Delivering the Truth by Edith Maxwell

Author:Edith Maxwell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: mystery, mystery fiction, mystery novel, historical fiction, historical mystery, quaker, quaker mystery, quaker midwife, rose carroll, quaker midwife mystery
Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide, LTD.
Published: 2016-02-16T16:00:00+00:00

“Thee has a dress thee can loan me? In my size?” I couldn’t believe my luck. I had come to ask Orpha’s granddaughter how fast she could make me a dress and what the cost would be. Instead she had offered to lend me one. Way had opened, after all.

Alma, a plump woman of about thirty, smiled. “I think it will be perfect. She’s slim and tall, like you. What are you, about five feet eight inches?”

I nodded.

“A lady had me make it for some society affair, and then she said the color was all wrong for her. She didn’t want it back, and she’s in such comfortable circumstances she paid for an entire new dress. Let me fetch it.”

Orpha sat in her rocker tatting a piece of lace. “Life brings us what we deserve; that is what I have always said.”

“I hope this turns out to be something good, otherwise I’ll be getting what I deserve straying from plain dress.” I glanced down at my gray everyday frock, which up to now had sufficed for attending Meeting, attending births, and nearly everything in between.

“Tell me again where you will be wearing this frock that is not plain?” Orpha asked.

“David Dodge wants my company at a society affair on Seventh Day. He very much wants to escort me. Orpha, what if I don’t know how to behave? What if they have a myriad of forks and knives and finger bowls? What if I address someone the wrong way, or step on David’s feet as we dance?”

“Do not concern yourself with that, my dear. You will sit up straight and be your usual intelligent forthright self. You have never before given much care to what society thinks of you, have you?”

“Well, no. One can’t, really, being a Friend. I’m used to being different.”

“Then you will watch how your friend uses all those forks and follow suit. And if you use the wrong one, does it matter? He will not love you any less, I dare say.” She rocked gently, watching me.

“Thee is right. As always.”

“Do you know how to dance?”

“A bit. Harriet and I used to practice. I’m not the most clumsy person around, but not the most graceful, either.” I smiled at the memory of Father playing his violin as Harriet and I pretended to be a couple at a dance. I had grown taller than her by the time I was ten, so I’d insisted on taking the male part.

“You will follow his lead,” Orpha said. “You will do well.”

Alma returned to the parlor. Over her arm was the prettiest dress I had ever set eyes on. It was of a shimmering rose-colored silk. She held it up. The puffy cap sleeves were edged with lace and the flounces had a deeper rose taffeta edging them, and yet the style was simple, which pleased me. The neckline was low and the waist narrow, with a bit of a bustle in back.

“See, its color even matches your name,” Alma declared with a wide smile.

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