The River Widow(63)

“I can’t talk to Kate for you.”

Adah gulped. “Then I’ll talk to her myself.”

“What are you looking for in those letters?”

Adah fought the urge to gnaw on her nails. She skimmed through the thoughts now pounding in her mind while trying to hide that she was trembling. She was walking a precipice with steep drop-offs on either side. But she had few options; there was no choice but to trust this strange woman and tell her the truth. They were, in some ways, allies. “Something that could help us both.”

“That’s what I thought. But what about your part of Lester’s farm?”

“I have to give up on that. I don’t have time to wait it out.”

“So you’re really going to leave?”

Adah held her breath. “I’m not sure. But it’s what you want, isn’t it?”

“I never said that.”

Exhaling now, Adah said, “I know.”

“Go ahead and do what you want, then. I just don’t want to know anything about it.”

“You don’t want to know if Lester had anything to do with his first wife’s death? You’re marrying into that family, and you don’t want to know the truth? You’ll simply ignore it, put it out of your mind?”

“I don’t care what Lester did.”

“What if the other Branches helped cover it up?”

“Jesse wasn’t there that day. He was in Louisville on business.”

“I wasn’t aware of that,” Adah said, then remembered that Jack had told her three people gave the police the same story of Betsy’s death: Buck, Mabel, and Les. “But . . . he could still know what happened.”

“He doesn’t know anything. Jesse’s a good man.”

Adah paled, her eyes welling with tears she would never let fall. “Love truly is blind,” she finally said.

Esther smiled sadly. “Maybe so.”

“How can I talk to Kate?”

Esther blinked hard, once. “Kate Johnson. She lives in town. On Langstaff Avenue. In a pretty white house with black shutters, redone since the flood. There’s a wishing well out front. You can’t miss it.”

“Thank you, Esther.”

“Don’t thank me.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m not having anything to do with this. I’ll never admit that we even talked.”

“I know that, Esther.”

“I’m just waiting on the sidelines, watching and waiting. You might be digging a hole that you’ll never get yourself out of. And believe me, there won’t be anyone willing to give you a hand up.”

Adah thought of Jack Darby. Esther was wrong. Or at least she hoped Esther was wrong. She had received vital information from two of the most unlikely sources, and today’s news was the most valuable so far. She didn’t know why, but unexpected help was coming her way. Some from a man who was enamored of her and didn’t want her to escape; some from a woman who wanted nothing more than Daisy and her gone.

Something of a road map was beginning to unroll in front of her. Would the information she’d gleaned from Jack and Esther pave a way forward? Or would one or both of them betray her? Would her trust in them be destroyed?

“Thank you anyway,” she said to Esther, who simply nodded.

Adah caught her breath. She felt winded, as if she’d been chased.

Outside, a small group of adults had gathered around the spot where Daisy and the other little girl had been playing among the tree roots. Adah rushed forward to find that Daisy and Rebecca had argued, and Daisy had pushed the other girl down. Now Mabel had hold of Daisy’s arm and was forcing her to apologize, while Rebecca whimpered into her mother’s skirts.

Mabel was saying to Daisy, “You go on and say you’re sorry again.”

Daisy’s eyes were red rimmed, and her little chin trembled. She said, “Sorry.”

“Again, and louder this time,” Mabel said, then glanced at Adah as if making sure she was registering the seriousness of what had happened.

Daisy whimpered. “Sorry.”

Mabel jerked Daisy’s arm and said to the other girl’s mother, “You can be sure she’ll get her real punishment later.”

Rebecca’s mother’s face changed, as if something had just dawned on her. Mabel stood her ground, obviously not the least bit aware of the effect she had on others. Rebecca’s mother said definitively but softly, “No real harm done. They’re just children.”

Mabel insisted, “Daisy knows better than to behave like that. The Branches know not to act that way, and we don’t raise our young ’uns to act that way.” She shot a pointed glance at Adah.

Daisy rubbed her nose and then looked at Adah and whispered, “Mama . . .” A sound that threatened to pull a moan out of Adah’s chest, and yet she had to stand frozen in place.

Rebecca’s mother said, “Kids make mistakes, and Rebecca isn’t hurt. All kids push from time to time . . . and Daisy has apologized.” She leaned down and spoke to her daughter. “You and Daisy are still friends, aren’t you?”

Rebecca had stopped crying and simply nodded. Then asked her mother, “Can we play now?”

Mabel was quick to say, “Daisy will not be allowed to play again today. In fact, I think it’s time we go home.”