What a disaster! She’d practiced all morning on that Southern accent, and all she’d managed to do was to make Lee think she was even more strange.
She bent over, cupped her face in her hands, and groaned. This wasn’t going to work. She was an utter failure at this sort of thing. She was going to die an old maid. That was all there was to it!
“Patience?” a sweet Southern voice asked overhead.
Slowly Patience raised her head; and after taking a look at the woman in front of her, she wished that she’d never looked up. What she didn’t need was to see her competition looking more beautiful than ever.
Patience pulled her eyes away from the radiant pink-striped gown—redheads weren’t supposed to look good in pink, were they?—and then looked down at her own plain, beige dress.
Forget the accent, Patience thought, I need new clothes!
She made a mental note to think on that later and looked back up at Susannah. “Hi, Miss Butler. How are you?” she greeted.
Susannah smiled and sat down beside her. A wave of honeysuckle drifted over to Patience, as the pretty woman straightened the frills and ruffles on her skirt.
“I’m so glad I ran into you!” she began. “I surely did want to thank you for that dee-licious pie you brought to my house.”
Susannah was so nice, it was hard not to respond to her enthusiasm. “You’re welcome, Susannah. I’m glad you liked it.”
“I also wanted to ask you if you would come to dinner at my house tomorrow night. I’m just having a few people over that I’ve met in the short time I’ve been here. You know, so that I can get to know everybody a little better. It’ll just be the pastor and his new wife and Bobby Joe, if he’ll come, and his brother, Billy. Oh, and I plan on asking Sheriff Cutler. That’s where I was just headed.”
Patience’s heart dropped. “The sheriff, huh?”
“Oh yes,” Susannah gushed. “Isn’t he a handsome man? Those golden eyes of his can just make a girl’s heart go all aflutter! And I heard that you took care of him! Wasn’t that just sweet of you! I do hope that he’s recovering nicely.”
Patience didn’t know when she’d felt so depressed. Susannah thought Lee was handsome. It was clear that she was attracted to him. And with Lee reciprocating those feelings, where did that leave Patience?
Home alone with Mama for the rest of her life. That’s where. It was a depressing thought.
“He’s doing fine. He’s in his office. I just came from there,” Patience answered faintly.
Susannah beamed. “Oh good! Well, I’ll just run in there and ask him if he’ll come.” She hopped up and tugged at her little pink gloves. “Can I count on your being there?”
Patience knew that she shouldn’t go. It would be humiliating to be in the presence of this woman and the pretty preacher’s wife, Rachel. She would look so plain in comparison. But she didn’t want to leave Lee alone with this Southern beauty, either. “I’ll be there,” she answered.
“All righty. I’ll see you around six tomorrow?”
Patience nodded and with a friendly wave good-bye, Susannah let herself into the sheriff’s office.
Staring after her, Patience felt envious. Susannah had everything that Patience wished that she had. What chance did she have if Susannah truly did want Lee for herself?
Patience turned away and looked down the street. She couldn’t let herself think like that. The feelings that Patience had for the sheriff had become something strong and powerful in the days that she’d gotten to know him. To think that he’d never be hers was more than she could handle at that moment.
There had to be a way.
She got up and took another look down at her dress. Clothes. She needed to do something about her clothes. But what?
She looked down the street and saw the sign of the mercantile swinging in the wind. She wrapped her woolen shawl tightly around her and made her way in that direction.
Chapter 7
When his office door opened once again, Lee didn’t even look up. He just assumed that he knew who it was—Patience. “I really do need to get some work done here,” he said firmly and kept on writing.
“Oh! Well, I promise I won’t take up much of your time, Sheriff,” a musical Southern voice answered.
Lee’s head popped up, and he was greeted with the lovely presence of Miss Susannah Butler. “I’m sorry I was so rude,” he said quickly. “I thought you were … uh … someone else,” he finished lamely.
She seemed to float across the room to where he sat. At the last minute, Lee remembered his manners and jumped up from his seat and motioned toward the empty chair. “Won’t you have a seat?” he offered politely.
“Why, thank you.” She sat in a puffy cloud of striped pink and white and proceeded to pull off her dainty gloves. “I just wanted to stop by and invite you to a dinner party at my house tomorrow night. I’m only inviting a handful of people, just those I’ve become acquainted with recently. I would be most honored if you’d be counted among my guests,” she implored with a sweet smile.
He looked at her for a moment and blinked, amazed that she hadn’t even taken a breath during her whole speech. “Well, sure! I can be there. What time?”
She clasped her hands together in an apparent show of joy. “Oh, that’s wonderful! Everyone is arriving at six. And don’t worry about bringing anything—I’m cooking plenty of everything. I also invited Billy and Bobby Joe, too; though I don’t think that Bobby Joe will come. He’s such a stubborn old thing. And Daniel and Tommy can’t come because they are out of town, but I did invite the preacher and his wife and they said that they would be happy to come. Oh, and I almost forgot, I also invited …”
The door opened and Lee couldn’t help but take a breath of relief that someone had interrupted her. Had she talked so much before? He couldn’t remember that. Maybe he’d found it irritating because he was feeling so poorly and weak. That had to be it.
Texas Ranger Gene Brown stepped into the office, dragging a cuffed, scruffy-looking man behind him. “Lee! Glad to see that you’re out and about. Unfortunately I’ve got a present for you,” he greeted as he yanked the outlaw to his side.
Susannah, upon seeing the man, jumped up from her seat, clasped her hands to her chest, and gasped aloud. “Mercy!”
Lee was instantly next to her. “Gene, why don’t you lock up our guest, there, while I escort Miss Susannah outside,” he said as he tossed Gene the keys.
Gene nodded and halfway dragged the man toward the cell.
Lee took Susannah’s arm and ushered her outside.
“I’m sorry about that, Miss Susannah. But you never know what’s going to come through my office. I mean, it is a jail, too,” he explained.
“Oh, don’t be a silly-willy, Sheriff. I’m perfectly fine. That poor man just startled me, is all,” she said, waving off his concern. She pulled her gloves back on in a smart fashion and gave him a breezy smile. “But that was awfully gallant of you to come to my rescue like that!”
She laid her hand on his arm and smiled at him.
Patience let herself into the mercantile and went directly to the section of the store that she was most interested in. The material.
“Hello, Patience!” Addie Hayes, the store’s owner, called out from behind the counter. “What can I do for you today?”
Patience walked up to where she stood and motioned to the shelves behind Mrs. Hayes. “I just wanted to look at your material, Mrs. Hayes. I was thinking about making a new dress.”
Addie smiled and then turned and looked at her inventory. “Hmmm, let’s see. I have some of that gray cotton that your mother likes so much and, of course, the brown wool if you’re looking for warmth. It’s October and getting colder every day!”
But Patience shook her head. “No, I was looking for something … prettier?” she explained, her voice uncertain. She scanned the shelves, and her eyes lit on the green silk material on the third shelf. “Something like that.”
Addie followed t
o where Patience was pointing and asked, “The green?”
“Yes.”
“Now, this is a pretty color!” She pulled it loose and held it against Patience’s face. “Oh, and look at that. It just brightens your whole face!”
Patience wasn’t expecting the compliment. She blushed. “Do you really think so?”
“It certainly does! You could sew a fancy dress using this material!”
Patience’s face fell. “Oh. I’m sorry, Mrs. Hayes. I can’t get this. I never have gotten the hang of using a sewing needle. Mama makes all my clothes and she would surely pitch a fit if I brought this material to her to sew. And besides, I don’t have enough money for silk,” she finished sadly. She let herself touch the pretty silk one last time before she let it go.
Addie studied her for a moment, then nodded her head as if coming to a decision. “You know, Patience, I’ve had to run things by myself ever since Rachel got married; and it sure is rough on an old woman like me. I don’t suppose you would want to help me a few days a week, would you? You could buy all the material you want, then Rachel could sew them for you.”
Hope welled within Patience’s heart. Did she dare? “But Mrs. Hayes, my mother would have an absolute fit!” she lamented, voicing her worst fear.
Mrs. Hayes rolled her eyes at that. “Oh fiddlesticks! I’ve dealt with Prudence before. You just leave her to me.” She tapped her cheek in contemplation. “In fact, why don’t I drop by and ask her myself? It’ll sound better coming from me, anyhow.”
Patience bit her lower lip and looked down at the beautiful green silk again. She could see herself entering a room wearing the green silk fashioned in a flowing, stylish gown. Lee wouldn’t be able to miss her in this color!
She looked back up at Mrs. Hayes. “All right, let’s do it!”
Addie laughed, as if she and Prudence had butted heads before and was looking forward to the chance to do it again! “I’ll be by around seven this evening.”
Patience giggled with excitement. “Okay! See you tonight!” She turned and practically skipped out of the store.
When she ran down the steps, she had visions of beautiful dresses dancing around in her head. She turned to walk to her wagon, which was parked by the sheriff’s office, and froze.
Lee and Susannah were standing closely together, right by her wagon. She had her hand on his arm, and they were gazing into each other’s eyes.
“Oh no!” she whispered. She tried to swallow; but to her horror, tears began to gather in her eyes.
She blinked furiously, determined that she was not going to let this upset her. She was not going to cry!
“Aren’t they just the cutest couple?” a high-pitched voice commented.
Patience turned slightly and saw Amy McLain and Jessica Buford standing with their heads together, their attentions fixed on the couple across the street from them. Amy and Jessica were the same age as Patience and had been schoolmates of hers. Both were married to the sons of the town’s only banker.
But they had never been Patience’s friends.
Jessica giggled. “I’ll bet he’s thrilled to be out of the Primrose house! Can you imagine having to endure five days with Prudence? And poor, plain Patience couldn’t have been much company to him! She’s such a mousy thing, isn’t she?”
“I’ll say,” Amy agreed while patting her chestnut curls that were all still perfectly in place, despite the wind. “I can’t imagine the poor thing ever finding herself a husband. She’ll probably end up an old maid.”
Jessica nodded. “Well, we really do need to make Susannah’s acquaintance. She seems like someone that we would want to befriend.”
Patience’s tears were abandoned in favor of anger. How many times in her life had she had to endure the pettiness of girls like those two? Never had they asked her to join in with them or invited her to their parties. When she’d been younger, she’d tried so hard to get them to like her, but they’d just ridiculed her more. Poor plain Patience. So pathetic in her attempts to be in their circle. Never belonging.
She never really belonged anywhere.
And as usual, she let them walk away without saying anything in her own defense. They never even seemed to notice her standing there.
Taking a deep breath, she prayed that God would help her with her anger, then started across the street to her wagon.
Lee returned Susannah’s smile and glanced down to where her hand rested on his arm.
But something was wrong. Her smile, while it had dazzled him in the past, didn’t do a thing to him today. He’d dreamed of her touch, but there was no spark or warmth now that she actually was touching him. He felt disappointed.
He suddenly thought of last night, when he’d helped Patience from the wagon. Her touch had made him feel more than he cared to admit.
Susannah was the woman he was interested in. Shouldn’t her touch have more effect on him?
A movement in his side vision made him look up. Patience, wrapped tightly in her woolen shawl, was coming toward them. She didn’t even look up as she walked to her wagon and climbed into it.
He didn’t know what made him do it, but he stepped away from Susannah’s touch.
“Oh! Hello, Patience!” Susannah called out.
Patience looked at them as if she didn’t know they’d been standing there. “Oh, hello, Susannah … and you, too, Sheriff.”
Lee cocked an eyebrow at her cool voice. “Going home, Miss Patience?”
She noticed, just then, that he’d stepped away from Susannah. That melted her coolness considerably. Maybe she had more of a chance with the sheriff than she’d realized. He’d actually moved away from the fair Susannah to acknowledge her! With a genuine smile, she answered, “Yes, but I’ll be back to bring you some lunch, Sheriff.”
“I’d be most obliged.”
She waved good-bye to them both and rode away.
Susannah watched as the wagon disappeared down the street. “I really like Patience. She’s a real sweet girl, don’t you think?” she commented.
Lee agreed. “Yes, she is,” he murmured thoughtfully.
“Well, I surely hope that we can become fast friends! I could really use one, being that I’m a stranger to this state!”
Lee looked at her curiously. “Aren’t you friends with Bobby Joe Aaron and his family?”
Her bright face suddenly darkened. “Not really, although I’ve tried to be …” She tugged her shawl closer around her and changed the subject. “I guess I should say to-di-loo, and I’ll see you tomorrow night. Now, don’t you forget about the dinner. I just think …”
“I won’t!” he quickly interjected. “I better get back in and see about that prisoner.”
She smiled. “Okay, Sheriff. Good-bye, now.”
“Good-bye,” he said, and they both turned to go their separate ways.
Lee went back into the office, where Gene was waiting for him.
“What’s his story?” Lee asked, motioning toward the outlaw, who had already made himself comfortable on the cot inside the cell.
“He and his brother have hit a couple stagecoaches in this area. I brought him to you in hopes that his brother will show up and try to bail him out. I know you are shorthanded around here, but I wanted to ask if you could keep a round-the-clock watch while he’s here. If we can get his brother, we’ll have a much better case. He’s wanted in Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas.”
Lee nodded. “I’ll see if my deputies can help out.”
Gene slapped him on the shoulder. “Good. I’ll be checking in.” He picked up a paper from Lee’s desk. “Here is a picture of his brother. You might want to get them copied and post them around town.”
“I’ll run them by the newspaper office.”
Gene picked up his hat. “Okay! You take care, you hear?”
“Will do,” Lee answered.
After Gene had left, Lee sank back down into his chair.
“You can have as many deputies as you want guarding this place.
It ain’t gonna make no difference. If Otis wants me out, then he’ll get me out,” the outlaw spoke from his cell.
Lee, not in the mood to deal with the man, wearily rubbed his eyes. “Look …” He glanced down at the papers Gene had given him. “… Powell. I’m not in the mood to play my-brother-is-tougher-than-yours, all right? Just sit there real quietlike and we’ll get along just fine. I might even let you eat lunch.” Then he silently groaned. Lunch! He’d need to make provisions for meals for this wise guy. Then he remembered Patience. Maybe she could run down to the inn and pick something up for him.
“You’ll be sorry,” the outlaw spoke again.
Lee rolled his head back and looked beseechingly heavenward. “I’m already sorry.”
Chapter 8
Sheriff Cutler was becoming more and more dear to Patience, and Patience was afraid that she was becoming more and more … like a sister to him. Worse than that, she felt she was being a pest!
She’d taken his lunch and had even run down to the inn to get food for his prisoner. He’d seemed glad to get the food; but when she’d suggested she sit with him, he told her that it wasn’t necessary. That he was going to work while he ate. In fact, he barely even looked at her the whole time she’d been in his office.
She was obviously getting on his nerves. That had to be the problem. But she didn’t know how else to get his attention. The only thing that she could come up with was to alter her appearance.
But she needed the mercantile job to accomplish that. And for that, she needed her mama’s blessing.
It wasn’t soon in coming. Prudence threw an absolute fit!
Patience knew that she would. How could her mother ever understand how Patience felt? Though she’d lived alone all these years, Prudence had once been married and had borne a child. Patience would never have a chance to do any of that unless her mother gave in. She needed the job Addie Hayes offered. It would not only give her extra money for new clothes, it would give her a sense of self-worth.
“My daughter does not have to work like a common laborer! I’ll not have it, I tell you. She doesn’t get her work done around here as it is.”
Lone Star Romance Collection Page 18