K. Weiland - Storming

He hadn’t left her out of irresponsibility. He’d left her because staying only would have hurt her—would have hurt all of them. Then, after she’d died, he’d stayed out there with the planes, because… it was the only place in the world that had ever felt right .

Nan shook her head, hard.

Fine. He’d give her the space she wanted. But he was here for a week. Before he had to leave again, he’d make things right—or right_er_ at any rate. If he could fly a Jenny upside-down and only a foot off the ground, then surely he could do this one thing and make this better for her before he left for good.

Nan took Molly’s elbow and drew her back a step. She raised her voice. “Aurelia, come along. The sooner Mr. Hitchcock returns to his red flying machine, the better.”

Jael had wandered over, near enough to hear that last part. Her mouth came open, and she jerked forward half a step.

Nan caught Hitch’s eye as she turned away. “We’ll leave you and your charming companion to finish up on your own.”

“Give me a break. You’ve got a right to take your spleen out on me. But don’t go chucking mud on her.”

“Oh, certainly, because any woman in your presence is instantly above reproach.”

He held the silence for a second. “That’s way below you, Nan.”

She had the grace to blush, a hard line of red along either cheekbone. “Then who is she?”

“Don’t know. Found her out at the Berringers’ this morning.” He gestured for Jael to come forward.

She eased away from the print dress Aurelia had followed her with, but she barely looked at Nan. “Red—flying? That is you? Like—” She made engine noises and gestured as if her hands were planes. “Out at two men’s who try to kill each other?”

Then she hadn’t connected him with the plane she’d about smacked into last night?

“Yeah, I fly a plane—a red one.”

“ Fly ? But you are”—she looked at the women, then back at Hitch—“you are Groundsman. You are not having fear for this?”

“Well, I admit I ain’t so keen on heights, but that don’t matter so much when you’re in a plane.” He caught Nan’s suspicious expression and cleared his throat. “Look—”

Jael came near enough to touch his sleeve with her fingertips. She lowered her voice. “ You could take me home!”

Her home in the sky wasn’t anything he wanted brought up in front of Nan. He cleared his throat. “Yeah, well, we’ll talk about that later.” He looked at Nan. “Her English isn’t all that great. She needs a place to stay. Don’t suppose you’d have one for her?”

“What she needs are some decent clothes.”

“Don’t think she’s got any money.”

Nan glanced at the counter. “You do.”

Fallon, standing back a few discreet steps, had laid a handful of bills beside the .45. He stepped forward. “The piece is a bit banged up. Afraid I can only give you fifteen dollars for it.” He nodded toward Jael. “Ten if you want the dress and fixings while you’re here.”

Fifteen was a few bucks more than Hitch had hoped to get for that old piece, and he wouldn’t need quite all of it to buy Earl’s parts. He looked back at Jael. She did appear more than a mite disreputable. Likely, she’d have a better chance of finding some place to stay if she got some clothes that were the correct size.

“All right. Let her pick out what she wants.” He glanced at her and gave his own shirt a tug. “Clothes. Find yourself some clothes that fit.”

Aurelia clapped her hands and turned to sort through the dress rack once again.

Nan pulled Molly toward the door. “Aurelia, we’re leaving.”

Molly cast Hitch a half-embarrassed look. “Awfully nice to have met you.”

“Aurelia,” Nan called.

Aurelia growled, then thrust the dress into Jael’s arms and turned to skip back across the room to the door. She patted Hitch’s shoulder as she passed. “Goodbye, dear man.” She reached Nan and looped her arm through her sister’s. “Isn’t that girl the charmingest thing? Violet is her color, I am sure.”

“Mmm.” Nan pushed the door open, letting in another gust of heat. She paused. “Miss—” She waited until Jael met her gaze. “Be careful.”

Jael had draped Aurelia’s dress back over the rack. She raised her eyebrows, not understanding, then looked from Nan to Hitch and back again. “I have knowledge of how Groundsmen are.” But the expression she turned on Hitch was more puzzled than anything. “Maybe I have knowledge.”

Hitch watched Nan and the others go. Jael’s knowledge sure seemed to be doing her more good than everything he’d thought he knew about his folks back home.

He never would have realized Nan would still be hurting so badly over this. Even if she blamed him for all of it, it had been nine years .

Didn’t seem to be much she wanted to let him even try to do to make it right. But he’d have to do something. Last time, he’d left without being able to say goodbye to anybody but Celia. Maybe landing back here at home meant this time he could put it all to rights before moving on again.

The first thing he had to do here was figure out how to remedy his other little problem.

He looked over at Jael. “Find some clothes. Then we’ve got some ground to cover if we’re going to get you back to your home.”

OUT ON THE street, Hitch studied Jael’s new outfit. “I think maybe you’d have been better off staying in the overalls.”

Back in Fallon Bros., she’d emerged from behind the dressing stall’s curtain in breeches, knee-high boots, and a loose cream blouse that hugged her hips. With her hair tied back in a turkey-red handkerchief, she looked like some kind of pirate queen. He’d sputtered a protest or two, but paid up, even when Fallon tacked on an extra dollar for the boots.

He stepped around in front of her so he could give her another once over. At least the clothes fit—and her chopped hair and bare feet were covered. Still, she didn’t look normal. And around here, folks who were good enough to take in strangers liked those strangers to at least have the decency of looking like everybody else.

“Why didn’t you take the dress Aurelia gave you?”

She firmed her mouth in a prim line. “Was being too short for… properness.”

“Properness?” What she was wearing now would probably give the local ladies heart failure. Nice country girls didn’t wear breeches. If they were being extra practical, they wore overalls in the fields, but that was about it.

“And what is it you wear normally?” he asked.

The corner of her mouth lifted just a bit. “I am not being proper mostly.” A twinkle lit the back of her eyes. “I wear… like this.” She gestured at her new outfit. “Only all one.”

“A jumpsuit? And what about that great big ball gown thing you had on last night?”

“That was for special day. Like, everybody come together and have fun.”

“Celebration?”

The twinkle died. “Only was not for me. The—what you call ball gown—had no belonging to me. I was taking it for… so people would not be knowing me at celebration .” She pulled in a big breath, as if dispersing the memory. “Red plane you are flying? _Oplata_—um, payment—I will be finding. Groundsmen, they are doing anything to get payment. I have knowledge for this.”

“You might want to consider you don’t know as much about Groundsmen as you think you do.”

He started down the raised sidewalk. He needed to be getting the money for the parts back to Earl pronto. And then there was Jael’s buddy from last night. He cast a glance up and down both sides of the street. Could be the guy had his plane—or whatever—stowed someplace near town. He wasn’t likely to be anybody Hitch had already seen at the pilots’ camp.