Earth Angels Read Online Free PDF Page B

that might make Joseph unbend a tiny bit and notice that she was a woman.
     
    “Doctor Gillespie, what a lovely surprise. Do come right in.” Miss Eugenia Templeton looked delighted when Joseph appeared at her door with his bundle of flannel for Mrs. Simpson’s sheets. “Goodness, take off your coat and hat. It must be snowing again out there. Come into the parlor, it’s warm with the fireplace going. Take that armchair, it’s the most comfortable. Mabel and I were just having our late afternoon glass of sherry, will you join us?”
    He’d planned to just hand over the parcel, explain what was needed, and be on his way. But somehow he found himself sitting in the armchair in front of the fireplace, a small crystal glass of sherry in his hand. Eugenia and Mabel sat side by side on the velvet-covered sofa just a few feet away. Their large tabby cat sat between them, all three of them eyeing Joseph.
    The Templeton sisters were in their mid twenties, dark, exotic looking women who had arrived in town two years before and set up shop as dressmakers and general seamstresses. Where they’d come from or why they’d chosen Demersville was a mystery. They’d never been his patients, so he didn’t really know them well, and he’d forgotten about them until Emma Walsh suggested them.
    “How delightful, having a handsome gentleman drop in on us like this,” Mabel said in her husky voice, smiling at him from under her lashes and toying with the lace on the rather low neckline of her dress. “These long winter evenings can be so tedious, don’t you agree, Doctor? Here, let me pour you just a bit more sherry.”
    She leaned forward, brushing his arm with hers, steadying his hand with her warm fingers as she poured the golden liquid into his glass from the tray on the side-table.
    Eugenia was stroking the cat, slowly and sensuously, also looking up at him from under long sooty lashes. “You’ve braved the snow to get here, Doctor, now you really must stay for dinner. We have a lovely tender beef roast in the oven, much too large for just the two of us, and Mabel made her apple tart. Do say you’ll stay?”
    Mabel nodded with enthusiasm. “Oh my yes, you certainly must. We simply won’t take no for an answer.”
    Becoming more uncomfortable by the instant, Joseph cleared his throat. “That’s very kind of you, thank you, but I really must be getting back, I often have patients in the evening,” he fibbed. Trying not to spill the sherry on the carpet as he reached for the bundle he’d brought, he added, “I wondered if you’d sew some sheets for me?”
    “But of course, we’d be delighted,” Eugenia cooed. “And if you need shirts, Doctor, we’re very good at shirts.” She seemed to be studying his body with more than shirts in mind.
    It took a full twenty minutes before he made it out the door and onto the snow street. He stomped along, vexed by the coquettish Templeton sisters. They were running a business, and in his opinion their behavior was both improper and undignified.
    Emma Walsh flashed into his mind. She wasn’t as overtly flirtatious as the Templetons. But he couldn’t deny that she was a very forward young woman. And damn it all, he thought of her far, far too often these days.
     
     

CHAPTER FOUR
     
     
    Emma climbed the back stairs to Joseph’s house at just after eight the following Wednesday morning, her basket over her arm. Her store opened at nine, but she had no idea what time Joseph began seeing patients, so she’d come early.
    And now she was second-guessing her actions. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all, she thought, heart hammering. Part of her wanted to turn tail and run.
    You’ve come this far, Emma Walsh , she chided herself. You might as well go through with it now you’re here.
    She knocked, waited. She was trembling. She knocked again, but there was no answer. Maybe he was in his office at the front of the house. She made her way to the front, smiling at the