Page 10 of The Formation of Us

He hooked his thumb in his gun belt, reminding himself he was here on business. “If this balm relieves the ache in my shoulder, I’ll be inyourdebt, Mrs. Wilkins. I’ll let you know how well it works.” He wanted her to know that he would be back, that he would be watching her, and that he was interested in more than her business.

“Consider it an even exchange, Sheriff.” She kept her smile in place, but his gut insisted there was something secretive about her, something odd about her business and her aunts.

Maybe the boy could answer some of his questions. He clapped his hand on Adam’s shoulder and turned the boy toward town. “Well, young man, let’s go settle your debt with Mrs. Brown.”

o0o

The minute the two males were gone, Faith rushed into the greenhouse. Her aunts were gathered near a flat of peppermint-scented geraniums, tittering and whispering. She didn’t even want to imagine what they were talking about, but their outrageous behavior must stop before the sheriff guessed the truth about them—and herself.

She made sure Cora was occupied with her pail and hand spade and safely out of earshot before she confronted her aunts. “What were you ladies thinking?” she asked, certain they had just forfeited their one chance to build a safe and decent life for themselves.

“That the sheriff is the most handsome man I’ve ever met,” Tansy said, placing her long, artist’s fingers over her heart.

“The sheriff isn’t interested in a woman ten years his senior,” Aster countered in her blunt fashion.

Faith gritted her teeth. “The only thing the sheriff will be interested in is evicting us from his town.”

“The sheriff loved our flirting,” Iris said.

“Well, I didn’t. I was terrified one of you would go too far and—” She bit her lip to stop her rush of words, but tears welled up in her eyes.

“Oh, dahlin’, don’t do that.” Tansy grasped Faith’s hands. “There’s no need to worry.”

“This is our only chance,” Faith whispered, choked by her emotions. “We have to be careful not to tarnish our reputations.”

“We know that, child.” Tansy parked her hand on her narrow waist. “We only teased the sheriff a bit.” She nodded toward the corner where Cora was plowing a stick through soil. “Not one of us will do a single thing to ruin that little girl’s future.”

Her aunts adored Cora and Adam, and Faith wanted to believe they would behave themselves, but she feared the women had spent too many years working in a brothel to be able to conform to polite society.

“Faith, you were so tense you were making the sheriff suspicious.” Iris grinned with satisfaction. “I just flirted a bit to get him to hook up the gas line.”

“I could have hired a man to do that.”

“With what?” Iris asked. “We each contributed every penny we owned to make the move to Fredonia and set up our business. Other than the few coins in your jar, not one of us has a penny to our name.”

“All the more reason for us to mind our manners and present ourselves as decent, respectable women,” Faith insisted.

“Being respectable isn’t going to put food on our table. The only way we’re going to eat this week,” Iris said, “is to get some paying customers into that bathtub.”

“No.” Faith pressed her palms to her nervous stomach. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to open a bath.”

“Selling herbs won’t earn enough to feed us,” Iris insisted. “Our stock in trade is our ability to make men feel good.”

“That’s exactly what worries me! You know what people will think when they hear we’re giving herbal baths and massages.”

“My growling stomach doesn’t much care,” Aster said, her white eyebrows dipped in a scowl. “I vote for Iris’s plan.”

“Me, too.” Dahlia patted the small paunch beneath her large breasts. “Maybe we weren’t respected while working at the brothel, but at least we ate well.”

Tansy nodded. “What harm can come of giving herbal baths, as long as our patrons wear bathing garments and we don’t give any massages in private?”

“The harm is that one false move, or one nasty rumor, could tear our reputations to shreds, and it’s a risk we can’t afford to take,” Faith said. “We’ve only been here three weeks. Let’s wait a while and see how we do selling herbs.”

“We could afford to wait if one of us had a husband who could provide for us.” Iris arched one ebony eyebrow at Faith. “Maybeyoushould have flirted with the sheriff.”

“He wouldn’t want a woman like me.”

A sly smile tipped Iris’s lips. “Oh, he wants you.”