This Calder Sky (Calder Saga 3)

“Hello, Maggie. Dorie is out back in the storeroom. Stop in and say hello. It will give her an excuse to take a break,” he said.

Doris Michels was his daughter and a classmate of Maggie’s at school. They had never been friends, but not because Maggie didn’t like her. Dorie was nice, but her best friend was Cindy Schaeffer, who also lived in town. The two of them were inseparable, and there never seemed to be room for a third person to join in their gossipy girls’ chatter. Besides, with her parents owning the store, Dorie always had nice clothes to wear, and Cindy’s mother could sew anything and not have it look homemade.

“Thanks, Mr. Michels.” But Maggie doubted that Dorie would be overjoyed to see her. They usually ran out of conversation after a few minutes. She walked to the back and knocked on the storeroom door. There was a clatter and thump of someone stumbling over boxes before the door was opened. A slightly plump girl with sandy-blonde hair blinked at her in surprise.

“Hi, Maggie. Gee, I haven’t seen you since summer vacation started.” Then she laughed. “I didn’t see much of you during school, either. You were hardly ever there.”

“I missed a lot of school helping my father,” Maggie admitted. “Your dad said you were back here.” She already found herself searching for something to say.

“Yeah. He’s put me to work in the afternoons now that school’s out for the summer, so I can earn some money. There just isn’t any place around here to get a job,” the girl explained.

“It is hard,” Maggie agreed and started to back away.

“Why don’t you come on back?” Dorie Michels invited. “I’ll show you the new dresses that just came in. I’m in the middle of unpacking them now. It will give us a chance to talk for a while.” Maggie accepted the opportunity to see the dresses before anyone else in town did and followed her classmate into the store room. “Did you hear that Cindy Schaeffer’s parents might move to Miles City?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Well, they might. Isn’t that awful?” She made a face at the thought. “Here are the dresses. Aren’t they gorgeous?” She picked up a long-sleeved knit dress in a dark green color. “Of course, they’re for winter. Isn’t it crazy to get winter dresses in the middle of summer? But that’s the way the world of fashion works.”

“It’s nice.” Maggie lightly touched the dress, liking the soft feel of the heavy materials.

Dorie pushed it into her hands to reach for another. “Don’t worry about wrinkling it. I have to iron them all when they’re unpacked. This one is pretty, too.” She lifted another one from the pile. “But it has too many ruffles and makes me look fatter than I am. Momma says it’s baby fat, but I don’t think it’s ever going to melt away. Oh! This one would look fabulous on you, Maggie.”

It was a bold rust color, the same material and style as the one she was holding. Maggie draped the other one over a box to take the one Dorie held.

“There’s a mirror behind you.” Dorie pointed, and Maggie turned to see how it looked on her.

She like the contrast of its vivid color with her dark looks and the sophisticated style that made her appear older. “It’s lovely,” she murmured.

“Why don’t you try it on?” her plump blonde classmate urged. “There’s a dressing room right over there.”

Maggie hesitated only briefly before accepting the invitation. She couldn’t resist the chance to see what she looked like with the dress on. Using the dressing room Dorie had indicated, she peeled out of her clothes and boots and slipped the dress over her head, twisting her arms to zip the back.

“It’s perfect on you!” Dorie declared the minute Maggie stepped out of the dressing room. “I knew it would be. Come look in the long mirror out front.”

When Maggie saw her reflection, all her expectations were exceeded. The transformation from a blue-jeaned tomboy into a young lady was a startling change; the dress showed off her high-breasted figure in a way the ill-fitting male clothes never could. Not even the bareness of her feet detracted from the genteel femininity of her mirror’s image.

“Can you imagine if you had your hair up how sophisticated you’d look?” Dorie’s suggestion prompted Maggie to sweep the heavy weight of her hair off her neck to hold it atop her head. One glimpse of the possibilities was all the sandy-haired blonde needed. “Wait here, Maggie. I’ll see if I can find some pins in the back.”

In the men’s section of the dry-goods store, Chase waited with diminishing patience while Buck tried on a variety of straw Stetsons in different shapes and styles. When they had driven into Blue Moon twenty minutes ago, Chase had recognized the rusted and dented truck parked in front of Jake’s as Angus O’Rourke’s. He had used the excuse of buying cigars to stop in the grocery store to find out whether Maggie was in there shopping and lingered until he was certain she wasn’t. Then he’d let Buck drag him across the road to the combination dry-goods-and-hardware store. His eyes had already searched the place without finding Maggie here, either. He was trying to hurry Buck into making a choice when he heard a young girl’s voice say Maggie’s name.

“This one ain’t bad.” Buck twisted and posed to study the straw Stetson from all angles, then discarded it. “Did you see that hand-tooled saddle Lew has up front? You should buy me that, Chase. It’s a beauty.”

“Save your money and buy it yourself.” Chase was moving away, homing in on the direction of the voice, as if it was a signal beacon.

“Hell, it’d take me a year to save enough,” Buck snorted, but Chase wasn’t there to hear him.

Crossing the store, he stopped within five feet of a young, dark-haired woman standing in front of a full-length mirror with her back turned to him. When his gaze met the green eyes in the mirror’s reflection, Maggie turned, posturing slightly as a model would do. The style of the richly vibrant rust-colored dress was too old for her, but it permitted Chase a glimpse of the woman she would be in a few years. Many reactions stirred within him; hot and disturbing, foremost among them was a desire for sole possession. Chase studied her quietly, but kept his feelings away from his face; he was not at ease with them.

“I’m glad you saw me in this.” Her voice was low, lower than a whisper, yet steady and direct. “I wanted you to see that I really can be a lady someday.”

The statement prodded his memory, recalling her vehement declaration that one day she would leave to better herself and become a lady. It jabbed him that she would leave. He was filled with the raw urge to crush her composure, that cool certainty of her. His gaze made a raking sweep of her and the dress.

“You’ll never make it,” he said, his dryness rustling through his voice. “I’ve never met a lady yet who went around in bare feet.”

A green-eyed fury shattered the picture of composure as Maggie reached around for the first thing she could lay her hands on. It was a folded cotton slip that went sailing through the air at him. Chase ducked it and moved forward to catch her hands before they could find a deadlier missile to hurl at him. Maggie struggled, and he laughed softly because this kind of lady he could handle. He pulled her toward him and forced her hands

to flatten themselves on his chest.