FEBRUARY 9, 1860

"Lara!" A voice called out. Lara dragged herself out of the daydream that she was having and looked around for the source of the voice. She saw Mr. Cromwell standing outside his store waving. She smiled and walked towards him.

"How are you doing Mr. Cromwell?" Lara asked.

"I am doing just fine Lara, and yourself?" He replied, leaning on the broom he held in his hands.

"Oh, I'm getting there." She smiled back at him. "How's business doing these days."

Mr. Cromwell raised his eyebrows and looked up at the sky. "If one or two people would just learn to pay there bills on time it would make my life easier. Come on in for a while. I feel like I have not seen you properly since you started your new job. How is everything going?"

Lara followed Mr. Cromwell into the store, and leaned on the counter watching him put the broom away.

"Well, your not one to be this silent Lara. Give me a hand with this table while your thinking how to answer my simple question."

Lara followed him to an empty table in the middle of the store, and started to help place the cups and plates around it. She took a deep breath and started to speak.

"I don't want to sound ungrateful because I know that you helped me get the job. And I know that jobs, well any jobs, are hard to get. And its not that I don't get on well with the other's at the saloon because I do. But it's just that, what I mean is . . ." Lara realized that she wasn�t making
much sense, and decided that she had better start again. She put down the cups that she was holding and looked at the man in front of her.

"This is not what I saw myself doing when I came to America."

Mr. Cromwell nodded, but did not attempt to speak. Lara smiled and carried on.

"I have lied to my family about what work I am doing. I get looks from people in town when I walk through the streets. I don't know who I am going to become any more."

Mr. Cromwell carried on unpacking the crate in front of him and started to speak without looking at Lara.

"I want to tell you something Lara. I was married once to a good woman. She was kind, loving and gentle. And was taken from me far to young. She died in childbirth and the little baby girl died, too. I have not got over the loss of Esmerelda and baby Juliet. I don't know if I ever will. But, I thank God everyday that I met such a wonderful woman, and she gave me such a good
son." Mr. Cromwell looked up with unhappy tears in his eyes and glanced around him before he carried on speaking. "When I met Esmerelda she was working at a saloon, and she carried on working there while I was seeing her. She once explained to me that the work you do should have no effect on how you truly see yourself. She treated everyone she met with respect and
hoped to receive the same back from them. When we got married we moved away from that town, and know one knew that Esmerelda once worked in a saloon. Javier still does not know. But she was never ashamed of what she had done because she had never done anything wrong."

Lara had a lump in her throat, and did not know what to say. Mr. Cromwell seemed to sense this and said in a hearty voice. "Well there's another job done for the day. I don't know where that boy of mine is, got his head in a book. I would not be surprised."

Lara smiled and picked an invisible piece of dust off the table. "I had better get back to work, no rest for the wicked."

Mr. Cromwell laughed, "Oh, Lara you could not be wicked if you tried."

Lara laughed back, "I bet I could, if I put my mind to it!" Lara picked up her bag and smiled as she walked towards the door, turning around in the door way she said, "Oh, Mr. Cromwell, it's our little secret, ok?"

"Lara, I never had any doubt about that!" Mr. Cromwell said as he picked up the now empty box and walked to the back of the store.

Lara held her head high and stepped into the street.