Work Text:
Please follow the link in Author's notes. Sorry if you're not connected to the internet and cannot access this story. Submitting to this archive is not the easiest task and I find I just don't have the patience to do so anymore.
Story excerpt:
I, my dear friends, am being courted.
By a secret admirer.
A secret admirer of the male persuasion.
You may ask… how did I discover the gender of my admirer? I would like to claim it was due to my superior skills of logic and deduction but, alas, it was actually a simple mistake on the part of one of my companions.
Mister Dunne, to be exact.
Our young sheriff inadvertently imparted that vital detail by using the word ‘he' when delivering my gift this past evening. Everyone else has presented me with my gift using the exact same phrase the person before him used.
"I was told to give this to you."
Mister Dunne, while overcome with mirth, made the mistake and said, "He told me to give this to you." The boy's error was instantly caught by one of the five men sitting at the table with me, and a groan of exasperation serenaded my ears. Tearing my gaze away from the present, I searched the faces before me but was unable to identify the owner because the sound was quickly echoed by every member of my adopted family. Each man rushed to cover the error, trying their best to confuse me by loudly engaging the person to his left or right in a lively conversation. A detail that did not go unheeded and led me to my most recent deductions on this matter.
They are all in on the secret and my admirer hides within their midst.