In The Midnight Rain by Ruth Wind

Author:Ruth Wind
Language: por
Format: mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

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The slanted parking places in front of Dorrie's Cafe were packed with pickup trucks and utility vehicles and anonymous white cars with various government agency designations stenciled on their sides. "Maybe this was a bad choice for lunch," Blue said, driving his truck around the block. "I should have remembered we'd have to be here early. Everybody comes here for lunch these days."

He rounded the corner again. A tall black woman with strong features was walking in the warm noon sunlight, and Ellie admired her calf muscles. Blue honked and stuck his hand out the window to wave at her. She inclined her head with a wry expression and wiggled her fingers, then shook her head.

Blue laughed. "You know you love me, sweetheart."

"Your mama!" she called back, but Ellie glimpsed the edges of a smile she tried to hide.

"That's Rosemary's youngest sister," Blue said.

"Ah. I haven't met her."

He pulled into a parking place near Rosemary's bookstore. "She works in the courthouse. We had a hell of a fight about that road out to Gwen's place a couple of year sago."

"Why?"

"Well, that's a story rooted in the sad old history of the county. After emancipation, that plot of land where Gwen lives was willed to their family by a guilt-ridden slave master who lived there."

"That would be your relative?"

He gave a nod. "It would. My triple great-grandfather, Ambrose Reynard. He was, by all accounts, a real bastard. Never met a woman he didn't seduce—white, black, free, slave, poor trash. Didn't matter.

He scattered children from one end of the county to the other."

Ellie resisted making a comparison. Blue opened the door and held it for her, and he must have caught the wicked thought. "Don't say it," he said, and grinned. "Anyway, some of them got that land, but it was lost and the deeds were a mess. My daddy fixed it up with Gwen before he died."

"Is she related to Rosemary?"

"Not closely. Some kind of third cousin once removed or something like that."

"So she's related to Mabel, too?"

His mouth turned down. "I don't think so. Mabel was Rosemary's father's sister, right? This land came through their mother."

Ellie blinked. "Complicated."

"Just a normal day in the country, honey."

He held the door open for her and she ducked under his arm and into the low roar of Dorrie's. A country music song played cheerfully, adding a boisterous note to the rumbling of dozens of mostly men taking their midday meal. Two waitresses hurried among the tables, but took their time when they were actually talking to customers, stopping to make jokes and inquire after children. Ellie saw one waitress seat an older man with his buddies, and she took the salt shaker and put it in her pocket. The old man mounted a protest, but she could see he was pleased to be taken care of.

A man in a light linen suit, chewing on a toothpick, carried his bill to the counter. "Blue Reynard," he said heartily, smiling to show big white teeth.

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