Involved: Day 1

Word Count: 6,005

Summary of Events:

Samuel headed back to the ranch house for the evening and discovered a letter was waiting for him; it was from a woman he didn't know, but who lived in the same town as his closest sister, and in it she informed him that his sister and three of her eight children had been killed in a devastating train crash in Kansas. Charlotte helped prepare and serve dinner as they had her sister's fiancé over, returned from his latest trip in search of a livery to operate, and it was clear he had found one . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

“Well Ira?” Violet asked. “Where is the livery?”

Ira smiled at her, looking as if he were disappointed that he couldn’t announce he’d found a livery, but yet not exceptionally upset.

“The livery is at Georgetown,” he replied. “The operator there is a widower whose only son died, leaving him with no one to pass the livery on to.”

“Oh, so you’re going to apprentice under him?” Neil asked.

“For a time, yes,” Ira replied. “But he is getting old and would like me to buy the livery first. He’s already accepted my offer, and I promised I’d be back within a week with the first payment.”

“Then you’ll apprentice with him until August?” Elliot asked.

Ira took on a hesitant look. “Well, actually, it sounds like he’d like to get out of the business as soon as possible, and because of the high level of involvement a livery requires, I wouldn’t really be able to take no less than three days at a time off to come to Denver and such, so I was wondering if, well, if Violet and I could be married by the end of May.”

Charlotte barely suppressed a gasp; she felt shocked. But surely he couldn’t negotiate with the man to get a longer term of learning before he officially took over, did he really need to accelerate things?

“Is he quite old?” Father asked.

“As he told me he’s closer to eighty than seventy,” Ira replied. “And he definitely looks it.”

“Well, then I certainly can’t argue with his desire to ensure that the business changes hands soon,” Father said. “And considering you’ve already delayed your wedding because of the hunt, I don’t think it would be impossible, what do you think Norma?”

“We’ve gotten a lot worked out already,” Mother replied. “It’s mostly a matter of getting the dress and food together, and even those shouldn’t really be all that hard I wouldn’t think.”

“You think you can do it Violet?” Father asked.

“Yes Father,” Violet replied.

“Then the twenty eighth?” Father asked.

“Yes,” Violet said eagerly.

Charlotte looked down at her dessert. She didn’t know for herself if it was possible to put a wedding together in eighteen days; yes, she knew there wasn’t really much to it, they’d probably have all the guests bring food for a potluck dinner, and they already had material and a pattern picked for the dress — as Winnifred had gotten to use Mother’s old wedding dress, and due to the alterations that’d been made to it it would be more work to alter the dress than to make a new one, based on Winnifred and Violet’s having different desires for appearance — but still, a wedding in eighteen days?

Silently Charlotte forced down the last of her dessert, at an utter loss as to how it was going to be possible for her sister to become a married woman in just more than a fortnight.