Toward the Corner of Mercy and Peace by Tracey Buchanan

Author:Tracey Buchanan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Regal House Publishing
Published: 2023-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

14

Miss Harriett Boswell is a snob, thought Minerva.

Actually, Miss Harriett Boswell carried an impressive Paducah pedigree, and this, Minerva could never admit, annoyed her. Her grandparents were pioneer families who were among the first to call Paducah home. Hmph. Big deal. Also, Miss Boswell was too pretty, with those slanted feline-like green eyes and high, arched eyebrows, and even a beauty mark tucked under the right side of her mouth. Such beauty made Minerva suspicious. Beautiful women and handsome men got by on their looks. They were never forced to develop their character. Thus, shallow. The whole part and parcel of them. All good-looking people were subject to character weakness. That’s how Minerva saw it.

And now, imagine, Paducah gossip said pretty Miss Boswell, Paducah royalty, raconteuse, controller of all things sacred at the library, was seeing Brother Larson, Minerva’s Brother Larson. Her minister. Miss Boswell wasn’t even a Baptist, either!

Late Friday afternoon, after her last piano student received a gold star, Minerva dug into research at the library. Since Emma Skillian had visited her to correct her facts and also had returned in a dream, Minerva decided she should focus on finding more information about her. She knew Emma had died in The Flood, so she started there. But she couldn’t stop watching Miss Boswell.

Miss Boswell wore her hair in a fashion requiring weekly trips to the beauty shop. Minerva didn’t want to get roped into such a routine. Number one, having your hair fixed cost too much. Why would you pay someone to shampoo and dry your hair when you were capable of doing this yourself? And number two, all sorts of lip wagging went on at the beauty shop. A bunch of women sitting around waiting for their looks to be improved. Why, of course that’s a breeding ground for idle chitchat.

Minerva surmised that a good 75 percent of the untruths perpetuated in this town originated in beauty shops. The other 25 percent began in barber shops, because she knew men gossiped too. Since men’s haircuts didn’t last as long, they didn’t spend as much time in the shops as women; therefore, they did not generate as much gossip. This was how Minerva arrived at the seventy-five, twenty-five split. Simple logic.

Minerva picked up the confirming information about Harriett and Brother Larson at her last hair appointment. Though Minerva didn’t have a standing appointment like some women—unnecessary and excessive—she did go in on occasion to have her hair shaped up. While she was in curlers under the dryer, a woman from the Presbyterian church (Mrs. Dolby, whom Minerva knew to have overseen their church’s cookbook. She had done an excellent job, in fact) told the manicurist all about the latest goings-on. Harriett Boswell and Brother Larson included.

Now as she sat analyzing the tiny librarian, Minerva noted, not for the first time, that Miss Boswell possessed expensive taste. Today she wore a smart twin sweater set—pink cashmere, no less—and a camel pencil skirt. A strand of pearls. Pearl earrings. But of course, no wedding ring.

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