay me…"
The blonde Oleson girl's head snapped back in her direction, surprise fighting the spite that fortified her features.
"No I would do it simply for room and meals." Elise kept her voice warm.
Nancy looked back to Carrie who continued to give a skeptical air. Finally a sly smirk spread over Nancy's face.
"I could try you out, if you can get this dump in good enough condition to pull in more business, we'll keep you on."
Elise nodded. She would not be here long so it made little difference to her but if it eased some of her financial strain it would help.
The young Miss Oleson stepped closer to her, taking a dramatized sniff. "Oh, and clean yourself up. You smell like a horse. We have standards here for our staff." With that she spun around on her heel and collected her packages. She called Carrie to come with her up the stairs and the Ingalls girl hesitantly followed.
"She's right you know." Hester Sue said, "You do smell like a horse."
Despite herself, Elise started to laugh along with her new coworker who threw the rag at her playfully.
"Ugh, Willie! You smell like a barn!" Harriet exclaimed at her son who had just come into their living room from the yard entrance. "And you're boots are filthy!"
"Sorry Ma." Stepping back outside he sat on a short bench and worked his boots off, caked clumps of dirt falling onto the porch.
Harriet sat in her favorite wing-back chair in the corner of the room next to the window, sipping tea and looking over her ledger. The clock on the mantle chimed half passed six in the evening.
With one toe hanging out of his dark socks, Willie came back in and closed the door.
"Where have you been anyway? I told you to come home early." She didn't look back up at him but kept her tone sufficiently disappointed.
"Washing the doctor's buggy and brushing their mare. I'm filthy remember?" He said as he started into the kitchen to wash up. Harriet got up to follow him.
"In that order from the looks of it." She tisked. "And I'll bet you did it for free."
Willie began to pump the water into the deep basined sink, "They're busy and they didn't charge us for the last month you've had them come look at your bunions three times."
Grabbing a broom, Harriet began to sweep up behind him viciously. "I don't trust that Albert Ingalls, medical degree or no medical degree. Any decent human being would pay for work done. I should have known you'd become the town pushover, just like your father was."
Willie scrubbed around his neck and his face. Years of his mother's nagging and prodding had taught him two things: first of all not to be offended. He just let it blow over him like a frosty breeze, that was just her way. Second, at a young age he had developed selective hearing with her. If he listened to her every word he would never get anything done. Still her little nips and prods about his father could sting. It had become more severe in the recent months since his father had died a year ago. As if Willie had to handle the ridicule for both himself and his father now. Sometimes he thought she needed an outlet to release her grief, and fussing around him helped.
She was still going as he rolled down his sleeves, "You know time is money and if you have so much free time when you're not rolling in soot at the smiths you should be doing work over here. This place is practically falling down on our heads and we're barely making ends meet…not to mention the bank loan being called in soon!"
There had been a small ham cooked that was now sitting in the icebox, only a few burnt pieces and scraps remained. His mother had never been particularly talented in the kitchen.
He picked out a few of the less gristly pieces and put them on a plate with a slice of bread and went to sit at the dining room table.
"Willie! Are you listening to me?"
Nodding he started picking at the sorry contents of his plate.
"Well? What do you have to say?"
Straining he swallowed a particularly leathery piece of ham, "If you'd stop sending every penny you make here at the store over to the restaurant, I could do some decent repairs." He tried to speak respectfully but also be honest.
With a huff his mother put her hands on her hips. "Nancy is doing just fine. She's young and still learning the business and I will help her any way I can until she can turn a profit."
Willie sighed, his hunger was giving into tiredness and he leaned back into his chair. "Ma, if it wasn't for Carrie Ingalls that place would have gone under a long time ago. Nancy spends everything you give her on clothing, parties, jewelry or whatever her whim is in a day."
"Well Carrie Ingalls is the most sensible Ingalls there is I'll admit that. But you of all people have some nerve giving your opinion of that restaurant. You gave up managing it a long time ago to go to that school you dropped out of in your final year; thanks to your father's foolishness! So don't judge your sister so harshly." Harriet vented.
Willie knew better than to get into an argument with her. It didn't do any good and he ended up with a headache every time. Still he tried one last time.
"If you ever went over there, you'd know it's in shambles."
"I have no reason to go over there since the switchboard was moved to the post office. I trust Nancy and without your father here, I'm the only one to mind the store. Now if you have nothing better to do you can put away all that bunting we were going to put up for your sister's arrival."
Looking up at his mother he was surprised, "Nellie's not coming?"
Tears started in her eyes and she sniffed them in regally. "No no no, something came up. She said perhaps next year."
He could tell she was devastated. Nellie said she was going to bring the children this time and he was looking forward to seeing his nephew and niece after three years since the last visit.
"Sorry Ma." He got up, food forgotten. "I'll go clean up and I'll get to that cracked window in the storeroom tonight too ok?"
Harriet's composure broke and she began to sob.
"I don't want my son to be the one washing other people's animals! Being a stable hand! It was supposed to have been you being the successful doctor, married and settled down. That Brown girl left you for that boorish Garvey boy! Then your father left us."
She had her face in her hands, her shoulder's shaking. He let the words wash around him, the callouses he had developed over time protecting him. But he stepped over to her and softly touched her arm.
Raising a wet face to his she managed to whisper, "I just miss him so much."
"I know."
She let him hug her.
NOTE: To me Albert always had a rebellious streak in him. He could rationalize bending the truth or certain actions even if they were against the rules. He seemed to have a way with Charles to get him to allow it. (see 'the odyssey' and the one where they write pen pals)
