Big Lies in a Small Town - Diane Chamberlain Page 0,42

had met no one so close to her age in Edenton, and she felt an instant bond with the young woman whose room she was inhabiting.

“This is my husband, Karl,” Pauline said.

Karl, his arms weighed down with bags and a large rectangular wrapped gift, only nodded with a smile. He looked quite a bit older than Pauline. A few gray strands silvered his brown hair.

“So happy to meet you,” Anna said, taking one of the bags from his arms. “Miss Myrtle is in the kitchen.”

Miss Myrtle had given Freda the day off to be with her own family for the holiday, so the three women set about cooking. They made a turkey, mashed potatoes, giblet gravy, and butter beans, which Anna had never heard of but which were the same as the lima beans she’d grown up with in New Jersey. Karl donned an apron and made some of the best biscuits Anna had ever tasted. She’d never known a man to willingly cook.

“I only like baking,” Karl said with a wink. Anna liked him right away. He was so easygoing and friendly and it was clear that he adored Pauline. She remembered Miss Myrtle telling her that he was a policeman and so he’d been able to keep a good steady job all through the Depression when so many men went without work. He was also undeniably handsome, with blue eyes and that silver-laced hair that kept falling across his forehead in a way that Anna found winsome. She imagined he would look like heaven in his police uniform and she thought he and Pauline made a striking couple, despite the age difference.

Pauline exuded warmth. Anna remembered that she worked part-time as a nurse in a doctor’s office. Her patients probably adored her. Anna could see Pauline’s resemblance to Miss Myrtle in her full lips, large bosom, and dark blue eyes, but Pauline was probably half her mother’s weight and the hair that spilled in waves around her shoulders was light brown instead of Miss Myrtle’s dull gray. Watching mother and daughter work together and chat together and laugh together set up a dull ache in Anna’s chest that she was determined to keep at bay for the afternoon. This was her first Christmas without her mother. If she thought about it, she would break down in tears, and she didn’t want to put her hosts—or herself—through that. She focused on her tasks and the conversation and the Christmas carols spilling from the radio on the counter. She would get through this day, one way or another.

All afternoon, as the four of them moved around the kitchen, and later, as they ate in the dining room, Anna watched the way Pauline and Karl smiled at each other. The way they lightly touched one another’s hands as they passed a plate of turkey or the gravy boat. They were such a lovely couple, and Anna worked hard not to be jealous of the clear adoration they shared. Someday, she told herself, she would find a man who cared as much for her as Karl seemed to care for Pauline. So far, most of her potential beaus had turned out to be little more than friends. Anna’s mother used to tell her that friends were more important than boyfriends, but watching Pauline and Karl together set up a longing inside her for something more.

Over dinner, the three of them told Anna more about everyone she’d met in town, cutting through outside appearances to the real people inside. Mr. Arndt was as good and kind as he appeared, they said. Mr. Fiering at the cotton mill liked to dress in ladies’ undies, Pauline added.

“How on earth would you know that?” Anna laughed.

“Just a nasty rumor,” Karl said, with a grin that belied his words.

“Mayor Sykes is a blustering fool, but he gets the job done,” Miss Myrtle said. Pauline made a disparaging sound with her tongue. “His wife covers up bruises and everyone knows he has a lady friend on the side.”

“Pauline!” scolded her mother. “No one knows that for sure at all.”

Anna thought she might have been right to feel uncomfortable with the mayor in the warehouse. She would keep her distance from him from now on.

Once dinner was over and the kitchen clean, Anna mustered up her courage to show Miss Myrtle, Pauline, and Karl her sketch. She’d sent the original sketch to the section the week before, but she’d created an identical painting to work from when she was