neck, and Nancy ducked her head.
With a hoot of laughter, Claire sat on the pail, hiked her dress to her knees, and stuck out her foot. “Cora, do you know how to unlace shoes?”
“Mama showed me how,” the child said, and joyfully helped remove Claire’s shoes and stockings.
Dahlia slathered cream over Claire’s slender foot and began kneading her toes. Cora sat knees-bent, heels-out on the floor beside Dahlia, rubbing Claire’s other foot.
Nancy hunched her back. “Iris, you must come live with me,” she said.
Warm laughter filled the greenhouse, and Faith let herself relax for the first time since moving to Fredonia. Maybe her aunts weren’t too outrageous. Their naughty sense of humor had won over the Grayson women. And maybe Nancy, Evelyn, and Claire would tell their friends about her business.
Maybe everything would work out after all.
“You all look so different,” Evelyn said, eyeing Faith’s aunts. “It’s hard to believe you’re sisters.”
Faith’s stomach plummeted.
“It’s a remarkable story,” Dahlia said, calmly reaching over to guide Cora’s hand. “Slide your thumbs around her ankle bone like this.” After she demonstrated, the woman lifted an amazingly serene face to Evelyn. “We all share the same father.”
Faith scoured her mind for a way to change the subject, wishing they’d taken time to think this through and invent a new history for themselves.
“Our father was a big, handsome, American-born German,” Dahlia said in the mystical sounding voice she used when telling a tale to Cora. “There wasn’t a woman alive who could resis—”
“Aunt Dahlia, the ladies can’t possibly be interested in . . . all that. It’s a painfully long history,” Faith said, doing her best to dissuade them from pursuing the topic. “Dahlia could waste half a day trying to explain it all.”
Nancy fairly purred as she closed her eyes. “Take all the time you like, Miss Wilde.”
Dahlia’s lips twitched. “As I was saying, we share the same father, but—”
“The sheriff’s here!” Cora leapt to her feet and ran to greet him.
Faith’s day went from bad to disastrous. The sheriff hadn’t taken five steps inside the greenhouse before his eyes widened and he jerked to a halt. He looked from Claire, barefoot with her dress hiked to her knees, to his mother, who sat with her back hunched and her head hanging, to Evelyn, who lounged cross-legged on her pail like a queen getting a manicure.
Evelyn waved him over. “Pull up a pail, Duke. You’re just in time to hear what promises to be an interesting history of the Wilde women.”
The instant the words left Evelyn’s mouth, Faith’s aunts howled with laughter.
Under less worrisome circumstances, Faith would have appreciated the wild women pun, but to flaunt their past as if they were beyond the bounds of social etiquette was foolish. And that is exactly what Iris had done when she came up with that suggestive last name.
“Can I play with your handcuffs?” Cora asked, poking at the sheriff’s thigh.
He pulled the cuffs off his belt without looking away from his mother. “What is going on here?” he asked.
Nancy half-raised her eyelids. “I’m having one of the best moments of my life. Now sit down and let Dahlia finish her story about how these lovely ladies came to be sisters.”
Faith scooted around a flat of wintergreen and stopped before him. She tried her best to get things on her own terms once more: “I assume you’re here to report on Adam’s first day at the store, so why don’t we go outside and talk?”
o0o
Duke heard Faith’s request. But, after walking in here and finding his respectable mother and sisters-in-law looking intoxicated, he wasn’t budging from this spot even if Faith promised to lead him to her bed. He was going to stand right here beside this flat of smelly green stuff until he figured out exactly what the hell was going on. His mother looked drugged out of her head. Had
With a hoot of laughter, Claire sat on the pail, hiked her dress to her knees, and stuck out her foot. “Cora, do you know how to unlace shoes?”
“Mama showed me how,” the child said, and joyfully helped remove Claire’s shoes and stockings.
Dahlia slathered cream over Claire’s slender foot and began kneading her toes. Cora sat knees-bent, heels-out on the floor beside Dahlia, rubbing Claire’s other foot.
Nancy hunched her back. “Iris, you must come live with me,” she said.
Warm laughter filled the greenhouse, and Faith let herself relax for the first time since moving to Fredonia. Maybe her aunts weren’t too outrageous. Their naughty sense of humor had won over the Grayson women. And maybe Nancy, Evelyn, and Claire would tell their friends about her business.
Maybe everything would work out after all.
“You all look so different,” Evelyn said, eyeing Faith’s aunts. “It’s hard to believe you’re sisters.”
Faith’s stomach plummeted.
“It’s a remarkable story,” Dahlia said, calmly reaching over to guide Cora’s hand. “Slide your thumbs around her ankle bone like this.” After she demonstrated, the woman lifted an amazingly serene face to Evelyn. “We all share the same father.”
Faith scoured her mind for a way to change the subject, wishing they’d taken time to think this through and invent a new history for themselves.
“Our father was a big, handsome, American-born German,” Dahlia said in the mystical sounding voice she used when telling a tale to Cora. “There wasn’t a woman alive who could resis—”
“Aunt Dahlia, the ladies can’t possibly be interested in . . . all that. It’s a painfully long history,” Faith said, doing her best to dissuade them from pursuing the topic. “Dahlia could waste half a day trying to explain it all.”
Nancy fairly purred as she closed her eyes. “Take all the time you like, Miss Wilde.”
Dahlia’s lips twitched. “As I was saying, we share the same father, but—”
“The sheriff’s here!” Cora leapt to her feet and ran to greet him.
Faith’s day went from bad to disastrous. The sheriff hadn’t taken five steps inside the greenhouse before his eyes widened and he jerked to a halt. He looked from Claire, barefoot with her dress hiked to her knees, to his mother, who sat with her back hunched and her head hanging, to Evelyn, who lounged cross-legged on her pail like a queen getting a manicure.
Evelyn waved him over. “Pull up a pail, Duke. You’re just in time to hear what promises to be an interesting history of the Wilde women.”
The instant the words left Evelyn’s mouth, Faith’s aunts howled with laughter.
Under less worrisome circumstances, Faith would have appreciated the wild women pun, but to flaunt their past as if they were beyond the bounds of social etiquette was foolish. And that is exactly what Iris had done when she came up with that suggestive last name.
“Can I play with your handcuffs?” Cora asked, poking at the sheriff’s thigh.
He pulled the cuffs off his belt without looking away from his mother. “What is going on here?” he asked.
Nancy half-raised her eyelids. “I’m having one of the best moments of my life. Now sit down and let Dahlia finish her story about how these lovely ladies came to be sisters.”
Faith scooted around a flat of wintergreen and stopped before him. She tried her best to get things on her own terms once more: “I assume you’re here to report on Adam’s first day at the store, so why don’t we go outside and talk?”
o0o
Duke heard Faith’s request. But, after walking in here and finding his respectable mother and sisters-in-law looking intoxicated, he wasn’t budging from this spot even if Faith promised to lead him to her bed. He was going to stand right here beside this flat of smelly green stuff until he figured out exactly what the hell was going on. His mother looked drugged out of her head. Had
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