Will Tells About Meeting Mary (Book One, Chapter Seven)

Chapter Seven

    Will smiled. “Well, my life wasn’t only about catching the Gomez Gang. I’d been nursing a romance of my own in Roma. Part of my daily routine as the deputy in Roma was to meet the stagecoach whenever it came into town. This started as a security measure, since we wanted to know who was coming and going from the town. It turned into something of a tradition for the sheriff to meet the stagecoach and greet new people to the town, though. As time went on, other sheriffs started doing the same thing. 

“Abigail Charles, one of our most venerable citizens and our town’s seamstress, told me one week that her daughter was scheduled to be arriving on the stagecoach. The girl had been born in Roma and then moved to New York, where she went to school and lived with relatives of her father. She had gone on to go to college at Syracuse University, and was now in medical school. She was coming home to visit for the first time in many years. Abigail was a particular friend of mine, and I’d known her husband Levi before he died.

“I knew Mary immediately. She had Abigail’s green eyes, and had the look of a city girl. She was also the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. She was dressed for the city, in very feminine traveling gown. I noted that she hadn’t worn any jewelry, though, and took this to mean that she understand the dangers of being robbed on the road. She had her long, light brown hair tied up, with sensible boots on her feet. She got off the stagecoach and looked around with a great sense of joy, her eyes flying everywhere at once. I wondered if she remembered the area or if this was her first impression of Roma.

“I waited first for Abigail and Mary’s brother, Randolph, to greet her – they had both come with me to meet the stagecoach – and then marched right up and introduced myself. I’ll never forget the way I felt when her eyes turned to meet mine. I felt as though she saw straight through to my soul, and decided immediately whether she would like me or not. She must have decided that she did, for she smiled, curtseyed, and took my hand. She had brought her friend, Victoria, with her, and I walked with them back to Abigail’s home. To be honest, though, I didn’t want to let the girl out of my sight. I was already infatuated with her. Abigail must have seen that, because she asked me to stop in the next day to show them around town, and of course I agreed.