As soon as the one customer in the store paid and left, Louise turned to her sister. “Sally, why don’t you go to the boardinghouse and get the washing started?” Sally let out another of those hums. “Oh, all right.” Ever so slowly, she floated toward the door, as if there were no purpose to anything in the world. By contrast, she was almost flattened by her brother coming in the same door.
“Louise, can I go out with Louden and Jim today?” Louise waited until Sally was safely out the door and on her way toward the house before addressing Toby’s question. Between the two of them she hadn’t experienced a moment’s peace in two days.
“Certainly not,” she said.
“Aw, shoot! Why not?”
“Because you’ve got Latin and mathematics to study.”
“I’ve studied them,” he whined. “For three whole days I’ve done nothing but study.”
“‘Work is what makes the man,’” Louise answered patly.
“That’s what Ty Saunders says, too,” Toby said enthusiastically, circling her. “Only he also says that a body can’t study all the time. He says men have to get out and move around outdoors.”
Louise frowned. That man! Bad enough that she had to watch Sally mope about him, and that she herself couldn’t forget about him. Now she had to listen to her brother quoting Ty Saunders!
“Animals have to get out and move around outdoors,” she corrected. “It’s not entirely surprising that a man like Mr. Saunders would be confused about the differences between men and beasts.”
Toby stubbed the toe of his boot petulantly against the wide pine plank floors. “You’re too hard on Ty, Louise. He’s really a nice fellow. Cal, too.”
Louise harrumphed loudly.
“Their spread made a lot of money last year. Bet you didn’t know that!”
Despite her intention to betray not the slightest curiosity about the Saunders men, Louise felt her eyebrows rise in interest. “It did?”
“Sure,” Toby confirmed. “And Ty said they could make more if they had more people working for them.” He paused. “He even hinted that I could work out there regularly.”
“What!”
Toby shrugged. “But of course, I said I couldn’t, on account of you forcing me to go to an old stupid university someday.”
She shook her head. “If you need something to do, you can watch the store while I go help with the wash.”
“Aw, heck,” Toby moaned. “I guess you’ll never see my side, Lou. Just like you’ll never understand about Sally.”
She tilted her head. “What do you mean?”
“She’s just not like you, that’s all,” Toby said, shrugging. “You don’t seem to want the things normal women do anymore.”
“Toby!”
“Well, it’s true, isn’t it? Before we came to California, you used to flirt and have beaux just like she wants to. I don’t see what’s so wrong with that.”
Louise sighed. She hardly ever thought about old times anymore, or the life she had left behind. There was always too much in the present that demanded her attention. “Life is different here, Toby. When I was a girl, the men we knew were gentleman, or at least tradesmen. I wasn’t flirting with miners.”
“What’s the matter with miners?” Toby asked. “I wish I could go out all day and hunt for gold!”
“Wishes don’t earn their keep,” she chirped sagely.
“They would if I struck it rich,” he challenged. “Besides, Ty and Cal aren’t miners anymore.”
“They used to be.”
“But they aren’t now. They aren’t like Will Bundy and all that gang, just hanging around the saloon all day waitin’ to hear where the next big strike is. And anyway, Sally’s acting so funny, I worry about her. Last night she stayed up all night, humming.”
Louise shook her head. Sally’s sad hum was becoming a familiar sound in Noisy Swallow. She hated seeing her sister going through such a trying time, but in the end, she knew it was for the best. “Give her time,” she said sadly, “she’ll get over it”
“I know you think that,” Toby said boldly, “but I’m not so sure. I think she’s in love with…Mr. Saunders.”
“Then she just needs to learn not to love him,” Louise said.
“Not everybody can rein in all the things they feel like you can, Lou. Like me. Sometimes I feel like I could just burst out running and not stop till I reach the Pacific Ocean!”
Louise had to laugh at that. “That’s the way it feels to be sixteen. But if you do burst out running, I wish you’d head in the direction of Harvard.”
He shrugged sheepishly, and she gave him a pat on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, Toby. I’ll go talk to Sally and see if I can’t cheer her up.” An idea struck her, and her voice brightened. “Maybe I’ll make her a new dress, or a hat.”
He smiled limply. “Maybe.”
Just then, a movement on the street outside the window caught her eye. “Oh, no!” she exclaimed.
Toby looked out the window, and two spots of color appeared in his cheeks. “Uh-oh.”
Dark as a thundercloud, Ty Saunders strode across the dirt road that was Noisy Swallow’s only thoroughfare. He had a grim determination about him—set off by his beard, his mouth appeared to be a straight slash—that made both Toby and Louise draw back a little.
In a second, he was knocking the dirt off his boots outside the door of the mercantile.
“Gosh, I’d better get back to my chores,” Toby said quickly, dashing for the door.
“Wait, Toby, don’t lea—”
Then Ty was there, inside the store, which seemed a whole lot smaller just for his being in it. Louise hadn’t quite appreciated how large a man he was when they were outside together. Now she noticed that he’d had to duck as he’d come through the door, and that his broad shoulders filled up the entrance to the store. The shelves next to him seemed dwarfed by his presence.
So did Toby. “Hi there, Ty,” he said quickly, not quite looking the man in the eye. “I was sure hoping to talk to you, but gosh, I’ve got lots to do now.” As fast as a mouse dashing for a knothole, Toby darted through the door.
Louise looked into Ty Saunders’s watchful gray eyes and found herself backing toward the counter. He followed her, until they stood on opposite sides of the long length of wood.
“I thought I told you not to come here,” Louise said.
His lips twisted into a curt smile at her no-nonsense greeting. “No, you told me I couldn’t see Sally.”
“Well, then…” Her mouth felt bone dry, so speaking took an effort. “Have you come to shop?”
“No, I’ve come to get something I’ve already paid for.”
Louise frowned. “I don’t recall your buying anything.”
“I didn’t. I paid for a service I haven’t received.”
All sorts of questions popped into Louise’s head as she looked into Ty’s devilish eyes. What had Sally been doing out there at the Saunders ranch?
“I’m sure I don’t know what you mean,” she said.
“That