Free The Bride's House by Sandra Dallas Page A

supper,” Nealie said. She placed a handful of crackers and slices of cheese on a tin plate, then looked skeptically at an open tin. “I guess I’ll try just one,” she said, using her fingernail to snag an oyster. “At least these are little bitty fellows.” She watched as Will filled his plate, then used a fork he’d set on the table to pick out a half-dozen oysters.
    “What do you think?” he asked, after Nealie swallowed the oyster.
    “It’s real tasty,” she said, surprised. Using the fork, she speared two more. She seated herself on the stool, while Will sat down on the bed. After they had eaten, Will went to the stove and poured tea into tin cups, handing one to Nealie. She held the cup between her hands, for despite the fire Will had built, she was cold. Her coat had been set near the stove so that the heat could dry the mud on it. The house was set back under thick evergreens, and she wondered if the sun ever reached the place, even on the first day of summer. “It’s quiet here,” she observed, although she didn’t care much for quiet. She had been lonely her whole life and liked the bustle of the station and Alpine Street, where the stores and the hotel and the opera house were located.
    “I like solitude. I can feel the stillness here. That’s why I rented this house, although there were nicer ones available. I guess I like Colorado as much as you do, but it’s the quiet I like, the way you can think without having somebody bother you all the time. This house is a good place to work,” he said, indicating a wooden box behind the desk that was stuffed with rolled-up maps and diagrams.
    “Is that what you do here?”
    “Mostly. I want to learn all I can about mining. My grandfather thinks now that I should go back to school to get an advanced degree, but I believe I can learn more here, working in the Sharon. I didn’t at first, but I do now. Besides, I like it underground.”
    “I sure would like to see it,” Nealie said.
    “You’d like to go underground?”
    “Of course I would.”
    Will looked surprised. “That’s a funny thing for a girl to say. Most women would object to the dirt and the muck and the cramped space. Your coat would get awfully dirty there.”
    “Then I’ll just have to brush it again.” She paused a minute. “It makes no sense living in a mining town and not knowing what a mine is. Don’t you see?”
    “A lady who wants to go underground. You’re a contradiction,” Will said.
    “Thank you.” Nealie didn’t understand the word “contradiction” but thought Will was complimenting her again. She asked boldly, “Will you take me sometime?”
    Will was amused. “I might just do that.” He got up and refilled their tin cups. Then he went to the desk and opened the lid. “Close your eyes.”
    “What?” Nealie asked.
    “Close your eyes. I have something for you.”
    “How come I have to close my eyes?”
    “You know, you always have to close your eyes for a surprise.”
    “Oh.” Nealie didn’t know that. She squinted her eyes shut.
    Will stood behind her and tied something around her neck. “You can open them,” he said. Nealie touched her neck, confused, and Will told her to look in the mirror hanging by the door.
    Nealie stood up and went to the glass. “Oh my. I never saw a thing so fine,” she said, admiring herself. “It’s a brooch with a lady on it.”
    “A cameo. I saw you admiring it in a store window after the drilling contest, and I thought you might like to have it.”
    “You bought it for me?”
    “I didn’t steal it.”
    “Oh, I didn’t mean … it’s just, nobody ever bought me anything before. I guess it’s the prettiest thing I ever saw. It’s something the lady in the bride’s house would wear.” She looked alarmed. “You didn’t rob yourself to do it, did you?”
    “Of course not. It’s just a trinket.”
    “It’s not. It’s real gold.”
    “Not quite, but it is pretty on you.” Will came close to admire