A New Attitude. Charlotte Hughes

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      CHAPTER TWO

      MARILEE HAD BEEN CLEANING nonstop for several hours when the doorbell rang. She hesitated before opening the door, afraid that it was Sam Brewer, returning the iron. She was a mess, having changed into old gray sweats and sneakers, and she smelled of disinfectant. Marilee would almost prefer giving Sam the dang iron, just to keep from facing him again. In fact, she was tempted not to answer the door at all, but after three rings she realized she had no choice. When she opened it, she found her best friends, Clara Goolesby and Ruby Led-better, standing on the other side.

      “Marilee, you have a lot of explaining to do,” Clara said, frowning so hard her black eyebrows touched in the center, as though someone had drawn a straight line across her forehead with a black marker. Her short hair, dyed black as crow’s feathers to hide the gray, stood in tufts, a sure sign that she was upset, because she had a habit of plucking the ends when she was anxious about something. The town librarian, Clara was usually quiet and reserved, the exception being when she discovered food spills or dog-eared pages on her beloved books. Then she was a menace.

      “Darn right she owes us an explanation,” Ruby echoed, crossing her arms over her breasts. She was a diminutive blonde, no bigger than a minute but a formidable opponent when riled. As owner of Classy Cuts Hair Salon, she was a shrewd businesswoman who tried to stay one step ahead of her competition, Martha Grimes, who ran The Hair Affair.

      “What in heaven’s name were you thinking, Marilee?” Clara insisted. “How could you just disappear on us like that, without telling us where you were going? If it hadn’t been for my exceptional memory, we’d never have found you.”

      Ruby looked at Clara. “Your exceptional memory? Hell’s bells, Clara, we searched for almost seventy-two hours before you thought of coming here.”

      “That may be true, Ruby, but I’m the one who remembered how Marilee couldn’t bear to sell this place after her poor sweet mama died. And you don’t have to resort to foul language to get your point across.”

      Marilee looked from one woman to the other. “Is something wrong?”

      Both women gaped at her. Clara drew herself up and sniffed as though she smelled something foul. “Did you forget you were supposed to play the piano at the Grace Blessing Home benefit luncheon on Saturday?”

      Marilee gasped. “Oh, no!”

      “Oh, yes! We had more than two hundred women show up from six counties who paid twenty bucks to eat overdone roast beef and listen to you play Mozart on Richard Griffin’s baby grand piano.” She paused to catch her breath. “And after all we went through to get that piano inside the school auditorium and pay to have it tuned. Well,” she added in a huff, “Alma Jones ended up playing hymns, and the poor thing is so old she’s tone deaf. Marilee, how could you!”

      “Yes, how could you!” Ruby seconded. “We had a devil of a time getting that piano back to Mr. Griffin. Not to mention having to pay for another tuning.”

      Clara nodded. “And that’s not the half of it. We collected almost a thousand dollars selling raffle tickets, but guess who still has the pure silver antique candelabra in the trunk of her car?”

      Marilee paled instantly. Not only had she forgotten about the benefit luncheon, she hadn’t remembered that she held the prize for the winning raffle ticket. She felt a wave of panic wash over her. And just when she’d decided to get her life in order and start afresh.

      “You can just imagine how mad Esmerelda Cunningham was over the whole thing,” Ruby said. “Especially since she donated that dumb candelabra and claimed it’d been in her family since before Jesus was born.”

      “Ruby!” Clara frowned and shook her head, then turned her attention back to Marilee. “Esmerelda said we had twenty-four hours to collect the candelabra or she was going to have you arrested.”

      “Arrested!” Marilee cried. “Does she think I stole it?” Her heart began to beat faster. After all that had happened, the last thing she needed was to go to jail.

      Clara shifted her gaze. “We didn’t know what to think. Especially with Grady getting fired from the church over some…well, you know.” Clara paused, as though trying to come up with the right word.

      “Two-bit whore?” Ruby offered.

      Clara cut her eyes at the woman. “Honestly, Ruby, the things you say.”

      “Esmerelda said you probably hocked that candelabra and hightailed it out of town,” Ruby said. “Not that anybody’d really blame you, after all you’ve been through.”

      Clara gave an embarrassed cough. “Perhaps we shouldn’t go into that right now, Ruby.”

      Marilee was still hurt over Esmerelda Cunningham’s accusations. Esmerelda was Chickpea’s wealthiest citizen and the closest thing to royalty the town had ever seen. Marilee, who’d been involved with the fund-raiser since its conception, had personally asked the woman for a donation and had discovered she was not only a snob but stingy as well. Esmerelda had agreed to part with her beloved candelabra, but she’d been none too pleased about it.

      Her first thoughts were of Grady. He could handle Esmerelda. But no, Grady was no longer in the picture. It was up to her. Her. She suddenly realized just how many problems Grady had taken care of in their sixteen years of marriage. Now they were her problems. Her moment of truth hit her in the face like a lead pipe. She was now solely responsible for her own life. That in itself was enough reason to pawn the candelabra and leave town.

      Clara plucked at her hair. “No Mozart, no raffle prize. Can you imagine how utterly ridiculous we felt?”

      “And Benson Contractors walked off the job this afternoon for nonpayment,” Ruby told her. “Bobby Benson said he wasn’t going to make any more repairs to Blessing Home until he was paid—in full.”

      “What about the roof?” Marilee asked frantically.

      Clara shook her head sadly. “The money we raised won’t come close to covering it. Bobby nailed plastic over the holes in the roof and left without so much as a fare-thee-well.”

      “We’ll never be able to come up with that kind of money,” Ruby said. “Not legally, anyway.”

      Marilee sank into the nearest chair. “I am so sorry.” She was close to tears. They had been working for weeks to raise funds for the unwed mothers’ home, and she had let everybody down.

      “Do you have any idea how difficult it is to find lodging for twelve pregnant girls СКАЧАТЬ