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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 3232139" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chapter One-hundred-eighteen, “Emily’s evening”, Saturday June 10th, 1882, 5:00 P.M. The room in which Emily sat soaking in a steaming tub was the finest she'd ever gotten to stay in. Just the fact that there was plumbing running up to the second floor was amazing. Not that there weren't fancier things she'd seen in Chicago, but she never stayed in those places. Her family's house was pretty and comfortable, but it was small. The girls shared one room and the boys another. Then with her parents room and the parlor and the kitchen, that was the whole house. A couple years before her stepfather had added a water closet, but that and the sink were the only plumbing. She sank down further into the tub and sighed. The ride had taken most of the cramped feelings out of her muscles, and the hot water was doing the rest. Her eyes were busy examining the rich gold fabrics and shining wood in the room. The bottom half of the walls had dark brown wainscoting and the upper a rich, gold patterned wall-paper. They heavy draperies had tassels on them and matched the spread on the bed with would have been big enough for her and her brothers and sisters to share. When she finally got out of the bath she put on her second-best brown poplin dress with the little flounce at the bottom, followed regretfully by her shoes. She pulled her wet hair back simply with a matching brown ribbon and went looking for wherever the dining room was. Once downstairs, the unmistakable scent of beef floated to her nose. She followed it around a corner, but not to the end of the hallway. That would probably be the kitchen. The was an invitingly open door just a bit ahead, and peeking in she saw her cousins already in the room talking. "Uncle isn't here yet?" she asked as she came in.Humprey replies, "Out checking on some of the ranch. I think that we're being tested to see if we've kept things up to his high standards."  The cook comes in with the food and much to Emily's surprise he is a half-elf, although wood elvan rather than high elvan.Even as she noticed the cook, he seemed to notice her. Although he didn't give much away it was a lot like most other times she'd encountered another half-elf; and they seemed a little grateful to see each other.  Emily scrambled into a chair. "He must miss it here, being stuck in town now, and it's been his ranch for a long time. It must be irresistible to have a look around."Humphrey laughs and says, "You don't know my father if you think he's stuck anywhere he doesn't want to be! Truth be told, I think he was starting to get bored around here. This whole town election business plus his new Cattleman's Association is something new and exciting for him."  "I guess maybe I'm new too," Emily said with the first hint of real apprehension she'd shown. "I don't know Uncle much. He said to ask you about what he expects of me. He just said he wants me to go to the school and not worry otherwise."Humphrey says, "Ah, father's expectations! What he expects is honesty and integrity, plus a willingness to try to see through whatever you start. If you can give him that everything else is secondary. He doesn't expect you to succeed in everything but he does expect you to try." Ellen adds, "And he doesn't want you to sell yourself short. He takes great pride in the town deciding to let both races and genders vote. He personally has trust issues with the Apache and other Arizona tribes, and has his own bias regarding men being more capable than women, but he would never expect you or us to share any of those prejudices. He recognizes that he has those in himself and they are wrong and wanted to raise us to believe otherwise."Emily nodded. "Sounds like he did a good job with the raising. He talked about that lady rancher like he thought she knew what she was doing, and he invited me here, so I guess he's doing pretty good changing his own mind.  I really can decide what I want to do myself?"   Tricia Shaw speaks up for the first time and says with no small amount of anger in her voice, "Do whatever ya want to do! Don't make anybody force ya' ta decide, especially Pa!""I ain't planning on doing anything I'm dead set against, but I'd be awful ungrateful if I didn't at least try something Uncle wants me to," Emily shot back. "Things are a lot nicer here than Chicago and I'm grateful Uncle asked me to come. Maybe you should be grateful you got a Pa loves you so much even if you think it makes him bossy."Humphrey interjects, "Oh, pay not attention to her. She's just upset because Pa stopped her from eloping with some no-account mining boy who was only after our money." Tricia interjects, "That's not true, he loved me." Ellen says, "But he dumped you when Pa paid him off." Tricia says, "He did not! That was his Pa who did that! That man forced his son to go away!"She looked back and forth between her cousins and was suddenly glad she had left Chicago before Eliza got interested in boys.  "Why would you want to marry somebody who wouldn't do what you just said? If he let his Pa make him do something I guess he wouldn't be much of a husband."  Tricia gets up and runs off, slamming doors behind her. Ellen turns to Emily and says, "Oh, don't let that bother you. We've told her the exact same thing. Any man worth having wouldn't let other people make major decisions for him."Emily says, "Sense don't have much to do with it when you've had your feelings hurt. Either he didn't love her and she got fooled, or he did but not enough. It's not easy either way, and I shouldn't have given her a hard time but she made me mad. She should be happy to have her Pa."  Ellen says, "She'll get over it, and it's not like she’s so mad that she'll actually leave. If she did she might have to actually find employment instead of living off of her family's hard work." Humphrey says, "Now now, Ellen, pull in your claws. Your sister is a bit spoiled but she's done lots of work around here before and I'm sure she will again too once she gets over this current bout of anger and depression. You'd probably get upset too if Paul left."   Ellen interjects "Will You Shut Up! Pa could walk in at any minute!" Humphrey says, "Relax, you already said that Emily knew, and it's not like it is a secret to anybody else around here. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Pa knows too but has decided to pretend not to know."Emily says, "She didn't tell me, I just kind of knew. Folks say a lot more with the way they act and look than they do with their mouths. Maybe your Pa's just waiting for one of you to say something to him, or watching to make sure he really likes you and not your money, but I wouldn't really know about that."  Ellen interjects "Or maybe he doesn't know and telling him will mess up whatever Paul and I have going on. Everybody should just keep your mouths shut on this subject!""I told you I wasn't going to say nothing and I'm not," Emily said looking just a trifle hurt. "Glad I never bothered with boys, seems like just trouble to me."  Humphrey lets out a loud belly laugh and says, "You'll think otherwise when you find the right one."  She looked just a bit panicked at that. "He'll have to sneak up on me, I'll be hiding." Ellen asks, "So, what is it that you think you'll be doing in town other than going to school?"   Emily replies, "I don't know. I guess we'll be living in a boarding house there and I don't imagine they'll be anyone my age there. Uncle said I didn't have to worry about taking care of myself, but I guess I'll get a job. If I could just do what I want I'd explore all the country around the town."Ellen says, "Sounds like you'll be able to keep yourself busy. Remember, our offer for you to come back here and stay with us stands if you find the town is not to your liking."  Emily states, "I think I'll be okay there. Chicago was hard. It was so big and I couldn't get away from it. My stepfather used to drive me out into the country sometimes, but it sounds like I could run across Promise City in a few minutes. I think I'll want to visit here a lot though."Ellen replies, "And you are welcome to." "Welcome to what?" Emery Shaw states as he enters the room. Ellen replies, "She's welcome to visit here at the ranch whenever she wishes." He smiles and says, "Indeed you are Emily. Children, I am happy to say that the ranch appears to be in excellent shape. You have been doing well in my absence." Humphrey says, "Well, we had a good teacher."  Emily states, "Ellen and I rode all over today. I never got to go that far anywhere before, ever. Everything looked good to me, not that I'm much of a judge.  Will you teach me how to do this, too?"Shaw laughs and says, "My, you are impatient. Relax Emily, one advantage to your mixed parentage is a longer lifespan, there will be plenty of time for you to learn what it means to be a member of the Shaw family."  He glances around and says, "And where is Tricia?" Humphrey interjects, "Off acting like something less than a Shaw yet again." "Enough of that young man!" Emery says. He looks back at the young girl and says, "Excuse me Emily, I should be back soon." He heads off into the house in the direction that Tricia had gone.Emily swallowed the mouthful of steak she had and looked over at Humphrey. "Uncle's expectations don't sound so hard, but I think it will be hard to live up to them."  Ellen says, "Just be yourself, you'll do fine. Now finish up the food and we can take another quick ride, I know just the place for you to see your first Arizona sunset from."Hours later Emily puttered across the wood floor of her very own room and opened the window. Even in her long white nightgown it was easy for her to climb onto the windowsill and sit so everything but her backside was actually outside. "Hello Diana," she said in a friendly way to the waxing moon as she dangled her legs in the air. The pale moonlight threw strange shadows across the ranch, far away toward the hill where she and Ellen had watched the sun set in a blaze of red, orange and purple. She had never been in such an open place at night; it was amazing to look away and away across the land and over the trees and see so many stars above that they almost blocked out the black sky. Deep down there was a little ache that missed her family in Chicago. It was a little lonely all alone in the large room with no one to send her to bed with kisses and wishes for sweet dreams. But there was a family here too; big and warm and wanting her. And the land was waiting too, calling for her to come roam over it and learn its secrets. Anyone watching outside would have seen the ghostly apparition in the window for about a quarter of an hour before it folded on itself and slipped back in the window. Emily left the window open as she climbed into the big bed and stretched out to take up as much room as she could before she fell asleep.</blockquote>

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