CHAPTER 5
MATCHMAKERS ATTEMPT A MATCH
Meanwhile, inside Montgomery Dry Goods
Ella Mae rolled her eyes when she realized Sergeant had jumped down from the counter and was probably no longer in the store. He had no doubt followed Mr. O’Connor out at the same moment Mrs. Beatrice Sumner and Mrs. Alice Watkins had entered.
The two were probably concerned about her running the store alone, given her parents were out of town. “Morning, ladies,” she said brightly.
“Good morning to you,” Beatrice replied, waggling her eyebrows. “I take it our plan worked?” she asked with excitement, her gloved hands balled into fists as she shook them on either side of her shoulders.
Ella Mae blinked. “Plan?” she repeated.
Alice joined them at the counter. “Well, did he ask you?”
Befuddled, Ella Mae’s attention darted between the two women. “Ask me what?”
“If he could escort you,” they said in unison.
“Escort me… where?”
The two huffed. “To the masquerade ball, of course,” Alice replied, sounding exasperated.
“Or at least to reserve two dances on your card for him,” Beatrice put in.
Ella Mae lifted a shoulder. “No, and… no,” she replied before her face screwed into a grimace. “What have you done?” She was sure she was displaying several shades of red at learning they had said something to the poor groom. Had John O’Connor come into the shop and bought the bridles simply because the older women had encouraged him to seek some dances with her?
The two matrons exchanged quick glances. “Well, apparently nothing of note,” Alice said with a huff.
“Did my mother put you up to this?” Ella Mae asked, suspicion evident in her voice. Despite their age difference—Beatrice was at least a decade older than her mother—Beatrice and Emma Montgomery had been friends since Emma’s arrival in Galena.
“She had nothing to do with this,” Beatrice assured her. “This is entirely your fa?—”
“Ourdoing,” Alice interrupted.
Ella Mae’s gaze darted between the two women. “To what end?” she gingerly asked.
“Well, courtship, of course,” Beatrice replied. “John O’Connor is of an age to be married, as are you, and now that he’s in charge of the stable, he has steady employment.”
“And he won’t be going off to fight in the war,” Alice chimed in.
The reminder of war had Ella Mae wincing. The year before, it seemed as if half of Galena’s unattached male population had left town to don the Union uniform and fight for the North. Many others who sided with the South had also left with the intent to wear the gray uniform.
But she knew as well as the two matrons that the real reason John O’Connor hadn’t gone off to war was because of his eye.
Or perhaps he had, and he’d been injured in one of the early battles. Perhaps that’s why Ella Mae hadn’t seen him about town since their days in the schoolroom had ended.
“I appreciate your efforts, I really do,” Ella Mae said. “But I rather doubt Mr. O’Connor will be attending the masquerade ball.”
The two matrons exchanged looks of frustration before Beatrice pulled a list from her pocket. “Oh, all right,” she said in resignation. “If you could see to it this order is ready by four o’clock, I’ll have Mr. Sumner pick it up.” She left a basket on the counter. “He should be done with deliveries from the train by then.”
Ella Mae read the list and nodded. “I’ll have these items pulled and ready before then,” she promised.
She bade the two a good day and went about filling the order. As she did so, bits of her conversation with John O’Connor flashed before her mind’s eye.
He had so rarely spoken whilst they were in school, she had been surprised upon hearing his first words that morning. She had detected a hint of an Irish brogue in his voice, his manner of speech so much like her father’s. That would explain his dark, nearly black hair and those sapphire blue eyes.
“Black Irish,” she murmured, barely aware she said the words out loud. “Too handsome for his own good. No wonder the horses like him.” She rolled her eyes when she realized she was talking to herself, but she didn’t wish to stop thinking of Mr. O’Connor and his rugged appearance. The eye patch merely added a hint of mystery.
