Jim had kissed her hand.

It was such a romantic gesture, entirely out of place in Aggie's life, that she didn't know how to handle it. Men didn't kiss her hands, which were strong, and long-fingered, and emininently capable. They had never been the type of hands that she'd guessed would be considered kissable. In the Smith's big palms, however, they did seem quite small.

On their way to the Cafe, Jim had found Aggie to be as charming as she was beautiful. He had dared to hold her hand as they walked and she did not seem to mind. The walk itself had been so enjoyable, that he had almost walked past the Cafe before remembering that it was his final destination.

He led Jenny into the café, easing the door closed and offered her a seat by the front. “Lemme fix us some tea,” He said with a smile.

Why is she letting me be so nice to her? Clyde wondered as he walked to the teapot.

“Good news, Twilla or Aggie must have been here before the dance. It’s already hot!”

Clyde put his hand inside his pocket once more. He had no opportunity to have lost the item in question, but he had to be sure. It was still there, of course.

He set two cups out before him and put the tea in the little metal strainer, then placed it in one of the cups. Next, he poured the hot water into the cups. Clyde could feel every movement, every detail. The world was moving slowly.

The server who was here earlier, whichever one it was, had left the sugar out, so he didn’t have to look far. It was lucky he knew the restaurant like the lines in his hand, because he couldn’t see anything, especially in the dark. He walked the little jar over to Jenny’s table.

“Sugar,” he said, and then nervously laughed. When he turned around, his eyes rolled up into his head.

He had his hands on the cups, and took a deep breath.

If you can’t do it now, Clyde, you’ll never do it, he thought as he steeled himself before returning to the table.

Clyde >> nervous as an fattened hog before New Year's Day.

Despite her apparent nervousness, Jenny felt comfortable. Everything that was coming to pass felt like it was happening in a dream. Perhaps it was her tired body (Jenny was used to going to bed soon after sunset) or the way all her emotions had been used up. But she just tipped back in her chair, relaxed, and felt as if she were home.

Home, in a way she had never felt in the Fish Market or the Well's home or the Baker's. Safe, accepted. Jenny hadn't felt this way since before she'd met Alec Speaker, when her Pa had been the only man in her life besides her five older brothers.

She took the tea and barely looked at him, but still smiled. Jenny was usually a wildcat, and Clyde had never seen her like this, so inviting, it made her all that much more beautiful.

“I…I…I…” was all Clyde could muster up.

He was holding his own cup by the saucer, and the cup on top of it began to rattle. He was shaking like a leaf. Clyde’s eyes opened wide as he looked at it and he set it down on the table, real gently so it wouldn’t spill.

“I’m just going to get a towel,” Clyde said before he turned to walk away. But he stopped and closed his eyes hard, mouthing the words, “Now or never, now or never, now or never.”

He spun on his heels once more and tried to remember everything he wanted to say.

“Jenny, we’ve known each other a long time, as long as I’ve been friends with Trout. I’ve hung around the Fish Market a lot and around him. You probably thought I was all strange for that ugly peanut.”

Clyde, you stupid anvil! he clenched his eyes again. But Jenny stayed silent, and when he opened his eyes, he could she was hanging on to his words.

“I’m not much, you know. I’m not Elijah or Joshua, and I seen the way you look at them…wait, let me finish before you tell me to jump in the river…I don’t have a real good job, but I make my ends meet and I’ve managed to save money.

“Jenny, I know I’m a runt, and you probably think of me as a kid brother before anything else. I don’t even know if you could ever feel about me the way you feel about them. You’re an angel sent from heaven itself, and I’m nothing special, mostly ordinary. But I can promise one thing that they never could…I don’t now and never will love anybody else but you. And maybe, just maybe you could learn to love me.”

She was still watching him now. And he couldn’t judge the expression on her face. She was probably going to hit him square in the jaw.

Now or never! Now or never! Now or never!

But he got down on his knee anyway, and put his fingers back into the pocket of his jacket, pulling out a very thin, silver ring with tiny lines going through it in an elegant Celtic pattern. He held it between his forefinger and thumb.

And somehow he seemed to know her feelings about some of the other men in her life, and yet here he still was, dropped on one knee looking both hopeful and desperate.

And what did she feel? Beyond surprise, that is. Jenny smiled.

"Clyde Traveller, get on up off the floor and stop makin' a fool of yerself." Then she reached out tentatively for the ring that caught the starlight.

"Is..is this really for me?"

But her eyes were focused on the little silver band that he held out toward her, and she put her right hand out to reach for it.

“Is…” she asked, “…is this really for me?”

He took her hand and easily slipped the ring onto the ring finger, saying, “Let’s see if it fits.” He was not going to wait to find out, however, as he closed his thick, short hands around it, clenching her tender smooth fingers into a fist. Instead, he looked into her eyes.

“I know it isn’t much of a courtship, Jen…” he began to say, and then thought better. He was going to do this as right as he possibly could, even if that meant not calling her by her first name the way he had for years. “Miss Gardener, I guess I should be saying. I got all these words running around in my head, and they’re just not coming together the way I’m used to them, but I never asked anyone to marry me before either.”

He smiled right away. “I guess I’m asking you to marry me.”

He allowed the words to sink in, and as she began to open her mouth, he held is finger up. “If you’re gonna say, ‘no’ right now, don’t just yet. If you don’t like the ring, I can probably get you something else. It’s just that I’ve been waiting to put some money together and buy a real place, not some tiny little flop above a café.

“There’s an big property on the west side of town being parceled off, and the servant homes are in pretty good condition. I wanna put a bid on one of them, but I don’t want it unless..." Unless I have a reason to live. "...unless I'm ready to start a new life. They’re gonna hold it for me for three days before they let it go. I just wanna ask you to wait that long before you say ‘no’ for sure.”

He knew he must look like a gnomish Leprauchan proposing to the Queen of Fairies, but he didn't care. Later on, when she wasn't looking right at him, maybe she'd be able to think about the practical side of it and say 'yes'.

Clyde > Laid bare.

And then, Clyde loved her. Jenny wasn't quite ready to think about that yet. It was what she'd always dreamed of - someone who loved her more than anything. But somehow, now that it was thrown into her lap, she didn't know what to do.

Things weren't happening as romantically as she'd imagined. Clyde was like a nervous schoolboy, and his tongue was far from silver. Jenny remembered the sonorous voice of Alec Speaker as he seduced her, and the flash of remembered pleasure was followed by chills. No, she didn't want that. Not really. Clyde was solid, and somehow his blundering made her feel safe. He wouldn't caress her in a way that made her feel vulnerable, a way that took her senses and left her open to manipulation.

Clyde was still waiting, all bent over like a flower in a rainstorm.

"Hey, Clyde! I said yes. I'll marry you, if that's what it takes to get you off of that floor."

Did you just hear that right, Clyde?

But sure enough, there she was, nodding her head and smiling. He could scarcely believe it…Jenny was going to marry him?

“You just…I’m almost…I can’t…” Words wouldn’t come out, but it didn’t stop him from being the happiest man in Hio Territory. To compensate, Clyde released the howl that was already building up inside of him.

“Aaaaaaah-hoooOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!” he screamed, dancing around in a circle, not caring who heard him.

(OOC: Because I’m me, or maybe it’s a Capricorn thingie…I dunno, I just have to explain my conclusions on the soft and tender hands thing. While a gardener’s writer knows her character better than anyone, and if she says her hands are rough and worn—or even have missing or extra fingers, then indeed, that’s the way that gardener’s hands are. I did think about it, and thought, and thought, and firstly, Clyde would think of Jenny’s hands as heavenly… But beyond that. Being late December/early January, Jenny wouldn’t have been gardening since the first frost, right? I don’t know when that is in Hio, but it must be late October, early November, right? Therefore, the scars and scrapes of the year would have healed…leaving only the calluses of a woman who’s only been at it for three years. Well, at least that was my rationale. I figure any hands compared to Clyde’s permanent dishwasher/food cutter/garbage dumper hands look like those of the Lubriderm model.)

“I never… pinch me, Miss Jenny, this is real, isn’t it? Well we got plans to make. Things to do.” He took her arms at the shoulders and planted a great big, long, wet kiss on Jenny’s soft lips…oh, Clyde knew they’d feel just like silk…and then he let her go.

“You said ‘yes’,” he repeated like an idiot. “Well, we need to find a minister. I think I remember something about my folks being Catholic, but it doesn’t matter…oh, I’ve got to pay for the little house, I wonder who we’ll have for neighbors, oh my gosh, do I marry you as “Traveller” or “O’Neill” like my folks were or forget my name maybe we’ll just be “Gardener” and who are we going to invite, oh, forget inviting anyone, you’re friendly with Quincy Umble, isn’t he a Justice? We could just elope tomorrow?”

Clyde > a million things to think of.

It had been a long night.

"Clyde? Can't we talk about these things tomorrow? I've gotta get Tansy and make sure she gets home okay. I promised Mr. Beekeeper that I'd look after her."

"Well, you go take care of what you need to. I don't know what Aggie's planning to do after the party, but if she's on her way to the café, then she'll be here shortly...either way someone's gotta open up in the morning."

Jenny began to pull herself together and made as if to leave, but Clyde stopped her once more.

"Let me just have one more look at that ring on your finger."

Eyes luminous, Jenny stepped toward her new lover.

But then there’s what goes on under the clouds with the rest of the poor slobs who live in the world, since perfect love only ever happens with Princes and Princesses and children of rich Italian families in rich Italian principalities like Verona.

The story of Jenny Fisher Gardener and Clyde O’Neill Traveller, of which the “love” part began without courtship or ceremony with a marriage proposal in the Hatrack Café that sounded more like a property negotiation was nothing like those old stories of “perfect love.” First off, it was two years and change too late for “love at first sight,” because Clyde and Jenny were like brother and sister well before this cold winter night in Hatrack River.

But it wasn’t just about kissin’ your sister. If the good Lord meant for Jenny and Clyde to be together, then He must have had one hell of a sense of humor. There were few people more volatile than Jenny and Clyde in Hatrack River in the 1830s. Clyde was snake oil and Jenny was fairy flame…and we all know what happens when you mix flame and oil. Still, Clyde was in love with Jenny, and Jenny was…well, Jenny was Jenny, and when you joined two forces such as they were at the time, you’re going to have an explosion of some kind.

So if you were in Clyde’s mind the moment he pulled her sweet, silk, strawberry cream lips two his own, you felt explosions go off all around you. Not the kind of explosions that came out of cannons, either, right before huge holes ripped through enemy lines, making widows tear their hair and throw themselves on to coffins, no, these explosions were like the firecracker explosions that were made by carnival Chinamen to distract you so you didn’t notice the little kids takin’ your wallets from behind you.

There may have never been such a kiss such as that in Hatrack River in all its history, or even in the Hio Territory for that matter. Clyde had never felt anything like what he felt at that moment. It was like nothing he ever imagined, and every shudder, every shake, every quake Clyde made seemed to roar through her as well. He felt something rising up… as if she had gotten something deep within him, down to the very core of his being, and made it grow to a phenomenal size.

And it was at that point that Clyde suddenly took every bit of strength he had to tightly grab onto Jenny’s shoulders and pull her away from his embrace.

She wasn't sure exactly what they'd been doing, but she had liked it. And then her mind registered that her body had been thrilled by Clyde's touch and a wave of guilt washed over her. Hadn't things started out like this with Alec Speaker? Suddenly Jenny stood up, putting some space between herself and her new fiance.

"No, that shouldn't have happened," she said, with just a hint of fear in her voice. And in that moment of doubt, all the rest of Jenny's responsibilities came washing over her.

"I've got to get back and see about Tansy. She's going to be looking all over for me. Goodnight, Clyde Traveller!"

And Jenny fled back toward the barn dance.

She had never been glamorous and didn't mean to start now. Simple and clean was good enough for her, and obviously, it seemed to be good enough for Jim, too. He hit the floorboards in the store room with enough force that Aggie fancied she could feel the building shake. Any harder, and she supposed he would have gone through them, and then there'd be a fine mess! In the store room, there wasn't much light to see the ring he fumbled in his big hands, but Aggie didn't care if it was a paper band of a cigar. She was just glad for what it meant.

Aggie could only beam down into the open, smiling face of her beau, and accept his proposal. "Jim, I've been hopin' you'd ask me that for weeks now. Of course, I'll marry you!"

"Thank you." Jim's smile was close to splitting his ears. Aggie had not been to the Smithy since he had started building the house. Now with the roof and most of the inside finished, he wanted to show her what he had been up to.

"Meet me at the Smithy when the Cafe closes. I want to show you something." Jim gave Aggie another kiss, this time on her cheek, and then he fled the curious stares of the cafe patrons.

Betrothed, and with a ring to prove it. Aggie looked down and shook her head, a far from practical smile threatening to break free. Jim was a professional man, it was his job to notice things, but all the same, Aggie was flattered beyond anything to think there was a man on this earth who could guess what size ring she would wear just by looking at her hands.

She shook her head at herself. She knew that she wasn't meant for romance, that this marriage would just be a practical consideration, two people who would do the best they could together. But that firm resolution dissolved as soon as the first customer congratulated her, and Aggie couldn't hold back her smile after all.

COME ONE COME ALL...

GRANDE OPENING PARTY OF MALORY PUB

ALL ARE WELCOME TO ATTEND

TUESDAY NIGHT

FREE FOOD AND DRINKS

iN hONER oF THE OWneRS BIrThdy

HATrack riVer TABARN WIlL OPEN

AT nOOn tewsday. FReE DRInKs UNTiL DARK

Adelyne turned to face Ben with her hands on her hips and exclaimed, "See here now Benjamin Baker! All that sitting, sewing, and doing nothing is no way to live. You've tried to sit me down and keep me bridled but I'll have none of it."

"I'm just saying that maybe running a cafe and boarder house is too much. Why live here when you could live anywhere? You could live in New Amsterdam with all your friends."

"PSSHHH!...Friends. I have my friends here. It's been 3 years since I showed back up looing for work..WITHOUT your approval mind you, and I only walked up to your home when I found there was no room in the Inn. And for 3 years I've done nothing while you have had journey after journey across the nation. It's time to STAY home Benjamin, enjoy your children. Seth is nearly grown now, Elijah has already moved out, and Elisha is quite possibly going to stir the ire of everyone in government once he is elected to your fathers old seat." She paused for a moment, looking around the cafe that Ben had started when he first came to Hatrack, anxious to hide from his father and the complexity of the pain he was deaing with from being a single father. She softened and walked to him, put a hand upon his face and said, "Ben, I will be fine. I'm not yet an old woman. Don't make me feel that I am. You will be close by, things will be fine. And I can cook and make pies and do what I love to do. And thats take care of folks."

Ben smiled back at his mother, "I know better than to even bother to stop you. So, let's get this place cleaned up and get you moved in."

With a start she realized that she'd stopped in front the cafe. Like so many of Hatrack's buildings it had been standing empty for some time. She saw smoke from the chimney and could make out dim shapes through the frosted glass. She didn't mean to be nosy, but after all it WAS a place of business. And she SO hated eating at the Inn. The food was good, she had to admit, but the proprietor was not someone a proper lady should spend any more time around than absolutly necessary. He didn't even watch his language when women were about.

Sally realized she was dithering. Finally, painting a smile on her face, she tried the door which opened easily to her touch. She could hear muffled voices from the back.

"Hello? Anyone there?"

She had just finished taking a pie out of the oven when she heard someone call out.

Exiting the kitchen into the seating area, wiping her hands on a towel Adelyne smiled and said, "Well hello dear. May I help you?"

"Hello?" A willowy, young woman with curly hair and sharp green eyes called out as she entered the cafe. She wore a dark colored dress that might have been fashionable in Paris, but not practical in 'Hio. She wanted badly to find a place to change, but there were the memories and feelings of warmth that drew her to the cafe.

As she entered the cafe, she was surprised that it wasn't busy. She remembered the days when she could barely keep pace with the demand for biscuits and coffee. She wondered who baked the biscuits now. The scent of pie wafting from the kitchen answered her question, and suddenly she felt like she was that mischivious little girl all over again. "Miss Addy? You back there?"

The older woman entered the room looking exactly the same as the woman remembered her. It was like no time had passed at all since their parting. Adelyne's eyes got wide and then her smile did too.

"Well, hello, dear! May I help--Ruthie! Oh goodness, it really is you!" exclaimed Adelyne Baker as she swept the woman into a hug.

"Yes, ma'am," Ruthie couldn't help but smile and feel at home. She had been too long away from Hatrack, and after her adventures in Paris and King Arthur Stuart's court, she knew of no better, safer place to land.

Adelyne pulled away from her. "Are you hungry, child?"

"I believe a piece of pie would be just wonderful--and some tea," replied Ruthie."I'll come and help."

The older woman frowned and said, "You sit down right there. I need to be up and around anyway. If Ben had his way about it, I'd be rotting back in New Amsterdam."

Ruthie did as she was told. She could hear Miss Addy preparing the pie and tea.

"Does Naomi know your here, child?" Miss Addy asked from the back.

"I didn't send her a letter, but I suspect that she's already knowing that I've arrived," she replied.

There was a time when Ruthie wouldn't have said this to anyone concerning her sister, but with Miss Addy being kin, it was a sort of unspoken known between them. It had been a long time since Ruthie had left Hatrack, but she knew she was never too far away for her sister not to be aware of her.

She looked with longing on the dress the young woman was wearing. "How lovely," she sighed. She suddenly felt glad her heavy winter coat was covering her plain calico.

"Hello, welcome to the Hatrack Cafe. I'm Ruthie--Ruth Charming. Would you care for a piece of pie? It's right out of the oven, I suspect," said Ruthie, pushing a stray piece of curly brown hair from her face. Suddenly, she felt about twelve again, and she could feel the mischiviousness that seemed to guide her steps at that age rise up inside of her.

Sally thought how wonderful it was to be in the company of other women. It seemed like all of her interactions over the past months had been dealing with one man or another.

He was in no way related to the Baker clan that her sister has married into, but it was easy to see how anyone could make that mistake. In spite of his craft with baking, he was a raucous and tempermental man, quite like no other she'd ever met.

Grinning, she said to Miss Spelling, "You must mean Black Shep. He's no kin to Miss Addy. In fact, he's a bit of a thorn in her side, right, Miss Addy?"

"Yes, I believe he is known as Black Shep. Although if he'd wash once in a while I think he'd look just a white as you or me. But, did you say kin . . . I mean related to whom? I thought your name was Charming, and I'm afraid I haven't met Miss Addy. That's why I stopped by, in fact."

"Black Shep holds the same last name as Miss Adelyne," she said, nodding toward the back. "He's a Baker, but not part of the same Baker clan. Miss Addy is my kin through my sister, Naomi, who is married to Elijah Baker. Are you following this so far? I know it confuses me sometimes, especially if I think of it too long. Anyway, Mr. Ben Baker, who owns this cafe and the hotel is Elijah's father. He lives up the hill from here in that big house," she said pointing in a general direction.

At that point, she sat back and sighed, hoping she hadn't just scared the life out of her new-found friend. Clearly new Hatrack citizens didn't know everyone the way they used to. Ruthie knew she shouldn't be surprised by this. It was becoming this way everywhere apparently. More people were coming to the territories, so it was inevitable.

Adelyne placed the pie on the table along with 3 forks and then asked, "Coffee or milk for you young ladies? Then once we are settled we can catch each other up on life and we can get to know our new friend here, Miss Spellings."

Adelyne--Still getting settled

"I'll have tea if you have it, Thank you." Turning to Ruthie she continued, "I suppose my story's not so unusual. I was teaching over by New Amsterdam. There was this young man . . . well, perhaps not quite so young, but still a good man, none the less. Except that he'd already found a good woman. It sorta slipped his mind when we were courting."

At that moment the door to the cafe opened up and a young man who looked to be 16 years old came bounding in with a book. With his eyes focused between the pages he walked past the three ladies at the table, turned his head for a moment and said "Hello" before proceeding behind the counter and picking up the glass container containing the licorice. Then in a sudden moment of silence the boy looked up from his book and dropped the glass jar to the floor with a loud shattering noise and his mouth hit the floor with it.

The three ladies jumped and Adelyne rose to her feet and proclaimed "SETH BAKER! What in Jesus Holy name has got into you."

Seth moved his head to look around his grandmother at the young lady still sitting at the table. Looking straight into Ruthies eyes and with the most beautiful smile creeping onto his face he said, "My goodness. Forgive me if this may seem juvenile but I have been waiting to say this for some time now."

"What would that be Seth Baker?" Ruthie coaxed.

"LAST ONE TO THE RIVER IS A ROTTEN EGG!" And with that he leaped the counter, book in hand and tore out through the front, pausing a moment to see if there was still any mischief left in that proper young lady inside.

"It would seem that I will have to excuse myself, as I have been challenged and I do not wish to disappoint my opponent," she said in as lady-like a fashion as she could, hoping that Miss Spellings would not be offended. She noticed that Miss Adelyne had a small twinkle in her eye matching that of her youngest grandson. Mischieviousness was a trait that seemed to flow through the Baker clan. Hopefully, Miss Adelyne would explain this sudden explosion of what some would call hysteria to Miss Spellings.

With that, she jumped out of her chair and exited after Seth. She wasn't about to let that lunatic beat her, even after all this time. As she gained on him (a feat in the dress she was wearing), she shouted, "I hope you can adjust to smelling like rotten eggs when I beat you, you big lug!" With that, she put on as much speed as her skirts would allow for. Her hat flew off unceremoniously, just missing the blond boy's head, allowing her hair to spring to life in a way it it'd not been able to in quite a while.

It would seem that there was a bit more of that twelve-year old girl left inside of herself than she expected.

"What makes you think you can outrun me. You never could, you never will!" He barely dodged the hat as it sailed towards his face and as he ran he tossed his book to one of the younger boys playing in the street and said "hold on to that for a bit," and proceeded running.

He was impressed that Ruth was keeping up so well in a dress. "Where are we running too!?" Ruth questioned loudly.

"To the dropoff!! Last one there is the loser."

The dropoff was one of the most famous points of the riverbank. You could sit on its edge and overlook the river below you during the summer, watching it shimmer in the sun and at night it was a great place to view the stars, listening to the music of the water as it danced against the shore. It was the place Seth loved to do most of his reading, and his thinking. He had not been able to go there much lately since the weather had turned off cold.

He taunted Ruth all the way there, and she seemed very inclined to taunt right back with steam coming from her mouth as it hit the chill. "You look like a dragon!"

They were moving like two birds in flight, weaving with the wind and soaring majestically. Carefree and laughing the two former childhood companions were neck and neck in their race and Seth could see the lookout coming up. He knew he had her beat in this race, and turning to give her a victory taunt before reaching the finish line he failed to notice that a stray member of the bovine race had just done it's business right there near close to the lookout. Ruth's eyes widened when she saw what was about to occur, but before she could say anything Seth planted his foot squarely in the fresh cow patty and his victory smile was replaced with surprise and panic. Feeling himself slip and moving too fast to stop he grabbed on to Ruth to stabilize himself, but it was not enough. There was too much kinetic motion between the two and the force of their running took them to the ground over the edge and with a scream they both rolled down the steep hill and slid onto the ice of the river. When they finally stopped, Seth got up and realized they were in the exact center of the river. He looked around, seeking an exit spot where they could climb back up where it might not be so steep. "Down there, we're gonna have to walk the river a bit. Do step lightly."

Seth-Just like old times

Taking Seth's hand, Ruth did her best to get her footing. Stepping slowly together, they made their way toward the shore. As precarious of a situation as they were in, it was still good to see Seth. She poked him. "So I see my best friend in the entire world for the first time in a long time, and the first thing he does is try to kill me!" she said.

They had been making good progress when a crack split the air. Seth pulled Ruth closer and froze in step.

[This message has been edited by Miss Ruthie Charming (edited March 01, 2008).]

[This message has been edited by Miss Ruthie Charming (edited March 01, 2008).]

[This message has been edited by Miss Ruthie Charming (edited March 02, 2008).]

"Now ain't no use resorting to violence! We can discuss your thievin like civilized people!"

The hulkish man started towards here but stopped short when he saw the big pan in her hands.

Adelyne swayed back and forth on two feet, as if gearing up for a fight. Still covered in pie and white from the flour shower she dared the man. "One thing I am NOT is a thief! I oughta whip you with this pan for even suggesting such a thing. Tis you sir that has been stealing MY pies off the sill! And don't you come one step closer. Some men shoot guns, some men shoot arrows. I am highly trained with this pan thanks to the old senator and it's been out of action far too long and hungry for some skull!"

"Oh no!" Shep suddenly realized that by now his biscuits would not only be over done, but most likely his kitchen was filling with smoke.

Shep was smart enough to see a escape path when one opened up, and he jumped into this one with both feet.

"All right, here's the deal! You stay on your side of the street and I'll stay on mine! I ever find you in my kitchen again with or WITHOUT permission and it'll need more than a frying pan to save you!"

Then she got a whiff of something...burning.

She'd just been in the cafe's kitchen, and knew that there was nothing going on in there to start a blaze that would smell like biscuits. Then Shep started to run out of the cafe, not so much because of the frying pan he faced, but because of something else. Peering out the window, Ruthie could see black smoke pouring from the backside of the inn. She put down the iron skillet, which she had hoped to use if Shep had managed to get past Adelyne, and cried, "Dear Lord, he's set the inn afire!"

Ruthie ran to grab a bucket and Adelyne turned to look at the patrons under the table. "Well! Don't just sit there, grab a cauldron, grab a pot, and lets put out that fire!"

Everyone scambled upon her command and within seconds a hurried crowd was making its way across the street to the Inn to combat the fire.

Ruthie led the men to the warmth of the cafe. She knew she had to change her clothes soon, but it was more important that they feed these two. Afterall, they'd helped to save the inn and the rest of town from the fire.

"Please, have a seat," she said, trying to be polite. She then stoked the fire a bit and stood close to it for a few moments, letting the heat penetrate her clothes. Then she headed toward the kitchen. "What would you gents like?"

Sam spoke for both of them, "Ma'am. As much as we appreciate your kindness, we cannot allow you to cook for us after what you have just been through. You go get dry and rest now. We will be in town for a few days, maybe even a week. I promise you we will come back and sample your fine cooking another day."