Morning Glory

Chapter 6

That first week Will Parker was there Eleanor hardly saw him except at mealtimes. He worked. And worked and worked. Sunup to sunrise, he never stopped. Their first morning had established a routine which they kept by tacit agreement. Will chopped wood, carried it in and made a fire, then filled the water pail and left to do the milking, giving her privacy in the kitchen. She’d be dressed by the time he returned, and would start breakfast while he washed up and shaved. After they’d eaten, he fed the pigs, then disappeared to do whatever tasks he’d set for himself that day.

The first two things he did were to make a slatted wooden grid for beneath the pump and to fix the ladder to his hayloft. He cleaned the barn better than Eleanor ever recalled seeing it-cobwebs, windows and all-hauled the manure out to the orchard and spread the gutters with lime. Next he attacked the hen house, mucking it out completely, fixing some of the broken roosts, putting new screen on the door and the windows, then sinking posts to make an adjacent pen for the chickens. When it was done, he announced that he could use a little help herding the birds inside. They spent an amusing hour trying to do so. At least, Eleanor found it amusing. Will found it exasperating. He flapped his cowboy hat and cursed when a stubborn hen refused to go where he wanted her to. Eleanor made clucking noises and coaxed the hens with corn. Sometimes she imitated their strut and made up tales about how the hens came to walk that way, the most inventive one about a stubborn black cricket that refused to slither down a hen’s throat after it was swallowed. Chickens weren’t Will’s favorite animal. Goddamn stupid clucks is what he called them. But by the time they got the last one into the hen house, Eleanor had teased a reluctant smile out of him.

Will got along well with the mule, though. Her name was Madam, and Will liked her the moment he saw her wide hairy nose poking around the barn door while he was doing the evening milking. Madam smelled no better than the barn, so as soon as it was clean, Will decided she should be, too. He tethered her by the well and washed her down with Ivory Snow, scrubbing her with a brush and rinsing her with a bucket and rag.

"What the devil are you doing down there?" Eleanor called from the porch.

"Giving Madam a bath."

"What in blazes for?"

"She needs one."

Eleanor had never heard of an animal being scrubbed with Ivory Snow! But it was the durndest thing-Glendon had never been able to do a thing with that stubborn old cuss, but after her bath, Madam did anything Will wanted her to. She followed him around like a trained puppy. Sometimes Eleanor would catch Will looking into Madam’s eye and whispering to her, as if the two of them shared secrets.

One evening Will surprised everyone by showing up at the back porch with Madam on a hackamore.

"What’s this?" Eleanor stepped to the door, followed by Donald Wade and Baby Thomas.

Will grinned and hoped he wasn’t about to make a fool of himself. "Madam and me… well, we’re goin’ to Atlanta and we’ll take any passengers who want to come along."

"Atlanta!" Eleanor panicked. Atlanta was forty miles away. What did he want in Atlanta? Then she saw the grin on his lips.

"She said she wanted to see a Claudette Colbert movie," Will explained.

Suddenly Eleanor understood. She released a peal of laughter while Will rubbed Madam’s nose. Foolery wasn’t easy for him-it was apparent-so she appreciated it all the more. She stood in the doorway with a hand on Donald Wade’s head, inquiring, "Anybody want a ride on Madam?" Then, to Will, "You sure she’s safe?"

"As a lamb."

From the porch Eleanor watched as Will led the smiling boys around the yard on Madam’s back, that back so broad their legs protruded parallel with the earth. Donald Wade rode behind Thomas with his arms folded around the baby’s stomach. Surprisingly, Baby Thomas wasn’t frightened. He clutched Madam’s mane and gurgled in delight.

In the days following that ride, Donald Wade took to trailing after Will just as Madam did. He pitched a fit if Eleanor said, no, it was time for a nap, or no, Will would be doing something that might be dangerous. Nearly always, though, Will would interject, "Let the boy come. He’s no trouble."

One morning while she was mixing up a spice cake the pair showed up at the back porch with saws, nails and lumber.

"What’re you two up to now?" Eleanor asked, stepping to the screen door, stirring, a bowl against her stomach.

"Will and me are gonna fix the porch floor!" Donald Wade announced proudly. "Ain’t we, Will?"

"Sure are, short stuff." Will glanced up at Eleanor. "I could use a piece of wool rag if you got one."

She fetched the rag, then watched while Will patiently sat on the step and showed Donald Wade how to clean a rusty sawblade with steel wool and oil and a piece of soft wool. The saw, she noticed, was miniature. Where he’d found it she didn’t know, but it became Donald Wade’s. Will had another larger one he’d cleaned and sharpened days ago. When the smaller saw was clean, Will clamped the blade between his knees, took a metal file from his back pocket and showed Donald Wade how a blade is sharpened.

"You ready now?" he asked the boy.

"Yup."

"Then let’s get started."

Donald Wade was nothing but a nuisance, getting in Will’s way most of the time. But Will’s patience with the boy was inexhaustible. He set him up with his own piece of wood on the milking stool, showed him how to anchor it with a knee and get started, then set to work himself, sawing lumber to replace the porch floor. When Donald Wade’s saw refused to comply, Will interrupted his work and curled himself over the boy, gripping his small hand, pumping it until a piece of wood fell free. Eleanor felt her heart expand as Donald Wade giggled and looked up with hero-worship in his eyes. "We done it, Will!"

"Yup. Sure did. Now come over here and hand me a few nails."

The nails, Eleanor noticed, were rusty, and the wood slightly warped. But within hours he had the porch looking sturdy again. They christened it by sitting on the new steps in the sun and eating spice cake topped with Herbert’s whipped cream.

"You know"-Eleanor smiled at Will-"I sure like the sound of the hammer and saw around the place again."

"And I like the smell of spice cake bakin’ while I work."

The following day they painted the entire porch-floor in brick red, and posts in white.

At the "New Porch Party" she served gingerbread and whipped cream. He ate enough for two men and she loved watching him. He put away three pieces, then rubbed his stomach and sighed. "That was mighty good gingerbread, ma’am." He never failed to show appreciation, though never wordily. "Fine dinner, ma’am," or "Much obliged for supper, ma’am." But his thanks made her efforts seem worthwhile and filled her with a sense of accomplishment she’d never known before.

He loved his sweets and couldn’t seem to get enough of them. One day when she hadn’t fixed dessert he looked let-down, but made no remarks. An hour after the noon meal she found a bucket of ripe quince sitting on the porch step.

The pie-she’d forgotten. She smiled at his reminder and glanced across the yard. He was nowhere to be seen as she picked up the bucket and headed inside and began to mix up a piecrust.

For Will Parker those first couple of weeks at Eleanor Dinsmore’s place were unadulterated heaven. The work-why, hell-the work was a privilege, the idea that he could choose what he wanted to do each day. He could cut wood, patch porch floors, clean barns or wash mules. Anything he chose, and nobody said, "Boy, you supposed to be here? Boy, who tol’ you to do that?" Madam was a pleasurable animal, reminded him of the days when he’d done wrangling and had had a horse of his own. He flat liked everything about Madam, from the hairs on her lumpy nose to her long, curved eyelashes. And at night now, he brought her into the barn and made his own bed beside her in one of the box stalls that were cleaned and smelled of sweet grass.

Then came morning, every one better than the last. Morning and Donald Wade trailing along, providing company and doting on every word Will said. The boy was turning out to be a real surprise. Some of the things that kid came up with! One day when he was holding the hammer for Will while Will stretched wire around the chicken pen, he stared at an orange hen and asked pensively, "Hey, Will, how come chickens ain’t got lips?" Another day he and Will were digging through a bunch of junk, searching for hinges in a dark tool shed when a suspicious odor began tainting the air around them. Donald Wade straightened abruptly and said, "Oh-oh! One of us farted, didn’t we?"

But Donald Wade was more than merely amusing. He was curious, bright, and worshiped the shadow Will cast. Will’s little sidekick, following everywhere-"I’ll help, Will!"-getting his head in the way, standing on the screwdriver, dropping the nails in the grass. But Will wouldn’t have changed a minute of it. He found he liked teaching the boy. He learned how by watching Eleanor. Only Will taught different things. Men’s things. The names of the tools, the proper way to hold them, how to put a rivet through leather, how to brace a screen door and make it stronger, how to trim a mule’s hoof.

The work and Donald Wade were only part of what made his days blissful. The food-God, the food. All he had to do was walk up to the house and take it, cut a piece of spice cake from a pan or butter a bun. What he liked best was taking something sweet outside and eating it as he ambled back toward some half-finished project of his choice. Quince pie-damn, but that woman could make quince pie, could make anything, actually. But she had quince pie down to an art.

He was gaining weight. Already the waistband on his own jeans was tight, and it felt good to work in Glendon Dinsmore’s roomy overalls. Odd, how she volunteered anything at all of her husband’s without seeming to resent Will’s using it-toothbrush, razor, clothes, even dropping the hems of the pants to accommodate Will’s longer legs.

But his gratitude was extended for far more than creature comforts. She’d offered him trust, had given him pride again, and enthusiasm at the break of each new day. She’d shared her children who’d brought a new dimension of happiness into his life. She’d brought back his smile.

There was nothing he couldn’t accomplish. Nothing he wouldn’t try. He wanted to do it all at once.

As the days passed, the improvements he’d made began tallying up. The yard looked better, and the back porch. The eggs were easy to find since the hens were confined to the hen house and, slowly but surely, the woodpile was changing contours. As the place grew neater, so did Eleanor Dinsmore. She wore shoes and anklets now, and a clean apron and dress every morning with a bright hair ribbon to match. She washed her hair twice a week, and he’d been right about it. Clean, it took on a honey glow.

Sometimes when they’d meet in the kitchen, he’d look at her a second time and think, You look pretty this morning, Mrs. Dinsmore.But he could never say it, lest she think he was after something more than creature comforts. Truth to tell, it had been a long, long time, but always in the back of his mind lingered the fact that he’d spent time in prison, and what for. Because of it, he kept a careful distance.

Besides, he had a lot more to do before he’d proved he was worth keeping. He wanted to finish the plastering, give the house a coat of paint, improve the road, get rid of the junk cars, make the orchard produce again, and the bees… The list seemed endless. But Will soon realized he didn’t know how to do all that.

"Has Whitney got a library?" he asked one day in early September.

Eleanor glanced up from the collar she was turning. "In the town hall. Why?"

"I need to learn about apples and bees."

Will sensed her defiance even before she spoke.

"Bees?"

He fixed his eyes on her and let them speak for him. He’d learned by now it was the best way to deal with her when they disagreed.

"You know about libraries-how to use ’em, I mean?"

"In prison I read all I could. They had a library there."

"Oh." It was one of the rare times he’d mentioned prison, but he didn’t elaborate. Instead, he went on questioning. "Did your husband have one of those veiled hats, and things to tend bees with?" He didn’t know a lot, but he knew he’d need certain equipment.

"Somewhere."

"Think you could look around for me? See if you can find ’em?"

Fear flashed through her, followed quickly by obstinacy. "I don’t want you messin’ with those bees."

"I won’t mess with ’em till I know what I’m doing."

"No!"

He didn’t want to argue with her, and he understood her fear of the bees. But it made no sense to let the hives sit empty when honey could bring in cold, hard cash. The best way to soften her might be by being soft himself.

"I’d appreciate it if you’d look for them," he told her kindly, then pushed back from the dinner table and reached for his hat. "I’ll be walkin’ into town this afternoon to the library. If you’d like I can take whatever eggs you got and try to sell them there."

He took a bucket of warm water and the shaving gear down to the barn and came back half an hour later all spiffed up in his own freshly laundered jeans and shirt. When they met in the kitchen, her mouth still looked stubborn.

"I’m leaving now. How about those eggs?"

She refused to speak to him, but thumbed at the five dozen eggs sitting on the porch in a slatted wooden crate.

They were going to be heavy, but let him carry them, she thought stubbornly. If he wanted to go sellin’ eggs to the creeps in town, and learning about bees, and getting all money-hungry, let him carry them!

She pretended not to watch him heft the crate, but her curiosity was aroused when he set it back down and disappeared around the back of the house. A minute later he returned pulling Donald Wade’s wooden wagon. He loaded the egg crate on board only to discover the handle was too short for his tall frame. She watched, gratified when with his first steps his heels hooked on the front of the wagon. Five minutes later-still stubbornly silent-she watched him pull the wagon down the road by a length of stiff wire twisted to the handle.

Go on, then! Run to town and listen to every word they say! And come back with coins jingling in your pocket! And read up on bees and apples and anything else you want! But don’t expect me to make it easy on you!

Gladys Beasley sat behind a pulpit-shaped desk, tamping the tops of the library cards in their recessed bin. They were already flat as a stove lid, but she tamped them anyway. And aligned the rubber stamp with the seam in the varnished wood. And centered her ink pen on its concave rest. And adjusted her nameplate-Gladys Beasley, Head Librarian-on the high desk ledge. And picked up a stack of magazines and centered her chair in the kneehole. Fussily. Unnecessarily.

Order was the greatest force in Gladys Beasley’s life. Order and regimentation. She had run the Carnegie Municipal Library of Whitney, Georgia, for forty-one years, ever since Mr. Carnegie himself had made its erection possible with an endowment to the town. Miss Beasley had ordered the initial titles even before the shelves themselves were installed, and had been working in the hallowed building ever since. During those forty-one years she had sent more than one feckless assistant home in tears over a failure to align the spine of a book with the edge of a shelf.

She walked like a Hessian soldier, in brisk, no-nonsense steps on practical, black Cuban-heeled oxfords to which the shoemaker had added a special rubber heel which buffered her footfalls on the hardwood floors of her domain. If there was one thing that ired Gladys worse than slipshod shelving, it was cleats! Anyone who wore them in her library and expected to be allowed inside again had better choose different shoes next time!

She launched herself toward the magazine rack, imposing breasts carried like heavy artillery, her trunk held erect by the most expensive elastic and coutil girdle the Sears Roebuck catalogue had to offer-the one tactfully recommended for those "with excess flesh at the diaphragm." Her jersey dress-white squiggles on a background the color of something already digested-hung straight as a stovepipe from her bulbous hips to her club-shaped calves and made not so much as a rustle when she moved.

She replaced three Saturday Evening Postmagazines, tamped the stack, aligned it with the edge of the shelf and marched along the row of tall fanlight windows, checking the wooden ribbing between the panes to be sure Levander Sprague, the custodian, hadn’t shirked. Levander was getting old. His eyesight wasn’t what it used to be, and lately she’d had to upbraid him for his careless dusting. Satisfied today, however, she returned to her duties at the central desk, located smack in front of double maple doors-closed-that led to wide interior steps at the bottom of which were the main doors of the building.

Overdue notices-bah!-there should be no such thing. Anyone who couldn’t return a book on time should simply be disallowed the privilege of using the library again. That would put an end to the need for overdue notices, but quick. Gladys’s mouth was puckered so tightly it all but disappeared as she penned addresses on the penny postcards.

She heard footfalls mounting the interior steps. A brass knob turned and a stranger stepped in, a tall, spare man dressed like a cowboy. He paused, letting his eyes scan the room, the desk, and her, then silently nodded and tipped his hat.

Gladys’s prim mouth relaxed as she returned the nod. The genteel art of hat doffing had become nearly obsolete-what was the world coming to?

He took a long time perusing the place before moving. When he did, there were no cleats. He went directly, quietly, to the card catalogue, slid out the B’s, flipped through the cards and studied them for some time. He closed the drawer soundlessly, then scanned the sunlit room before moving between the oak tables to nonfiction. There were library patrons who, ill at ease when alone in the vast room with Miss Beasley, found it necessary to whistle softly through their teeth while scanning the shelves. He didn’t. He selected a book from the 600’s-Practical Science-moved on to select another and brought them straight to the checkout desk.

"Good afternoon," Gladys greeted in a discreet whisper.

"Afternoon, ma’am." Will touched his hat brim and followed her lead, speaking quietly.

"I see you found what you were looking for."

"Yes, ma’am. I’d like to check these out."

"Do you have a card?"

"No, ma’am, but I’d like to get one."

She moved with military precision, yanking a drawer open, finding a blank card, snapping it on the desktop off the edge of a tidily trimmed fingernail. The nail was virgin, Will was sure, never stained by polish. She closed the drawer with her girded torso, all the while holding her lips as if they were the mounting for a five-karat diamond. When she moved, her head snapped left and right, fanning the air with a smell resembling carnations and cloves. The light from one of the big windows glanced off her rimless glasses and caught the rows of uniform silver-blue ringlets between which the warp and woof of her skull shone pink. She dipped a pen in ink, then held it poised above the card.

"Name?"

"Will Parker."

"Parker, Will," she transposed aloud while entering the information on the first blank.

"And you’re a resident of Whitney, are you?"

"Yes, ma’am."

"Address?"

"Ahh…" He rubbed his nose with a knuckle. "Rock Creek Road."

She glanced up with eyes as exacting as calipers, then wrote again while informing him, "I’ll need some form of identification to verify your residency." When he neither spoke nor moved, her head snapped up. "Anything will do. Even a letter with a canceled postmark showing your mailing address."

"I don’t have anything."

"Nothing?"

"I haven’t lived there long."

She set down her pen with a long-suffering air. "Well, Mr. Parker, I’m sure you understand, I cannot simply loan books to anyone who walks in here unless I can be assured they’re residents. This is a municipal library. By its very meaning, the word municipal dictates who shall use this facility. Of a town, it means, thus this library is maintained by the residents of Whitney, forthe residents of Whitney. I wouldn’t be a very responsible librarian if I didn’t demand some identification now, would I?" She carefully placed the card aside, then crossed her hands on the desktop, giving the distinct impression that she was displeased at having her time and her card wasted.

She expected him to argue, as most did at such an impasse. Instead, he backed up a step, pulled his hat brim low and studied her silently for several seconds. Then, without a word, he nodded, scooped the books against his hip and returned to the nonfiction side where he settled himself on one of the hard oak armchairs in a strong shaft of sunlight, opened a book and began reading.

There were several criteria by which Gladys Beasley judged her library patrons. Cleats, vocal volume, nondisruptiveness and respect for books and furniture. Mr. Parker passed on all counts. She’d rarely seen anyone read more intently, with less fidgeting. He moved only to turn a page and occasionally to follow along with his finger, closing his eyes as if committing a passage to memory. Furthermore, he neither slouched nor abused the opposite chair by using it as a footstool. He sat with his hat brim pulled low, elbows on the table, knees lolling but boots on the floor. The book lay flat on the table where it belonged, instead of torqued against his belly, which was exceedingly hard on spines. Neither did he lick his finger before turning the page-filthy, germ-spreading habit!

Normally, if people came in and asked for a paper and pencil, Miss Beasley gave them a tongue-lashing instead, about responsibility and planning ahead. But Will Parker’s deportment and concentration raised within her regret for having had to deny him a borrower’s card. So she bent her own standard.

"I thought perhaps you might need these," she whispered, placing a pencil and paper at his elbow.

Will’s head snapped up. His shoulders straightened. "Much obliged, ma’am."

She folded her hands over her portly belly. "Ah, you’re reading about bees."

"And apples. Yes, ma’am."

"For what purpose, Mr. Parker?"

"I’d like to raise ’em."

She cocked one eyebrow and thought a moment. "I might have some pamphlets in the back from the extension office that would help."

"Maybe next time, ma’am. I got all I can handle here today."

She offered a tight smile and left him to his studies, trailing a scent strong enough to eat through concrete.

It was mid-afternoon. The only things moving in town were the flies on the ice cream scoop. Lula Peak was bored to distraction. She sat on the end stool in an empty Vickery’s Cafe, grateful when even her brassiere strap slipped down and she had to reach inside her black and white uniform to pull it up. God, this town was going to turn her into a cadaver before she even kicked the bucket! She could die of boredom right here on the barstool and the supper customers would come in and say, "Evenin’, Lula, I’ll have the usual," and not even realize she was a goner until thirty minutes later when their blue plate specials hadn’t arrived.

Lula yawned, leaving her hand inside her uniform, absently rubbing her shoulder. Being a sensual person, Lula liked touching herself. Sure as hell nobody else around this miserable godforsaken town knew how to do it right. Harley, that dumb ass, didn’t know the first thing about finesse when he touched a woman. Finesse. Lula liked the word. She’d just read it in an article on how to better yourself. Yeah, finesse, that’s what Lula needed, a man with a little finesse, a better man in the sack than Harley-Dumb-Ass-Overmire.

Lula suppressed a yawn, stretched her arms wide and thrust her ribs out, swiveling idly toward the window. Suddenly she rocketed from the stool.

Christ, it was him, walking along the street pulling a kid’s wagon. She ran her eyes speculatively over his lanky form, concentrating on his narrow hips and swaying pelvis as he ambled along the town square and nodded at Norris and Nat McCready, those two decrepit old bachelor brothers who spent their dotage whittling on the benches across the street. Lula hustled to the screen door and posed behind it. Look over here, Parker, it’s better than them two boring old turds.

But he moved on without glancing toward Vickery’s. Lula grabbed a broom and stepped into the sun, making an ill-disguised pretense of sweeping the sidewalk while watching his flat posterior continue around the square. He left the wagon in the shade of the town hall steps and went inside.

So did Lula. Back into Vickery’s to thrust the broom aside and glance impatiently at the clock. Two-thirty. She drummed her long orange nails across the countertop, plunked herself onto the end stool and waited for five minutes. Agitated. Peeved. Nobody was going to come in here for anything more than a glass of iced tea and she knew it. Not until at least five-thirty. Old Man Vickery would be madder than Cooter Brown if he found out she’d slipped away and left the place untended. But she could tell him she’d run over to the library for a magazine and hadn’t been gone a minute.

Deciding, she twisted off the stool and flung off her three-pointed apron. The matching headpiece followed as she whipped out her compact. A dash of fresh blaze orange on her lips, a check of the seams in her silk stockings and she was out the door.

Gladys Beasley looked up as the door opened a second time that afternoon. Her mouth puckered and her chin tripled.

"Afternoon, Mizz Beasley," Lula chirped, her voice ringing off the twelve-foot ceiling.

"Shh! Read the sign!"

Lula glanced at the sign on the front of Miss Beasley’s desk: Silence is Golden. "Oh, sorry," she whispered, covering her mouth and giggling. She glanced around-ceiling, walls, windows-as if she’d never seen the place before, which wasn’t far from the truth. Lula was the kind of woman who read True Confessions, and Gladys didn’t stoop to using the taxpayers’ money for smut like that. Lula stepped farther inside.

Cleats!

"Shh!"

"Oh, sorry. I’ll tiptoe."

Will Parker glanced up, scanned Lula disinterestedly and resumed his reading.

The library was U-shaped, wrapped around the entry steps. Miss Beasley’s desk, backed by her private workroom, separated the huge room into two distinct parts. To the right was fiction. To the left nonfiction. Lula had never been on the left where Parker sat now. Remembering about finesse, she moved to the right first, drifting along the shelves, glancing up, then down, as if examining the titles for something interesting. She removed a book bound in emerald green-the exact shade of a dress she’d been eyeing over at Cartersville in the Federated Store. Classy color that’d look swell with her new Tropical Flame nail polish-she spread her hands on the book cover and tipped her head approvingly. She’d have to think up something good to entice Harley to buy that little number for her. She stuck the book back in its slot and moved to another. Melville. Hey, she’d heard of this guy! Must’ve done something swell. But the spine was too wide and the printing too small, so she rammed it back on the shelf and looked further.

Lula finessedher way through a full ten minutes of fiction before finally tiptoeing past Miss Beasley to the other side. She twiddled two fingers as she passed, then clamped her hands at the base of her spine, thrusting her breasts into bold relief.

Gladys tightened her buttocks and followed where Lula had been, pushing in a total of eleven books she’d left beetling over the edges of the shelves.

Lula found the left side arranged much as the right, a spacious room with fanlight windows facing the street. Bookshelves filled the space between the windows and the floor, and covered the remaining three walls. The entire center of the room was taken up by sturdy oak tables and chairs. Lula sidled around the perimeter of the room without so much as peeking at Will. She grazed one fingertip along the edge of a shelf, then sucked it with studied provocativeness. She turned a corner, eased on to where a bank of shelves ran perpendicular to the wall and moved between them, putting herself in profile to Will, should he care to turn his head and see. She clasped her hands at the base of her spine, creating her best silhouette, watching askance to see if he’d glance over. After several minutes, when he hadn’t, she grabbed a biography of Beethoven and, while turning its pages, eyed Will discreetly.

God, was he good looking. And that cowboy hat did things to her insides, the way he wore it low, shadowing his eyes in the glare of the afternoon sun. Still waters,she thought, taken by the way he sat with one finger under a page, so unmoving she wished she were a fly so she could land on his nose. What a nose. Long instead of pug like some she knew. Nice mouth, too. Ooo, would she like to get into that.

He leaned forward to write something and she ran her eyes all over him, down his tapered chest and slim hips to the cowboy boots beneath the table, back up to his crotch. He dropped his pencil and sat back, giving her a clearer profile shot of it.

Lula felt the old itch begin.

He sat there reading his book the way all the "brains" used to read in school while Lula thought about bettering herself. When she could stand it no longer she took Beethoven over and dropped it on the table across from him.

"This seat taken?" she drawled, inverting her wrists, leaning on the tabletop so that her breast buttons strained. His chin rose slowly. As the brim of the cowboy hat lifted, she got a load of deep brown eyes with lashes as long as spaghetti, and a mouth that old Lula had plenty of plans for.

"No, ma’am," he answered quietly. Without moving more than his head, he returned to his reading.

"Mind if I sit here?"

"Go ahead." His attention remained on the book.

"Watcha studyin’?"

"Bees."

"Hey, how about that! I’m studyin’ B’s, too." She held up her book. "Beethoven." In school she’d liked music, so she pronounced it correctly. "He wrote music, back when guys wore wigs and stuff, you know?"

Again Will refused to glance up. "Yeah, I know."

"Well…" The chair screeched as Lula pulled it out. She flounced down, crossed her legs, opened the book and flapped its pages in rhythm with her wagging calf. "So. Haven’t seen y’ around. Where y’ been keepin’yourself?"

He perused her noncommittally, wondering if he should bother to answer. Mercy, she was one hard-looking woman. She had so much hair piled onto her forehead it looked as if she could use a neck brace. Her mouth was painted the color of a chili pepper and she wore too much rouge, too high on her cheeks, in too precise a pattern. She overlapped her wrists on the table edge and rested her breasts on them. They jutted, giving him a clearer shot of cleavage. It pleased Will to let her know he didn’t want any.

"Up at Mrs. Dinsmore’s place."

"Crazy Elly’s? My, my. How is she?" When Will declined to answer, she leaned closer and inquired, "You know why they call her crazy, don’t you? Did she tell you?" Against his will, he became curious, but it would seem like an offense against Mrs. Dinsmore to encourage Lula, so he remained silent. Lula, however, needed no encouragement. "They locked her in that house when she was a baby and pulled all the shades down and didn’t let her out until the law forced ’em to-to go to school-and then they only turned her loose six hours a day and locked her up again, nights." She sat back smugly. "Ah, so you didn’t know." Lula smiled knowingly. "Well, ask her about it sometime. Ask her if she didn’t live in that deserted house down by school. You know-the one with the picket fence around it and the bats flyin’ in the attic window?" Lula leaned closer and added conspiratorially, "If I were you, I wouldn’t hang around up there at her place any longer than I had to. Give you a bad reputation, if you know what I mean. I mean, that woman ain’t wrapped too tight." Lula sat back as if in a chaise, letting her eyelids droop, toying absently with the cover of Beethoven, lifting it, letting it drop with soft repeated plops. "I know it’s tough being new around town. I mean, you must be bored as hell if you have to spend your time in a place like this." Lula’s eyes made a quick swerve around the bookshelves, then came back to him. "But if you need somebody to show y’ around, I’d be happy to." Beneath the table her toe stroked Will’s calf. "I got me a little bungalow just four houses off the town square on Pecan Street-"

"Excuse me, ma’am," Will interrupted, rising. "Got some eggs out in the sun that need selling. I’d better see to ’em."

Lula smirked, watching him move to the bookshelves. He’d got the message. Oh, he’d got it all right-loud and clear. She’d seen him jump when her foot touched his leg. She watched him slip one book into place, then squat down to replace the other. Before he could escape, she sidled into the aisle behind him, trapping him between the two tiers of shelves. When he rose to his feet and turned, she was gratified by his quick blush. "If you’re interested in my offer, I work most days at Vickery’s. I’m off at eight, though." She slipped one finger between his shirt buttons and ran it up and down, across hair and hard skin. Putting on her best kewpie doll face, Lula whispered, "See y’ round, Parker."

As she swung away, exaggeratedly waggling her hips, Will glanced across the sunlit room to find the librarian’s censoring eyes taking in the whole scene. Her attention immediately snapped elsewhere, but even from this distance Will saw how tightly her lips pursed. He felt shaky inside, almost violated. Women like Lula were a clear path to trouble. There was a time when he’d have taken her up on the offer and enjoyed every minute of it. But not anymore. Now all he wanted was to be left to live his life in peace, and that peace meant Eleanor Dinsmore’s place. He suddenly felt a deep need to get back there.

Lula was gone, cleats clicking, by the time Will reached the main desk.

"Much obliged for the use of the paper and pencil, ma’am."

Gladys Beasley’s head snapped up. The distaste was ripe on her face. "You’re welcome."

Will was cut to the quick by her silent rebuff. A man didn’t have to make a move on a hot-blooded woman like that, all he had to do was be in the same pigeonhole with her. Especially-Will supposed-if he’d done time for killing a whore in a Texas whorehouse and people around town knew it.

He rolled his notes into a cylinder and stood his ground. "I was wonderin’, ma’am-"

"Yes?" she snapped, lifting her head sharply, her mouth no larger than a keyhole.

"I got a job. I’m workin’ as a hired hand for Mrs. Glendon Dinsmore. If she’d come in here and tell you I work for her, would that be enough to get me a library card?"

"She won’t come in."

"She won’t?"

"I don’t believe so. Since she married she’s chosen to live as a recluse. I’m sorry, I can’t bend the rules." She picked up her pen, made a check on a list, then relented. "However, depending upon how long you’ve been working for her, and how long you intend to stay, if she would verify your employment in writing, I should think that would be enough proof of residency."

Will Parker flashed a relieved smile, hooked one thumb in his hind pocket and backed off boyishly, melting the ice from Gladys Beasley’s heart. "I’ll make sure she writes it. Much obliged, ma’am." He headed for the door, then stopped and swung back. "Oh. How late you open?"

"Until eight o’clock weekdays, five Saturdays, and of course, we’re closed Sundays."

He tipped his hat again and promised, "I’ll be back."

As he turned the doorknob she called, "Oh, Mr. Parker?"

"Ma’am?"

"How is Eleanor?"

Will sensed that this inquiry was wholly different from Lula’s. He stood at the door, adjusting his impression of Gladys Beasley. "She’s fine, ma’am. Five months pregnant for the third time, but healthy and happy, I think."

"For the third time. My. I remember her as a child, coming in with Miss Buttry’s fifth grade class-or was it Miss Natwick’s sixth? She always seemed a bright child. Bright and inquisitive. Greet her for me, if you will."

It was the first truly friendly gesture Will had experienced since coming to Whitney. It erased all the sour taste left by Lula and made him feel suddenly warm inside.

"I’ll do that. Thanks, Mrs. Beasley."

"Miss Beasley."

"Miss Beasley. Oh, by the way. I got a few dozen eggs I’d like to sell. Where should I try?"

Exactly what it was, Gladys didn’t know-perhaps the way he’d assumed she had a husband, or the way he’d rejected the advances of that bleached whore, Lula, or perhaps nothing more than the way his smile had transformed his face at the news that he could have a library card after all. For whatever reason, Gladys found herself answering, "I could use a dozen myself, Mr. Parker."

"You could? Well… well, fine!" Again he flashed a smile.

"The rest you might take to Purdy’s General, right across the square."

"Purdy’s. Good. Well, let me go out and-Oh-" His thumb came out of the pocket, his hand hung loosely at his hip. "I just remembered. They’re all in one crate."

"Put them in this." She handed him a small cardboard filing box.

He accepted it, nodded silently and went out. When he returned, she asked, "How much will that be?" She rummaged through a black coin purse and didn’t look up until realizing he hadn’t answered. "How much, Mr. Parker?"

"Well, I don’t rightly know."

"You don’t?"

"No, ma’am. They’re Mrs. Dinsmore’s eggs and these’re the first I’ve sold for her."

"I believe the current price is twenty-four cents a dozen. I’ll give you twenty-five, since I’m sure they’re fresher than those at Calvin Purdy’s store, and since they’re hand delivered." She handed him a quarter, which he was reluctant to accept, knowing it was higher than the market value. "Well, here, take it! And next week, if you have more, I’ll take another dozen."

He took the coin and nodded. "Thank you, ma’am. ’Preciate it and I know Mrs. Dinsmore will, too. I’ll be sure to tell her you said hello."

When he was gone Gladys Beasley snapped her black coin purse shut, but held it a moment, studying the door. Now thatwas a nice young man. She didn’t know why, but she liked him. Well, yes she did know why. She fancied herself an astute judge of character, particularly when it came to inquiring minds. His was apparent by his familiarity with the card catalogue, his ability to locate what he wanted without her assistance and his total absorption in his study, to say nothing of his eagerness to own a borrower’s card.

And, too, he was willing to go back out to Rock Creek Road and work for Eleanor Dinsmore even after the pernicious twaddle spewed by Lula Peak. Gladys had heard enough to know what that harlot was trying to do-how could anyone have missed it in this echoing vault of a building? And more power to Will Parker for turning his back on that hussy. Gladys had never been able to understand what people got out of spreading destructive gossip. Poor Eleanor had never been given a fair shake by the people of this town, to say nothing of her own family. Her grandmother, Lottie McCallaster, had always been eccentric, a religious fanatic who attended every tent revival within fifty miles of Whitney. She was said to have fallen to her knees and rolled in the throes of her religious conviction, and it was well known she got baptized every time a traveling salvation man called for sinners to become washed in the Blood. She’d finally nabbed herself a self-proclaimed man of God, a fire-and-brimstone preacher named Albert See who’d married her, gotten her in a family way, installed her in a house at the edge of town and gone on circuit, leaving her to raise her daughter, Chloe, chiefly alone.

Chloe had been a silent wraith of a girl, with eyes as large as horse chestnuts, dominated by Lottie, subjected to her fanaticism. How a girl like that, who was scarcely ever out of her mother’s scrutiny, had managed to get pregnant remained a mystery. Yet she had. And afterward, Lottie had never shown her face again, nor allowed Chloe to, or the child, Eleanor, until the truant officer had forced them to let her out to attend school, threatening to have the child legally removed to a foster home unless they complied.

What the town librarian remembered best about Eleanor as a child was her awe of the spacious library, and of her freedom to move through it without reprimand, and how she would stand in the generous fanlight windows with the sun pouring in, absorbing it as if she could never get enough. And who could blame her-poor thing?

Gladys Beasley wasn’t an overly imaginative woman, but even so, she shuddered at the thought of what life must have been like for the poor bastard child, Eleanor, living in that house behind the green shades, like one buried alive.

She’d almost be willing to give Will Parker a borrower’s card on the strength of his befriending Eleanor alone, now that she knew of it. And when she marched back to nonfiction and found a biography of Beethoven lying on a table, but "Bees" and "Apples" tucked flush in their slots, she knew she’d judged Will Parker correctly.