Reservations for Murder - Tim Myers [34]
It was a feeling in great demand lately, and in very short supply. He’d only met one other person on earth who made him feel that everything would turn out all right, no matter how glum things looked at the time.
And she was currently three hundred miles away.
After Alex finished his early morning chores, it was still too early to start on the rooms, so he decided to catch up with Emma and Shantara and see how the preparations for the last day of the fair were going. He had his own list of things to do for the Lighthouse Lighting ceremony that night, but all that could wait. By the time he got caught up with his day’s work once the rooms became available for cleaning, the exhibits would be all packed up and gone.
Jenny was already working at her booth, moving the shuttle back and forth at a furious pace as her feet tapped out different codes on the wooden pedals below her. She could really fly. In front of her, a soft pattern of blues, greens and grays emerged from the yarn. How did she ever manage to keep all those tiny threads of yarn straight? She offered him a quick nod accompanied by a brief smile, then went back to work.
Rachel Seabock was hard at work on a piece of oak wedged securely in her handmade bench that included a clamping vise on one end. She was working the wood with a long, two-handled knife as Alex approached. “Wow, that edge looks sharp,” he said as she peeled a curled shaving from the wood.
“It’s a drawknife, and it has to be; this oak can be tough to work.”
“You’re really good at what you do, aren’t you?”
Rachel said, “Are you surprised to find a woman working with her hands?” as she jerked the knife through the wood again.
“I’m surprised anybody can master these old tools. My dad taught me woodworking with power tools. I can’t imagine doing it all by hand.”
“It’s different, but to be honest with you, that’s why I like it.” She slapped her bench and said, “My dad made this shaving horse, but everything else I use is mine. That’s how I met Bill in the first place. I needed a new froe, and he made me one out of a car spring.” Rachel frowned a moment, then added, “Alex, I’m really worried about him.”
Alex looked over at the blacksmith, who was hammering a piece of steel into submission, a scowl plastered on his sweating face. “What’s wrong with him?”
“When he didn’t show up here last night, I went back to his house and waited for him there. He didn’t come home at all, and he won’t talk to me this morning. Why can’t he see I’m just trying to help?”
Alex had to measure his words carefully. “Rachel, he’s a grown man. Maybe he needs to work things out for himself.”
“Well, maybe he doesn’t know what a good thing he has until he loses it,” she said abruptly. “If he doesn’t straighten up soon, he’s going to find out, because I’m not going to be there for him if he keeps this up.”
“Would it help if I talked to him?” The last thing in the world Alex wanted to do was to come between the lovers, but he couldn’t stop himself from making the offer.
Rachel considered it a moment, then said, “No, you’d better not say anything to him. No offense, but you’d probably only make things worse.”
“If there’s anything I can do, let me know.”
Alex watched her work the oak blank, drawing the metal across the wood with a sure and steady hand. It amazed him how much raw physical strength a traditional woodworker needed. It was a lot different than flicking on a power tool’s switch, and he found a new admiration for someone with the ability to do things the old way.
Alex drifted away as the crowds started to come in and gather around the crafters. Shantara’s gatekeeper must have collected the money early in an attempt to stem a rushing tide.
If that was the case, she’d failed miserably. Alex couldn’t believe all of the townspeople he saw. Shantara joined him as he watched many of the fair visitors head inexorably for the murder scene, bypassing the few craftspeople actually working.
Shantara came up beside him and said, “You know, the smartest thing I did was to make every day require a different