The Widow's Touch (A Whimsical Select Romance Novella) (2 page)

“It was a Thursday, and a
fter two days passed and I didn’t hear a word from him, I thought it fitting to check on him.”

“Two days?” Sheriff Finley
interrupted.  “You didn’t think to check on him before that?” He raised his voice much to the likes that a father would scold a child, which annoyed Eloda when she heard his harsh tone.

“Apparently you didn’t know
my Mister Timmons,” she returned.  “If you had, you’d know to appreciate the times when he wasn’t speaking.  When he spoke, it was too often, too loud, and at great length.”

“
Even if he hadn’t spoken, one would expect that he’d have anticipated a meal within those two days. You weren’t curious why he hadn’t shown up at the supper table?”

Eloda
gestured toward Peter on the floor.  “Sir, we have butchered cattle of lesser size than my husband.  Certainly you cannot fault me for overlooking an occasion that he’d take a spell to pass over a few meals.”

Sheriff Finley looke
d down at her husband who dominated the room not only by scent but also bulk.  “Well, ma’am, I’d have to say that is the first thing you’ve said that makes any sense.”

“
The servants know nothing,” his deputy, Frank, said as he came down the steps.  “You ready to take him out?” The older man donned hair nearly white as snow and beheld side-whiskers cut in English fashion, and although his frame was slight he carried with him a rather large belly.  He had in tow a slab board which they intended to carry her husband up the stairs and out of the house, but Eloda had her doubts that the two men alone could handle such a load.  She thought to suggest they cut Peter in half to make the hauling easier, but Eloda reckoned with their current suspicions she was best keeping her cogitations to herself.

After an hour and half had passed, they fi
nally succeeded in getting her husband out of the house and loaded onto the buckboard.  The sheriff said little when parting and the deputy said nothing.  The sheriff tipped his hat instead of saying goodbye and slowly rode away, taking her husband’s body to Doctor Cannon’s office for examination.

As she watched them go forward towards town
, Eloda breathed a sigh of relief.  She was thankful he was gone, and not only for reason of the stench that had begun rising through the house. “Rest in peace, Peter,” she murmured, and then returned to her house and to her paintings.  It felt odd being without a husband again, she thought.  To her, a lack of a husband at her side felt more naked than being unclothed. 

“Now,” she said
, and Eloda picked up her brush, “I just have to figure out how to convince Mister Jack Finley that he’d make a perfectly suitable husband number five.”

The men and women of Caroline
County were aflutter and came from all corners of the county.  Eloda steered her wagon down the main road and initially assumed that the break in weather had instigated their onset, but that wasn’t the case.  When she went past the sheriff’s office, a crowd gathered from one side of the road to the other and blocked her path to the general store.  She slowed her horses until they came to a full stop and they neighed out their objections.   Eloda smiled when she saw Jack Finley standing in the doorway of the jailhouse.  His hands were raised in a futile attempt in hushing the determined crowd.  In the full light of day, she noted, he was more pleasing to the eye than she first assessed.

“Those
men should receive justice,” a man from the gathering shouted.

“This has been going on for years.
It’s time something is done,” another man called out.

“If
the law isn’t going to bring her to justice, then we’ll do it ourselves,” another fellow cried out, which Eloda recognized as Jonathon, her first husband’s son which she shared an equivalent age.  He was a tall, wiry man who had always given her the notion of a weeping willow tree, as his arms were overly long for his person and always swayed, even when his body remained still.  Although he was an exceptional attorney, Jonathon was well regarded for his nervous temperament.

“Gentleman,” the sheriff called out befo
re them.  “If you’ll quiet down I’ll try to explain where the inquest stands.”

It was a few moments before the crowd
calmed, and when they did, Jack removed his hat.  He raked his fingers through his dark locks and then swiped his sleeve across the sweat that formed on his brow.  He patted his hat against his thigh a few times before he angrily placed it back onto his head.  Eloda had seen men refused service at brothels who looked less frustrated.

“Doctor Cannon is still trying to determine Mister
Timmons’ precise cause of death.  Until then, I cannot proceed further,” Jack announced to his unruly audience.

The
crowd squawked and barked out their angry objections and they were all in uproar again.  The sheriff raised his arms and hollered to overcome their intensity. 

“But that doesn’t mean we
’re not going to make an arrest,” he yelled. “We’re just trying to make sure we have sufficient evidence so we do not put Mrs. Timmons away without due provocation.”

“She killed all her husbands,” a man
bellowed.  “How much more provocation does Caroline County need before convicting and hanging a murderer?”

“She’s only been proven to kill one,” Jack argued, “And that was by her own
admission.  As you are all aware, she was cleared of blame.”

“We all know she poisoned the others,”
Jonathon cried out, and the throng loudly hallooed their agreements.  “My father was a healthy man until he married that woman!”

“Your father, sir,
” Eloda loudly finally chimed in, “Was sixty-six, had an over fondness for ale, and was diagnosed with Bright’s disease not even a year prior to our marriage.  That is by no means a healthy man,” she loudly called out.

The
crowd gave a strong resemblance to a pack of wolves when they turned sharply and stared hungrily at Eloda.  Their proverbial black sheep was garbed in her dark mourning clothes, and was completed with matching gloves and veil.  Most the men glowered at her, but Eloda noticed a few who looked properly embarrassed by standing against her, especially during her time of bereavement. Those particular folks cowered away from the rest of the group and ducked within the shadows of the assembly. 

“She lies,” Jonathon shouted
at the crowd.  He snarled at her and took a few strides closer toward her as if ready to attack.  A lock of his dark hair fell over his forehead and he looked even more menacing.

“Everyone
needs to settle down,” Sheriff Finley ordered.  “If it should come to it, the court will settle this matter.  Until then, I suggest you all go about your business.”  

Sheriff Finley
made long, quick strides and stood protectively between her and the angry mob.  She’d have given a thought of relaying her appreciation but she was techier than a bag of snakes.  With no reasons other than their speculations and rumors, the people in town had always regarded her with disfavor.  It had been that way since she was sixteen, and although their unwarranted behavior ordinarily brought sadness to her heart, she didn’t feel that way then as she stood against the crowd.  She was furious.

T
he people were reluctant to leave but gradually dispersed when the sheriff rested his hand on the hilt of his gun.  Although the others heeded his silent warning, Jonathon James remained.

“You’re not getting away with it this time, madam, I assure you.  I’ll not rest until you are h
anged,” Jonathon barked out, and he narrowed his coal black eyes to stare down at her.

“
I’m beginning to understand why your father disliked you, Jonathon.  You truly are a sniveling child disguised in a man’s body.  Perhaps that’s why you weren’t left in his will.  Others may believe your rants are for justice, but we both know this is about getting even for your disinheritance.”

She sufficiently angered him,
and that was easily expressed when his face reddened with rage, but he couldn’t dispute her claim.  Everyone in Caroline County knew that he’d been overlooked in her husband’s will, as well as the man’s strong disfavor for his son.  Jonathon was pretentious, petulant, and instable.  On more than one occasion he had been committed to the state lunatic asylum due to a temporary aberration of his mind.  Eloda was sure that before the recent events came to pass, he’d find his accommodations there once again.

“Good day,”
Jonathon scoffed at the sheriff and stormed off down the road.

“
Madam, if you plan to vent your gall in that manner to the rest of the town, you’re going to force me into arresting you for own protection.  You’re scraping up trouble where there’s already enough to be had.”

“I don’t scare easily, Mister Finley,” she
asserted.  Eloda tugged at her black, wool mourning gown by the jacket’s hem and then pulled her shawl protectively against the blowing wind.  But Eloda smiled when she realized that he had afforded her the perfect opportunity to have him spend time with her.  “But be that as it would, perhaps it’d be wise if you accompanied me while I’m in town.”

“I’d be
pleased to oblige, Mrs. Timmons.”  He tipped his hat, waved his arm forward, and invited her to lead the way.

Eloda knew he was probably only trying to
work himself into her confidence and esteem to gather more information, but she didn’t care. She was willing to accept his agreeable company in whatever form he was willing to give it. There was something different about him than any man she’d ever met.  Although she had spent nearly half her life in the intimate company of men, Jack’s presence made her feel weak and awkward.  The intense desire that welled within her was unfamiliar and she couldn’t determine whether she entirely enjoyed it or not.  After four husbands and numerous suitors, she had yet to experience love or desire, and the bedding practice with each had passed with anticipation of dread.  Yet standing next to Jack, she found herself musing upon those yearnings much more than she ought.

“And please,
call me Eloda. I’d like to think of us as friends,” she smiled. 

“I mean no disrespect
,” he began, and the sheriff looked at her with curiosity beneath his hat.  He bent and offered his elbow towards her, and then continued asking, “But are you the least upset that your husband is dead?”

“I believe anyone’s death
is cause for some amount of sympathy, of course, but Mister Timmons was quite an unpleasant man to be around by measure of appearance and manner.  And truth be told, Sheriff, his foul odor in life wasn’t too far from that in death.”

The
y stopped at the entrance of the general store and young Miss Annie Garvey exited the door.  She had a beauty that only youth could express, and the young woman knew it.  She whipped her navy blue shawl over her shoulder and loudly harrumphed towards Eloda.  Snapping her head in the opposite direction, the woman raised her long, narrow nose into the air and strode down the walkway.

“That is Miss Garvey,” Eloda said stridently to the sheriff.  “It is rumored that she was born with both organs of a male and a female.  I reckon that is why she’s perpetually in such poor temperament.”

The woman t
urned on her heels and her white, Barrett boots loudly echoed against the walkway when she stomped the wood planks and returned to Eloda. The aromatic water that the young lady generously applied was nearly as assaulting as her attitude.

“That is a lie, Mrs. Timmons, a
nd you well know it!” she whispered harshly.  She offered the sheriff an awkward smile. “It just isn’t true,” she emphasized to him.

Eloda raised her hand
and delicately touched her lips and surprise widened her eyes.  “But, Miss Garvey, the town has been rumoring that tale as long as I can remember, so surely that should prove it true.”

The woman glared at her for a few moments, and having nothing of worth to say,
whipped her gloves into her palm and marched away. But not before asserting to Jack Finley, again, that the rumor was a lie.

“People don’t take to you overly
well here, do they?” he chuckled.

“That, sir, is because when I see a skunk I’m not shy of saying it has a stench.”

“I’ve noticed that about you, Eloda,” he said.  His face was aglow and a light-hearted laugh left his lips.  “Quite honestly, I believe I’m taking a liking to it.”

When he turned
and flashed a broad smile, the sun struck him in just the right manner that a twinkle glinted in his bright blue eyes.  The warmness that sprang from Eloda made her feel all-overish inside and for the slightest second took her breath.  No man had ever ignited a spark within her that way.  Not even Noah Dithers, a man widely known for being the most fetching man in Caroline County. But she reckoned Mister Dithers probably lost that honor when Jack Finley moved into their town.

Although needing to go in
side the general store, Eloda entwined her arm tighter inside the crook of his and began walking further down the platform.  She passed several shops that she needed their wares but she enjoyed the sheriff’s company too much to make the stops.