First Kiss – Chapter Two
"My, what a lovely little figure you have, Lizzie," Finny grinned as she pulled the measuring tape around Lizzie's waist.
"Thank you, Miss Finny. It doesn't help having to wear such plain, juvenile dresses like this one," Lizzie sighed, referring to the calf-length, brown, gingham dress she was wearing.
"It is a nice sensible dress, Lizzie. Many a girl would be happy to have such clothes," Finny smiled again as she continued to take the girl's measurements.
"I agree that many a girl would, Miss Finny, but I'm a woman now and it is far too immature for me," she stated boldly.
A serious expression appeared on Finny's face. If anyone knew what it was like to grow up too fast it was Finella Doyle. What she would have given to have had an ordinary childhood. It would have been wonderful for her only worries to be were the style of her clothes.
"A woman at the tender age of fourteen? I would think being a child wasn't so bad, especially being a Cartwright child. You don't want for anything, have kin folk that care about you and no worries. Doesn't sound like being a child is so terrible to me, Lizzie."
Lizzie sighed. "I know my family cares about me, Miss Finny, that's not the issue."
"What is the issue then?"
"The issue is that I should be able to come and go as I please, see whom I please and wear what I please instead of being held captive in my home like some prisoner! Plus I'm only fourteen for another week and a half!" Lizzie snapped then quietly said "I'm sorry, Miss Finny, I didn't mean to raise my voice to you."
Finny finished the last measurement, wrote the information down on the little pad she held then turned to face Lizzie, a smirk on her face. "Who is he?"
"What?"
"Who's the fella?"
Lizzie's face started to become flushed. "What fella?" she squeaked out.
"The fella that's got you so riled up and wanting your 'freedom' so badly."
"Wyatt," she whispered. "Wyatt Fuller."
"I see," Finny continued, "and does Wyatt Fuller share your feelings? Is he your beau?"
Lizzie, whose face was beet red by this point, gave a shy smile and crossed the tiny shop's floor. She picked up one of the new spring bonnets that was on display and began nervously playing with the plumage adorning the colourful creation. "I wouldn't rightly say that he was my beau, Miss Finny," she replied softly.
"Oh, and what exactly would you say," Finny pressed, finding much amusement with the situation.
Lizzie sensed Finny's mood and straightened her back. She turned to face the woman and with a clear, semi-mature voice said, "I enjoy Mr. Fuller's company very much."
"Mr. Fuller, is it now?" amused Finny.
Lizzie slouched her shoulders in frustration. Finny was having far too much fun at her expense, yet Lizzie didn't know how to stop her without coming across as rude. After all, Finny was still her elder and she was taught to respect her elders.
Finny, on the other hand, was not ready to let up any time soon. If this girl was going participate in making such grown up decisions then Finny wanted to make sure Lizzie new exactly what she was in for. Finny knew she was being intrusive, but that didn't matter right now. If someone had cared enough to be intrusive when she was Lizzie's age maybe life would have been a bit easier to handle.
"So how much time have you spent in Mr. Fuller's company?"
"Miss Finny, I…" Lizzie began before she was cut off by the woman, who seemed to have had a sudden realization.
"Wyatt Fuller? Isn't that Horace Fuller's boy?
"Yes, ma'am, but how did you know…"
Finny gave a snort of derision. "Oh, I know Horace Fuller, all right!"
Horace Fuller, among many other 'happily' married men in Virginia City, had been a frequent visitor of the Lucky Strike Saloon. His crude behaviour and cheap pockets made him unpopular with the working girls. Finny, thankfully, had never had the 'pleasure' of his company but knew many of the girls who had, in particular Honey-Jean Bates. Honey was Horace's favourite girl at the saloon. She was a small, young thing with bouncy, honey-coloured curls (hence her name) and bright blue eyes. The longer she worked at the Lucky Strike, however, and had to deal with customers like Horace Fuller, the dimmer her eyes would become. Honey had passed away not long after Finny had met Fred Ryan. She had become pregnant by one of her customers and was able to hide the fact right up until delivery. Both mother and child had died during a terrifying and bloody labour. Such a sour end for the girl with such a sweet name. This happened years ago, mind you, and Horace had seemed to have settled down since then. His dear, oblivious wife had helped him find the Lord and he was now a faithful, church-going Christian. Religion or no religion they were still all scum, according to Finny. Hypocritical scum!
The small, wooden clock on the wall behind the fabric cutting table suddenly chimed, bringing Finny out of her reflective trance. "4:30 already? My how time flies," she remarked.
"4:30?!" gasped Lizzie. "I should have been home an hour ago! My pa's gonna have my hide!"
"Well, you best be on your way then. We wouldn't want you to lose your hide, now would we," Finny smiled.
"Bye, Miss Finny!" Lizzie shouted as she raced out of the shop and ran towards the livery stables. "Thank you!"
Finny gave a little wave and closed her shop for the rest of the day. She was in a somber mood and didn't feel like being intrusive anymore.
"Are you sure she said she was only going to the mercantile?" Adam asked again.
"Pretty sure, Pa," Maisy answered. "She told us to go ahead because she needed to get some thread and a book at Mr. Guthrie's store then she was gonna get one of our horses from the stables and ride home."
Adam gave a frustrated harrumph began to pace the floor of the great room. "Adam, I'm sure she's fine," Evelyn assured him. "She probably stopped at the Holbrooks to see Shanda Dee."
"She better not have!" Adam shot back.
"She didn't go to the Holbrooks, Ma," said Benny, who was laying on the settee reading a book. "Mr. Holbrook picked up Shanda Dee and her sisters after school. They were headed to Carson city to visit some family."
"That does it!" Adam exclaimed, "I'm going to look for her." He was about to storm out of the house when the front door slowly squeaked open. Lizzie entered the foyer cautiously then closed the door behind her.
Mary sat on the stairs with Jack and Morgan watching the drama that was about to unfold. "She's in for it now," she whispered to Morgan.
Lucas had crept down the stairs just then and crouched behind his three siblings. "Did I miss anything good?" he whispered to Mary.
"No, she just came in. Pa was about to go look for her."
"Good," he smiled, "get ready for some fireworks."
The four of them watched inventively for the action to begin. Benny was now sitting upright on the settee, Maisy now beside him, with their eyes glued on Lizzie and their parents.
"Do you have any idea what time it is, young lady?" Adam growled.
"Yessir," Lizzie replied quietly.
"Are you alright?" Evelyn inquired with a worried voice.
"I'm fine, Ma, I'm just a little late is all."
"A little late? It's almost 5:30! You should have been home two hours ago, Elizabeth!" Adam shouted. "Do you have any idea how worried your mother and I have been? You were to come straight home after school. You did not have permission to go anywhere."
"It was just to the mercantile for something," she lied in a snippy voice. "It isn't as though I was at a saloon or anything."
"Elizabeth Louise Cartwright! Of all the things to say to your father!" Evelyn gasped.
Lucas gave an audible chuckle in the background, making Adam turn his attention away from the situation. "Do you have something you'd like to share with the rest of us?" he demanded.
The boy quickly shied away and shook his head. "No sir."
"I didn't think so. The lot of you get upstairs…NOW!" Adam barked to the rest of his on looking brood.
The six children scurried up the stairs but didn't go far. Making sure to be hidden from the view of their irate parents, they sat in the upstairs corridor listening intently to the possible demise of their eldest sister.
Adam took a deep breath then pointed to the red settee. "Sit!" he ordered as if speaking to a badly behaved puppy.
Lizzie obeyed instantly, regretting the cheeky remark she had just made. "When are you going to learn to keep your opinions to yourself?" Lizzie chided herself.
As Lizzie sat on the sofa, Adam stood over her, arms folded across his chest. "Would you care to repeat that last statement?"
"No, sir," she replied.
"Where were you, Lizzie?" Evelyn interjected, now seated in the large, blue arm chair.
"I went to the mercantile to get some thread for my embroidery sampler and lost track of time with a book he had on his shelf." Thanks to Maisy's influence, Lizzie had become quite good at fabricating tales to tell her parents. The older she became the more freedom and privacy she craved, but her parents were not keen on letting this happen. The more lies she concocted the more freedom she seemed to have. Still there was a small underlining fear that she would be found out and spend the rest of her young adult life in solitary confinement.
Upon hearing her sister's explanation Maisy shook her head disapprovingly.
"What's with you?" Luke asked.
"She finished that sampler last week," Maisy whispered. "Lizzie's getting sloppy with her lying."
"Where was she then?" Benny asked.
"Don't know, but she wasn't at the store that's for sure."
The siblings stopped talking when they heard their father's voice continue.
"Where is the thread?"
"What thread?" Lizzie asked, forgetting her tale already.
"The thread for your sampler," Adam said.
"Mr. Guthrie didn't have the colour I needed," she replied quickly, suddenly remembering the reason she had given for her absence.
"I see," Adam said skeptically "and what book held your attention for so long?"
"The Mystery of Edwin Drood," Lizzie answered without missing a beat.
Having read the book himself, Adam knew exactly what the 'mystery' was and was sure he was about to catch his daughter in a lie. "And what, pray tell, is the big mystery?"
A tiny grin appeared on Lizzie's face. She hadn't read the book but her bookworm friend Sally had and told Lizzie all about it at school last week. "No one knows, Pa. Mr. Dickens died before he finished the book. Your guess is as good as mine."
With his plan foiled, Adam's temper began to rise. Seeing this, Evelyn figured now would be as good a time as any to intervene. "The thread and book are not the issue, Elizabeth. The issue is that you were not home when you were supposed to be and we did not know your whereabouts."
"Yes, ma'am. I'm sorry for not asking permission. I will the next time I wish to go to the mercantile," Lizzie promised.
"Which will not be anytime soon, young lady," her father added. "You know perfectly well that you are not to be in town or travelling by yourself, especially after that incident at the Spring Social."
"Pa, that was almost two years ago."
"My point exactly. I would have thought you would have matured since then. I have been proven wrong I see."
Lizzie slumped dismally in her seat. He was never going to let her forget that horrible night. She could just see herself twenty years from now married with children and her father bringing up the Spring Social dance when she was barely thirteen. "May I go wash up for supper?" she sighed.
"You may but you will be eating in your room this evening then going to bed."
"Yessir."
Lizzie left the settee and clopped up the stairs to her room. She had a start when she went around the corner and found her siblings loitering in the hallway. It was Jake who broke the awkward silence. "Even I don't hafta go to bed this early."
"That's because you're not a big liar like our Lizzie here, Jakey," Maisy smirked.
"Oh shut up!" Lizzie shot back then quickly passed them, rushed into her room and slammed the door.
"It takes one to know one, Maisy," Luke remarked with a raised eyebrow (an inherited trait from his father).
"Who do ya think taught her?" she smiled before heading downstairs.
"No wonder Lizzie's so good at it," laughed Benny.
Sorry for the long wait everyone. With work, sickness, holidays, and writer's block it's been a long haul. Chapter 3 should be done soon. Thanks for the push Isaboe, it's exactly what I needed! Hope y'all like it! Cheers! Skarlett