Sowing Poison Read Online Free PDF

And now I’ll leave you to get settled.”
    Obviously he found her high-pitched drawl of no concern. It was obvious, to Lewis at least, that he found Clementine Elliott quite charming.

Chapter Three
    Over the next few days, Mrs. Elliott appeared to charm nearly everyone else in Wellington, too. As a widow, or at least a presumed widow, she was the subject of a great deal of sympathy.
    â€œI expect we’ll find her husband’s body in the spring,” was Susannah’s opinion. Unlike her husband, Lewis’s sister generally took no delight in idle gossip. She did seem, however, quite willing to report on Clementine Elliott, as the community’s sympathy turned to curiosity and then, in certain circles anyway, admiration.
    â€œThe men fall over themselves to cross her path so they can tip their hats,” Susannah said. “I don’t see what the attraction is myself.” At which point Lewis noticed that Daniel blushed. At least he had the good sense not to make any comment.
    She went on. “The only topic of conversation amongst Wellington women is the cut of her dress and the amount of ribbon used to trim it. Meribeth Scully says they’ve been bought right out of satin.”
    The Scullys ran the local dry goods store, and although they carried a large selection of cloth and bobbins of thread, their supply of ribbon was limited to the plainer types required by local housewives and the two tailors in the village, mostly grosgrain in black or a dignified brown. This did not amount to a great deal of ribbon in a year, especially as there were so many Quakers in the area, and they, of course, used no ribbon at all.
    Lewis knew from their sidelong glances that Daniel and Susannah were expecting him to launch into a diatribe about the folly of letting personal vanity occupy the attention that should rightly go to spiritual concerns — it was what was expected from a Methodist minister — yet he found that he could quite understand the interest in this display of exotic female finery.
    In all the years of their marriage there were few ribbons that had ever come Betsy’s way, yet there had been one time when he had been paid for a christening with a few yards of cloth. It had been a pretty calico print, with a blue background and a scattering of pink and yellow flowers. He should have taken the bolt to the nearest town and traded it with some storekeeper for flour or sugar or even a few coins, but something had held him back. Instead, he had taken it home and suggested to Betsy that it was time for a new summer dress. Her eyes had lit up when she saw the cloth and he chided himself for not thinking of her more often. Even then, she had said something about their daughter’s wardrobe, but he had insisted that she use it for herself.
    Women needed things like pretty clothes once in a while to offset the harshness of their lives in this hard place, to take the edge off their constant round of looking after houses and children and husbands. Betsy had looked lovely in her new dress and he had told her so. Let the Scullys sell as much ribbon as they could lay their hands on, and if Clementine Elliott had raised the bar of Wellington fashion, then so be it. What real harm could it do if it was but a transitory thing and made women happier creatures?
    Of more concern was his brother-in-law. He knew that Daniel had a bit of an eye. After all, it had been what attracted him to Susannah in the first place. She had been an extraordinarily pretty girl and was still a fine-looking woman, but Lewis knew that she had begun to fret about the fine lines that had etched themselves into the skin around her eyes and mouth, and once he had surprised her at the mirror in the front hall. She had been pulling at the slightly sagging pouch of flesh under her chin. She’d blushed a little when she saw him, and he had not commented. He had no real reason to think that any part of Daniel would rove