The Jewel of His Heart by Maggie Brendan Page B

“I’ll be there.”
    Juliana saw Albert watching her, and he nodded his head in approval.
    “I’ll be waiting. And please, could you call me Mark?”
    Juliana nodded, and Mark tipped his bowler hat and stepped out onto the sidewalk.

    It was a short walk to church, and Juliana walked past simple clapboard houses, whitewashed to match the fences, with her notebook tucked closely to her chest. The afternoon air was light and breezy and lifted her spirits. She let herself into the church vestibule that smelled of lemon and beeswax, apparently used to polish the dark wood pews and gleaming floors. Several ladies sat in the first two pews, and a stout lady with a round face and big blue eyes stood in front of them, laughing.
    The chatter and laughing slowly died down as the women turned in the pews to see why their speaker had paused. Juliana felt her face flush with embarrassment.
    “Please excuse the intrusion, ladies. I’m Juliana Brady from the Lewistown Gazette . I’d like to sit in on your meeting and write about your latest project.”
    “We weren’t told of this.” A plain, bony-nosed woman rose from her seat, visibly agitated. The lady who was sitting next to her reached out and touched the woman on the arm. “You weren’t invited.” She pushed her friend’s hand off her sleeve.
    “I—” Juliana sputtered.
    The stout lady with the twinkling eyes walked toward Juliana, extending her hand. “I’m Helen Brown. We’d be delighted to fill you in on our club’s activities.” Her hand was soft and cool to Juliana’s touch.
    “But—” the plain woman began, but Helen shushed her. The others twittered in undertones and watched with interest.
    “Albert did speak to me about creating a column that would be great advertising for our community endeavors. I just failed to mention it today in my haste to get started.” Helen smiled at Juliana. “He did not tell me, however, that he had hired a woman to work for him at the paper.”
    “And such a young one too. Are you sure you can spell?” The plain woman looked down her bony nose at Juliana. “I’m Cynthia Hood, and this is Margaret Spencer—we all call her Miss Margaret—and her two daughters, Louise and Natalie.” She indicated the other ladies clustered nearby, who nodded toward Juliana. Louise was slightly taller than her sister and wore an olive dress with leg-of-mutton sleeves, which ended tightly at her thin wrists with a tiny row of pearl buttons. Her sister wore a robin’s-egg-blue dress with a matching bolero trimmed in tan velvet. The only adornment on each sister was a small string of pearls.
    “And this is Esther White.” Cynthia gestured toward a middle-aged lady decked out in black peau de soie and matching vest edged in lace jabots. Diamond drops hung from her ears and flashed in her rings on her hands. Juliana wasn’t sure she’d ever seen someone dressed so finely.
    Juliana nodded at the group. “How do you do?”
    Natalie took Juliana’s hand. “I’m glad you’re here. Now maybe we’ll be taken seriously.” She laughed.
    Juliana liked her immediately. “I’m not sure about that,” she said. “I confess this is my first real assignment.”
    “It’ll be better than the write-up we normally get, coming from another woman.” Louise chuckled. “Women’s social issues are really not Albert’s forte.”
    “Marion Stockton is visibly absent today with who knows what. She is always prying into other people’s affairs and neglects her own.” Cynthia cocked her head sideways, making a tsk sound to indicate her displeasure at Marion’s absence.
    “Now, Cynthia, we don’t want to give Juliana a bad impression of us by speaking unkindly of Marion,” Miss Margaret said.
    Esther added her two cents’ worth. “Well, you know as well as the rest of us that what she said is true. She is just not dependable!”
    Juliana bit her tongue. Should she say something? Tell them Marion was her good friend? Or just let them make