The Fair Magnolia by Naomi Finley

Author:Naomi Finley [Finley, Naomi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Novella 4
Publisher: Huntson Press
Published: 2019-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

Out front of the general store, I stood by the closed carriage door, waiting for the masa. Inside the buggy, Miss Willow and Mary Grace laughed and carried on in a way that was sure to displease the masa. Through the large window extending along the front of the store, I observed Masa Charles moving about the shop. Every so often he would pause and look at the merchandise, then the shopkeeper, who was occupied with a customer. But when the customer wasn’t looking, she’d glance Masa’s way.

Soon the store door opened and the fellow the shopkeeper had been tied up with left. Masa promptly set aside his interest in the store’s merchandise and strode up to the shopkeeper, who moved from behind the counter to greet him. He shook her outstretched hand, and their grasp lingered.

Masa leaned close and spoke to her. She gaped at him and shook her head, then adjusted her spectacles before she replied, hands flailing. He spun away from her, removed his hat, and swiped a hand over his face; something she had said upset him.

Their gazes shifted to the window, and I dropped my gaze. After a moment I returned to observing the pair inside. Masa Charles turned away from the woman, and quickly she smoothed her bodice and patted at the sides of her blond, pinned-up hair—an indication of attraction I’d witnessed other women perform when they were interested in a fellow. If you listen and watch and do less talking, life finds a way of telling you the secrets folks strive to withhold. Though the shopkeeper could rival Masa Charles with her ever-present somber expression, she eyed the masa with a look that went beyond whatever business arrangement I assumed the pair had. However, Masa’s businesslike manner never faltered. I’d come to understand in my few days with him that he was skilled at keeping folks, including his daughter, at a safe distance. His mastery unsettled me. I looked down at the straw hat I held, picking at the edges with my fingers.

The door of the shop squeaked open, and Masa and the shopkeeper walked onto the boardwalk.

“It isn’t so!” Mary Grace said with a gasp.

“It is so. She eats children at luncheons.” Miss Willow’s response was muffled.

“Says who?”

“Lucille.”

I twisted to find the girls with their noses pressed against the glass of the carriage window, their eyes looking past me toward the store. I followed their gazes.

“Hello, Mr. Hendricks.” Two young fillies, around twenty years old or so and young enough to be Masa’s daughters, giggled and swayed, taking themselves a good old gander of a handsome gentleman.

Masa tipped his hat. “Ladies,” he said as a gentleman would, never dispensing interest in their dalliances.

The shopkeeper’s permanent scowl deepened. “Move along, ladies. Can’t you see Mr. Hendricks and I are engaged in business matters?”

The girls obliged her and moved down the boardwalk. Casting a glance over her shoulder, one muttered under her breath, “Northerner.”

“As always, it’s a pleasure doing business with you, Charles.” The woman bestowed a modest smile on him.

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