Tenderness (22 page)

“Good night, Mrs. Lindstrom,” Jesse said pointedly. Her father looked at her sharply and then at the housekeeper.

“Well… good night.” Louella allowed Hollis to see the hurt look on her face. She smiled bravely and bowed her head before
backing out the doorway.

“What was that all about?” Hollis looked directly at his older daughter. She shrugged.

“We like time alone with you, Papa.”

“Y-Yeah. Sh-She’s al-l-ways got her n-nose in.”

“We don’t like her,” Susan said bluntly and scooped up another piece of pie.

“You like her pie.”

“She cooks good, but… it’s not like it used to be around here.”

“And how was that?” Hollis asked.

“We didn’t have to walk around scared she’d pop out and accuse us of something. And we had a little time to do something besides
work.” Susan’s resentment bubbled out unguardedly.

“And you, Todd. Do you feel the same?”

“Sh-she don’t l-l-like me.”

“That’s not true. She thinks you’re a fine lad—her words, not mine. I know how Jesse feels about Louella or any woman we would
hire to take care of the house.” He looked straight at his elder daughter. “You resent her taking over what has been your
domain for quite a few years. Louella understands that. You must admit, Jesse, she’s taken a load of work off your shoulders.
It was unfair of me to allow you to work in the surgery, keep my home, raise my children.”

“I thought it was
my
home too, Papa.” Jesse fought to keep the tears at bay. “The children I have cared for are my brother and sister.”

“It is your home for as long as it stands.” Hollis saw the unshed tears in her eyes and wanted desperately to ease her pain.
“I want you to have the freedom to enjoy your youth.”

“Are you embarrassed, Papa, to have a twenty-two-year-old, unmarried daughter still living in your house?”

“Jess! For God’s sake! Where in the world did you dig up such a crazy idea?”

“I… bet I know!”

“Hush, Susan,” Hollis said angrily and got to his feet. “Jesse, if anyone is embarrassed, it must be Pauline. I’m sorry, my
dear, for filling your ears with family problems. We’ll talk about this later. Meanwhile, I want all of you to understand
that Mrs. Lindstrom stays. She takes good care of the house, is a good cook and has refined ways. As for you two,”—he looked
pointedly at Susan and Todd—“I want you to make more of an effort to get along with her. Discipline is what you need. She’s
had experience with children who need direction.”

“Are you saying that I let them run wild, Papa?” Jesse, too, had stood. Her face was tight, her heart thudded with dread.

“I’m not saying that at all. You’re too close to them to see how they manipulate you.”

“Mrs. Lindstrom’s words, no doubt,” Jesse said drily.

“Regardless of who said it, it’s true.”

Jesse’s heart fell with a thud. “You won’t reconsider?”

“No. I suggest we all get a night’s sleep before we discuss this further. Good night.”

With a look of apology to Pauline, Jesse followed her father through the dining room and into the hall. She paused at his
bedroom door while he turned on the gas light. She watched his face anxiously while he looked about the room. His hand was
wrapped tightly around the bedpost. She saw the shock, grief, and finally resignation.

“Papa, I didn’t do it.”

“I know. I know, Good night, Jesse.”

When he was alone, Hollis sank down on the edge of the bed, rested his elbows on his knees and covered his face with his hands.

Dora, my love, I had a little something of you here where I could sit and dream… and now even that is gone.

E
than was taking lines of type out of the frame that made up the front page of the
Gazette.
The weekly paper was printed and stacked beside the door ready for delivery. The bold headline warned women to be careful
because The Looker was still about. One more woman, whose name was not revealed, had reported to Marshal Wright that she had
been stripped and
looked at
in her home. She reported that it had been a most humiliating experience.

“How long has this been going on?”

“Since a month before you got here.” The outspoken publisher of the paper was more comfortable now with the detective.

“That’s a relief. I think I’ll hang a sign around my neck saying I’ve only been here a couple of weeks.”

“Someone giving you trouble?”

“Every woman in town runs from me.” Ethan gave Ralph a cocky grin.

“Shows we got smart women in Harpersville.”

“People seem to think it’s a man who lives up in the hills.”

“Wade Simmer. They think that because the almighty Harpers sicced them on him. It isn’t Wade. I’d stake my life on it.”

“You know him?”

“Hell, yes, I know him. He’s a rough character. He minds his own business, but don’t push him. Get him in a corner and he’ll
fight till hell freezes over, and he fights dirty. Must have picked it up in his travels.”

“Nothin’ wrong with that.”

“Wander down to Ike’s garage some Wednesday night and meet him.”

“They say he’s got plenty of money. Any idea where he got it?”

“No. He came back here about three years ago. He’d been away for quite a while. If he stole the money, it wasn’t from anyone
around here. I don’t know where he got it or how much it is or where it is. It’s none of my business.”

“I’ll tell you one thing. He’d better watch his back. Some fellows from that bridge crew are laying for him. One has a girl
that was molested. The man just heard about it and is out to hurt someone.”

“That’ll be Bertha Secory’s pa. When John gets some white lightning in him he’s got the brains of a pissant.”

“Someone should pass the word to Simmer.”

“I already have.”

Ethan looked up from the alphabetized boxes where he was filing the type. Ralph was cleaning the press.

“You don’t miss much, do you?”

“Not much to miss in this one-horse town. How did your interview go with the doctor last night?”

“I wondered when you’d ask.”

“On print day I don’t have time to go out back to the privy, much less make idle conversation.”

“It went well. He told me the Public Health people think they can stamp out smallpox here in the United States within twenty
years if they can get people to come for vaccinations.”

“Hurrumpt!” Ralph grunted and carried the turpentine-soaked rags to a bucket that sat outside the back door. “See anything
of the girls? That’s what you went for, wasn’t it?”

“How would you be knowin’ that?”

“I’m not blind. I’ve seen you eyeing Miss Anthony, and you know well as I do that she’s staying with the Forbeses this summer
while Mrs. Poole is gone. Don’t blame her for not wanting to stay alone.”

“She’s an eyeful. And won’t give me the time of day.”

“Rankles, doesn’t it?”

“She and Miss Jesse were on the front porch when I got there. Miss Jesse is friendly enough, but Miss Pauline tilted her cute
little nose and hardly spoke. Since I’ve not seen her with any man at all, I know she doesn’t have a steady beau. Something’s
caused that girl to be man-shy.”

Pauline Anthony had intrigued him from the very first—a menace to his peace of mind. She was lovely with an innocent sensuality
and was causing him to violate his long-standing prohibition against getting involved with anyone connected with a case while
he was working on it.

“Doc Forbes has got that darkie doing some cleanup around the place. His new housekeeper will work the living daylights out
of the kid. I can’t abide the woman myself. There’s something about her that doesn’t ring true.”

“Yeah?” Ethan’s hand, holding the large tweezers he used for lifting the small type, paused momentarily. “For instance?”

“Well, for one thing she calls herself ‘friend of the family.’ Miss Jesse calls her ‘housekeeper.’ Susan calls her ‘Ghost-face’
and Todd calls her ‘Poothead.’”

Ethan hooted. “I think I’d like those kids.”

“The old girl says she was mistress of a girls’ school. Then why is she here in this jerkwater town doing housework instead
of getting another job at a school? And she tries to hobnob with the ‘elite.’ Doesn’t seem natural somehow.”

“Maybe she’s got her eye on the Doc?”

“Doc Forbes says he never set eyes on her till she knocked on the door. Seems she’s a girlhood friend of Dora Forbes, his
deceased wife.”

“Does anyone in town remember her?”

“Dora was from Knoxville. She came here when she was a young woman and worked in the boarding house. That’s where she met
the doc.”

Ethan mulled Ralph’s words over in his mind. He was tempted to take the publisher into his confidence but decided against
it. It was too soon. He would wait until he found out if there was a connection between Pauline and Mrs. Lindstrom. Pauline
had a convenient excuse for staying with the Forbeses this summer. God, he hoped it was just coincidence that she was there.
When she had been pointed out to him as a teacher, his first thought was that she was someone Louella Lindstrom would gravitate
to, having been connected with a school herself.

“That little darkie can run like a deer.” Ralph’s voice jarred Ethan back to the present.

“I heard he lives with Simmer.”

“Yeah. Simmer has kind of adopted him.”

“Going to the ball game this evening?”

“Might, if you stop flapping your lips and get that type sorted.”

A week had passed since Jesse had seen Wade. Beside the fact he hadn’t called, there were two reasons for her nerves being
on edge.

The first was what happened when the housekeeper went into the parlor and found Todd with the stereoscope and several series
of views.

“Put those back right this minute,” she had ordered, her voice reaching down the hall to the surgery. “You are far too young
to be viewing that set, and, besides, you’ll break your father’s stereoscope.”

“B-But, I-I-I-I—”

“No buts. Put it away.”

“N-N-o-o-! J-J-Jesseee—”

Jesse left the surgery. Todd’s wail brought her scurrying down the hall. She was alarmed at the terror she heard in his voice.
She paused in the doorway of the parlor to see him with the stereoscope clutched to his breast and Mrs. Lindstrom trying to
wrench it from him.

“This is shameful behavior, Todd. Give it here.”

“I-I-I w-w-won’t. J-J-Jesss—”

Mrs. Lindstrom’s hand lashed out and struck Todd’s face. The slap made a sharp sound.

Jesse, with rage boiling up like a tidal wave, flew across the room and grabbed the woman’s arm, spinning her around so violently
that she stumbled back and stood with a chair between them.

“Leave him alone!”

Sobbing, Todd turned to wrap his arms around his sister’s waist. “J-J-Jess… Sh-She w-w-on’t—”

“It’s all right, darling. It’s all right.”

“He’ll break it. The doctor said I should discipline him.”

“I’m sure he didn’t mean for you to strike him.”

“He must learn to bow to authority.”

“Not yours, madam! And he will not break it.”

“The doctor spent good money—”

“The doctor did not spend one red cent on it. I did. Todd has been using the stereoscope for years. It’s not only enjoyable,
it’s educational.”

“He was looking at the series that show men and women kissing.”

“And what is wrong with that? People do it all the time. Todd, take the stereoscope and the views to your room. You can keep
them there.” Jesse bristled like a mama bear protecting her cub.

Louella waited until the boy was gone before she spoke.

“I’ll speak to the doctor about this. He wants the children trained to be refined and genteel. Your interference makes it
impossible for me to have any control over them.”

“Speak to him all you want, but keep your hands off that boy.” Jesse was so angry that words gushed out of her mouth like
water from a fountain. “I’ll tell you this and you had better heed my words. If I ever hear that you have slapped him, called
him stupid or have even mentioned his stammering, I’ll pull every hair out of your head. And that’s not all. I’ll mark up
that lily-white face of yours so that you’ll be putting more than buttermilk on it for the rest of your life.” By the time
Jesse finished she was shouting.

“You are certainly lacking in polish and grace.” Mrs. Lindstrom lifted her chin and shook her head sadly. “I can’t imagine
why a man as refined as Edsel Harper would be interested in you.”

“If you find the Harpers so perfect, Mrs. Lindstrom, why don’t you apply for a job with them?”

Back in the surgery, Jesse sank down in a chair. Never in her life had she threatened anyone or come so near losing control.
It would not have taken much more for her to grab handfuls of the woman’s hair. She realized how short her temper had become
as the days had passed and her father had continued to appear to enjoy the housekeeper’s company. But that had nothing to
do with the anger she felt now.

That evening she and Pauline sat in the porch swing and discussed what had happened.

“Wait,” Pauline cautioned. “Wait until you have more incidents to report to your father. He may be able to find an excuse
for the woman’s behavior.”

“For slapping Todd?”

“She could tell him that she used this method with her students at the boarding school.”

“Papa wouldn’t go along with that, would he?”

The conversation was cut short when Ethan Bredlow came up the walk to the house. He sat on the porch rail and tried to make
conversation.

“Nice evening. I like the long days, don’t you, Miss Anthony?”

Pauline’s eyes lifted to survey him with unease. “Yes,” she agreed, coldly.

“Soon we’ll have the longest day in the year. June twenty-second, isn’t it?”

He was looking at Pauline. When she didn’t answer, Jesse tried to fill the void.

“It’s the twenty-first or the twenty-second. And then the days will start getting shorter. I love fall, but I love summer
more.”