Page 6 of Native Hawk
“Is that a fact?” The woman added sugar and cream to her coffee and stirred it.
Catalina had quickly learned that American coffee was very different from what she drank in Italy, but she decided she could make a fresh start with coffee too. She mimicked the woman’s formula.
“But you had to pursue your dreams, right?” the woman guessed.
Catalina brightened. Here was a woman who understood her. “Exactly! It is my passion. How can I let it waste away?”
She took a sip of coffee. It wasn’t too terrible.
“Mm.” The woman eyed her for a moment over the top of her cup. Then she lowered the cup into the saucer. “Folks call me Miss Hattie, by the way.”
“Miss Hattie, I am very happy to meet you. My name is Catalina.”
“Catalina. I like that.”
Catalina beamed. At leastthatpart of her name was real.
Miss Hattie picked up her cup again and wrinkled her brow in concern. “You know, just between you and me, I don’t think there’s a big market for bustles in this town.”
Catalina lifted a brow. “Not yet.”
“So how are you plannin’ on drummin’ up business?”
“Drumming,” Catalina echoed. “I do not know this word.”
“How are you goin’ to get customers?”
“Oh. I need first to buy a sewing machine. Then I can make dresses much faster, and hopefully, I will get customers. But…”
Did she dare prevail upon Miss Hattie for a job? Could the woman possibly have need of help? She didn’t seem to have household staff. She’d made the coffee herself.
“But?”
“I do not have the money to buy a sewing machine yet. So I must find other work.”
Miss Hattie stopped with her coffee halfway to her lips. “Other work?”
“Yes. Do you…know of anything?”
Miss Hattie looked at her long and hard then, gazing into Catalina’s eyes as if she were peering into her soul. “You’re a very pretty girl.”
“Thank you.”
“Pretty girls like you don’t grow on trees.”
Catalina blinked. That was true. It was an odd thing to say. Pretty girls also did not hatch from eggs.
Finally, Miss Hattie sat back with a sigh and said, “And you seem like a verynicegirl.”
“Thank you.”
“From a nice family?”
“Yes.” Despite her father’s tyrannical nature, he was a decent man.
“Yep, that’s what I thought,” Miss Hattie said, shaking her head. Then she let out another sigh and said, “Tell you what. I can’t offer you much, but I’ve been shorthanded since one o’ my girls got herself in the family way. I may be mad as a March hare, but I’m goin’ to offer you a job.”
Catalina almost spilled her coffee. She didn’t understand half of the words, but she definitely understood the offer. “You are?”
