Charlie hesitated. Reluctant. Very reluctant.
"Let's hear it," Scott said, tersely. "It's been a long day."
"I told Lucy to shut her mouth," Charlie admitted. "I told her she talks too much."
For a long, long few moments, Scott was silent, just looking at her intently, and Charlie felt like disappearing.
"It was hard-hearing her say those things about the asylums, and Burl-" Charlie began to make excuse.
"I'm sure that it was," Scott said.
For a second, and only that, Charlie was hopeful. Maybe he wasn't going to scold her further for it.
"What did I just tell you, though? About other people, and when they say things you don't like?" he prompted.
"That they're entitled to their opinion," Charlie admitted.
"And what can you do if what they're saying bothers you, or you disagree with it, or it makes it angry?" he went on.
Charlie sighed. "Choose not to react. Walk away."
"Right. Is it really important to any of us, what Lucy repeats, or what her mother thinks of Burl?" Scott asked, pointedly, but still kindly. "Is what
they say or think going to change the way we feel about him?"
"No," Charlie admitted. "It's not."
His expression was serious, and it seemed to Charlie as though he was still scolding her, though he wasn't saying a word at the moment.
"We need to work on you controlling your temper," Scott said.
Charlie wasn't sure she liked the sound of that at all. What did he mean, we need to work on it?
And she needed to tell him the rest, as well. About how she'd told Lucy that Mrs. Stone talked too much, too. If Lucy told
her mother what Charlie had said about her, then Mrs. Stone might say something to Scott, and then it would as though
Charlie had kept some of it from him.
"I'll try harder," she said. "And I'll start doing the walking away, if I don't like what someone is saying." She wanted Scott to
think she was listening and taking it seriously.
"For another kid that's right," Scott clarified. "If an adult is saying something to you, even if you disagree, you need to wait until they're finished
talking, and stay respectful."
"Yes," Charlie said.
"That's a start," he said.
Charlie nibbled at her lip, considering whether to confess the rest. It was a gamble.
"Into bed," Scott said, sounding tired.
Charlie scrambled up onto her bed, and under the quilt, still sitting up. Scott reached to pick up the book on the nightstand table.
"I'm going to read just a couple of pages tonight, alright?" he said. "We're both tired."
He read those two pages, and then marked the page, and laid the book on the table once again.
"Slide down under there," he told Charlie, and she laid down. As he was tucking the quilt around her, Charlie,
in a burst of courage, or not-really courage, said, "I told Lucy that her mother talks too much, too."
Scott gave her a long look, and Charlie held her breath.
"Like I said, we need to work on controlling that temper," he said.
"What does that mean?" Charlie asked, not sure she wanted to know.
"We'll talk about it more later on," he said. He leaned over and kissed Charlie on the forehead, and then turned down the lamp.
L
Mr. Beets went with them to church the next morning, riding with Murdoch in the buggy. Charlie rode with Scott on
horseback, and Teresa and Johnny both elected to stay at home.
Charlie wished she could have stayed at home, as well. When it was being discussed as they all finished breakfast, she
had approached it, after hearing that Teresa was staying home to bake, and to rest.
"May I, too?" she asked, looking at Scott as they all stood and pushed in their chairs. "Stay home?"
"No. You're coming to church," Scott said, without a moment's hesitation.
Charlie swallowed down her protest, not wanting to utter it where Mr. Beets might hear. Or Murdoch.
When the two men had walked on, out of the dining room, Charlie caught Scott as he began to follow them.
"I'm tired, too, Scott, just like Teresa is-" she said, looking at him with pleading eyes.
Scott regarded her seriously, and then, with no apparent sympathy, he said, "Well, then, after church, and lunch and your time with Beets,
you can take a nap."
Charlie felt mutinous, and she wanted to stamp her foot.
"Go on and get into your dress for church," Scott said.
He turned again to follow Beets and Murdoch, and Charlie started out of the dining room the opposite way towards the
stairs.
She muttered, "Not fair" under her breath.
"Charlie," Scott said, sharply, and Charlie stopped walking, turning to face him. He had his hands on his
hips, and was frowning. Charlie regretted those muttered words immediately.
"Do we need to go upstairs and have a discussion about proper behavior, before we leave for church?" he asked.
A discussion. Charlie shook her head.
"No."
"Come here," Scott said, and Charlie walked the short way to him, feeling herself getting less feisty as she went.
When she was in front of him, he took her chin in his hand. "You're going to church, and you're going to behave yourself," he said.
"You can turn your attitude around and have a better morning, or we can go up and have that discussion." He paused
to let his words sink in. "Which is it going to be?" he asked.
"I'll behave," Charlie said, quietly.
"Alright. Go get changed," Scott said, and took his hands from her chin.
Charlie was at the bottom of the stairs, beginning to head up, when she saw Mr. Beets, standing there. She felt her
face flame hot, knowing that he must have heard what had taken place. Charlie paused, looking at Mr. Beets,
and he gave her a look that seemed, though not sympathetic, was not unkind.
Charlie wondered what he thought of Scott threatening to spank her that way. Probably, she thought glumly, he
thought Scott was correct.
She averted her eyes from Mr. Beets, and said, "Excuse me," to him, and went up to her bedroom.
L
The ride to town to the church was a mostly silent one, for Charlie and Scott. Charlie was still feeling
nervous about she and Scott's interaction earlier, and embarrassed about Mr. Beets. And, underneath the nerves and
embarrassment, Charlie felt a bit of mutiny still remaining.
Before the service began, while standing beside Mr. Beets and Murdoch, Charlie saw Mrs. Stone approaching
Scott, and taking him off to a corner to talk. Gahhh.
Lucy, meanwhile, avoided Charlie like a plague.
Once the service began, and the minister was droning on and on, Charlie kept taking covert glances up at
Scott, sitting beside her. She was trying to discern if he was irritated about what Mrs. Stone had told him. She
couldn't really tell anything from Scott's profile, though. And, once, when the congregation stood to sing, Scott helped
her flip the pages to the correct hymn. He gave her a small smile and then began singing from his own hymnal. Charlie
thought it wasn't much of a smile, but it was better than nothing.
L
Once they'd begun the ride home, Charlie was hoping that Scott would swing by the jail to see Val, and check on Burl.
But, he didn't, and Charlie knew better than to ask him. Besides, she figured that he would be bringing up what Mrs. Stone
had said, at any moment now. So, she stayed quiet.
"How are the pups doing?" he asked.
Surprised, Charlie said, "They seem fine. Happy. I think they're getting bigger."
"They're going to be real big dogs, when they're grown," he said.
"It's not likely Burl will be able to take them back again. Even if he gets a place to live, the three big ones would be
more than enough for him to handle," Scott went on.
"Are we going to keep the pups?" Charlie asked, hardly daring to hope. Scott had said, early on, that he would think about
whether she could have one of the puppies, but, now there were two, and with what had happened that morning-well,
she wasn't sure.
"I was thinking that you could keep the one you like so much," he said. "Maybe we ought to find the other one
a home, though. I think one big dog around Lancer will be enough."
Charlie was so happy then, that she felt sorry she'd acted up that morning. Her own dog! Once she'd brought a dog to Katherine's house
in Stockton. A medium sized dog that was starving and living on the streets. But Katherine had said it was ridden up with fleas, and
she'd had one of the maids take it to the country while Charlie had been gone to school.
Remembering that made her sad, and then she came back to the present. The present with Scott, and her own puppy, and
everything else that was good. Scott might, she thought, be strict and all, but he was good to her. He was kind. And he was fair.
He'd warned her before about muttering under her breath after being told something by him or another adult, and she'd gone on and
done it this morning, anyway.
He would have, Charlie admitted to herself, been within the realm of reason to give her a good spanking for it. But, he
hadn't. He'd given her a chance to step back into line.
She tightened her hold around his waist without realizing that she was doing so. And, then she rested her forehead against
the center of his back, feeling weepy and emotional.
Charlie thought she was doing a good job of hiding her emotions. Or at least a passable job of it. She was willing back the
tears that were threatening, when he said, quietly, "What's wrong?"
"I'm happy about the puppy," she managed.
"Oh," he said, and patted one of her hands with his own. "Well, you can train him, and have a lot of fun with him for
a lot of years."
"Yes," Charlie said, quietly.
Charlie wanted to tell him that she was sorry about how she'd behaved earlier that morning. But, she thought she should
just be still.
"Mrs. Stone wanted to speak to me, about what happened between you and Lucy," he said.
Instead of saying that yes, she'd noticed, or asking what Lucy's mother had said, exactly, Charlie stayed quiet.
"I'm not saying that you have to be great friends with Lucy," Scott continued. "I know you think that she talks
too much."
Everything in Charlie wanted to reply that Lucy did, indeed, talk too much. She bit her lip to keep from saying it aloud.
"And, maybe she does talk too much," Scott said, surprising Charlie. "And say things that she shouldn't. But, we're all
guilty of that at times. Saying things that we shouldn't. For Lucy, it was repeating things she'd heard her mother say
about Burl. For you, something that you shouldn't have said, was to tell her to shut her mouth. And, adding that part about her mother,
that was wrong, too. Especially when you could have just walked away."
He paused, and looked over his left shoulder. "You understand that, now?"
Charlie nodded, and said, "Yes."
"I don't myself, think that Lucy is necessarily a bad person. I think she wants friends, and doesn't always go about it
the right way. And, she definitely shouldn't be repeating what she hears at home. But, some of the ways she behaves, is
because she hasn't been taught any better," Scott said.
Charlie kept still for a long few moments, and then, because she thought he wanted her to respond to what he'd said, she
said, "I guess so."
Scott faced forward again, and said, "I'd be real pleased if you'd apologize to Lucy. Not for being upset about what she
was saying. But for the way that you reacted, telling her to shut her mouth, and all."
Charlie wrinkled her forehead, knowing that he couldn't see her doing it. He'd be real pleased if she apologized? What did
that mean, exactly? She puzzled over it in her head for a few minutes as they rode.
Finally, into the silence, Charlie asked, "Does that mean that I have to apologize to her?"
"No. It means what I said. That I'd be real pleased if you did," he said.
Still puzzled, Charlie said, "You're letting me decide?"
"That's right."
Murdoch and Beets came from behind, in the buggy, driving at a fast clip, and driving around Scott's horse
with both of them giving a jaunty wave. As always, Scott seemed amused at the antics of the two older men.
"Those two sure have a good time together," Scott observed.
After a few moments of quiet, as Lancer came into view, Charlie was thinking out how she wanted to ask the
next question. They rode up behind the buggy, and Scott put out an arm to lower Charlie to the ground, before he
dismounted himself.
"Will you be angry with me, if I don't apologize to her?" Charlie asked, in a rush.
Scott turned to survey Charlie, his hand on the saddle horn. "No, Charlie, I won't," he said.
He smiled briefly at Charlie before everyone began to merge together, and talk about going inside to eat lunch.
As she went inside to wash her hands to prepare to eat lunch, Charlie thought to herself that, just when she thought
she had Scott all figured out, he did something to surprise her.
L
After lunch, Charlie and Beets went for their customary walk. They took a different path this time, and Charlie showed
him where some of the new fences were being put in. Walking back, they stopped mid-way and sat to rest on a large rock.
They were drinking from the canteens of water that they'd brought along, and Charlie studied the older man, trying not
to be too obvious about it.
"I know you heard what Scott said this morning," Charlie said. "About what he'd do if I didn't behave-" she let her voice trail off.
Beets recapped his canteen, and said, "Yes, Charlotte, I heard."
"He didn't do it, though," Charlie felt compelled to point out. "I mean, he would have, but-I straightened up."
"I'm glad about that," Beets said, with a small smile.
"Scott's real strict," Charlie said, reaching for a flower and beginning to pluck the petals off.
"How do you feel about that? Him being so strict with you?"
Charlie considered. "Sometimes-it's sort of a lot. But, mostly, I don't mind so much. He's not mean about it."
"He cares for you very much," Beets said, quietly.
Charlie nodded. "I know. I care for him, too."
L
After Beets left, driving his rented buggy back to town to catch the stage, the house settled into Sunday afternoon. A slower
pace. Charlie took the two puppies up into the hay loft, to acquaint them with the kittens, so they would learn to get along. She
surprised herself by falling asleep in the hay, waking up a bit later, with both pups sleeping near her head.
Johnny played a game of checkers with her later, and Teresa began to sew on a dress from the material that Burl had
given her. It was a peaceful sort of afternoon, and Charlie felt her tangles inside begin to relax.
L
For all my reviewers and people who are enjoying the story, thanks a bunch!
To the others, (who I see are all guest reviewers, by the way, lol) who compared the length of this story to
"War and Peace", that particular body of work has 587,287 words in it. Before this chapter, this story contained
176,067 words. Yikes, that means I need 411,220 more words to equal War and Peace. I mean, I don't want to make
a liar out of you-just a little sarcastic humor here. In truth, though, I AM trying to wrap the story up to a finish.