The Whippoorwill Trilogy - Sharon Sala Page 0,171

young woman assume that she had been but was now widowed.

“Oh. I’m so sorry for your loss,” Fannie said. “Maybe I shouldn’t. My asking you about such personal things could only bring back sad memories for you.”

Letty slipped her hand beneath Fannie’s elbow and started walking her down the street.

“Memories are nothing but parts of the past that I haven’t had time to forget,” she said. “Now tell me, what do you know?”

Fannie flushed. “I know what happens, but not how or what my part in it has to be.”

Letty stifled a grin. She reckoned there was going to be one really happy bridegroom when she got through with Fannie Smithson.

“Okay,” Letty said. “Are you interested in enjoying your wedding night, or are you the kind of woman who just intends to do her duty?”

“Up to now, I haven’t had much in my life to enjoy, but I would certainly like to enjoy my husband.”

Letty smiled primly as she aimed them for a bench on the shady side of the street. “I totally approve, now sit with me. We can see who’s coming and going without being overheard.”

They sat.

Letty leaned forward until her and Fannie’s foreheads were almost touching, then she started to talk.

Any passerby that might have noticed them would have seen nothing untoward except the intermittent flush of color on Fannie Smithson’s cheeks. Every now and then Fannie would interrupt to ask a question, which Letty promptly answered in depth. There was no need for the woman to go into a marriage blind. Besides, she wasn’t the prettiest bride Letty had ever seen, but she intended for her to be the wisest. Tomorrow night, Fannie’s new husband was going to think he’d died and gone to heaven.

A short while later, Letty straightened up and mentally dusted her hands for the job she’d just done.

“And that’s about the best advice I can give,” Letty said.

Fannie’s mouth was gaping and her cheeks were flushed, but there was a glimmer in her eyes that hadn’t been there before. She eyed Letty closely.

“And you’re sure Myron won’t think I’m too forward?”

It was all Letty could do not to laugh.

“Honey, I’m sure and then some. I promise you, if you do exactly what I suggested, your husband is never going to have a roving eye, and you’re going to be one happy bride.”

Fannie nodded briskly. “Then that’s that. I need to be sure, you know.”

“Why?” Letty asked.

“Well, because he owns the saloon. The women who work for him sell their bodies to men for money, you know.”

The smile died on Letty’s face.

“Yes, I know all about that kind of woman.”

Fannie frowned. “I don’t think we should judge them, you know.”

It was the last thing Letty expected to hear from a so-called decent woman.

“Why not?” Letty asked.

“I’ve thought about it some,” Fannie said. “And the way I see it, if it had been my father who’d died and not my mother, there’s no telling what would have happened to either one of us. Women don’t have it easy out here, you know, and we rarely have choices as to how our lives will be lived.”

Letty eyed Fannie with new respect.

“You’re entirely correct, Fannie dear. And you know what? I think you’re going to be, not only a wonderful wife, but an absolutely marvelous mother.”

Fannie beamed. “You do?”

Impulsively, Letty hugged her. “Yes, I do.” Then she remembered she stunk. “Sorry for the smell. I forgot,” she said briskly, and stood up. “So, you better get back to Mercer’s Mercantile and buy that piece of fabric you were looking at. It would make a fine veil.”

“Are you sure?” Fannie asked.

“As sure as I am about what I just told you,” Letty drawled.

Fannie pivoted sharply and started to walk away when she suddenly stopped and turned.

“Sister Murphy.”

“Yes?”

“Your husband must have been the happiest man on earth before he died.”

Letty’s heart did a funny little jerk as she thought about all the men who’d laid between her legs.

“Why do you say that?” she asked.

“You not only know the way to a man’s lustful natures, but I venture to guess you knew the way to your own man’s heart, as well. I’m so sorry that he’d passed, but he was a fortunate man during his time on earth.”

Letty couldn’t speak. There was no way she could acknowledge the blessing without lying, and she’d already been faced with Eulis’s fading faith in himself. It didn’t seem prudent to test God’s patience any further by adding pride to the lie.

“It’s always