“Huh?”
Eli rushed to the office, found the parcel and brought it back to plop down before her.
With a confused, “Thanks, Eli,” Charlie set the shiny white lid on the counter, grinning once she recognized the name of the dressmaker. Checking to make sure her hands were clean, she reached in and lifted the length of glowing satin. “Well, that’s certainly a pretty dress.”
Matthew grumbled into his coffee, “That ain’t no dress.” Dresses were not supposed to make you look more naked than clothed.
“Sure it is. This is what women wear in the big cities for a night on the town.” Charlie held it against her body, taken with the gown.
Even Nathaniel spoke up. “Girl caught dressing like that around Monroe would draw a lot of attention.”
Charlie put the dress back in the box. “I dress like a man and y’all hardly bat an eyelash. You see one stylish evening gown, and you start muttering like I’m indecent. I don’t understand you Emerson men.”
“Why does he call you Blackbird?” Eli asked once she picked up the card.
“When I first started working for Radcliffe, I was starving and dirty. The men liked to drop food just to see me swipe it up and cram it in my mouth like a bird. The name stuck.”
Chapter 10
Hoisting a basket brimming with the packaged meat from her doe, Charlie trod up the well-tended path to Sheriff Cormac’s Main Street dwelling. After her tap against the door, the burly lawman stood on the threshold.
“Good morning, Sheriff Cormac.” The polite greeting came out just like she’d practiced—innocent and unassuming. Charlie hefted her burden higher. “I have a basket of fresh venison here. Knowing how intrinsic you are to the community, I thought you might know how best to distribute it to families in need.”
Adjusting his belt over his paunch, the grey-haired lawman asked, “And who might you be?”
“My name is Charlotte Elliot.” Peeking past the stout man, Charlie spied Ruth sticking her head out of the kitchen. “I am an acquaintance of your daughter.”
Sheriff Cormac already knew exactly what everyone else knew about Charlie… nothing at all. “Your family from these parts?”
“No, sir, my family is no longer with me.” Struggling with the weight of the basket, Charlie tried to explain, “I have been living at Fontanne’s Boarding House. They take decent care of me.” When the sheriff reached out to help with her cargo, Charlie offered a grateful smile and went in for the kill. “You see, sir, there is another reason I came to see you. I wanted to ask your permission before I approached your daughter for a favor. Everyone knows Ruth is Monroe County’s finest baker—I keep hearing about her cobbler—and, well, I was hoping you might allow her to teach me how to prepare a few things.” Trying to look harmless, Charlie quickly added, “I would supply all the ingredients of course.”
Flattering the man’s daughter seemed to be just the ticket to win the sheriff’s approval. A lax smile came to his face, the lawman asking over his shoulder. “Ruth, child, could you spare the time to teach this young woman?”
“Absolutely, Father.” Kitten eyes twinkled at Charlie, the girl’s mischievous smirk unnoticed by her daddy. “It would be unchristian to do anything less.”
The man looked to the basket in his arms. “Just where did you come by all this meat, Miss Elliot?”
Charlie, virtuous expression back in place replied, “A deer ran right in front of my car.” The lie was an easy one. “Eli Emerson drove by and stopped to see if I was all right. He repaired my car—didn’t charge me a nickel—and offered to butcher the deer so others might benefit from the situation. In fact, it was Eli who suggested I come to you, claimed you’d know what to do.”
The expression on the lawman’s face darkened at the first mention of the boy, but Charlie carefully painted a picture of how amiable, how gentlemanly, Eli had been. “I am very grateful to Eli Emerson. He was really kind to me.”
Sensing her cue to jump in, Ruth spoke up. “When would you like to start your lessons?”
Charlie offered her warmest smile. “As soon as may be.”
* * *
The following morning, Charlie shuffled up the Cormac’s drive, her arms full of groceries. After looking on with a sharp eye for neigh on thirty minutes, the Sheriff left with a nod.
“Dear Lord, I thought he would never get out from underfoot,” Ruth complained, peeking out the window as her father went off to work.
Charlie snickered, taking a taste of the batter in her bowl. “When I head on up to Devil’s Hollow later, you want me to take that pie you have sitting pretty as you please in the window?”
“Indeed I do. I should warn you though, Charlie, them Emerson boys are trouble.” A naughty gleam came to Ruth’s eyes. “Good, appealin’ trouble…”
Charlie eased a little closer, more than willing to be wicked with her friend. “You gonna marry that boy? All I hear is Ruth this and Ruth that. Eli is smitten with you to no end.”
“If he got up the gumption to ask, Daddy would probably shoot him.” Ruth was a heap brighter than her would be Casanova. “The Emerson name ain’t quite what my father has in mind for me.”