A Lady Never Trifles with Thieves Read Online Free PDF Page A

to serve an army. Solid-doored cabinets below the counters would hold all the needed pots, pans, kettles, and tins.
    “I been caretaking Miz Penny since she was twelve year old,” Abelia said. “Her daddy owns a steamship line out San Francisco way. Rich as King Midas and didn’t get that way being kind.”
    She paused, then muttered, “That dear, sweet girl jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire. I told her and told her, LeBruton was cut of the same cloth as her father, but would she listen? Ain’t her fault she don’t know what love is. Mine and her mama’s is all she’s ever had.”
    With a grunt, Abelia whisked an envelope from the butcher-block worktable. Prying up a stove lid, she flung the envelope into the fire. The clank of the lid resettling in its groove was as irrevocable as a gunshot.
    When she turned, her eyes were red-veined, but dry. “If it’s the lastest thing I do on this earth, I’ll get Miz Penny away from that son of Satan she married.”
    “Was that her note to Mr. Shulteis?”
    “Oh, you’re a quick one, I’ll give you that.” Abelia fetched a glass from a cabinet. “Miz Penny didn’t have no choice but write it.” Lemonade was dispensed from a jug stored in the icebox. I whimpered at the sight of it.
    “When she told Mr. Rendal she’d had enough of his bedding every slut that cocked a hip at him, he slapped her.” The glass banged the table in front of me. “He said he’d married Miz Penny for her money and that she’d do as she was told, or he’d have his friend the judge declare her insane and lock her up in an asylum.”
    Hatred radiated from the old woman’s very pores. She knew how easily Rendal LeBruton—or any husband—could dispose of a troublesome wife, then quietly divorce her and take her wealth as his own. It didn’t happen every day, but often enough to be common knowledge.
    I sipped at the cold, lemony-sweet ambrosia, though I wanted to gulp it in a single swallow. Declining a plate of molasses cookies, I asked, “Then why did you burn the note, Abelia?”
    “Because Miz Penny can’t lie worth spit. This way, she don’t have to. For all she knows, it went to that shyster, like she was told.”
    “But her husband is bound to find out it didn’t. I can’t act as Shulteis’s agent knowing his client believes she’s fired him. What happens if Shulteis serves LeBruton with notice of the dissolution? Fulton has put the cart before the horse, when the respondent was a known philanderer.”
    The last remark prompted a mental smite to the forehead. On the eve of our first collaboration, Won Li said Shulteis was rumored to have warned a captain of industry that his wife and sister-in-law were importing a tarnished Charleston belle to prove his adulterous inclinations.
    The wronged wife was Shulteis’s client, but the lawyer had political ambitions. Knowing whose side the bread was buttered on, and which gender has voting rights, Shulteis spared the man embarrassment and ensured his loyalty. A quiet, uncontested divorce was later obtained in another state.
    Hiring me to secure evidence of LeBruton’s alienated affections indicated that LeBruton’s sphere of influence and personal wealth was negligible.
    Abelia’s hand delved her dress pocket. A money clip with quarter-folded banknotes materialized in her outstretched palm.
    “I got nine dollars saved up that says you’ll help me fix things so’s Master LeBruton don’t find out about Miz Penny showing him the door, before it’s too late to stop his evil schemin’. There’s more money—lots more—to come once the dust settles and Miz Penny is free of him.”
    “Oh, Abelia…” I dragged a stool over and sat down, suddenly too heartsick to stand. “Put your money away. Better yet, take it to the depot and buy Mrs. LeBruton a train ticket away from here. A divorce can’t be granted in secret.”
    “Huh. Just ’cause I’m a nigger don’t mean I’m ignorant, missy. There’s a heap of