@Rillewen
Dessy 'Hart' and
Amos 'Mossy' Dogwood
'Solemates' Shoe-shop, with the
Woods children
Mossy had been noting down the recent observed measurements when the store window imploded. He was no longer young enough to spring into action, but he rose up calmly and took little
Autumn by the hand, hoping to lead her over to sit down away from the mess. A brief glance over inspection assured the cobbler that the girl was just shocked, and seemingly not hurt.
“
Dessy,” he glanced around for his lodger. The tall girl had reached for
Rosie on first instinct but, as
Liana took up responsibility for her niece,
Dessy had found her feet and scrambled to retrieve the alarmed cat.
Conkers, having swiftly ascended the highest of shelves in the back of the store, was now squatting, both ears flattened, and his snake of a flaming tail beating at the shoes which were falling like dead leaves off the shelf beside him. One last attempt to reclaim the startled animal, saw the feisty feline swipe at her, so
Dessy pulled a face at the creature and turned back to the children.
Liana already was tending to
Rosie,
Logan had fled outside to take stock of the surprise. So
Dessy took up
Gilbert’s hand from where
Logan had left him, towing the small boy over to where she helped
Wesley down from the rocking horse.
“
Well,”
Mossy managed, taking up his broom. “
Best take them over to Seri,” he concluded, as though it were the only solution. The elderly man avoided all eyes as he made to sweep up the broken glass from the floor. “
Best way to forget the scare is get them from the scene, get they someplace can feel safe.”
He sounded somewhat as though he were having this conversation with himself, rather than with
Liana, or
Dessy, who took a step toward him, concerned. “
Mr Dogwood ? Would you ..”
“
No more shoes today,” the Breeman repeated, though allowed for
Dessy to gently prise the broom out of his hands. “
See them some place safe,” his blue eyes met the young girl’s, and for a moment she was startled. That she had never noted the vibrancy of their clear colour. He might have been handsome in his youth, she thought. Now though, he seemed .. scared. “
Best shut up the shutters ..” he said, clutching at her shoulder suddenly.
With a nod, she watched him go for the lock, and exchanged a glance with
Liana. The boys had left the store door open, and
Mossy shuffled outside, through the pile of broken glass that he had just begun to assemble with the broom. Moments later, one of the wooden shutters from outside the window, threw darkness over that side of the shop.
“
We should get them out of here,”
Dessy agreed, setting the broom aside the counter and catching up the hands of
Wesley and
Gilbert with a certainty that
Liana could manage
Autumn and
Rosie well enough. The second, and then also the third, heavy shutter dropped into place, until the only light then came from the door, beckoning them all out of the gloom. Setting the last lock to secure the exposed window frame, the cobbler retreated inside. When
Dessy turned back from escorting the
Woods clan onto the street, she found the shop door closed before her startled face. The sign which hung on the inside of the door window, was turned to ‘closed’. And when she moved to the handle, it was too late. Pressing a nose to the smaller door glass,
Dessy watched
Mossy sink into one of the seats, inside the store.
Conkers scampered from his heights to claim the sudden lap, and purred with satisfaction as the aged hands rolled over his soft fur, distractedly.
Sure this was cause for concern, but not sure what she could do, with so many small folks to attend to,
Dessy glanced to where the two young men (
Logan and
Cole) had gone to.
Coleman Finch
Outside the Shoe shop, joined by
Logan Woods
and then .. everybody else ..
Caught between hastening after
Liana, and abandoning his milkcart to further potential thefts,
Cole examined the first bottle’s debris on the street. He could at the very least ensure no further hurt was done by someone now chancing along and stepping on those dangerous shards ! So stooping to slowly pick up the pieces of broke glass with his fingers, he rose up seeking for a safe place to stow them. And was afforded a clear view, through the now gaping window frame, of the chaos caused inside the store; of
Liana consoling her younger kin, who had been put at risk, all because of him. Because he had not been paying attention. She was still wearing his coat, one part of his brain realised. He was never going to get that coat back now, he sighed but moments later. He was going to have to leave town, become a hermit, never again even try to talk to ..
Logan.
Liana’s brother was suddenly there on the street, asking what
Cole needed, if he knew which way the thief went.
Cole blinked, his hands still laid open between the two young men, palms hid by the broken glass he provided, his alibi. There was nothing he wanted to do less than chase down
Bryony Spruce. Particularly after recent lectures he had tried to compel into
Clay. To steer well clear of the
Spruce’s.
“
Is anyone hurt ? he managed to make himself ask, unsure if he quite wanted to learn the answer. “
I can .. I’ll clean this up,” he assured the other farmer’s son. “
No point chasing after .. the thief ..” it was more than he could cope with right now, to admit he had just been managed by a woman. “
I know who they are, where they live. They can wait.”
'They', he'd said; rather than 'she'. Because going after the one, naturally meant invoking the threat of the both of them. “
Sorry about all this,” he mentioned, as much to
Logan as to
Mossy Dogwood himself, who had emerged, to exploit the window shutters. The old man did not say a word before returning indoors, and before
Cole could know what to do next, the entire ensemble of
Woods children were herded from the shop, and the door slammed on
Dessy with a start.
