excerpt
…relief and disappointment. But her eyes opened wide when the caller
identified herself as Molly Andrews, wife of the Nimkus station
agent.
Not once in the eighteen months she had been here had Penny
received a call from any of the town women. In fact, she could count
on the fingers of one hand the number of times she had spoken to
Mrs. Andrews at all.
That lady did not waste time on polite conversation but came
straight to the point of her call. “Mrs. McNeill, I know you are a
neighbour of Ben Fielding, and I understand that a young woman
who got off the train on Monday afternoon is visiting him. She
seems to have dropped a glove in the waiting room. I wonder if you
would be kind enough to give her the message.”
Penny was at a loss for words. The baby began to squirm so she
bent down to set him on the living room rug. When she straightened
up she heard Mrs. Andrews say, “Are you there, Mrs. McNeill?”
Penny found her voice. “Yes, I’m here. I’ll pass your message on,
Mrs. Andrews.” She had no idea to whom she would give the message
but she refused to give her caller the satisfaction of knowing
that.
“Do you happen to know where Miss Roberts is from? Not that
it makes any difference but my husband and I were wondering how
Ben met her. It seems a curious thing that he would have to get a
wife from another part of the country, don’t you think?”
Penny had to perform a juggling act to keep from dropping the
receiver. “Wife?”
“You do know that Ben is being married on Friday, don’t you?”
“Ye…ss, yes, of course. On Friday. But I don’t know where she’s
from, Mrs. Andrews. Ben didn’t say.”
As soon as her caller hung up, which she did very rapidly now,
Penny slammed the receiver onto its cradle, grabbed her son and
raced out of the house and down the yard. Dave, finishing up the
milking in the barn, looked up in surprise as she bolted through
the door.
“What’s up, Pen? You look like you’re ready to burst.”
“Dave, I thought you said you’d seen Ben Fielding yesterday.”
“I did. He came to pay me for the calf. Why?”
“Didn’t he tell you anything?”
Libros Libertad 