A Flicker of Light In The Darkness

Chapter 17

Dodge City Ladies Aid

Tony led the ladies to their usual table by the window. It was Wednesday; regular luncheon after the Dodge City Ladies Aid meeting.

He smiled as he seated each of the four ladies, knowing that a decent tip was not going to be forthcoming: Harriet Bodkin, wife of the owner of the bank, barely had enough of an allowance to pay for her own check. Sara Jonas, from the general store, would always leave a small tip. Margaret Peters, the Reverend's wife, would always leave more than she could afford; and last, but not least, Edsel Pry—she was no man's wife, nor would she ever be. She could have afforded to leave a healthy tip, but was too stingy to do so.

"I was so pleased with today's meeting," Harriet said, "I am so glad we can finally order those new song books for the church. The ones we have are all coming apart and the ink is so faded you can't read it."

"Humph! Everyone should know those songs by now anyway." Edsel huffed.

"But they don't," Margaret countered in her usual soft tone, in an attempt to head off Edsel's irritability. "Did they say when-"

"Oh look," Sara cut her off, excited by something outside the window. Four heads turned to see Kitty Dillon step out of Jonas' store, her hands full of packages. What attracted Sara's attention was the tall, bear of a man, all but running across Front Street and up onto the boardwalk in front of his wife. "Did you see the way he hurried across the street to take her packages?" Sara sighed; the sigh of a long-forgotten teenage girl, "They are so much in love, even after all these years." Again, she was forced to let go another deep sigh.

A smile crossed Harriet's face, as she watched the man secure the packages, then slide his free hand to the small of his wife's back, in a protective gesture. The lady looked up at him, her smile genuine and meant only for him. "I heard he kissed her at Calleigh's wedding, right in front of Gertie Otis and Maude Buckner." Harriet nodded with an air of authority and added, in a scandalous tone, "On the lips."

Edsel looked at the couple and then at her luncheon companions. "I don't care if she is his wife, things like that should not be done in public."

"Not with my husband, they aren't." Harriet's tone revealed the longing she felt. "She is so pretty. Don't they look handsome together?"

"Oh, they do, they really do." Margaret agreed. "Have you ever noticed the way they look at each other? I know this is wrong, but, I watched them at the wedding. They would catch each other's eye from across the room and it was like, they were all alone. No one else in the world but them."

"She runs a saloon!" Edsel reminded them, in her usual snooty manner.

"She is a businesswoman." Sara corrected Edsel sharply, "Look how she took that little Calleigh in and raised her as her own."

"You three still want to imply that, that girl is not Kitty and Matt Dillon's daughter? When she was still a Russell, I might add!" Edsel eyed the ladies with an accusing glare. "For heaven's sake, Calleigh looks just like her mother."

Margaret looked at the other two and then back to Edsel. "We don't know any such thing. I find it hard to believe that she loves that child the way she does and caters to her every whim, yet would not admit if she was hers." Margaret could tell by their expressions, that Sara and Harriet agreed.

"Ladies," Tony had reappeared, "are you ready to order?"

As he started to take their orders, Edsel glanced one last time to the couple on the street. They are a handsome couple, she admitted—but only to herself.

TBC