Margaret Brownley - [Rocky Creek 02] by A Suitor for Jenny

Author:A Suitor for Jenny
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Seventeen

A husband-seeking woman is advised to practice the passive art of silent suffering.

— MISS ABIGAIL JENKINS, 1875

Rhett felt like he’d been run over by a herd of cattle. He’d spent the night in his office, sitting in his hardback chair, feet on his desk. Sleep, if it came at all, was anything but restful.

He rubbed his aching head and took a long swallow of Arbuckle’s, his third cup of the morning. Redd’s coffee was bitter as poison, but it opened the eyes and stirred the blood.

Applegate and his bachelor friends were happy, but that didn’t make Rhett feel any better. No matter how many times he told himself that Jenny was where she deserved to be, he felt guilty. More than that, her very presence was a distraction. Though a wall separated his office from the jail cells, he could no more forget her presence had he found her in his bed.

Even if he could forget, the steady stream of visitors was a constant reminder. Never had he seen so many comings and goings. The parade started the moment he returned from his shave at the barbershop first thing that morning, and it hadn’t stopped since. He finally left the anteroom door unlocked so he wouldn’t have to keep jumping up and down to let the latest visitor inside.

First the pastor’s wife, Sarah, stopped by, followed by that fool man Tucker. Jenny’s two sisters made several trips yesterday and again this morning, carrying clothes and all matter of toiletries. Did women really need so many trappings?

Next came the townsfolk. Some dropped by out of curiosity, others from a sense of responsibility. Members of the Rocky Creek Quilting Bee came just to be nosy.

One by one they trotted by his desk. Leading the parade of quilters, Mrs. Emma Fields stalked by his desk like a broad-chested bird, a nestlike bun on top of her head.

Not ten minutes after she left, Mrs. Hitchcock arrived, the feathers on her hat fluttering as she shook her head. “Oh, dear. Oh, dear,” she exclaimed. “We just wanted her to leave our men alone. We never wanted her in jail.” She clucked her tongue and repeated herself before adding, “I can understand, understand Sarah Prescott being in jail, her being an outlaw and all. But Miss Higgins?”

Sarah Prescott’s imprisonment was before his time, but people still talked about how the preacher’s wife almost became the first woman hanged in Rocky Creek—not that any had been hanged since. It was hard to believe that the woman he had come to like and respect was the sister of the infamous Prescott brothers. The gang robbed stages in four states before disappearing. Sarah claimed not to have any knowledge of their whereabouts, and he believed her. But he was always on the lookout lest they pay their sister a visit.

The parade continued all morning. Rhett was relieved when the last of the Rocky Creek quilters left. Now maybe he could have some peace and quiet.

A fat lot!

No sooner had he settled down to do some work when the door swung open and in walked Archie Walbrook.

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