Dreams for Courage by Shanna Hatfield EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Authors: Shanna Hatfield
- Language: English
- Genre: Western Short Stories
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
March 1886
Chicago
Leaning heavily on a crooked stick that served as a cane, Rhetta
Wallace took another shuffling step forward, adjusting the basket she
carried higher on her arm. Soot streaked her cheeks, and frizzy gray
hair peeked from beneath a tattered rag she’d tied on her head. With a
pronounced hump in her back and eyes squinting against the bright morning
light, she smiled at a stranger passing by, revealing the blackened hole
where front teeth should have resided.
“Psst! Rhetta. Psst!”
Rhetta pretended not to hear anything as she neared an alley. With
slow, measured steps, she backed herself up to an upturned keg and settled
her girth on the makeshift seat.
“What is it, Lee?” she asked, barely moving her lips as she turned ever
so slightly toward the dark shadows of the alley.
“There’s a man at your office. He wouldn’t leave and told me I had to
come fetch you.”
“Name?” Rhetta asked, taking a long straw from her basket and
sticking it in her mouth, pretending to chew on it.
“Said he represents Senator Tomlinson.”
Rhetta almost choked on the straw and spit it out. Without looking
behind her, she stood. “I’ll be there as soon as I can. Give him tea and
cookies.”
“Will do.”
From experience, Rhetta knew Leland Turner, her assistant and
unofficial ward, would disappear into the shadows and return quickly to her
office.
Rhetta continued down the street, keeping a steady eye on the man she
was following. He turned at the corner, walked a few blocks to a residential
area, and knocked on the door of a small home in need of paint and repair.
The door swung open, and a lovely young woman launched herself into
the man’s arms. He kissed her soundly, lifted her in his arms, and continued
kissing her as he walked into the house and toed the door shut behind him.
Rhetta sighed, disappointed she’d been correct in assuming the worst.
The irate wife who hired Rhetta to see if her husband was the philandering
lout she’d determined him to be was going to be even more livid by news of
this recent encounter.
Three times in the past two weeks, Rhetta had trailed the man to bawdy
houses. Four days ago, he’d had a suspicious meeting in the park with a
woman who’d appeared half his age. Notes were passed, and Rhetta could
only guess it was information about a liaison.
Like this one.
She wrote down the address of the house and a few key notes on a
writing tablet she took from the basket she carried, then stepped behind the
nearest building, removed the rag and wig from her head and the shawl that
looked like a dog had chewed it beyond redemption, stuffing them into her
basket. The tip of her tongue worked to loosen the gum stuck to her front
teeth. She tossed the black, sticky wad to the ground and wiped her fingers
on her skirt.
For More Read Download This Book
EPUB