Bloody Kin Read Online Free PDF Page B

to define them; but after all their years together, she still hadn’t pounded those standards into Emily Bryant’s fluffy head.
    “Now this is really just too bad!” she scolded when Miss Emily turned up at the back door unannounced, with Kate in tow, and informed her that Rob was coming for lunch as well.
    Bessie Stewart had dark brown eyes and skin the color of mellow, smoke-darkened oak. She was no taller than Miss Emily, but her honest salt-and-pepper hair was pinned into a neat bun on top of her head and she lacked her employer’s plumpness. Nor would she have been caught dead in the flashy pantsuits Miss Emily fancied. Day in, day out, she wore neat print dresses with immaculate white aprons.
    Kate, who’d only seen Bessie’s perfect treasure side, tried to leave, but Bessie wouldn’t allow it. “I’m not fussing at you, honey. What we got, you welcomed to share. But you!” She glared at Miss Emily. “Why’d they make telephones if it wasn’t so some people could let other people know what they planning to do? What kind of food you expect and you don’t tell me you’re coming?”
    “I’m not very hungry,” Kate offered, trying to pour oil on Bessie’s troubled waters.
    “And Rob’s not fussy either,” said Miss Emily. “Just give us grilled cheese and coffee. Anyhow,” she added indignantly, “how could I tell you we were coming if I didn’t know it myself?”
    Bessie snorted. “You knew you were walking out of that schoolhouse four hours early, didn’t you? You called Rob to come, didn’t you? While you had that little dialing finger working, you could have called me, couldn’t you? I know you, Em’ly Wallace. You always so afraid something’s gonna happen you won’t see, you don’t use good sense. Ever since you in pigtails you be sticking your nose in everybody else’s playhouse. One of these days you gonna get that nose cut off! Grilled cheese, huh! And what you laughing at, you sassy fox?” she asked Rob, who’d arrived in the middle of her tirade.
    He did look foxlike standing there in the doorway grinning at her with those small white teeth.
    Miss Emily held her tongue while Rob charmed Bessie back into good humor. Eventually, Bessie allowed herself to be hugged and coaxed into admitting that there might be a platter of cold fried chicken left over from the day before, and she further relented by letting him set the kitchen table instead of banishing them to the chilly dining room.
    An astonishing stream of food issued from the packed refrigerator: deviled eggs, spiced pears, butter beans, potato salad, and bread-and-butter pickles joined the chicken, and a pan of hot biscuits materialized as if by magic.
    “What more would you have done if you’d known we were coming?” Kate marveled.
    Completely mollified now, Bessie perched on a stool at a nearby counter with a glass of strong iced tea and demanded a rehash of the morning’s events.
    Already, Kate had told how she’d found the body to Lacy, to Dwight when he arrived with two patrol deputies, and again to Rob and Miss Emily. Now, feeling a bit like the Ancient Mariner, she told it once more to Bessie and found that each retelling made the horror recede a bit further. Bessie hung on every detail.
    “You see? You’re every bit as curious as me,” Miss Emily said, complacently buttering a third biscuit.
    “Maybe so, but you don’t see me dropping everything and running over to stick my nose in, do you?”
    Miss Emily pounced. “Then who’s the extra pie for?”
    Four pairs of eyes regarded the fragrant evidence cooling on the counter. Bessie tried to bluster it through. “Now, Kate, didn’t I use to bring you and Jake a pie whenever y’all came down?”
    Remembering those homey gifts, Kate was embarrassed to feel tears sting her eyes. If they were down for just the weekend, she and Jake usually finished off Bessie’s pie on the long drive back to New York, a thermos of hot coffee and Kate holding a slice up for