She gasped, instantly taken aback as Lydia entered.
“What on earth are you doing here?” she asked the reverend’s wife.
Wearing a contrite expression, Lydia said, “Jonathan and I are joining the others across the street. I saw Ryan leave and you didn’t come out, so I just… Well, of course I know you must be distraught over the news and the manhunt. I came to get you.”
More tears streamed down Ging
er’s hot cheeks. She swiped at them with shaky fingers, but they continued to flow. “I don’t know what to do. I know you don’t abide or understand this, Lydia, but I love him. And I honestly couldn’t take it if anything happened to him.”
Surprisingly, the reverend’s wife wrapped her arms around Ginger and held her as she wept. Lydia smoothed a hand down her hair and then patted her back softly, maternally. She said, “This is difficult for all of us. But Jonathan was right when he said it was Ryan’s choice. We have to trust in the skills he’s learned and his natural instincts. And, Ginger, he won’t be alone.”
A new realization seemed to dawn on Ryan’s aunt, because Lydia pulled away, her hands clasping Ginger’s biceps. “Is he armed?”
With a nod, Ginger said, “I’m sure Sheriff Johnson insisted and Ryan agreed.”
Relief washed over Lydia’s face. “That’s a comfort. Now let me get you some tissues.”
She began to make her way to the cashier’s desk, but pulled up short and eyed a nightgown hanging on a rack. Lifting the hanger from the display, she turned back to Ginger, an incredulous look on her face. “This is the same nightgown I buy at a department store in Austin.”
It was a simple, full-length one made of seafoam-dyed cotton, with wide satin straps and matching trim around the modest neckline.
Ginger sniffled, then said, “I carry a variety of styles to appeal to a wide range of tastes. The mayor’s wife likes that one too.”
Perplexed, and obviously stunned, Lydia mumbled, “I didn’t realize. Nor did I know it came in colors. The store in Austin only carries white.”
Getting her own tissues, since Lydia had abandoned that mission, Ginger dabbed at her eyes and cheeks. “I also have it in baby blue, peach, mauve, lilac and daffodil.”
Lydia seemed to process this for a moment as she took in the entire boutique, quite possibly with a new perspective. Finally, her gaze landed on Ginger again and she said, “There are actually some very pretty items in here.”
With a proud smile, Ginger said, “Yes. And my customers like what I have to offer. Tasteful women like what I have to offer, Lydia. Wearing lingerie doesn’t make one a slut.”
“I suppose I’ve acted as though it does.” She selected more of the nightgowns she favored, one in every color. Carrying them over to the cashier’s desk, she laid them across the wide wooded top and said, “Why don’t you wrap these up for me? Save me a trip to Austin. And about eight dollars per nightgown.”
“I have less overhead than department stores,” she said before blowing her nose.
“I’m sure your customers appreciate the prices.”
Ginger let out a soft laugh, despite the tension she still felt over the situation with Ryan. “You’re about to become one of my customers. Are you sure you want that?”
Lydia crossed her arms over her chest and said, “I have been ogre, I know. But, Ginger…” Her visage and her stance suddenly changed. She let out a long sigh and turned away as her arms fell to her sides. “I don’t want the young, single women in Wilder following in my shoes.”
Ginger’s brows knitted. That was the absolute last thing she’d expected the reverend’s wife to say. “Explain that further,” she requested, as Lydia had done earlier in her salon.
As the other woman’s fingers skimmed over a pair of satin panties, she said, “I used to enjoy wearing delicate, pretty things like this. Made me feel attractive. Alluring, even. Jonathan would say it softened me. Lord knew, I turned into a stiff, regimented reverend’s wife. Even Jack said so, that terrible day I knocked over the candles in your shop.” She turned back to Ginger and added, “He was the best friend I’d ever had and I alienated him. Almost put him out of business too, because I was the one to drive Jonathan to push for the ban on alcohol on Sundays.”
“Hard for a saloon to survive in that paradigm.”
“Yes, though I truly hadn’t put much thought into how it would impact Jack’s business. I thought I was doing the right thing, advocating for God, so to speak.”
“Not everyone has to believe in what you believe in, Lydia. Diversity and varying opinions are good things. A lot of success stories have happened in this town because of open-minded views, whereas a number of bad things have happened because of narrow-mindedness.”
Lydia gave this some thought, then squared her shoulders and said, “I know I’ve been self-righteous, but I don’t want other’s making my mistakes.”
“What mistakes are those?”
Swallowing hard, she confessed, “I had pre-marital sex when I was just eighteen years old. I fell for a boy who was in town for bible study. He didn’t talk me into anything—I knew what I was doing. I got pregnant. He didn’t feel about me the way I felt for him and he wanted nothing to do with the baby.”
Ginger sank into her chair, the wind knocked out of her. She merely stared at Lydia, not saying a word, letting the reverend’s wife continue with her admission.