The Darling Dahlias and the Texas Star by Susan Wittig Albert

Author:Susan Wittig Albert [Albert, Susan Wittig]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Mystery, Gardening, Adult
ISBN: 0425260585
Google: w0Tii6sGcxwC
Amazon: 0425260585
Barnesnoble: 0425260585
Goodreads: 15808346
Publisher: Thorndike Press
Published: 2012-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

TWELVE

The Trouble with Passion

When they left the diner, Charlie drove Miss Dare and Lizzy to the Kilgores’ house. He made arrangements to take Miss Dare to supper and then to the special showing of Hell’s Angels and went back to the newspaper office. Miss Dare announced that since she was going out for the evening, she would take a bath and a long nap and would appreciate not being disturbed. She disappeared into her room—the yellow room at the top of the stairs. Lizzy and Mildred sat down in the kitchen over a cup of tea.

Looking at Mildred, Lizzy thought that she had not slept for several nights. Her eyes were like dark holes in white paper. “Are you all right?” Lizzy asked, concerned.

Mildred looked away. “She’s even more beautiful than her pictures, Liz,” she said bitterly, “and much more sexy. If I had known about her and Roger, I wouldn’t have planned the party. And I would never have invited her to stay under my roof!”

Lizzy opened her mouth to say something, but Mildred was going on. She clenched her hand into a fist. “I could scarcely keep myself from telling her off, right there in front of Mr. Dickens! I don’t know how in the world I can stand it, having to be polite to her until she leaves. Just looking at her makes me want to throw up.”

“You can do it, Mildred,” Lizzy said comfortingly. She reached across the table and patted her friend’s hand. “I know you can. Anyway, if you told her off, what would you say?”

Mildred leaned forward. “What would I say?” Her face was suddenly twisted and ugly and her voice was full of disgust and revulsion. “I would scare her little lacy panties right off her, that’s what I would do. I would make her read that anonymous letter out loud, word by word. I would show her that photograph and those checks. I would threaten to drag her name through the mud if she didn’t stop foolin’ around with my husband. And if she gave me so much as one word of sassy backtalk, I would slap her, hard. Or maybe I’d take a fireplace poker to her.” Mildred’s eyes blazed with an almost volcanic anger. “That pretty face wouldn’t be so pretty when I got through with her.”

Shocked, Lizzy sucked in her breath. “I . . . I really don’t think you would do that,” she said inadequately. Of all the women she knew, Mildred was the most self-contained, always behaving with the calm, unruffled decorum of a Southern lady who never acknowledged such a thing as a hard feeling. “Butter wouldn’t melt in Mildred’s mouth,” Aunt Hetty Little had once said. It had always been true—until now.

Mildred held herself rigid for a moment, then slumped back in her chair, sighing like a deflating balloon, all the energy going out of her. After a moment she spoke in a low, shaky voice.

“You’re right, Liz. Of course I wouldn’t. My mother taught me never to cause a ruckus, never.

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