Clive Kensington's Arc

Chapter 1 of 2

Clive Kensington counted coins behind the teller window until his fingers went numb, then he counted them again. Three years he had worked at the bank in Gritstown, and three years he had walked the same short path at noon to buy sugar he did not need from Dorothea Callahan. He wanted to marry her before anyone else in town thought to ask. He had a plan for that, the way he had plans for every column in his ledger, but plans did not account for the red-bearded stranger who had been loitering outside her shop for two days now. At noon Clive stepped out of the bank and saw the man still there, planted by her door like a fence post. Josiah "Dust" Mercer wore a brown coat gone pale at the shoulders and stared through folks as they passed. Yesterday Clive had turned back at the corner. Today he did not. He crossed the packed dirt with his hands loose at his sides and stopped an arm's length away. "Move along, friend," Clive said. His voice came out thinner than he wanted. "You've been standing at this lady's door two days. She's got customers to see." Josiah's yellow eyes settled on him. "The teller boy walks up to the wolf," he said, low. "Count your fingers before you count your coin, banker. She ain't the one needs guarding." He touched two fingers to his hat and stepped past Clive, close enough that Clive smelled sage and horse. Then he was gone down the street, unhurried, whistling something flat and tuneless. Clive stood a moment with his heart knocking. He pushed open the shop door. Dorothea stood behind the counter with a rag in her hand and green eyes already on him, calm as still water. "That was brave of you, Mr. Kensington," she said. "And foolish. Do you know who that was?" Clive shook his head. She set the rag down and came around the counter, closer than she had ever stood to him. "Josiah Mercer doesn't linger without a reason. He was watching me, not the shop." She studied his face for a long second, weighing something. "Come back after sundown. Use the back door. There are things about me you ought to know before you keep walking up to men like that on my account." Clive opened his mouth, closed it, and nodded. He walked out into the noon light with the sugar he had not bought still on the counter and a meeting that felt nothing like courtship waiting for him at dusk.