Tinsmith 1865 by Sara Dahmen

Author:Sara Dahmen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Promontory Press Inc.
Published: 2019-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

29 April 1867

Danny takes the letters from my hand, and glances at the names on the backs, his lips moving slightly, before passing them over to Douglas to post.

Dear Sonja,

I do not know if Tom’s death has reached you …

Do not come West …

He wrote for me, and I am grateful. I went chilly every time Danny put ink on paper, copying down my words. It was a grueling task, one that froze my bones and made me weep again at night. I won’t sob, though. I won’t let my sorrow loose. My stubbornness can be good for something.

And there is too much to do, anyway.

We walk out of the postmaster’s into the chill of the late spring afternoon. I forget to buckle the clasp of my cloak, so Danny does it absently, and with a calm familiarity both comforting and exasperating. Sometimes I cannot bear his kindness, for it only exacerbates how much I wish to scream, to cry out, to give in to the appalling mess of my existence.

But for Danny, I will still be calm. I should not repay his sweetness by turning into a wild, sorrow-filled, half-mad woman. Those moments are caught in my pillow, silent and wrestling and black.

“How is the sword coming along?” he asks as we descend the steps. “Trusty Willy has been bragging how he has seen the finest in the world back in New York, except everyone’s pretty sure he’s never been there, and his wife won’t say. The bets are on in the Rusty Nail that there will be gold on the handle, and they say Captain Bush boasted how he will have it for summer, and it will be the most decorated weapon in the territory. By the way, have you figured out how to use the acid yet?”

My hands clench at my sides, and I feel the roughness of the acid burns that never seem to heal against the water and cold and metal. I shake my head, and watch the ruts ahead of us.

Danny leans into the silence. “Well, have you asked Mrs. Andersen if you might join us for Sadie’s taffy pull? By us, I mean the handful of unmarried folk in town. It’s tonight.”

“I know.” To think there are jolly parties yet is beyond me, and I’ve put off answering Danny for weeks. I truly don’t think I’ll be good company, but he is insistent and I feel myself giving in. “I’ll ask her. Likely she will be fine nursing Father by herself for an hour or two. It’s not as though he takes much work,” I say softly, and with bitterness.

“It’ll be good to talk with friends again.”

“You say all the unmarried people in town? It sounds suspicious.”

The corners of his mouth tilt up at my attempt to be light-hearted. “It’ll be perfectly chaperoned. You know Sadie. I hear she’ll have refreshments, too.”

“Very well. If it will stop your harping,” I sigh.

Danny grins, the brightness of his blue eyes sparkling against the grey and pale brown and early green of the land around Flats Town.

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