Ava & Ina by Juliet James

Author:Juliet James [James, Juliet]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Squeaky Clean Western Romance

37

Wally was right. Women aren’t nearly so foolish as men, and things were much calmer on the other side of the street.

After the women and children entered the church, Opal explained, as kindly and gently as she could, that Slim Jim had been pardoned, and was back.

There had been fear and exasperation, much wringing of hands. Some tears were shed too, for some of these women had suffered greatly at the outlaw’s hands.

But women, they’re just about wiser than owls.

They simply talked each other through it, and worked out some strategies for how they might keep their men from doing anything foolish. Doing things that might get them killed.

Questions were asked, and then answered. After an initial wave of panic, there was a sort of calm that settled in its place. Even by normal standards, there was no shortage of wisdom in that church, and they would get through this — with persistence, with love for each other; with determination, with faith. They’d get through this just how they got through everything else — together.

The one thing no one could quite understand though, was why Slim Jim would return. He was free, he could have gone anywhere. Yet the man had chosen to come back to the one place he was best known, and therefore most hated.

“It’s a stumper,” said Mabel Milligan. “Where’s Mary Bean? She’s the wisest woman I know.”

“She went home to help some newcomers get cleaned up and settled in,” Opal told her.

“Newcomers?” asked Mabel, raising an eyebrow.

“The new blacksmith and his family, and Beryl Waters is there too, with—”

“Aunt Beryl?” cried Emmy-Lou. “Oh, but why did no one tell me my dear Aunt Beryl was here? I simply must see her right away!”

And with that, Emmy-Lou Milligan jumped out of her seat and commenced to make her way out the church doors.

The meeting had more-or-less come to a conclusion, so Opal put up no argument, and they all followed young Emmy-Lou out the door. Thing was, while it was Joseph Bean who was most widely known as a champion spreader of gossip, there wasn’t a woman in that town who wasn’t curious to meet any newcomers — although, what with every person from miles around being in attendance, there wouldn’t be anyone fresh to gossip about it to later.

Still, that’s half the reason letters get written and sent.

They milled around here and there: some on the church steps, some in the middle of the street in the afternoon sun — and a few who followed Emmy-Lou all the way to the barbershop porch.

It was roundabout then that the ruckus began in the saloon, and a terrible rumbumptious racket it made too.

Even Emmy-Lou, who had up until then been intent on seeing her Aunt Beryl, forgot everything else and turned toward the awful noise, wondering just what was going on.

“Oh dear, I thought that might happen,” said Mabel, shaking her head. “Men!”

“But whatever are they doing,” cried Emmy-Lou from where she stood on the Bean’s porch.

“Why, they’re fighting, of course,” said Kate Davis.

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