The Lawman Takes A Wife. Anne Avery

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СКАЧАТЬ tactfully refrained from mentioning that Sam and the sheriff already had a basis for friendship since the two of them had spent the previous evening drinking in Jackson’s saloon.

      “Heard he visited you first, Molly,” Emmy Lou Trainer commented. Above the gold-rimmed glasses perched on the tip of her nose, her eyes narrowed. “That true?”

      “He visited me,” Molly replied noncommittally. “I have no idea if I was the first, but he did stop by.”

      After he’d left the bank, she’d watched him work his way from store to store down the street. Which was sheer foolishness, and probably due to her having been so tired and suffering from the headache generated by that morning’s free-for-all. At least, that’s what she’d told herself when she’d caught herself staring out the window for the dozenth time that afternoon, waiting for him to reappear. Simple curiosity. It had nothing to do with the cut of his jaw or the breadth of his shoulders or the way he’d looked, savoring that chocolate.

      Becky Goodnight, whose husband ran the smallest and least profitable general store in town, reached for the scissors that lay on the table beside her. “My George wasn’t impressed. The man didn’t have much of anything to say for himself, or so George said.”

      Emmy Lou’s mouth pinched into a frown. “He’s certainly big enough. MayBeth Johnson said the floor shook with every step he took.”

      “It would, as rickety as the Johnsons’ old building is.” The snick of Becky’s scissors seemed viciously loud.

      Molly winced. George Goodnight had been spending most of the small profits from their store on a fancy woman down in Gunnison lately, so Becky was awfully touchy these days. It was easier to take her resentments out on her flourishing competitors than to admit that her husband wasn’t much good as a storekeeper, and an utter failure as a husband and father.

      Sometimes, when she started thinking about remarrying, Molly remembered George, gave a little prayer of thanks for the good years she’d had with Richard and made herself think about something else entirely.

      Nineteen-year-old Louisa Merton sighed, oblivious to Becky’s problems. “I was in the Johnsons’ store when he came in. I swear, I was never so disappointed in all my life! He looked so…old. He wasn’t at all handsome and he didn’t say two words when MayBeth introduced us.”

      Old? thought Molly. She frowned down at the pieces of the wedding ring quilt in her lap. DeWitt Gavin wasn’t old. And only a mooney young girl like Louisa would think he wasn’t good-looking.

      “And on top of it all, he’s divorced,” Louisa added, heaving another, deeper sigh. “At least Mr. Hancock’s always been a bachelor.”

      “Don’t tell me you’ve gone chasing him!” Emmy Lou protested, clearly shocked.

      “Wouldn’t have done me any good if I had. The only lady he ever looks at is Molly, and she’s always turning him down.”

      “Really?”

      All eyes turned on Molly.

      Molly bristled under their stares, but managed to say evenly, “Louisa is mistaken. Mr. Hancock has not come courting me and never will.”

      Which was the truth. Though he’d never been so crass as to say so outright, Gordon Hancock was interested in gaining her bed, not her heart.

      “But he asked you out to dinner at the Grand, Molly. I heard him,” Louisa insisted.

      “A business discussion,” she lied.

      “Gordon Hancock never invited my Zacharius to dinner for a business discussion,” Emmy Lou observed tartly.

      “Probably because he couldn’t afford the bill for the drinks,” said Thelma Thompson.

      Thelma didn’t do much quilting—too expensive for a poor widow woman she often said—but that didn’t stop her from showing up at the meetings. Especially when they were being held at Elizabeth’s house. Elizabeth’s cook made the best sweet biscuits in town, though it wasn’t the quality so much as the quantity and the fact that they were free that was the main attraction for Thelma.

      Elizabeth hastily passed the widow another plate of biscuits. “Well, I’m sure even a dedicated banker like Mr. Hancock likes to get out once in awhile.”

      “Then why doesn’t he ask me?” Louisa demanded.

      “Chit your age?” Thelma said, clearing the plate. “Why ever for?”

      “At this rate, I’ll never find anyone to marry,” Louisa wailed. “Never!”

      “I’m sure you’ll find somebody eventually, dear,” said Elizabeth. Before Louisa could demand to know just when that might happen, she added, “What I’d like to know is what the sheriff did for his wife to divorce him. He doesn’t seem the type to have a miss—” She glanced at Becky. “Be a troublemaker. He just doesn’t seem the type.”

      She looked around the circle. “I don’t suppose anybody’s heard the details?”

      “You’re married to the mayor.” Emmy Lou stabbed her needle into her quilting pieces as if it could have gone straight to the hearts of those who had deprived her husband of the position he deserved. “Seems to me you, of all of us, ought to know.”

      Elizabeth stiffened. “You know I don’t interfere in Josiah’s business. Such things aren’t appropriate for a lady.”

      “Huh!” said Thelma around a mouthful of sweet lemon biscuit. “I shay—”

      “Watch the crumbs!” Without looking, Elizabeth slapped a napkin into Thelma’s hand. “Besides, I’m sure Josiah and all the members of the council investigated the matter thoroughly before they agreed to hire the man.”

      “Doesn’t seem right, bringing in a man we don’t know anything about, a man with a scandal in his past when there was perfectly good candidates—” in the midst of battle, Emmy Lou’s carefully cultivated grammar tended to desert her “—for sheriff right here in Elk City. Why, if the town council had had a brain among ’em, they would have seen straight off that my Zacharius was—”

      “Are you accusing my husband of not knowing what he’s doing?”

      “Not only of not knowing, but of deliberately ignoring the good of Elk City just so he could—”

      “But doesn’t anybody know what Sheriff Gavin did to make his wife divorce him?” Coreyanne persisted, more to stop the brewing quarrel between Emmy Lou and Elizabeth than because she really wanted to know.

      The would-be combatants breathed out in angry little huffs, torn between their personal animosities and the attraction of a scandal.

      “Most likely he was a womanizer,” said Emmy Lou with a challenging glance at her rival. Everyone in town knew Josiah Andersen had an eye for the ladies.

      Elizabeth flushed. “Probably drank too much and beat her.”

      Molly set her sewing in her lap. She’d only just met the man, but already she felt sorry for DeWitt Gavin. “Maybe it was her fault.”

      Her СКАЧАТЬ