“Yes, she did, and I’m very impressed.”
“She’s a take-charge woman, my Zora. I like that.”
Loreli liked him as well for being so supportive of Zora’s dream.
Cyrus then looked over his cage at the girls standing at her side. “Hello, Bebe and Dede. How’re you girls today? Did the doc come into town with you?”
Bebe, as always, spoke for them both. “Hello, Mr. Buxton. We’re doing well. No, Uncle is at home.”
Buxton then turned his attention to Loreli. “So, what may I help you with today, Miss Winters?”
In response, Loreli turned and looked down at Dede and said, “De, tell Mr. Buxton why we’re here.” They’d practiced what she was supposed to say on the way into town.
Holding tightly onto Loreli’s hand, Dede replied in a very soft voice, “We’re here to move some money.”
With a smile, Loreli excused herself from Buxton, then leaned down to speak quietly with Dede while Bebe looked on. “You have to say it louder, pumpkin. Men don’t hear women sometimes if you don’t speak up, especially when it involves money. Now, Mr. Buxton doesn’t seem like that type, but let’s practice with him just the same. Okay?”
Dede smiled a bit more confidently and told Mr. Buxton in a slightly louder voice, “We’ve come to move some money, sir.”
Buxton grinned. “Oh really? From where?”
It was Bebe’s turn, “Philadelphia, sir.”
He looked to Loreli. “Philadelphia?”
Loreli was in the process of digging in her handbag for her bank documents. “Yep, I want my bank there to transfer some of my money here. Can you do that for us?”
“How much?” Buxton asked.
Loreli took a pen from the well on the counter in front of his window and wrote down the amount. She handed the paper to the clerk.
He read the number and his eyes widened.
“Is that a problem?” Loreli asked.
He cleared his throat and croaked, “Uh, no. It’s just—this is a lot of money. I—I have to get Mr. Diggs. Can you wait right here?”
Loreli nodded. “Sure can.”
He hurried away and disappeared into a door behind him.
Loreli told the girls, “Well, I guess we’ll have a seat.”
The three of them walked over to one of the benches by the window. They’d just gotten settled when Sol Diggs came out. His pomaded gray hair, tailored suit, and healthy girth branded him a prosperous man.
“Miss Winters,” he cooed, walking toward her. “It’s a pleasure to see you again. You haven’t won any more parts of town since I saw you last, have you?”
Loreli smiled. “No, I haven’t.” It pleased her that Diggs, unlike store owner Bert Green, had no problem acknowledging their past acquaintance.
Diggs turned to the twins, “Hello, girls.”
They nodded.
Diggs said to Loreli, “Buxton here says you want to do a little business?
“Yes, if I may.”
“Of course. The sum is a bit more than we’re accustomed to handling, but I see no problems.”
Loreli knew very little about Diggs and even less about how he ran his business, so she felt compelled to ask, “My money will be safe here, won’t it, Mr. Diggs?”
He smiled. “Why, Miss Winters, I’m offended.”
“I’m only asking because the last time a bank owner tried to take advantage of me, the judge, who happened to be a good friend, took everything the bank owner possessed and turned it over to me as compensation. Even confiscated the poor man’s shoes.”
Diggs blanched and stammered, “Really?”
“Yes, he did, but I won’t have to worry about that here.”
“Oh, no,” Diggs promised quickly. “Your money will be as safe as my own.”
“Good. So, are there documents that need my signature?”
Loreli guessed her story about the judge must’ve made Diggs nervous because he snapped at Buxton, “Get the lady some slips, Cyrus. We don’t want to keep a new customer waiting.”
Buxton, already prepared, handed the forms to his boss. The immediacy of the action caught Diggs so by surprise, he dropped the papers and they went fluttering to the floor. Both men bent hastily to retrieve them only to wind up soundly bumping heads in a scene so comical the girls giggled.
Diggs’s hand went to his ringing skull. He paid no attention to Buxton’s attempts to make amends and gritted out, “Get back to your window, Buxton, I’d like to be alive when the day ends!”
Buxton left holding his own head. Loreli fought to keep from laughing out loud.
The distressed Diggs then said, “My apologies, the man’s cursed. Mayhem follows him like a cat, been like that all his life. Hope his new missus knows. If you’ll sign these papers we can get you on your way, Miss Winters.”
Still chuckling, Loreli and the girls went over to one of the raised tables so Loreli could write. As she filled out all the information on the bank’s slips, she explained to the twins what she was doing. She wasn’t sure the girls understood it all, but she didn’t fret. As long as they understood a woman could have her own money and transact her own business without the benefit of a man’s help, approval, or interference, they would have learned their lesson for the day.
After receiving Mr. Diggs’s assurances that her money would be resting in her new account in his bank no later than the day after tomorrow, Loreli and the twins headed toward the door. They were almost bowled over by a White man who came barreling into the bank. He was tall, thin, and dressed in shabby farmer’s clothes. Upon seeing Diggs, the man shouted angrily as he waved a document in his hand, “Damn you, Diggs! What’s this supposed to mean?”
Diggs replied coolly, “You know what it means, Peterson. Your farm reverts to the bank on Monday.”
The man looked stunned and angry. “You foreclosed on me?”
Loreli moved the girls closer to her side to keep them safe.
Diggs replied sharply, “I warned you back in December that come June your note would be due, and June is here.”
“How could you do this? You know how hard I’ve been working. Give me until the harvest at least. I’ve got a good crop of corn growing.”
“No. I’ve been carrying you for two years. I have bills to pay too.”
Peterson barked disdainfully, “Bills for what—more fancy suits and carriages! You’re just punishing me because you think I’m organizing for the Knights.”
Diggs puffed up like an adder. “The Knights be damned. This has nothing to do with that. You owe me money, Peterson, and I’m tired of waiting.”
Peterson sneered. “You’re offal, Diggs. I got five kids. How am I supposed to take care of them? Where are we supposed to live?”
“That’s not my concern. Now, leave before I send for the sheriff. You’re frightening my customers.”
Peterson turned and eyed Loreli and the girls for a second, then swung back to Diggs. “You’ll pay for this, Diggs—one way or another. You’ll pay.”
Peterson stormed out.
Loreli met Diggs’s eyes, and he said, “Sorry you and the girls had to witness that.”
“Does he really have five children?” asked Loreli.
Diggs paused for a moment to assess her face, then offered. “Yes.”
“How much does he owe?”
“Suffice it to say, more than I’m willing to carry any longer.”
“How much?”
He kept his face blank. “As an officer of the bank, I’m not at liberty to divulge such private information.” Then he smiled and asked, “Is there anything else I can do for you, Miss Winters?”
Loreli swore he looked like a shark who’d just finished a big, fine meal. “No, Mr. Diggs. The girls and I will be going.”
Holding the twins’ small hands, Loreli led them back out into the sunshine.
“That was Carrie’s and Jimmy’s pa, Loreli,” Bebe told her.
“Are they friends of yours?”
??
?Carrie is. Jimmy likes to put crickets down girls’ collars.”
Loreli smiled.
Dede asked, “Why won’t Mr. Diggs let them live in their house anymore, Loreli?”
“I guess their pa hasn’t paid back some money he borrowed from the bank.”
“Well, I think that’s mean.”
Loreli had to agree. Whatever his beef with the bank, Peterson still had five children to provide for, and Diggs hadn’t seemed sympathetic in the least. Loreli understood that banks were in business to turn a profit, and although she had no idea how much Diggs had helped the Petersons in the past, she thought surely the bank could’ve held off until the man harvested his crops. Was he really being punished for being a member of the Knights of Labor? Loreli didn’t know much about the inner workings of the group, however, she was aware that the Knights let members of the race join their ranks, and that they advocated equal rights and pay for women.
Bebe said, “If I was rich, I’d give Carrie’s pa all the money he needed.”
Hearing the genuine tone in Bebe’s voice, Loreli asked her, “Would you?”
“Yes.”
“I would too,” her sister declared proudly. “I like Carrie.”
Loreli decided she liked Carrie as well, if only because the twins did. The girls had already proven to be good judges of people; after all, they’d known better than to call Rebecca Appleby a friend.
“When I grow up,” Dede said, “I’m going to be rich so nobody can tell me not to live in my house.”
Loreli thought that a logical goal. She’d been poor and she’d been rich. Rich was better.
Next stop, the seamstress shop, owned by Mildred Tate. A bell on top of the door tinkled out their entrance. The tiny shop was filled with fabrics, dress forms, and notions. As Loreli and the twins stood a moment taking it all in, a woman who looked to be in her late twenties came hurrying out of the back. She had short, sparse hair, a tall, birdlike body, and her brown face was as long as and homely as a mule’s. She smiled upon seeing the twins but stopped dead in her tracks at the sight of Loreli. “Hello, girls,” she said, then asked warily, “Who’s this with you?”
Bebe declared proudly, “This is Loreli, Miss Millie. She’s going to be our new mama.”
The woman’s eyes widened with surprise, then her lips tightened. “Hello,” she offered stiffly to Loreli, looking her up and down. “You came in with those mail-order brides, didn’t you?”
Loreli sensed the woman’s distaste. “Yes. Name’s Winters, and you are?”
“Mildred Tate. Rebecca Appleby and I have been best friends since childhood.”
“Well, now,” Loreli cracked, “isn’t that something?” So this was a friend of Rebecca’s.
“Yes, it is, isn’t it,” Millie shot back coolly. “So, you and Jake are getting married?”
Loreli assessed Mildred Tate and remembered the banker Diggs saying everyone in town was waiting on Rebecca to saddle Reed. “Looks that way.”
“When?” the woman demanded sharply.
Loreli thought Mildred Tate not only rude but nosy as well. Even so, Loreli refused to let this mule-faced Millie rile her into acting rude in return, at least not in front of the girls. “A week from Saturday. We’re here because the girls need dresses.”
“Oh, really?” the woman replied sarcastically. “And you came to me?”
Loreli held on to her patience. “I’m told you’re the best seamstress in town.”
The mule smiled smugly. “I am the only seamstress in town.”
Loreli wanted to shake the snide smile off the hussy’s face. Not in front of the girls, she reminded herself. “So, can you have them ready by the day of the wedding?”
“I could.”
Loreli was liking the woman less and less. “May we see some patterns, then?”
Mule-faced Millie all but stomped over to a stool, returned with a Godey’s Lady’s Book and practically threw it onto the table by Loreli. “See if you like anything in there.”
That did it. Loreli looked down at the girls who were staring at Mule-face Mille as if she might be dangerous. “Girls, I think we’re going to find somebody else to make your dresses.”
“Good luck,” the seamstress threw back in superior-sounding tones.
The girls were watching her warily as Loreli took them by the hand and escorted them to the door. “Good day, Miss Tate,” Loreli said.
Once outside, Loreli turned back and saw Mildred Tate malevolently watching their departure. What a nice woman, Loreli thought sarcastically.
As they crossed the street, Dede asked “Loreli, why was Miss Millie being so mean?”
“I think it’s because she’s a good friend of Rebecca’s, pumpkin, and was probably hoping Rebecca would be your new mama.”
Bebe made an ugly face. “Ugh, we didn’t want Rebecca to be our mama, did we, De?”
“Nope. She won’t even let us get dirty. Will you let us get dirty, Loreli?”
A chuckling Loreli looked down and said, “Dirty as you want, just as long as you take a bath before you climb into bed.”
Loreli squeezed the twin small hands affectionately, and the girls smiled contentedly in response.
Their next stop was Green’s General Store. Loreli wanted to see the fabrics he had for sale. If Mildred Tate didn’t want the job of making dresses for the girls, Loreli would buy the fabric and find someone else who would, even if she had to postpone the wedding.
The store was filled with customers looking at this and buying that. When Loreli and the girls entered, many of the customers nodded her way and smiled at the twins. Loreli wondered if they’d be so friendly once word of her upcoming nuptials made the rounds.
Bert Green was waiting on a lady at the counter. When he looked up and saw Loreli, his face immediately filled with panic, but upon noticing the girls, he appeared to relax. Loreli reminded herself to never play cards with him again.
Ignoring him for now, she and the girls found the fabrics over in the dry-goods section of the store. There wasn’t much to choose from unless you wanted denim, calico, or stiff, serviceable cottons. None of which were right for wedding dresses.
Bebe picked up a catalog and began to look at the pictures inside. “What about these dresses, Loreli?”
Loreli took a look over Bebe’s shoulder. “Let me see the front of the book, Be.”
Loreli smiled at the familiar picture on the cover. It was a Bloomingdale Brothers catalog. The New York City–based establishment carried everything from bridal gowns to roller skates. She was sure to find dresses for them now. Of course it would take a while to get the dresses shipped. She wondered if Reed would mind putting off the wedding for a few weeks. Delaying the ceremony might also give her time to change his mind about marrying her, but then again, the girls had their hearts set on being members of the wedding party. Loreli knew she wouldn’t be able to bear the sadness on their faces if the plans were changed, so she was stuck whether she liked it or not.
Catalog in hand, Loreli went to the counter. Behind it Bert Green was stacking cans of Mr. Campbell’s Pork and Beans.
“Mr. Green?”
When he looked up and saw it was her, he glanced around nervously before responding, “Uh, yes.”
“May I take this and return it later?”
He nodded hastily. “Sure, sure.”
“Thanks. Come on girls. How about some lunch? Hungry?”
They grinned.
After eating a small lunch in the dining room of Mrs. Boyd’s boardinghouse, Loreli and the girls went up to her room to change her clothing. It was far too warm for the dress she had on. She stood behind the screen and put on a simple blue blouse and a darker blue skirt. Then, after slipping her feet into a comfortable pair of small-heeled boots, and using the hook to do up the buttons, she and the girls took their catalog and headed behind the boarding house to a bench that sat beneath a large tree.
They spent over an hour going through the catalog. After borrowing a m
easuring tape from Mrs. Boyd, Loreli measured the girls in accordance with the catalog instructions and wrote down the numbers on a piece of paper. She listed the ordering number for dresses, underwear, and shoes, then added nightgowns, Nottingham lace curtains and the poles needed to hang them. Thinking about the winter to come, she picked out a few small carpets for the floors; and to keep the carpets clean, she ordered a Grand Rapids carpet sweeper that rolled on four wheels. The girls were speechless as the list grew longer and longer. Because of Loreli’s generosity, they would now have Sunday hats, gloves, and velvet slippers, and everything else little girls needed.
The fascinated girls skimmed through more pages and Loreli wrote down the numbers of a few additional items she thought they and the household would need. She even added a few items for their uncle, then said, “All right, our last order of business is to find the page with the roller skates.”
“Roller skates!” Bebe repeated with wide eyes. She shared a happy smile with her sister, then began to tear through the pages. They found them on page 145. The skates were made from japanned iron and polished beech-wood with oak-tanned, black grain leather straps and patent buckles. Loreli ordered one pair of skates for each of the girls and a pair for herself.
It was now late afternoon and the sky was darkening as if a storm were on the horizon. “I should get you girls home before it rains.”
“We could stay here with you,” Bebe offered with a sly little smile.
Loreli laughed, “Oh, no. I don’t want your uncle mad at me.”
Dede asked, “Are you and uncle going to kiss?”
For a moment, a confused Loreli tried to figure out what Dede meant. “Kiss? When?”
“Once you get married. Aggie says her papa and her new mama kiss all the time when they think nobody’s looking.”
Loreli chuckled. “I don’t know. How about you ask your uncle when we get back?” Loreli couldn’t wait to see his face.
Dede nodded as if that were a good idea, and with the question settled for the moment, they returned the catalog to the store. Since the undertaker’s place served as both the post office and the telegraph office, they stopped there to send their order back East, then headed to the Reed place in Loreli’s rented buggy.