Rebecca Hagan Lee - [Borrowed Brides 02] (11 page)

“Certainly.” The woman was brisk and businesslike. She stepped around the counter. “May I have your list?”

“I don’t have a list.” Tessa spoke quickly, her Irish brogue more noticeable with each word. “But I can tell you what I need. I know everything by heart.” She looked to the other woman. “That will be all right, won’t it?”

The older woman smiled. “That will be fine.” She gestured toward the coat tree near the door. “Why don’t you take off your coat while I get a pencil and paper?”

Tessa unbuttoned David’s coat and hung it on a hook.

She turned to find Coalie had already shed his coat and was standing in front of the jars lining the top of the main counter. Inside the jars were candies of every imaginable color and flavor. Coalie eyed them longingly. Tessa did the same.

“Help yourself,” the woman said as she took a pair of spectacles out of her pocket, perched them on her nose, then reached for a pad and pencil. She smiled encouragingly.

Coalie looked to Tessa for confirmation.

Tessa paused, then nodded. “He said we could get whatever we wanted.”

Coalie didn’t waste any more time. He lifted the lid off the nearest jar and removed two candy sticks, one for himself and one for Tessa, then proceeded to do the same to each of the jars. He paused as he reached the last flavor. “Do ya think we ought to get some for Mr. Alexander, as well?” He popped a licorice stick in his mouth, then handed the rest of the candies to Tessa.

“Mr. David Alexander?” the saleslady asked.

“Yes,” Tessa answered.

“You can get him one of each if you like,” she confided, “but his favorite flavor is peppermint.” She tapped the pencil against the jar full of peppermint sticks, then lifted the lid as Coalie reached in and pulled out a handful of candy.

The older woman introduced herself as she handed Tessa a paper bag. “I’m Lorna Taylor. I’m a friend of Mr. Alexander’s. You must be visiting the ranch?”

“No, ma’am.” Tessa shook her head. She didn’t look up, but busied herself stuffing with the candy into the brown sack.

“Oh, well, excuse my prying. I’m pleased to meet you anyway, Miss…?”

“Roarke,” Tessa said. “Tessa Roarke. I’m pleased to meet you, too. And this is Coalie.” She put her arm around Coalie’s shoulders and pulled him forward a bit to greet the nice lady.

“I’ve seen you before.” Lorna peered through her glasses at Coalie. “You were in here yesterday shopping with Mr. Alexander.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Coalie confirmed, pleased she’d remembered.

Lorna drew in a breath. “Then you must be…” She looked at Tessa, then toward the ladies’ corner where Mrs. Jeffers gossiped with the women. She took Tessa by the arm and steered her in the opposite direction, away from the conversation. “Never mind.” She smiled brightly at Tessa and Coalie as she reached into her apron pocket for the pad and pencil. “Now, my dears, what can I get for you?”

“Flour, sugar, coffee.” Tessa reeled off the necessary items.

Lorna wrote it all down. “Ten pounds of flour, ten pounds of sugar, five pounds of coffee…”

“And canned goods.” Tessa glanced at Coalie. “And maybe some bacon and ham.”

“Don’t forget tea,” Coalie reminded her.

‘Tea.” Tessa moved away from Lorna toward the display of teas in the ladies’ corner. “Do you have East India tea? I don’t much care for coffee.”

“We’ll save the tea for last,” Lorna said hurriedly. “Now, what else?” she asked, steering Tessa back.

“Horsemeat.” Tessa started to explain, but Lorna interrupted.

“I know,” she whispered conspiratorially. “For the
cat
.”

“Lorna!” A small, frail-looking woman in a day dress of dark blue wool trimmed in black velvet excused herself from the group of admiring women and called to the saleslady once again. “Lorna, what else did Mr. Alexander buy yesterday for that creature from the Satin Slipper?” She slipped away from the women to get a better view of her employee. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you were waiting on a customer.” She glanced at Tessa as she apologized for the interruption, but her smile didn’t reach her eyes. “I won’t keep you, Lorna. I can see you’re busy, but I was telling Mrs. Riner about Mr. Alexander’s hasty visit yesterday afternoon. I was warning her not to be too shocked when that murderess appears in court wearing one of the dresses she made for the store. But I couldn’t remember which dress he bought.” Margaret Jeffers glanced back to her group of ladies. “I told them you would know, since you waited on him. He even bought a complete set of unmentionables, didn’t he? He took a long time choosing the dress. Awfully picky, if you ask me, when you consider it was for a
saloon woman
. Which dress did he finally buy?”

“I really am busy at the moment, Mrs. Jeffers.” Lorna grabbed Tessa’s elbow and stepped back. “I’m filling an order. A very
large
order.”

“Wait a minute. It’ll come back to me.” Margaret Jeffers stared at her employee, then at the customer standing by her side.

“He bought a green calico,” Tessa interrupted.

“That’s right.” Margaret snapped her fingers and turned to look at Amelia Riner. “He bought a calico. A green calico just like the one this young lady is weari—” She gasped. She studied Tessa, taking in her appearance from the top of her bonnet, which had graced the millinery section of her store until yesterday afternoon, to the tips of Tessa’s black leather shoes. Shoes that had come to Jeffers Mercantile by way of Chicago.

“Just like the dress I’m wearing?” Tessa said. “It
is
the one I’m wearing.”

“Get out!” Mrs. Jeffers spat the words at Tessa. “Get out, you…you
saloon
trash! How dare you darken the door of a reputable establishment?”

Tessa stood her ground. She could feel the flush of blood staining her face and it made her fighting mad. She had no reason to feel embarrassed, no reason to hang her head or run and hide from the looks of horror on the faces of the gently bred ladies in the store. She was innocent; she hadn’t killed Arnie Mason, and respectable or not, working in a saloon to put food on the table and a roof over her head wasn’t a crime. It was honest labor, nothing to be ashamed of. Tessa stayed where she was and looked Margaret Jeffers straight in the eye. “This reputable establishment is open to the public.” She handed the bag of candy to Coalie. “I’m a customer. Mr. Alexander asked me to come here and get what I needed. He said to put everything on his account.”

“I’ll do no such thing.” Margaret Jeffers was indignant. “I don’t sell my goods to riffraff.” She reached for the bag of candy.

Coalie stepped back.

“Riffraff?” Tessa’s face grew even redder. She took a step forward, her fists clenched at her sides. “You think an important lawyer like David Alexander is riffraff?”

“He is if he associates with you. Riffraff.” Mrs. Jeffers advanced. “The lot of you. Saloon girls, no-good painted hussies, and half-breed Indians.” She bared her teeth in a smug, superior smile as Tessa took another step.

“Mr. Alexander said—”

“This store doesn’t belong to David Alexander. It belongs to me. And I want you out of it. Immediately.”

“You won’t put my supplies on his account?”

“No, I will not.”

“Then I’ll pay with cash money.” Tessa walked to where David’s jacket hung near the door, removed the bills, and waved them. “I’ve got plenty.” She allowed Mrs. Jeffers to see the denominations of the bills. “And I’m willing to pay for everything I buy. Today.”

The store owner hesitated for the barest second, but stiffened her resolve at the sound of the collective gasp coming from the ladies’ corner. “Your money isn’t good in this store. It’s dirty money.”

Tessa nodded, then reached for Coalie’s hand. “It’s your loss.” She put the money back in her pocket. “Come on, Coalie. She’s not interested in our business.” Tessa looked down and met Margaret Jeffers’s steely gaze. “We don’t want to darken the door of a struggling little mercantile when we can send to Chicago for all the supplies we want.” Tessa looked Margaret Jeffers in the eye. “It isn’t as if we don’t have money.”

Coalie thrust the bag of candy sticks into Tessa’s hands. “I don’t want ’em. They have better candy in Chicago.”

Tessa turned her back on Mrs. Jeffers and walked to the coat tree. She removed Coalie’s hat and coat and handed them to him, then pulled David’s heavy coat from the hook and slipped it on. She glanced back at Lorna Taylor, then walked over and placed the paper bag in Lorna’s hands. “Thank you.”

Lorna smiled. “You’re welcome.”

“Not in my store she isn’t.” Mrs. Jeffers rounded on her employee. “And neither will you be if you continue to associate with the likes of her.”

Tessa opened the door. “Don’t let her bully you, Miss Taylor,” she advised.

“Bully?” Margaret shrieked.

“Yes, bully,” Tessa repeated. “That’s what you do to Miss Taylor, and that’s what you are—a small-minded bully. It’s a pleasure
not
to do business with you.”

Lorna Taylor couldn’t hide her smile of pleasure at the look on Margaret’s face.

Seeing it, Margaret Jeffers pointed a finger at her employee. “If you take her side, you’re fired.”

Tessa looked at Lorna. “There are other jobs. Better jobs.”

“Like the Satin Slipper?” Margaret Jeffers offered.

“Maybe,” Tessa said.

“She’ll find herself there,” Margaret warned. “If she continues to associate with you and David Alexander.”

“Well,” Tessa said to Margaret, “it can’t be any worse than working for a bully like you. The hours are long, and the place is loud, but the class of people there is much better. Saloons don’t cater to snobs.”

Tessa took a dollar bill from her pocket, then walked over to Margaret Jeffers, opened her hand, and let the bill fall to the floor at Margaret’s feet. “Here’s a dollar for your time and two candy sticks.” With that parting shot, Tessa and Coalie left Jeffers’s Mercantile.

Shaking with reaction, Tessa held back her sobs until she was halfway down the street, then burst into angry tears. She wanted to run to the depot and buy tickets for the first train heading out of Peaceable. She wanted to run away again, but she’d given David her word and she’d keep it even if it killed her.

* * *

“Thanks, Sheriff.” David closed the front door of the sheriff’s office and stepped out onto the wooden sidewalk. He took his watch out of his pocket and opened the cover. There was plenty of time to meet the doc at the funeral parlor before he joined Tessa and Coalie at the mercantile. David wanted a last look at Arnie Mason’s corpse. Something about it nagged at his brain, tugged at his consciousness, just out of reach. It was a shame Dr. McMurphy was visiting his sister-in-law in Virginia. David trusted Kevin McMurphy’s expertise and his sound judgment. David only hoped Doc Turner knew half as much.

Inhaling deeply, David closed the watch, dropped it back into his waistcoat pocket, then raised his arms above his head, stretching the aches out of his large body. He was over six feet tall and he’d spent far too many hours hunched over a desk. He turned to his right and caught a glimpse of green out of the corner of his eye. Tessa and Coalie were sitting quietly on a wooden bench outside the sheriff’s office.

Lowering his arms, David approached them. “Finished so soon?” he asked.

Tessa didn’t look up, and Coalie merely shrugged in greeting.

“I thought you’d have a dozen or so packages for me to carry,” David teased. “Or…oh, no, don’t tell me. You’re having a wagon deliver the supplies.”

“Not exactly.” Tessa’s voice had an edge to it.

A quiver of alarm shot up David’s spine. “Tessa? Is something wrong?”

“Not anymore,” she answered brightly.

“You did go to Jeffers’s Mercantile?”

“We went,” Tessa replied, “but we didn’t find anything we really needed. Or wanted.” Still she didn’t look up to meet his gaze.

“At Jeffers’s Mercantile? You’ve got to be kidding. They carry everything that anyone could possibly need.”

“Not for me.”

“What about flour, sugar, and tea?” David studied Tessa. “You did get that, didn’t you? Coalie?” David glanced at the boy squirming on the wooden bench.

“Tell him.” Coalie nudged Tessa in the arm.

“What is it?” The quiver of alarm grew into something more. A heavy feeling settled in David’s chest.

“The ladies at the mercantile are probably still in shock because Coalie and I dared to darken the door of a reputable establishment.” The angry words burst from Tessa’s lips. “That woman wouldn’t put our purchases on your account, nor would she take our money. It wasn’t good enough for her. She says it’s dirty…just like us.” Tessa’s small frame quivered with anger.

“
Lorna
said that?” David couldn’t believe his ears.

“No,” Tessa told him. “Not Lorna. The other one. Mrs. Jeffers. She called us riffraff and ordered us to leave her store, as if we weren’t good enough to shop there.” She raised her chin a notch higher.

David bent down in front of her. He touched Tessa’s chin with one finger, lowering the angle a bit so he could see the militant expression masking the vulnerability in her eyes.

“What did you say?” he asked Tessa.

“I told Mrs. Jeffers I didn’t want to shop at her mercantile. I had money enough to order my supplies from Chicago…”

“Chicago?” David interrupted. “Couldn’t you think of someplace closer?”

“I was angry,” Tessa told him.

“I can tell.” David found it hard to keep a straight face. He’d have paid money to see Tessa face off with Margaret Jeffers.

“Do you want to know what happened or not?” Tessa demanded.

“I wouldn’t miss this retelling for anything.”

Tessa eyed him suspiciously. “Then quit interrupting.”

“I’m sorry.” David almost laughed, but quickly coughed to cover it up. “Please continue.”

She repeated the confrontation almost word for word, then ended her recitation with a flourish. “I told her we could order supplies from Chicago, then I told her that the Satin Slipper catered to a better class of people than the ones in her store. And then, I dropped a dollar on the floor in front of her and left.” Tessa glared at David, waiting for his reaction.