Reap What You Sew (23 page)

“Don’t know that I am wise, Victoria. I certainly make my share of mistakes. But as long as I let my heart guide my actions and my decisions, any mistakes I do make are made with the best of intentions. I can live with those.”

She felt a lump of emotion form in her throat, knew it wouldn’t be long before the tears that clung to her lashes began to escape down her cheeks. “There are so many things about the people I’ve met in this town that I like, qualities that I’m trying to inherit. But of everyone I’ve met since moving here, you are the one who’s taught me the most. I only hope the things I’m learning from you can make me half the person you are, Margaret Louise.”

Margaret Louise swapped the batting for fabric and noted the larger, seven-by-seven-inch squares she needed to cut. “Funny, but I said almost the same thing to Mamma just this mornin’… only I said it ’bout you, Victoria.”

“Me?” she whispered.

“Yes, you. And there’s not a person in this town who wouldn’t agree.”

She had to laugh, her rebuttal example coming fast and furiously. “I suspect Chief Dallas would argue that point, Margaret Louise.”

“He pay you a visit this mornin’, too?”

“Too?”

Margaret Louise sat up tall in her chair. “He was waitin’ on the porch when I got back from pastries with Mamma. He tried to act all cute and coy, but I knew why he was there. That man couldn’t sneak his way out of an empty forest.”

Anger rose inside her at the notion of Margaret Louise being peppered with questions that didn’t fit. Sure, she baked the brownies. Sure, she put nuts in them. But she did it because Leona asked her to bake them.

Leona.

Reaching up, Tori raked her hands through her hair, the spasm of anger shifting its focus from one bumbling person to another.

Police Chief Robert Dallas was still clueless. And, chances are, that would never change. But Leona Elkin knew better. She’d been taught better.

“I’m going to make this right, Margaret Louise. You just wait and see.”

Chapter 20

Tori pulled up in front of Elkin Antiques and Collectibles at half past eleven and shifted the car into park. As tempting as it was to honk, she knew Leona would never let her live it down. So, instead, she waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Lifting her left wrist into view, she took in the time: 11:45.

“So much for getting an early start,” she mumbled as she pushed open the driver’s side door and stepped into the street.

“I’m here. I’m here.” She looked across the roof of her car in time to see Leona emerge from the shop, handbag and keys in one hand, Paris in the other.

“You’re bringing Paris?”

Waving away her inquiry as if it were ludicrous, Leona continued. “I’m sorry we’re a bit late but once we finally made it into the shop, we had to make sure Beatrice was squared away on the cash register before we could leave. That one can be a little dense at times.”

Tori made a mental note to pick something up for Beatrice—a book, a necklace, a box of English teas. Something, anything to thank the young nanny for giving up her lone day off so Tori could get through to Leona.

After Margaret Louise had headed home the night before, Tori had wracked her brain for a way to make things right. She’d considered a simple heart-to-heart with Leona but had discarded it fairly quickly. Leona didn’t like to be told anything. Except, of course, that she looked beautiful. Or that some man half her age was drooling over her from across a crowded room.

She’d even given some thought to letting Leona play shotgun on a stakeout of sorts. But unless the subject of their attention was six foot three and sporting muscles, Leona would grow bored. Asking her to sit in a car and note Margaret Louise’s tired eyes through a pair of binoculars wouldn’t do anyone any good.

In fact, it wasn’t until she was just about to give up that she’d come to the one and only viable possibility.

Leona loved to shop.

Leona loved to chitchat while she shopped.

And sometimes, when she was shopping, Leona even seemed to listen.

It was worth a shot, anyway.

She slipped back into the car, Leona sliding in beside her from the passenger side door. “I think that girl spends too much time with that little boy.”

Pausing her hand on the ignition, she glanced at the woman to her right. “Beatrice is a nanny, Leona, it’s her job to spend time with Luke.”

“But must she hum children’s songs all day long?”

She closed her eyes and counted to ten. “Do you realize today is Beatrice’s only day off all week?”

“Oh?”

Opening her eyes, she pinned Leona with a stare. “And she’s spending that day covering for you… so you and I can go shopping.”

Leona set her purse on the seat next to her and pulled the seat belt across her shoulder in such a way as to cover Paris, too. “Hmmm. That’s rather silly of her, isn’t it?”

“You mean,
kind
?
Nice
?
Sweet
?
Special
?”

Leona tipped her head forward, took in Tori atop her stylish glasses. “Is there something I should know, dear? You seem to be wound a bit tight this morning.”

She opened her mouth to answer, yet closed it just as quickly. There would be a time and place to speak her mind. Now was not that time. Instead, she merely shrugged and pulled away from the curb.

“I heard from Warren this morning,” Leona shared as they left the streets of Sweet Briar and headed west.

“And?”

“He seemed rather distracted.”

“That makes sense. He certainly has a lot on his plate right now.” Trees whizzed past the car as they traveled the two-lane country road that would eventually bring them to the outlet mall that had just opened three towns over.

Leona sniffed. “A plate he should clear when he calls me.”

She cast a sidelong glance in her friend’s direction. “Maybe he’s hoping you’ll be someone he can share his frustration with, someone outside the movie business he can vent to.”

“I’ve offered to step into that horrible woman’s role. What more does he want?”

“Y-you offered to star in his movie?” she sputtered in disbelief.

Leona’s eyebrow arched. “Of course I did. It’s the least I could do under the circumstances.” Stroking her hand across Paris’s back, Leona turned her attention out the window. “I make these kinds of gestures all the time yet no one ever seems to notice.”

What to say… what to say…

“That must be hard.” She drew back as the words left her mouth.

“It’s been like this my whole life.” Leona sighed and laid her head against the seat back, her perfectly coiffed hair barely moving. “I was always seen as the pretty one… the one with the angelic face and model-like bone structure. Margaret Louise was always the kindhearted one. It was like that all the way through college. Still is, even now. Only now it’s not just Mamma and Daddy making that distinction but everyone else, too.”

“Do you think it’s a fair distinction?” She knew the answer, yet asked the question anyway, hoping the distorted reply she was sure to get would be the springboard she was seeking.

“I most certainly do not. Neither does Paris.” Ever so gently Leona raised the bunny off her lap long enough to shower it with air-kisses. “She knows her mamma is special, don’t you, sweetie?”

Funny thing was, if Paris could talk, she would say Leona was sweet. And the animal wouldn’t be wrong. In fact, Leona’s nurturing of the garden variety bunny had surprised many in the sewing circle. Including Tori.

“I know I can be a little impatient at times. But I just don’t have much tolerance for people who are slow and stupid. Never have.”

“You mean like Beatrice?”

Leona gasped. “Victoria! I’ve never said Beatrice was stupid. Slow, yes, but not stupid. Any young thing who would travel so far from home for a job is courageous in my book.”

Surprised by the answer, Tori opted to see how far the revelations might take them. She pressed on. “Oh, so you mean like Rose…”

Leona bristled in the passenger seat. “Rose may be slow, physically, but it’s only because she’s getting up in years. But even with that she’s still on her hands and knees planting those flower gardens she loves so much. I admire that.”

She held fast to the steering wheel, righting the car as it swerved onto the shoulder. “Y-you do?”

“Not the flower part, of course, but the staying active part, yes.” Leona swiveled her legs to the left. “Me? I would use that energy for being squired around town by a handsome man, but I understand Rose doesn’t have the same appeal that I do.”

“You think she’s stupid, though, right?”

Leona’s grip tightened around Paris. “Rose? Are you kidding me? That old bat is sharp as a tack. Gaining the circle’s sympathy every time we spar isn’t by accident, Victoria. That woman sets me up every single time.”

She opened her mouth to argue but let it die on her tongue instead. Rose was, indeed, sharp. Razor-sharp. And while she was hesitant to admit it out loud, Tori suspected Leona was right on some level. Then again, Leona’s sullen expressions and holier-than-thou attitude made it easy to showcase her as the villain.

Casting a sidelong glance in Leona’s direction, she decided it was time to say her piece. “You could prove them wrong, you know.”

“Prove them wrong about what, dear?”

“Show them that you’re kind and loving, show them that you don’t dislike small children, show them—”

“I
do
dislike small children.”

She ignored Leona’s comment and kept going. “Show them that big heart I know you have.” Turning onto the highway, Tori substituted open windows for air-conditioning. “You’re safe with them, Leona. You can show them the real you.”

“You mean like I did when I gave you that antique sewing box that reminded you of your grandmother? You mean like I did when I gave one of Paris’s babies to Rose so she’d be less lonely?”

She zipped around the cars in the slow lane, the shopping mall they sought no longer quite so necessary. Everything she’d been saving to say for their outing was unfolding right there in the car. “Leona, that box meant the world to me—still does. And I know that Rose treasures Patches in much the same way you do Paris. But sometimes what people need isn’t just a material thing. Sometimes they just need to know you’re there, that you have their back… that you understand.”

“We’re talking about Margaret Louise now, aren’t we?” Leona pointed at an approaching sign, the name of the mall and the upcoming exit clearly marked. Nodding, Tori decreased her speed and moved into the right lane.

“Yes, we are.”

“My sister has everything under control. Always has.”

She glanced across the seat at Leona. “Oh?”

“When Rose was having treatment for her rheumatoid arthritis a few months ago, who did she choose to bring along?”

Tori turned off the highway and pulled to a stop at the bottom of the exit ramp, the red light giving her a moment to respond to a conversational turn she hadn’t seen coming. “She asked me to go with her.”

“And?”

“Margaret Louise.”

Leona barreled on. “And when Colby Calhoun went missing, who did you ask for help?”

A car honked behind them, prompting her to focus on the road and the now-green light in front of them. “Uhhh…”

“Margaret Louise,” Leona supplied.

“You were there, too! You stood right next to me on that porch while Margaret Louise found the moonshine—”

“I stood there beside you because I invited myself along. Same as I have many times.”

Suddenly the points she’d been hoping to make came back to choke her with a hefty slice of that humble pie Margaret Louise was always touting. And it didn’t taste all that good.

Groaning inwardly, she pulled into the outlet mall’s lot and found a quiet spot in the back to park. She turned off the engine, hiked her right knee onto the driver’s seat, and turned to face her companion. “Leona, please know that I didn’t purposely leave you out all those times, I just asked Margaret Louise because—”

“She’s the dependable one,” Leona finished.

She opened her mouth to protest yet couldn’t find the words she needed. Leona was right and she knew it.

“From the time we were little girls, Daddy counted on my sister to make things right whenever Mamma’s hands got sticky. He’d usher me to the side and send Margaret Louise in to clean up the mess.”

She studied her friend closely. “Did those roles bother you?”

Leona’s delicate shoulders rose and fell. “Maybe a little, in the beginning. I loved my mamma just as much as my sister did. But over time, while Margaret Louise picked up after her, I began to see all the pitying looks they got—from classmates, classmates’ mothers, neighbors, and relatives—and, well, I started to realize the role I’d been given wasn’t so bad, after all.”

The role she’d been given…

Sitting there, listening to her friend, Tori couldn’t help but notice the role perspective played in life. By Leona’s perspective, the role of nurturer had been handed to her sister. And now, countless decades later, everyone who knew Leona saw the role she played as being a deliberate choice—one made out of selfishness rather than learned habit.