“Ah,” she began hesitantly, “excuse me, sir.”
His eyes flickered up over his spectacles to meet hers for an instant. They were such a pale gray that they almost faded into nothingness. She cleared her throat again. “I’m, ah, in need of some items.” He kept on with his scrupulous measuring. She looked back at Danny, but he just shrugged again and kept slapping his hat against his thigh. “I see that you have beans. Could I get twenty pounds?” The old man gave a slight nod. “And flour. Fifty pounds?” Another nod. “Do you have coffee, sir?” She got a scowl, which she took as a no. “Then a tub of lard and five cakes of lye soap.”
The shopkeeper froze, staring at his balancing scale with such intensity that Kate inadvertently leaned in. He barked a laugh and she jumped, putting a hand to her heart. Swift as a barn swallow, he poured his measurement into a small burlap sack, then sprang into motion, shuffling quickly around the counter, gathering sacks and items, muttering what sounded like calculations under his breath. Kate watched in fascination as this little old man heaved heavy sacks onto his shoulder as if he was a man of twenty. He scurried behind the counter again, and his flurry of motion came to an abrupt halt in front of his precious scale. He started measuring again in the exact same position as when she’d first approached, moving like a snail in gumby mud. She quietly sidled over to her brother and whispered, “This might take a while.”
“Might?” he whispered back.
“Why don’t you go on?”
“Ma said I should stay with you.” He gazed out the window longingly.
“I’ll be fine. You know I can look after myself.”
“Ya sure?”
She rolled her eyes. “Yes, Danny, I’m sure. Now go on!”
“Thanks, sis!” He grinned, clapped his hat on his head, and turned to leave. “I owe you one!” he called over his shoulder and bounded out of the shop and into the street.
Kate looked over at the shopkeeper still hunched behind his scales and sighed. This was definitely going to take a while. So she slowly picked her way through the shop, edging between the shelves, inspecting all the little trinkets on display. The bell above the door tinkled as people came in and out, most dusty and tired travelers like herself, dirty children gazing longingly at the penny candy on the counter, worn-looking women eyeing the bolts of fabric with the same hungry expression. It made Kate grateful. Her family wasn’t rich in any estimation, but she had never gone to bed hungry or cold.
A man cleared his throat at her elbow. She looked up in surprise. “Oh! Andrew, how nice to see you here … again.”
“Lovely to see you too, Miss Kate,” he said quietly, taking off his hat. He looked nervously around the shop and cleared his throat. “You look lovely too.”
“Oh, thank you.” She looked down and tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear. “You said that this mornin’, if I remember correctly.”
“Well, it’s still true.”
“Thank you,” she said again. Andrew fiddled with the brim of his hat. “Did you forget somethin’?”
“Hmm?”
“In the store. You were here earlier; you nearly knocked me over.”
“Oh, ah, no, not exactly.”
“Did you need somethin’ else?” she asked. She wished she was better at making conversation. Maybe she should have listened better to Ma. Or maybe it just depended on who you were talking to. If this was a taste of how awkward tonight would be, she wasn’t sure she wanted to go.
“No. Well, ah, yes.” He shoved a neatly wrapped packet into her hands. “Here. It’s for you.”
“Why, thank you, Andrew,” she said, “that’s very kind.”
“You can open it now,” he said gruffly.
“Oh, all right.” Kate untied the string and folded open the edges of the paper. Inside sat two of the pinkest ribbons she’d ever seen. She lifted them up. They almost seemed to glow in the dim light of the shop. “Well, these are …” She paused. “You shouldn’t have, Andrew.”
“I thought maybe you could wear ’em tonight, to the dance.”
“How thoughtful,” she murmured, still staring at the gaudy pink ribbons. Maybe if she wound them in a braid, they’d be mostly hidden. She draped them in her hand carefully and mustered a polite smile. “Thank you.”
He put his hat back on his head decisively and smiled. “I’ll see you tonight then.”
“Lookin’ forward to it,” Kate said shyly. Andrew was rather handsome when he smiled.
“Me too,” he said, then abruptly turned and left.
Kate looked down at the ribbons in her hand. So sweet of him, but he had obviously never noticed that she hadn’t worn pink a day in her life. Maybe she could say she had lost them on the walk back to the wagons. But no, that would be dishonest. And besides, Andrew had been so earnest. Perhaps, if the room was dim enough, no one would be able to tell how incredibly pink they were.
