Deborah Camp (15 page)

“What do you think?” Regina countered.

“Oh, I don’t know.” Lu’s voice wavered. Still holding Annie in her arms, she went back inside.

“Poor thing,” Joy said. “I sure am glad my man hasn’t come after me like that.”

“You think he might?” Bitsy asked.

“No, not him. He’s drunk all the time now. He
can’t even find a clean pair of drawers, so I don’t reckon he could ever find me.”

“Mine is dead.”

Regina whipped her head around to face Bitsy. “How do you know that?”

“I got a letter today from his mama.” Bitsy sighed and folded her arms under her small breasts. “He’s a lot older than me. I guess he’s around forty-five or so, because his mama is close to seventy. Anyway, he just keeled over. Doctor said it was his heart and that the liquor had weakened it. His mama wrote that he’d been coughing up blood for a spell. O’course, she kinda blames me for him gettin’ sick. She says I shoulda been there to care for him.”

“And who would be caring for you?” Joy asked with contempt. “He had his mama, didn’t he? You didn’t have nobody.”

Bitsy shrugged. “I feel bad for his mama and all. Bad for Henry, too. That was his name. Henry.” Light entered her eyes from an inner source. “I’m a widow! I’m not married anymore. I don’t have to get a divorce now.”

“That’s right.” Joy slipped an arm about Bitsy’s waist for a quick hug. “Good for you. Make the most of it, Bitsy.”

Regina tried to smile, tried to shake her apprehension, tried not to see Bitsy as competition.

“We’re going now. Y’all take care.” Stu saluted them and climbed up to the wagon seat to take the reins from Theo. Eric climbed onto the back of one of the horses for the ride into town.

“Bye, y’all!” Bitsy waved grandly. Theo waved back.

Regina waited for him to look at her, but he didn’t. Stu turned the wagon in a tight circle and headed back the way they’d come.

Bitsy and Joy returned to Mrs. Nation’s, where
Joy’s two children had slept through the excitement. Regina lingered on the porch. She sat in one of the rockers and watched the stars wink into life. Bitsy was going to make eyes at Theo, she thought, then shook her head. No, Bitsy was
already
making eyes at him. She steeled herself against the stabbing jealousy.

Maybe it was a good thing that Bitsy had set her bonnet for him. After all, Regina had smelled whiskey on his breath tonight and he’d been at the Full Bucket with the sheriff. How could Mrs. Nation be judged fairly if the prosecuting attorney and the town sheriff were such good buddies? The judge would pay more heed to Stu than to Mrs. Nation, and Stu would certainly side with his partner, Theodore Dane.

She heard Lu moving inside, felt her standing on the other side of the screen door.

“Regina, are you mad at me for not keeping Jack in jail?”

“No.” Regina rested her head against the high back of the rocker and closed her eyes. “I’m mad at men.”

“Men?”

“Yes. All of them.”

The screen door screeched open. “Why, honey?”

“Because I can’t beat them, and I sure as hell can’t join them.”

“Regina, you shouldn’t curse.”

“And that’s another reason why I hate them. They can cuss and nobody pays them any mind.”

“Heavens, who would
want
to say those words?”

“I would!” Regina stood abruptly, setting the empty rocker in motion without her. “I’d like to cuss until the moon turns blue!” Then she stalked into the house, her anger rising like a cloud to obliterate the pain of watching Theo smile at Bitsy, wave at Bitsy, and ignore her.

“W
e made twenty dollars from the Spring Cotillion,” Bitsy said. “And that’s got us to thinking …”

“Thinking what?” Regina asked, glancing up from the financial ledgers laid open before her. Sunlight streamed in through the parlor window, illuminating the neat rows of figures.

“About the community picnic next week,” Lu said, sharing smiles with Bitsy and Joy. “There’s an opportunity there to make more money.”

“How? People bring food to it.”

“Yes, and we could do the same. We’ll have our lunch baskets bid on, just like the other ladies there. Everyone loved the food we made for the cotillion, so our baskets ought to bring top dollar. There are four of us. Four baskets.”

“Maybe five,” Joy said, and snagged everyone’s attention.

“Five, Joy?” Regina repeated. “You know something we don’t?”

Joy shrugged. “I know about a woman here in town. I talked to her at the cotillion. Her husband’s treating her bad and he lost his job because of his drinking. She’s hired out as a maid and she’d doing laundry, but he’s drinking it up as fast
as she can bring it home. I told her she’d be welcome here. That’s right, isn’t it?”

“Of course. A town woman, you say.” Regina furrowed her brow. “That’s always more trouble because the husband is right here.”

“We can take care of him. We proved that a few nights ago with Lu’s husband.” Joy propped her big hands at her bony hips and confidence glimmered in her brown eyes. “Besides, this woman’s husband is a dried-up bit of a man. I can handle him with one hand tied behind my back.”

“Why don’t
she
handle him?” Bitsy asked.

“She’s no bigger than a minute herself,” Joy answered. “She’s got herself a child. A baby boy. She has to leave the babe with him during the day while she cleans houses and she’s afraid for the little ’un.”

“I’d be, too,” Lu said. “I wouldn’t leave Annie alone with Jack. Where I went, she went.” She looked at Regina. “Not that I think he’d do anything deliberately to her. But when he gets drunk, he forgets everything and everyone.”

“Don’t be so sure he wouldn’t hurt her deliberately,” Regina cautioned. “He’s a desperate man, Lu.”

“Back to this idea of ours,” Bitsy said impatiently. “What do you think, Regina?”

Regina rested her forehead in one hand and thought about taking in another border. If the woman and baby Joy was talking about did come live with them, the few dollars they still had from the cotillion would vanish. Perhaps the woman would continue working, she thought, but knew that would depend on the woman’s husband. If he made any threats, they’d have to keep the woman safely within the house until the courts could intervene and grant a divorce.

“It’ll be fun,” Lu urged. “I used to love this kind
of thing when I was a girl. The boys bid on my basket and it was so exciting to see who would be the highest bidder.”

“Yes, but will they bid on ours?” Regina wondered. “Two of you are married, one’s a widow, and me … I’m thought of as one of the crazy women who follow Mrs. Nation.”

“I know some of them are calling us Hatchet Hall Homebreakers, but—”

“They’re calling us
what?”
Regina said, incensed. “How dare they place blame on the women here. We’re not homebreakers. We’re home defenders! What about the husbands?”

Joy laughed. “We’re the ones that left the home, so we’re bad women. Let them talk.” She flung up a hand in a throwaway gesture. “I got no regrets.” Squinting, she stared at Regina. “I think this picnic thing might bring in some money, but mostly I think it’ll be good for us to get out in the community. They think we’re strange because they don’t know us. The only folks that come around here are the downtrodden or the law. We ought to change that if we can.”

“Mrs. Nation wouldn’t approve of the married women going to the picnic. And what man will bid on a married woman’s basket?”

“I can think of a few in town who don’t give a fig what folks say behind their backs,” Bitsy offered, and Regina thought immediately of Theo Dane.

“Mrs. Nation isn’t here, and I say she’s wrong if she thinks it’s better to keep us away from other folks,” Joy insisted. “We didn’t do anything wrong. We have as much right mingling in amongst these townfolks as any drunk does. They embrace the drinkers as their own, so why not us?”

“We’re sure as shootin’ better than them whiskey
suckers,” Bitsy opined with a big grin. “I’m gonna fix fruitcake to put in my basket.”

“Don’t you have to soak fruitcake in liquor?” Lu asked.

“Not the kind I make. I soak it in honey and apricot syrup. It’s rich as King Midas, but I never met a man who didn’t love it.”

“Wait a minute,” Regina said, holding up her hands. “When did we decide to do this? I thought we were still discussing it.”

“We’ve already discussed it,” Joy said. “We’re just wanting to know if you’re in or out. Your basket could bring in the most money, seeing as how you’re unwedded and any man can bid without worrying what folks will think about it.”

Regina stared out the window and considered the pitfalls, but the chance of making more money overruled them. “Okay. I guess it wouldn’t hurt.”

“Hurt? Heavens, it will be a wonderful day,” Lu said, twirling in a circle. “I’ll make one up and put Annie’s name on it. That way the men can bid without worrying about their reputations.”

“That’s a good idea,” Regina said. “What about you, Joy?”

“I don’t care about this town’s men’s reputations, and my two boys would rather take three baths a day than have their names put on a picnic basket. I can’t imagine Billy Bob or Barney wanting to take part in any of it. But I’m going to pack a basket so bountiful the town men will want to buy it no matter whose name is on it.” She held one hand out and pretended to examine her short nails. “Folks in my county came to me every holiday for my pumpkin and apple pies. I might just put one of each in there.”

“Lord, the gents will be falling all over themselves to get at it,” Bitsy said. “We ought to bring in more than we did working at the cotillion.”

“I’ll hand it to you,” Regina said. “You ladies are the most industrious we’ve ever had here.”

“I believe in doing for myself whenever possible.” Joy moved to the window. “Uh-oh.”

“What?” Bitsy asked.

Regina turned to see a small, stoop-shouldered woman moving from shadow to shadow along the road outside. The woman held a bundle tightly against her. A baby. She knew before Joy answered that they had a new boarder.

“It’s her … the one I just told y’all about.” Joy looked to Regina, her brows lifting in a silent question.

Sighing, Regina closed the ledgers and rolled down the desk’s top. She stood and smoothed wrinkles from her white apron.

“We have another fearful heart to tend to, ladies. Joy and I will welcome her while you two prepare a room for her next door.”

“Her name is Smith. Adelaide Smith. The baby is called James,” Joy said.

Adelaide Smith and baby James stayed behind with Joy’s two boys at Mrs. Nation’s while the others went to the community picnic on the banks of Beaver Lake. Jebidiah volunteered to remain at home, too, and keep an eye out for Mr. Smith, who, word had it, had sworn to make his wife return to him. Fearing for her new charge, Regina had nearly changed her mind and remained with Mrs. Smith, but Lu, Joy, and Bitsy had protested so loudly that Regina had climbed into the wagon that would take them to the lake.

The ride was bouncy and boisterous. They sang and laughed and pointed out squirrels, rabbits, and deer in the woods on either side of the dirt road. Several wagons passed them, all full of townspeople on the way to the picnic.

The women had spent days deciding what kinds of food to pack and how they’d decorate their handmade baskets. They all agreed that Joy’s contained the biggest feast, although Bitsy’s was the richest, with her fruitcake, strawberry jam, and hand-dipped chocolates. Lu’s fried chicken was a standout and her basket was the prettiest, with big red-and-pink ribbons, lace, and dried flowers all around it. Joy took over the reins from Bitsy and shouted Gardenia into a trot. Lu, Annie, and Regina sat in the back on fresh straw.

Regina examined her own basket, going over in her mind the things she’d packed in it—blueberry turnovers, chicken salad sandwiches, potato salad, pickle relish, and a jug of lemonade. Maybe she should have added some of the pecans she’d saved from last fall, she fretted, then shoved aside such trivial worries. She’d wasted enough time and goods on this. She only hoped her basket would pay for itself. They’d sacrificed their oldest rooster for the feast; Lu had fried the best parts and Regina had taken the rest to make salad.

“You look so pretty in that white linen, Regina,” Lu said. “Doesn’t she, Annie?”

“Uh-huh.” Annie bobbed her head. “Like an angel.”

“An angel?” Regina laughed. “If there is an angel in this wagon, it’s you, sweetie.”

“It needs something, though.” Lu surveyed her critically, then pulled her basket into her lap. “Perhaps some ribbon and a few dried rosebuds.” She pulled free a pink ribbon from the wicker basket.

“Oh, Lu, no! Don’t mess up that beautiful thing,” Regina protested. “You worked so hard on it.”

“It still looks fine,” Lu said, motioning Regina closer. “Now let me try something. Come here and
quit fussing over that silly basket. It’s the food inside that counts.”

“My hand cookies are in there,” Annie said. “And I helped Mama make the beans, too.”

“Some lucky gentleman will be so proud to get your basket, Annie. Lu … Lu … what are you doing?” Regina lifted her arms to better see Lu’s handiwork.

“I’m just tying this ribbon around your waist … heavens, you have a tiny waist, Regina. I don’t think mine was this narrow even before I had Annie. Now I’ll attach these rosebuds here in the center of the bow and … what do you think, Annie?”

“Pretty,” Annie said, grinning. “Now she’s an angel with ribbons and bows!”

“It’s a picnic, Lu, not a style show. You should have left these things on your basket.”

“Maybe a certain young man will be looking for you, and you’d want to look your very best.”

“I doubt if Theodore Dane will be there.”

Lu eyed her with amusement. “I was thinking about Sheriff Stu, Regina.”

“Oh, yes. Well, he might be there.” Regina felt her face burn with embarrassment. She wished time had a handle so she could crank it back and not reveal her heart’s secret to Lu.

“Regina,” Lu said, her voice soft and comforting, “you can trust me, you know.” She glanced at the front of the wagon, where Bitsy and Joy were singing at the top of their lungs. “I won’t tell a soul that you have thoughts of Mr. Dane.”