Page 26 of Beau (Sheppard’s Shadow #5)

She felt sorry for Deb when the other women teased her about having a deadbeat husband.

Then they asked her if she’d been beaten anymore, and she felt more sorry for her than before.

It would be terrible to be beaten by someone who was supposed to love you for all time.

Then the other women talked about how they’d been knocked around by their husbands, too.

She didn’t know what to say to them about that.

“Couldn’t you just leave him?” And go where they asked. “I don’t know, but staying with a man who knocks you around doesn’t seem all that safe either. How do you put up with that?”

“My mom was an abused wife, I think my grannie was as well. It’s what most men to do women who work outside the home when they can’t hold down a job.

” She asked why they couldn’t hold down something as simple as a job.

“For many reasons, I guess. They blame it on us, too, for us being ashamed of them. I’m ashamed of myself for not being able to get away from him.

And it’s not like we want to be millionaires like your family is, but it would be nice if they were to have a job that paid well. Anything at this point.”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t think that I could stand a man beating on me all the time because he can’t hold down a job.

” One of the others said it was something that you get used to.

“I don’t think so. It would be harder to leave, I’m sure, if there are children involved, but none of you have children, so I don’t understand how you could stay with him. ”

“I don’t know either, but as I said, you get used to it.

” Danielle didn’t even want to work with the women anymore if they were going to allow someone to beat on them when they had a good job making enough money to support themselves in anything that they wanted to do.

“He can be all right when he’s not drinking.

I look forward to those days more than ever.

Someday, he’ll hit me too hard, and that will be the end of him. That’s all I can say about it.”

After heading home after leaving the bar, she decided that she wasn’t going to continue to stress the importance of leaving an abusive relationship like the ones that they were in.

Also, she’d try her best to get information from them about the mail fraud.

These women were good people, just in trouble with their spouses.

She was surprised to find Beau home when she got there.

He told her that his meeting had been canceled, but he was glad that she’d been out with friends.

She told him what she’d found out during her shift, and he was concerned about the mail fraud like she was.

He asked her some questions, and since she didn’t know, he said that he’d ask Sunny to look into it.

She had a way about her that could get to the bottom of things faster than anyone he knew.

“Because she’s magical?” Beau told her that it was, and her mother was as well. “Well, I hope she can take care of this. Whoever it is has been selling things to people for some time now, and it could be kids around here.”

~*~

It had taken Sunny’s mom to help with finding out who was selling the drugs.

Lucky for them, he lived right here in town and was caught with the goods not a week later.

Tomorrow, the judge was in town, so there was going to be a hearing for both him and his little crew, plus Allison Dale, otherwise known as Marsha Watson.

“Is she still claiming that it was a game?” Beau couldn’t believe it either, but didn’t have much to do with the woman or the trial that was going to be coming up.

It would only be a hearing to find out if there was enough evidence to hold her over for trial or not, but he’d seen some of the material that his brother had, and he thought it would be more than enough to hold her.

“I heard that she’s giving the officers at the stationhouse a lot of trouble, too.

I hope she gets the book thrown at her.”

“I’m not holding out any hope of it getting much in the way of sentencing.

She’s off her rocker if you were to ask me.

And she’s decided that since it was only a game she was playing against the Watson family, then she should be able to get out on good behavior.

Which, from my understanding, isn’t something to count on.

” Beau asked about her trial and when he thought it would be, if there was one.

“I’m thinking that it’s going to be sometime next summer.

That will give both attorneys time to gather up what is needed and see to her prison term.

There is no doubt that she’ll go to prison, but it’s the question of how long that bothers me.

I hope she at least gets ten years. Perhaps that will make her less likely to do this sort of thing again. ”

“I don’t want to be rude, but is there anything else we can talk about other than this woman?

” Beau asked Weston what he meant. “It seems as if we talk about her endlessly. There has to be other people around town that we can talk about. Even if it’s just our family.

She’s not all that special if you ask me. ”

“No, she’s not, and you’re right. Let’s talk about how we’re going to have gardens put in next year for whoever wants one.” That was a good topic, he thought, and was glad that someone brought it up.

Come spring, they were going to have raised gardens for any citizen who wanted one.

It would be something that they could plant whatever they wanted in it and harvest it for their own tables.

The gardens would be free to the public, but they had to be maintained so that they would not be an eyesore if they were to get out of hand.

Beau was especially happy about the project as he loved cooking with fresh vegetables and herbs.

He’d already heard from two people about their new gardens and how they were going to grow pumpkins in the fall to sell around town.

He thought that was a great idea as he loved pumpkin pie.

“We’re getting the soil at a good discount that we’re going to be using.

And the greenhouse just outside of town is going to offer a discount on their plants for those who buy from them.

Also, I don’t know if you know this or not, but the local hardware store is also offering a discount on tools they can use as well.

” Beau asked if everyone had signed up for the gardens or not.

“All the places that we were going to put in have been claimed. If we had twice as many to get out, we’d have them taken as well.

I think it’s going to be a huge hit with the locals. ”

“Ms. Tanner said she’s going to put her things out early enough that she can have a second season.

I don’t know how that would work, but she’s excited about it.

I’ve also heard that some of the people are sharing the workload, too.

I know that it can be hard on the elderly to get out there every day and work on the garden.

” Beau said that some of the pack was going to help them out by weeding for them when it’s too hot for them.

“Good job. That’ll be great for them. Especially some of the older groups that have gotten one of the gardens. ”

They spoke about the gardens until lunch time and then changed the subject to getting ready for Halloween.

The courthouse was going to be handing out candy, with Weston and Rogen there to hand it out.

Then there was Jameson’s law office, too, going to hand out the big kind of candy bars that the kids loved.

It seemed to him that the town was going all out this year, and he couldn’t be more proud of them.

He and Danielle were going to be handing out candy, too, at their home with the faeries.

They were excited about being around the children, too.

They’d already gotten lots of bags of candy since they were situated right off the main road going through town. He’d been telling kids that they were going to be disappointed if they didn’t see some of the kids at their home, too. Beau thought that this was going to be the best holiday ever.

~*~

The faeries were going to help her with her costume for trick-or-treat night.

Danielle was happy to have them with her and Beau as part of their costumes.

Beau was going to dress up as a faerie lord, and she was going to be a faerie princess.

They’d been planning it all month so that the faeries could be a part of the night.

They were going to be flying around like part of the show.

“Do you suppose we could give a little magic to some of the children?” She asked Stack what he meant.

“Just to ones that seem to be needing a little extra loving and friendship. It would only be a spark that would last through the night. Then it would be gone the next day. But it might give them what they need in order to be brave about becoming friends with some of the other children.”

“I don’t see a problem with it so long as it’s not dangerous.

Nor does it last that long. We don’t want to harm the children in any way.

” Stack said he’d never do that but would like to see the children happy.

“You know, parents go all out on this holiday as well. Some of them work really hard on costumes for their kids, too. They might need a little boost from you as well.”

“Oh, how exciting for us.” Stack was going to rotate all the faeries that wanted to be a part of it throughout the night.

It might only be for a few minutes, but with the number of kids in their town, they might well get to see a lot of children.

She’d heard from them that they get a special kind of magic from children that they can’t get anywhere else.