AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Fishmonger Granger’s promised his entire Thursday catch to little MissEddy, so no more fish fry for us on that night.”
Rhine was confused. “What? Why?”
“Because she’s serving fish on Thursdays now, too, and folks are buzzing about her food like bees on flowers.”
Surprise replaced the confusion. “Is that the reason we’ve been low on attendance the last two weeks?”
“That would be my guess.”
So the beauty was not only haunting the edges of his mind, she was costing him customers.
Jim added, “Not sure if there’s a way to change Granger’s mind, but in the meantime I’ll switch to quail or chicken for Thursdays, unless the farmers have promised her all those, too.”
“Let’s hope not. Anything else?”
“No. That’s it.”
“Okay. Is there something I can eat?”
Jim dished him up a plate of lamb, potatoes, and carrots from the pots on the stove and Rhine took it up to his office.
While eating, he pulled out his ledgers. Poring over the numbers of the past two weeks, he saw that the Union’s profits were down about three percent. It wasn’t a number that would make him close the doors but it was enough to make him wonder just what Eddy was cooking over at Sylvia’s. He’d seen her a few times at the orphanage, and when he did, he was respectful and did his best not to dwell on her admission that she’d asked herself what might happen between them had he not been engaged. She surprised him with how blunt and direct she’d been that day, but then again, she’d been surprising him since the day she woke up in his bed and stubbornly tried to make it to the washroom under her own power, even though the desert had left her with none. It wouldn’t be long before the men were lining up to eat at Sylvia’s just to catch a glimpse of her, if they weren’t already, and he was honest enough to admit that bothered him far more than the cut in his profit, because the attraction between them still lingered. He felt it and sensed she did, too, but it had to remain unrealized because he’d already chosen Natalie. He’d had dinner with her and her parents before the city council meeting and promised to escort her to Vera Ford’s seamstress shop in the morning to view pictures of wedding costumes. He wasn’t looking forward to it but she was his fiancée and it was what she wanted, so he’d go along and smile. It made no sense to be pining for Eddy because, as she said, the subject was moot. He just wished he knew how to make the pining stop.
The following morning, as Eddy stood in one of the nicely decorated back rooms of Vera’s shop with her arms outstretched, she felt like a scarecrow as Vera’s assistant, an Irishwoman named Shanna McKay, used her tapes to take Eddy’s measurements. First had come ankles to waist, then waist to shoulders, followed by across her back, shoulders, and bosom. Once that was accomplished, soft cotton fabric was laid against her chest and she was told, “Just trying to get a look at what blouse material we want to use.”
“Something sturdier than this. It needs to hold up to my day.”
Shanna replaced it with another sample. “If you had your way, you’d be wearing denim from head to toe. Don’t you want to look nice?”
“I’m a cook, Shanna. Nothing looks nice adorned with food stains.”
“MissVera said she wants you to look like a lady of means.”
“Well since I’m not, I’d prefer something practical.”
Vera entered on the heels of that. “Is she giving you a hard time, Shanna?”
“Not really.”
“Which means of course she is.”
Eddy smiled. “I need practical wear, MissVera. Gravy stains are hard to wash out.”
“Understood, dear, so let’s do practical and pretty. You might want to go walking with Zeke or another gentleman at some point, and you’ll be glad to have something nice.”
Eddy concurred but in reality thought she’d do more walking back and forth to the market than anywhere else. She was glad when Shanna finally put away the tapes and then heard, “Come back tomorrow, Eddy. I should have the fabrics cut out and we can do some fittings. We don’t want her looking like she’s wearing a potato sack, do we MissVera?”
“Certainly not.”
Eddy sighed. “I’ll come by after breakfast.”
“Good. Now let me get back to my other customers, who are, by the way, Rhine Fontaine and his fiancée Natalie Greer.”
“Ah.” Eddy didn’t want to see him with his fiancée, but since there was no way around it, she left the fitting room and walked out into the shop’s main room. Her plan was to acknowledge them and quickly be on her way, but fate had other plans.
“MissCarmichael?”
Eddy looked up into those emerald green eyes and silently chastised herself for still finding them and him so mesmerizing. “Mr.Fontaine.”
