Frontier General Store

After setting the beans to soak, Laura and Bobbie each grab an end of the quilting bars and walk in a single file up to the Cassadine place. Carly and Lulu had gone over earlier after finishing their chores to help get things set up at that end. Lucky had offered to take the bars up the path but had been refused as they could handle it and they were sure he had better things to do. Actually he and his father do in that they'd decided to go hunting as it just seemed the right time. That was after they felled a few trees over toward the hunting site as the fuel was running low for the still.

Lulu had been keeping a lookout at the front window of the Cassadines and as soon as she sees her mother and Aunt near the house she runs to the door and throws it wide. "In here, Mama! I'll show you where Miz Natty wants to set up." Lulu runs in the direction of the library. Laura and Bobbie carry the bars in and Bobbie brushes the door shut with one foot pausing briefly to make sure it's latched.

"Oh my word." Laura looks around her and starts getting a country mouse feeling. "So this is how the other half lives."

"I think you mean the other fifth." Bobbie says wryly. She gives a little push on the quilting bars to get Laura moving back toward where Lulu had run. Laura takes the hint moving into the library.

Carly and Mrs. Lansbury are there having moved all of the furniture and rolled up the bear skin rug to get it out of the way. With the skill of long practice, the Spencer women work together to set up the quilting frame even Lulu putting in a clamp here and there or tightening down a peg. Carly leaves the library to go upstairs to get Natasha and the quilt. Together they come down, Carly carrying the rolled up project and Natasha carrying the sewing basket with all of the necessary odds and ends for quilting the project.

"Well lets see." Bobbie helps Carly sort out the quilt so that it is laying over the frame. "Baby, you have outdone yourself this time." Carly had created a modified lone star quilt. The center of the quilt was the embroidery and then diamond shaped pieces in shades of blue, purple and even a little black came out from the embroidery to form the star. Mother and daughter work together to fasten down the quilting bars on each end, getting the tension just right, and then rolling all but what the ladies would be working on immediately onto one set of bars.

"It's lovely." Laura compliments Miss Natasha. "I didn't understand why Carly had left the center out. Now I do."

"Thank you." Natasha indicates with a nod. She looks at her timepiece wondering where the rest are.

Laura sees the action. "We came over early to set up. I'm sure that Mrs. Taggart and Mrs. Hardy are on their way. Is there somewhere particular where you wanted us to put our coats?"

"I can show ya, Mama!" Lulu starts tugging Laura out of the library and Bobbie follows. "Carly and Me always hang our coats in the kitchen that way we can have tea with Mrs. Lansbury."

"They are going to show up." Carly states out of the blue. Not appearing to watch Miss Natasha watching the window to the front. "And even if they don't we have enough hands now to make a serious dent in it."

"Of course. Why wouldn't they?" Natasha turns away from the window allowing the curtain to fall back.

Flo hitches up the team to the wagon, might as well, with the three of them and then the three ladies from the Hardy's it'll surely be needed. Gia takes a last look around the cabin to make sure everything is secure and that Marcus' supper is under a lid. "Are you sure about this?" Dara asks Gia as she is putting on her coat and grabbing her bag.

"Everything you've told us don't know why you are even askin! How many opportunities we going to have to be out and about?"

"Plenty." Dara says wryly. "You'll just be chilled while doin' it."

Gia shivers as she bundles up in preparation to going outside. "This is cold enough."

Dara just shakes her head and smiles. "You'll see."

Down at the Hardy's there is a last minute rush as well as some complaining going on.

"Gram! I don't see why I have to go! It's not like I'll actually be of any use!" Elizabeth protests for about the tenth time.

And for about the tenth time, Audrey remains cool and collected. "Because the sewing is secondary. Take your knitting along if you like! This is an opportunity for strengthening the ties here in the valley."

"The ties are tight enough." Sarah mutters and then flushes not believing she'd said something so... unkind. But Miss Cassadine hadn't exactly extended herself so far to the people in the valley. Well other than showing up at the Spencer's sewing bee, and then again coming down to see Zander when he'd been injured. With a sigh, Sarah offers her support to her Grandmother's position as she always eventually does. "Besides it was Mrs. Lansbury that invited us."

While reading might not be one of his strengths, arithmetic and other forms of figuring surely were. Whether it was fitting exactly the right amount in the smokehouse so that everything would fit or looking at a felled tree and being able to tell how much firewood there'd be in it. Marcus and the Spencer men are hard at just that. Looking for the standing dead wood in the grove between their places. Trees that while they might still be standing are just waiting for the first real winter storm to come on down and Lord help the poor soul who happened to be underneath. 'Cording to the Spencer's it could be weight of snow, or weight of ice or even God forbid a stiff wind. They needed to come down even if they didn't pull them out of the woods today, for they surely would one way or another.

"Way I look at it..." Luke calls out. "Gonna need about twenty cords per house since nobody has a coal burning furnace. Can't just order up a delivery of a couple tons like you could in the city. Although I hear tell from little Cassadine that the Count has that in the planning come spring for their place. Long with a fancy water boiler."

Lucky looks over his shoulder at Marcus and rolls his eyes. "Twenty cords includes the hunting camp. Only really need about twelve or fourteen for the cabins. Your place is smaller than ours but is more exposed to the elements. So it's wash there."

"Now, Cowboy, you got to figure that Marcus here is going to be wanting a few cords for his smokehouse as well." Luke justifies his assessment.

Marcus pats one of the trees as he passes. "Not of this pine. Too much sap even in the dried." Still he considers what the Spencer's had said. A cord is four feet deep by four feet high and eight feet long times the 14 cords that Lucky had suggested equaled 112 feet long. He winces figuring that he's only got about ten cords. "Fourteen cords, huh? That's enough to built a fence around the house."

"At least a damn good windbreak on the north side." Luke says cheerfully. "But got to figure that's a good gauge of about how much you need. Nuff to make a good solid fence all around the place."

"Anyone take a look at Zander's place lately? He's going to be back there in a couple of weeks and sure he hasn't used any firewood in the last month or so but still." Lucky realizes.

Luke shakes his head. "Gonna have to check on that. Should have mentioned it to your mother before she headed up to the Cassadines."

"Carly and Lulu have been spending enough time up there." Lucky shrugs. "Can have them check it out tomorrow. This looks like a good one." Luke comes back and examines the tree. Working together they make short work of felling the tree and move on to the next. Luke and Lucky work better as a team with their axes digging equal chunks out of each side of the tree in a smooth rhythm. Marcus on the otherhand is better at working on his lonesome when it came to chopping just cause he is used to it.

Down on the Hardy's side of the valley Nikolas and Zander are doing the same thing wandering thru the woods there and figuring which trees had to come down. Sure they chopped trees down in Florida for cooking if not for heating on those rare chilly nights but it was Nikolas who'd pointed out the dangers of the dead trees in the grove. Specially with as much time as Sarah and Elizabeth spent out in the woods collecting pine cones and the like as kindling for the fires and for decorating the cabin.
Sheba isn't quite up to hauling the logs out of the woods but the Hardy's horse is more than up to the task. They bring down more trees than they can chop right away but figure it's like the ears of corn out in the shed. The ears would be shelled when there is time. The wood would get chopped as there was time, just as long it was close enough to the house to be handy.

"You're going to be back in your place in a few weeks." Nikolas indicates a tree that looks right.

Zander gets set up which takes some doing even though he's graduated to the cane. Hard to get any strength in his swing either not being able to put his full weight on one leg. It forced him to chop what seemed backward so that his strong leg could be his plant foot. By the time he got out of the damn splint he'd probably be left handed for everything but writin'. "Yeah, been thinking about that." He takes a swing at the tree trunk while Nik takes the other.

"Going to be strange." Nikolas suggests.

"What you going round the block about, Nik?"

"Just wondering if I'm going to have a new neighbor come the new year."

"New neighbor? You think that Jacks are going to be back?"

Nik shakes his head knowing that Zander is not that oblivious. "You're going to have to make your move. Too many people know about the ladies living out here in the valley... too many men. Doubt that Sarah is going to be unmarried come summer."

Zander gives Nikolas a glare and gives the tree a good whack. "Why don't you just ponder on Miss Emily a bit instead of wondering on my home life. You know anything about that Derek Barrington fella?"

Nik keeps the rhythm. He'd actually grown used to working with Zander ever since the days it seemed so long ago when Zander was building his soddy. "Only that he's old enough that he should be calling on my Aunt Natasha or maybe Miz Bobbie."

Audrey sits up in the front of the wagon with Flo while the younger girls all sit in the bed of the wagon. Course with all the improvements that had been made so the wagon could be used during the nice weather for making selling trips up to the miners, it isn't as uncomfortable as it could be. As the wagon pulls into the Cassadine place and up by the stable, Roscoe comes out and assists Audrey down from the front and then goes around to the back helping Sarah, Elizabeth and Gia down. Before he can even offer a hand... "Why don't you go relieve Mrs. Taggart, I can get down on my own." Dara tells him. Her voice is cold and hard.

Roscoe shrugs. "No skin off my nose." He goes back around.

Gia and Liz come up to the back of the wagon and hold up hands that Dara grabs as she hops down. "What the hell was that about?" Liz hisses. "I know that Miz Bobbie doesn't like him but it's cause of a gut feeling. You're acting like you know something."

Dara can feel Roscoe's eyes burning into the middle of her back as she straightens her skirt and she looks over her shoulder to see him standing there by the wagon. She looks back at the younger girls. "Not right now." She keeps her voice low.

"But you're gonna tell right." Gia insists.

"Oh yeah. But I'll tell you this right now. Roscoe is damn lucky that Jason Morgan was out on a trail drive taking the herd to market when Roscoe got fired off of the Quartermaine place. Otherwise he wouldn't have been fired... he'd be buzzard bait."

That gets all of the girl's attention and they look over at Roscoe with narrowed eyes. Gia in particular since while Flo might not like it or even admit to know it, Gia is aware what Jason Morgan had ordered for the man that had hurt Dara and buzzard bait just about covered it.

The Quartermaine carriage has one of the Cassadine horses tethered to the back. Emily rides along side. This is so not a good idea. Really bad idea but there was no going around The Old Man or heading him off at the pass. It's actually amazing that he'd waited this long to head over to the valley to greet the new neighbors. That's what the Old Man called it. Greeting the neighbors. Emily snorts. Yeah, just like Grandfather greeted livestock that he was planning on buying. Ought to just put an ad out in the St. Louis paper looking for brides it would be more honest. Course AJ and Jason would run for the hills on that. They'd run for the hills if they knew about this but Jason was out and about and AJ had headed back to the mine. There had been no time to warn them. Grandfather had made up his mind when Mr. Cassadine had come to visit.

"Damnit, Emily! You should be riding in the carriage." Edward blusters from where he is holding the reins of the carriage. Stefan is sitting next to Edward.

"No, Thank you, Grandfather. I'm fine riding." Emily replies with a smile. and this way I can leave whenever I want. She keeps pace with the front of the carriage so she is riding parallel to where her Grandfather and Stefan Cassadine are riding. "This way I can talk to the both of you without talking to the back of your heads."

Edward snorts but stops trying to talk Emily into climbing into the carriage after one last comment. "You'd be warmer in the carriage, young lady."

"Plenty warm, Grandfather." Emily counters. True enough that the wind is brisk but with her coat buttoned and her hat down low she's just fine. Definitely been in worse. "But if you want I can ride ahead to make sure that Mrs. Lansbury has the kettle on for you?" Emily suggests eagerly.

Edward sighs and shakes his head. Em is the apple of his eye. Everything that his daughter Tracy should have been and hadn't been. He'd gotten lucky in his grandchildren. Course he wasn't going to be the one to tell them that. Oh no. They got away with enough as it was. And this whole waiting to get married-- well that was going to stop right about now. "Go."

"See you there!" Emily whoops and sets her heels to her mount who'd been tugging at the bit all the way wanting to move out. She settles in low on the neck of the horse and lets it go all out before pulling in to the loping pace that covers plenty of ground without overexerting the horse.

Edward mutters out of the corner of his mouth to Stefan. "Children." Stefan nods his agreement. Not that he particularly agrees but to be sociable. "She's a good girl." Edward says defensively.

"Unconventional." Stefan agrees. "Definitely an original."

"Got a kind heart and a gentle hand." Edward nods.

Because of the earlier quilting bee down at the Spencer's everyone is already familiar with each other and their styles so everything is set up on similar lines. Elizabeth rather than even bothering to find a seat next to the stretcher bars examines the library of books looking for something that would sound good aloud. She'd do a bit of reading, help Mrs. Lansbury with the refreshments, but stay the hell away from a threaded needle. The Cassadines' library offers more room to stretch out and nobody had needed to bring their own stools but the elbow room is still dictated by the size of the quilting stretcher bars. Liz looks over her shoulder at Dara. "So you going to spill?"

Dara looks over at Flo and mentally winces. Wishing that the girls would have let this one go but knowing it was too juicy for them to pass on. Her knowledge could only have come from where she'd been working before and that wasn't going to go over well with Mrs. Taggart who'd just started to really soften toward her. "Spill?"

"About why that Roscoe guy was kicked off the Quartermaine place?" Liz clarifies.

Natasha straightens even more than her perfect posture normally allows. "Roscoe once worked for the Quartermaines? I was not informed of this. Or of his reasons for seeking other employment."

"Pickin's where kinda on the slim side when your brother was looking for a hired man." Bobbie keeps her head down and focuses on her stitches even as she defends Stefan's hire. Well not the hire really but Stefan's hiring. "We never did find out what happened to the hired man that you had when you first moved out here."

Natasha decides to not answer that question but instead focuses on Dara who is sitting on the far end of the quilt from her. "Roscoe worked for the Quartermaines?"

There is nobody there who isn't interested in the story. Dara sighs. "He did. He was fired when he... started getting ideas about marrying into the family."

Natasha shakes her head in disagreement. "That would never have happened. Emily's parents have much different plans for their daughter."

Laura looks over at Dara and says quietly. "Unless Roscoe decided to take matters into his own hands." There is a long pause while everyone takes in the ramifications of that one.

"Oh no. He'd be dead" Carly declares. "Jason would have finished him off and left him to feed the coyotes."

"Please!" Natasha protests the graphic comment and puts her hand to her stomach as if she is going to be physically ill.

Dara explains why the most likely hadn't taken action in defense of Emily. "Jason was taking a herd to St. Louis. AJ was out at the mine. Em handled it on her own with some of the hands that she trusts. Hands that have been on the Quartermaine chuckwagon longer than Em's been a Quartermaine. Jason didn't find out until afterward. For all I know AJ might still not know. Jason found out because the other hands told him, not from Emily."

"If what you said is true, why didn't she go to her Grandfather or to her Grandmother?" Natasha is still not quite believing it. "They would have protected Emily from the dubious attentions of a fortune hunter."

Dara nods in agreement. "Protected her all the way to a boarding school back east. Em had just escaped from that school once and made her way back here to Montana on her lonesome. She knew if there was a lick of trouble that she'd be back east with no possibility of reprieve."

Flo clucks her tongue against the roof of her mouth and shakes her head. "That poor chil'. Must have felt like her back was plumb against the wall."

"What on earth did she do?" Audrey eyes are wide. This is about as bad as anything in those awful dime novels she would confiscate from Tommy and burn... but not before reading herself.

"Like I said, Jason was away with a herd. That puts Em in charge as far as the spread is concerned." Dara shrugs. "Sure, there is another foreman but Em is in charge of the horses. Nobody wants to get on her bad side. Besides she makes sense when it comes to the herd. It's kinda understood who is in charge. Thing is-- Roscoe started working for the Q's while Em was at boarding school."

"He didn't know the players." Carly puts in putting it into Spencer terms.

"Exactly. All he saw was a pretty young thing who spent a lot of time in the company of single men." Dara says grimly. "And he saw dollar signs."

Audrey tsks at that one.

"What did she do?" Liz asks with eyes wide.

"Well Roscoe kinda had her over the barrel." Dara explains. "He'd been around just long enough to know that Em was on probation there. If she said a word to anyone named Quartermaine then in all likelihood she'd be on the next train east. Figured it was safe enough for him to be yellow bellied. What he didn't figure on was the hands."

"Those men that brought you to my house?" Flo realizes.

Dara nods. "Johnny, Rinaldo and Francis. Em gave Roscoe the mitt and then Jason's men reinforced it with their fists. But Em stopped them before they could handle the problem figuring that it would only draw attention to her and that would be a one way ticket. Course they told Jason the first thing when he got back but by then Roscoe had already disappeared to..." Dara shrugs. "...here, I guess."

"Uh, Dad, why don't you let me take care of that." Lucky eases his father away from the stove after a long day out in the woods. He carefully doctors the beans that his mother had left soaking, making sure there is plenty of water. Luke wasn't one to be left in charge of the stove. Course Aunt Bobbie always figured he made such a disaster in the kitchen so he'd never be asked to help. Luke did well enough working in a kitchen if he needed a stake to play poker or if he needed to appropriate some supplies for the family.

Luke kicks back on one of the benches next to the table with his feet toward the woodstove. "Not to often when we get the place to ourselves." He looks around. "This is actually a pretty big cabin."

Lucky shakes his head and laughs. Reaching for an onion he makes short work of it and tosses it in on top of the soaking beans along with a meaty ham bone that had been saved from another meal. He puts the pot on the coolest part of the stove not wanting to have to worry about the beans burning or boiling over. Now that would be a hell of a mess. "Too quiet though."

Luke sighs. "That's the truth. Watcha say, son. I figure they've been up at the Cassadines long enough. Lets go get our wimmen."

"You just want to find out if Cassadine is back from visiting with the Quartermaine and if there is any news from town."

"Would I do that?" Luke stands up and going over to the pegs slams his hat down on his head and shrugs into his coat. He tosses Lucky his coat.

"In a heartbeat." Lucky says wryly grabbing his own hat.

Luke shrugs not denying it. "Besides your mother's not the only one with an in with the weather. Been smelling like snow to me. Has been all day."

"I wondered if you'd noticed." Lucky agrees. "We're about due." Lucky walks out with Luke and down to the fence line. Rather than going out the gate they walk up the inside of the fence. A man on horseback comes down from the Cassadine place and doesn't slow down or say howdy.

"Ain't that interestin'. Wonder where the hell he's going?" Luke watches the dirt kicked up down the road.

"Little late to be going visiting." Lucky quickens his pace. "And you know that Aunt Bobbie never did like that guy."

"What's different? Why would he be leaving now?" Luke lengthens his stride. "Barbara Jean hasn't liked him for months."

"Dara." Lucky suggest.

"Come on, Cowboy."

Back Home Next