Serial Western Romance Novel – Page 9

Go West~Chapter 19

Go West

by DiVoran Lites

Chapter Nineteen

Ellie’s Diary Continues

We went into a former stall in the barn that had been made into a cubicle. I’d seen it before when I learned how to milk the cow. In the cubicle, a shelf was attached to the wall with a piece of mirror over it. I noticed right away that it was a poor, cloudy, mirror. Thinking a man like Aldon deserved better, I decided to ask Grandmother to send a new one in a fine silver frame. Perhaps it would be our store’s first mail order.

“Here’s the razor,” Lia said, picking it up and handing it to me. It had been next to a bar of soap and a rose patterned, china shaving-mug with a hog’s bristle brush projecting from it. Granddad used something like that a long time ago. I would watch him whip soap into a lather with the brush and apply the froth to his face to make the razor glide over his whiskers.

“I wonder why Aldon has such old-fashioned shaving equipment,” I said, opening the razor. “During the war, The Gillette company issued safety razors. That’s what most men use nowadays.” I moved the blade vigorously over a strop hanging from a nail on the wall –swoosh-swish until I sensed it was sharp enough to cut Lia’s hair.

“Aldon is – how you say – sentimental,” Lia answered. “The shaving equipment was his great grandfather’s.” Once again, I wondered how she knew so much about the man’s personal life.

We moved the desk chair to the middle of the floor, and Lia sat down. Laying an extra towel over a stack of hay bales, I began by parting off sections of her head to work on. The razor had been sharpened so many times that the edge was thin and sliced through the hair as if it were butter. At the first stroke, Lia started talking. That always happened in a beauty salon; it was as if our patrons’ need to communicate was connected to having their heads touched. We stylists had been trained to listen like amateur Freuds without much comment or advice.

“I learned to pick grapes when I was five-years-old,” Lia mused aloud. She paused to watch me drape the first long strand of dark wavy hair over the towel covered bales. I was glad she didn’t panic when I started as so many others had when their life-long growth of hair was assaulted. I hoped Signor Solano would be as happy as she was about it.

“Papa taught me to work hard when we lived on the Solano estate.” Lia went on. “He was their vineyard manager at the time. Because his parents were dead and he had no sisters or brothers, my job was to play with Signor and Signora’s grandson, Enrico. We were the same age. No matter what we did, his grandparents never got angry because he was their prince. But when we slid down the banisters and landed in the potted plants scattering dirt, the servants took revenge by hiding our favorite toys, or persuading the cook to hold back dessert. Without me Enrico would have been a lonely, small boy and without him, I was only a fat child.”

When I started to protest, she held up her hand to stop me. “But my mama and my papa loved me.”

As she talked, I cut and laid locks of hair alongside each other on the towel. As I looked at the shiny treasure, I realized it would make a beautiful wig. Grandmother had made sure I had classes in wig-weaving so I could fill orders for wigs and postiches. I was a qualified posticheur.

“Would you like to have a wig for special occasions?” I asked Lia, pausing in my cutting to wait for an answer.

“Why would I want a wig?” she inquired tilting her head in puzzlement.

“You might want longer hair for dress-up occasions.”

“I might want longer hair if Signor is too disappointed that I have cut it. Yes, you may make me a wig. I will pay you for it, but I don’t know if I will wear it or not. What I truly want is a marcelled bob like I have seen in the magazines.”

“All right, that will be easy with your naturally wavy hair. And thank you, I will work on the wig in the evenings. I’ll send for my equipment right away.” I was excited. There was nothing more soothing than tying wigs. It would be a good way to support myself when I grew old, that was if I didn’t end up in the department store. I’d have to mind my manners to make sure that didn’t come to pass.

“Now let us change the story. I am looking forward to the grand musicale,” She looked up at me. “Will that not be divertimento?”

“Yes, it will be fun,” I said. “I hope Aldon won’t be angry about our using his razor. I’ll definitely leave it sharpened when we’re finished.”

DiVoran’s Promise Posters, Paintings from Go West as well as other art can be purchased as note cards and framable art

Creative Arts

Go West~Chapter 18

Go West

by DiVoran Lites

Chapter Eighteen

Ellie

I have decided to start keeping a diary of the things that happen here. The latest is that Signora wants me to call her Lia. It’s her Christian name and she says we are girlfriends now .

Lia takes up a great deal of time that I feel should be spent doing real work to earn my pay. I am with her six or so hours every day and what do we accomplish? Nothing.

I’ve been working since I was old enough to stand on a chair beside Mother and wash dishes, while Grandmother and Granddad went downtown to tend the store. Later, I ran errands downtown. I then became old enough to learn the routines in every department, so that someday I could take over.

When I joined the The Women’s Ambulance Corpse during World War One, in my first attempt at independence, I worked harder than ever before. When the war ended, I went back to the store for several years, but by then, I’d had a taste of being my own person, and I needed to get away again. Granddad, who knew Signor Solano in bygone days, helped me get this job on the ranch. He said the work would be demanding, and at first it was. Now, however, I feel useless.

Here’s the problem: Lia has me wake her at ten with breakfast in bed. She then wants me to discuss clothing and jewelry so she will look nice for her step grandson, Enrico, when he comes to spend the day with her. When she is dressed to the nines, I’m to go and knock on his door to wake him. Once he’s up I go to the kitchen to prepare breakfast for him and bring it up to Lia’s suite. He keeps late hours away from the house. I don’t know where he goes or what he does, or even how he found something to do in this small community. Most of the day Signor is in his office, or out-of-doors with Aldon.

When Enrico comes to the suite, he brings an air of sensuality that melts me into a trickle of molten wax with no sense of boundary or direction. He takes my hand and raises it to his lips while looking deeply into my eyes. I must admit a frisson of pleasure runs through me when he says. “You are a most beautiful lady.” No one has ever told me that before.

“Lia’s perfume is Acqua de Parma Colonia which clings to her person, her clothes, and my nostrils. It affects me like the champagne I tasted once at a celebration.

Enrico and Lia drink wine and eat biscotti every afternoon, and they invite me to drink with them. I refuse. I think perhaps Enrico has had too much experience with women, and that for a married woman, Lia may not know much about men.

The records they play affect me deeply as well. Granddad took me to the opera many times, and when I hear Verdi and Puccini on Lia’s Victrola I fall in love with the composers over and over again.

I open the windows to let in a fresh breeze. That helps, of course, but Lia and Enrico soon call for me to close them. It’s not as if the room were a dark bistro, though. Lia, being a painter, loves splashes of light and shadow. She calls them chiaroscuro. That is why she arranges the curtains and dressing screens to provide a changing French Impressionist painting.

It is beautiful. Once I am in it, I hate to leave, though I must drag myself away to bring up their afternoon tea and sandwiches. Molly complains about having to cut off the crusts. When I go down to help her with supper, she grouses about my defection, as she calls it. I have to admit that my daytime activities do verge on debauchery. I have no idea where it will end.

I love to dance and have been teaching the two of them the Charleston and the Black Bottom. Lia purchased jazz records by mail before I came. She reads magazines and keeps up with what’s happening in the world of music. Enrico and Lia are like small children wanting the constant attention of an adult, and for some reason, I’ve been elected the adult.

“Please, Ellie,” Lia said one day as Enrico stepped away to put on a new record, “You will make me a flapper like you by cutting my hair?”

“I don’t think of myself as a flapper.” I objected. “But I will be glad to style your hair.”

“I do not mean to insult you. I want only to be modern millie for my Giovanni,” she pouted. “Before bed, he sits in my low rocking chair, his legs in their fine trousers stretched into the middle of the room. He watches me brush my hair. He says, ‘Oh, Lia, your hair is so long, and so curly.’ But he cares not a whit that it is heavy and hot. When he leaves to go to his own bed, he gives me a small kiss on the cheek. I feel then, like an abandoned rose in a garden of love. I sit in the chair where he has sat and look out at millions of diamonds in a black velvet sky, then I lie down in my bed alone.

I was taken aback. It seemed all her thoughts were of her husband. That was good, but it made her behavior with Enrico all the more puzzling.

“You do have wonderful hair,” I said. “Are you sure Signor won’t mind if we cut it? I turned her so I could study the shiny curls she now wore hanging to her waist. “I didn’t bring my hair cutting tools from the beauty salon. Can you wait until I send for them?”

“No, no, no, it must be cut this minute. I am sick to death and perishing from the heat. Look,” she parted the curtain of hair hanging down her back so I could see the redness on her neck. “Heat rash is it not?” she demanded.

“Yes, you’re right. You’ll be much more comfortable with it short and you will look just as pretty. I wonder where we could get a razor.”

“Let’s go. We’ll be back in a while, Enrico,” Lia grabbed me and pulled me toward the door. “Aldon has a straight razor. I saw it in the barn when I was with him.”

“You…?”

“Come, along, Aldon’s riding fence today, he will not miss a little borrow.” She grabbed a comb and headed for the door, and I followed, stunned. Aldon and Lia? No, it couldn’t be.

“We can’t go into Aldon’s quarters and take his razor without asking,” I said, as I followed her down the hallway.

“Oh, pooh, come, do not do the dawdle.” She waved her hand in dismissal of my scruples.

“Wait, we have to wet your hair, first.”

Go West~Chapter 17

Go West

by DiVoran Lites

Chapter Seventeen

Ellie

The wagon swayed as Aldon took the reins to drive the mules onto the shelf road. He and Ellie were returning home the way they had come. The only other choice they had was to pick their way over a meadow strewn with rocks and runoff channels, either dried or filled with water, and Aldon had said the obstructions were camouflaged by grasses and wildflowers, and could trap a wheel or a hoof in an instant.

“Oh, my goodness! Look how far it is down to the creek. If either of us tumbled off the wagon we’d surely break our necks.” Ellie clung to the wagon seat until her knuckles turned white.

“Don’t look down. Look up there at timberline, instead. Anyhow, we’re almost over the shelf road where you’ll feel safer.”

“Why don’t trees grow up there,” she asked, looking where he had pointed.

“We think it’s the altitude.” Aldon said. “Hey, we’re here.” The mules pulled the wagon off the shelf road and onto a level trail.

They arrived back at the ranch at four o’clock in the afternoon. Ellie was looking forward to a bath, and maybe a short rest, so Aldon let her off at the door saying he would unhitch the mules and take them home to Joe’s family.

When Ellie entered the kitchen, Molly was waiting for somebody to talk to about the day’s work.

“We caught three fat hens and butchered them. We saved the feathers for pillows. We dredged the pieces in eggs and flour and fried them. Now wait,” she held up her hand when she saw that Ellie was losing interest,. “that’s not all. We brought a peck of potatoes in from the root cellar and peeled, cut, cooked and mashed them. We’re bushed. Kate’s resting and I need your help finishing the supper.”

At six-o’clock, the back door opened and in came Aldon and Kenny.

“It’s about time you got here. Supper’s ready.” Molly said looking at Aldon, her eyes soft with a mother-like love. Ellie was reminded that Molly had never married or had children, and was suddenly glad that she’d been around to help rear Aldon, she was a good woman at heart, and she had helped to turn him into a special kind of man.

Aldon took Molly in his arms and waltzed her around the small amount of leftover space in the kitchen. When they got to the stove, Aldon stopped to admire the chicken and to peer into the other pot on the stove.

“Fried chicken and peas in cream sauce with new onions. Molly’s the best cook in the world.” He shot a glance at Ellie who smiled and nodded at his exuberance.

“Now, who’s been kissin’ the Blarney stone?” Molly put her head down, trying to look modest, but when she looked up, her shining eyes showed her pride.

“You’ve mentioned that Blarney Stone before, but I never thought to ask what a Blarney Stone was.” Aldon said.

“I do believe it’s about buttering people up and some bit rock in Ireland, but I really don’t know. My family just says it. None of us has been in Ireland for over a hundred years.” As Molly bustled over to check on the peas, the door from the dining room swung open and young Mr. Enrico walked in.

He came straight to Ellie, grabbed her hand, and kissed it. “Ciao, Signorina, how are you? Please tell me about your drive.” He continued to hold her hand.

Ellie looked at Aldon and caught sight of a scowl that would make a dog crawl under the table. When he realized she was reacting to his dour his expression, he forced a smile.

“Come on Kenny; let’s get washed up for supper.” Aldon and Kenny went out letting the screen door bang behind them. Ellie could hear their footsteps going up the side stairway.

“Signora Solano wants Aldon, Ellie, and the bambina to eat with us in the dining room.” Enrico dropped Ellie’s hand. “She says we will talk about the musicale we’re planning. The Fitzgerald boy will remain in the kitchen with the rest of the help.”

“Yes, Sir,” Molly said, her eyes narrowed in resentment. Ellie knew she must have been looking forward to having Aldon and Kenny to herself at the supper table.

“Check what we need in there.” Molly told her.

When Ellie came back, she reported that the Signora wanted them to serve tea right away and that they needed to think of a way to seat Seraphina tall enough so she’d be able to feed herself.

“Tea!” Molly put her fists on her hips and shook her head. “Get out some books and cover them with a towel for the bairn. Her highness wants to train her to be a great lady. That’s probably the reason for the tea party. Oh, well, I’ll put the kettle on, and you see to the cups and saucers. When you finish, go ahead and get into your prettiest dress. You’re dining with royalty tonight.”

“All I have is my suit skirt and blouse, or one of my work dresses.

“Oh, I’d say the blue skirt and white shirtwaist. They like to dress up and that’s the best you have, which is plenty good enough.” Molly grabbed a dishtowel, wrapped it around the handle of the chicken skillet, and slid it into the warming oven.

Go West~Chapter 15

Go West

by DiVoran Lites

Chapter Fifteen

Aldon

When supper was over and the clean up finished, Aldon decided to hike up to the beaver pond for a bath. He grabbed a bar of Molly’s homemade soap, and an old towel from his saddlebag and joined Joe and Dieter on the trail. At the pond, the men raced to see who could get into the water first. Joe had to stop and help Dieter get his boots off, so Aldon made the big splash. He started swimming as fast as he could in the icy water, all the time wishing for the hot and cold spring so it would be more comfortable. He was half way across by the time Joe jumped in, and Dieter came next. The three of them wrestled over the soap like dogs over a bone, and when Aldon finally got hold of it, he washed quickly and then threw the soap to Joe. He got out and while the two of them continued to struggle, he dried off and put on fresh jeans and a flannel shirt. For a while, he sat on the large, flat boulder that was like a ramp extending into the water. The top part of the rock was still warm from the sun shining on it all day. It felt so good that he wanted to lie down and sleep right then. He took a deep breath of clean, pine-scented air, held it and breathed out the weariness of the trail with a sigh of satisfaction. They had arrived safely with all the men, the woman, the horses, dogs, and cattle. His cousins quieted as they came out of the water as if they two had started to relax after the long day on the trail.

When they arrived back at camp, Aldon found Ellie sitting on the chuck wagon tailgate with her head against a post that supported the canopy. She looked so bedraggled, he felt sorry for her.

“No more travel until tomorrow when we leave the cattle and ride back down to the ranch,” he said.

“Any chance of my getting a bath, too?” Ellie slid off the tailgate and stood looking up at him in the gathering dusk.

“Sure.” Aldon swallowed hard at the thought of Ellie taking a bath anywhere, but this was practically out in public. He’d need to go with her and keep her safe, but who would keep her safe with him? He shook the thoughts away. After all, bringing Ellie along was his idea and that made her his responsiblity.

“You sure it’s okay? I don’t want to be any trouble.” Her eyebrows went up in consternation.

“Come with me.” Aldon felt heat in his face and chastised himself. Blushing was for women and children, but he hadn’t been able to break himself of it yet. He found another towel and they were on their way. Ellie carried a bundle of clothes clutched to her chest.

“You need a packhorse?” he quipped.

“I have to have clean clothes; I can’t stand these another minute.” As they ascended the trail with Aldon in the lead, he stopped, turned, and took the clothing from her.

“I am perfectly capable of being my own pack horse, thank you.” She tugged at the shirt in his arms but he held on to it until she let go.

“The trail is rocky. Since it’s new to you, maybe I’d better be the pack horse, in case you need to grab a bush to steady yourself.” He moved on.

As they arrived, they heard a splash and saw several beavers glide away toward a mound of brush. Aldon helped Ellie step up onto the boulder, and then he pointed out the sights.

“The beavers live over there,” he explained, indicating the far side of the pond where a pile of sticks stuck up at the edge of the water.

“Yes?” Ellie waited for more.

“It’s called a beaver lodge,” he continued. “They swim under the woven branches and into a warm, dry den. See the pointed stumps over there?” She nodded and he went on. “Beavers cut the saplings down with their teeth in order to use them for making the lodge. They also eat the spongy wood beneath the bark.”

“No wonder people say, busy as a beaver,” she said. “Imagine having to chew down a tree before you can eat breakfast.” They chuckled.

“Beavers mate for life,” he looked at her then cast his gaze out over the pond.

“Do they? That’s good, like people.”

“I’ll sit at the top of this rock. You go down there and get in the water. Here’s the soap.” He handed it to her. “The water is so cold; you won’t want to stay in long. I promise I won’t look.” Aldon listened to the faint sounds Ellie made as she undressed. He heard a squeal of outrage, evidence that she had dipped into the freezing water. After a few minutes, he stretched out on the warm rock and listened to a series of whimpers, feeling like a lout for not heating water on the campfire and letting her bathe inside the cabin.

“Coming out,” she said waking him from a short nap. He took the warm towel and her clothes down to her at the water’s edge. Without looking, he laid the towel across her shoulders. She was shivering so badly that he wanted to take her in his arms and warm her body with his, but knowing it would be the action of a cad, he hoped his hands alone might help.

“It’s okay, I’m decent,” she said. When he looked at her, he had to reckon that her idea of decent was different from his. The towel covered her top, but he could see that high on her bare legs were edges of something pink and silky. What he could see of the garment looked like a cross between fancy underwear and a racy bathing suit. He hadn’t seen anything like it since the war when a fellow flier insisted he look at a picture in a French catalog.

“Let me go, you big lug,” Ellie said between clenched teeth. “You’re squashing me so I can hardly breathe.” Realizing that he had been tightening his grip, he released her so quickly she almost fell.

“I’m sorry,” he apologized. “Let’s hurry now; I don’t want you to catch pneumonia.”

He handed her the bundle of clean clothes and stepped once again to the top of the rock to wait for her.