Austin pretended not to notice the exchange but it gave him some insight into what was going on between Claire and her

brothers. He recalled the abbreviation her brothers had used that morning must be for Keep. Obviously, whatever the whole thing stood for was embarrassing to her.

“Done!” Tristan announced.

Austin looked at his empty plate. “I‟m impressed. You have earned my respect, Tristan.”

“Respect is overrated,” hoesa huffed as he stood up to get himself a glass of water.

Jaime licked the caviar from his cracker, shrugged and put it in his mouth. “I guess it‟s not too bad if you think of something

else while eating it.”

“Are you going to let your two younger brothers outdo you?” Claire pointedly asked

Hosea as he gulped down the water.

“From that stuff? You bet,” hoesa said. “I‟m already married. I have nothing to prove anymore.”

She smirked. “So says the chicken.”

“I‟m not a chicken. I‟m just man enough to know that what I eat doesn‟t determine who I am.”

“Sure.”

“You want to see who can lasso the most cattle in fifteen minutes?”

She smiled. “You could never win that one.”

“Then you won‟t have any trouble accepting the challenge.”

“Do you really think it‟s manly to challenge a woman to do a man‟s task?” Austin asked.

“Oh, don‟t worry about Claire. She‟s practically a man. She can do everything a man can, except she can have babies.”

Claire slightly winced at his comment.

Austin suddenly wondered if she ever felt like a woman. It would be hard to feel feminine with three brothers roughhousing with you all the time. No wonder she didn‟t think any man could be attracted to her.

“hoesa, I‟ll give you a lesson in business,”Austin spoke up.

“When you are dealing with people, you need to notice details. Claire turned a lot of men‟s heads at the wedding. She's definitely not a man.”

He noted her pleasure and felt better for her

“Really?”hoesa said as if he was considering

something. “You like the way she looks. Interesting.”

“I‟m not blind,” Austin answered. “I have excellent taste. I wouldn‟t marry someone who wasn‟t the finest looking woman in

Virginia. No offense to your wife.” Deciding it was time to take the focus off of Claire, he turned to Tristan. “I saw The Path to

Christmas. I‟ve seen many plays and must admit that yours was one of the more entertaining ones I‟ve been to.”

Tristan‟s eyes lit up like the Christmas tree in the parlor.

“You think so?”

“I don‟t lie about things like this. You have a lot of talent.

What else have you written?”

Tristan excitedly explained several works he had already completed and the one he was working on.

“There is one that we act out for Pa and Ma. It‟s called The Kidnapper. We have the lines

all memorized and the costumes made. Want to see it? Claire does a great job of acting.”

“Tristan, I don‟t know if I want to do that,” Claire argued.

“I don‟t feel like playing the part of the middle-aged fat man. Let someone else do it.”

“But you do those lines better than anyone else. You got the whole accent and mannerisms down just right. Besides,Marie

plays the cop. You got the best part in the whole thing. You have the most lines and you‟re the most interesting character.”

“In Shakespeare‟s plays, women often dressed up as men.

Remember The Merchant of Venice?” Austin hoped to ease her discomfort

“That is true. Alright,” she said. “Though we could always do something else.”

“You‟re right, sis,” hoesa spoke up. “We could take Austin out to rope cattle.”

“I want to do the play,” Tristan argued.“Oh, let me see it. If it‟s anything like the Christmas play, we‟ll all have a good time.”

Austin was anxious to do anything but

more outdoor activities.

Hoesa was disappointed but reluctantly agreed to join his siblings.

Austin waited for them to get ready for their performance in amusement. He sat on the couch with claire‟s parents in the parlor

and made small talk. He couldn‟t remember anyone ever going through as much trouble to impress him as the Lewisville family did,

and it was even better now that he fit in with their group. He didn‟t have siblings but imagined this was what it was like.

When they were ready, Tristan came out wearing a torn up suit. “Alright. Here‟s the setting. We are on a train heading for

California where a sixteen year old named remy, played by yours truly, is being held hostage by Lay, played by hoesa. You see,

remy‟s father is rich, so Lay kidnaped remy in order to get a ransom for returning him.

The father is played by Claire whose

name is Ae, and Ae‟s younger son, played by Jaimie, is Ger.

Marie and Teresa play the cops who show up at the very end. The plot of this story is simple. Ae and Ger create a plan to save

remy from evil Lay, and Ae and Ger are disguised as country bumpkin who don‟t speak proper grammar so that Lay won‟t suspect their true identity.”

He set up several chairs. “Now pretend this is a train.”

Austin chuckled at his enthusiasm. Tristan really got into his work.

“They like to do this a couple times a year,” claire‟s father said.

“They get better each time they do it.”

Tristan went back to the kitchen to get ready for his part.

Lay shoved remy onto the train. He pointed a fake gun at remy. “Don‟t do anything to arouse suspicion.”

Remy nodded his consent and sat down.

Lay sat next to him. “This is real simple. As long as you do what you‟re told, I‟ll let you live. Your father will be worriedabout you by now. Surely, he‟ll bring the ransom money to the designated spot.”

remy sat quietly and stared out the window.

Austin tried to hide his shock as claire appeared. They did a good job of disguising her as a middle-aged fat man with graying

hair and thick mustache who wore tattered old green and black clothes and a faded black hat. He hardly recognized her. How can

a woman look so beautiful on her wedding day and make such a convincing man?

He could understand her hesitation in doing the role. But to her credit, she fell right into character.

Ae and rald walked casually onto the train. Ae bumped into Lay on purpose, but Lay was supposed to think it was an accident.

“Oh, I is so sorra, misser,” Ae quickly apologized.

She sounds like a man too. And she does have the southern accent down well. Austin was amazed that someone who could look so

incredibly feminine in her new clothes could appear so masculine in this skit.

Ae cleared his throat. “Here. Let me get „em there marbles I dropped when I bumped inta ya.”

Austin hid his distaste for the poor grammar she used.

remy and Lay tried to move aside as Ae hurried to collect the five marbles on the floor. Austin watched the quick slip of the hand as Ae slipped a folded piece of paper into remy‟s hands.

“Misser, misser.” rald anxiously tugged on Lay‟s suit jacket.

“What are you doing?” Lay snapped and struggled to get the boy‟s hands off of his clothes.

Ae successfully stood up and patted Gerald on the back.

“Son, if I had tol‟ ya once, I had tol‟ ya a dozen times not ta touch oter people. Who knows what they be a carryin‟?”

After few minutes the play ended.

“It was very well done,” Austin applauded.

“Claire, that hurt,” hoesa said as he freed his wrist from the rope.

“Oh, I‟m sorry. I don‟t know my own strength sometimes,”she sweetly apologized.

“I suppose it‟s because I‟m so manly.” She wacked him on the head with the rope as she left the room.

“That‟s claire for you. She doesn‟t let anyone get away with insulting her. She‟ll let you know exactly what you did to annoy

her. Sometimes she makes me so proud.”

“She does do an excellent job lassoing the cattle,” Tristan admitted. “She can lasso anything, no matter how fast it‟s moving. One time, she lassoed me and hoesa by the ankles and had us hanging upside down for a half hour in the barn.”

“Those were the good old days alright.”

“What did you do to deserve such treatment?” Austin asked.

“We put itching powder in her saddle. She and Bossy were hilarious out there in the fields.”

They laughed at the memory.

Austin hid his horror. He couldn‟t imagine someone doing that to him. He did have to give Claire credit for not backing down when her brothers messed with her. No wonder she can be a nag. Did she have a choice? He also noted that they treated the other women in the household as women. It seemed that Claire got the rough Treatment.

It must be because she was the oldest child and had to do so many boyish chores on the farm. Her brothers obviously forgot that she is a woman. Well, I didn‟t.

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Much love

V.A 💙