The Right Wife Read Online Free PDF Page B

assistance. She might have stood there all day before he could have overcome his disgust at her appearance enough to help her.
    “That’s Rube Whitcomb,” Wesley told them as he sat down, taking the reins in his wide, smooth hands. “He’s some of that bunch moving into Sheffield looking for work.”
    Wesley adjusted the reins, motioning the horse, which began trotting down Railroad Street. Behind them lay the old station house. Bellows of smoke coming from the steam engine clouded the clear sky. Ahead lay rows of two-story brick buildings occupied by merchants, the local newspaper housed in the corner building.
    Wesley slowed the buggy as a large carriage careened around the corner, nearly colliding with them. Everyone tensed with the expectation of collision, and sighed with relief when disaster was avoided. Daisy quickly jerked Judith into her lap. Thick swirls of dust flew upward, covering all of them with a fine layer of dirt.
    Maggie coughed several times, then turned around to check on Jude and Micah and Daisy. Seeing that they were unharmed, she tried to smile before turning back around. So much had happened to her family today that she was certain none of them could endure another calamity. When she had received Uncle Chester’s letter the month after Pa died, she began making plans. She’d been forced to sell what few possessions they had in order to buy their train tickets, but she had been so sure that coming to Tuscumbia to be with her mother’s relatives could help her keep her promise to Pa.
    Meeting Mr. Stone at the railroad depot in Chattanooga ruined everything. He did not fit into her plans. But if he died . . . She didn’t want him to die. She wanted him to live. She couldn’t bear the thought of what might be happening to him this very minute. He was little more than a stranger. His welfare shouldn’t mean so much to her. Oh, why did I meet him? she wondered. And why did all of this have to happen?
    “Why would this Whitcomb man shoot Mr. Stone?” Maggie asked, knowing she would probably only whet Cousin Wesley’s curiosity by inquiring.
    “I have no idea,” he said, but was apparently eager to continue the conversation. “Whatever acquaintance y’all might have with that man, I wouldn’t mention it to Mama.”
    “I understand.” Maggie’s eyes caught sight of the Parshall House Hotel. She wanted to jump from the buggy and rush inside to find Aaron. She had the strangest sense of urgency, as if he needed her, as if he were calling to her. As they passed the hotel, it was all she could do not to turn around and continue staring.
    “Well, I don’t understand,” Judith said, pulling free of Daisy and bracing her arms against the back of Maggie and Wesley’s seat.
    “Sit back, heathen,” Micah said. “I heard some men saying that they’d sent for the town marshal. It seems that fellow’s got a daughter who’s been after that black-haired man who was with Mr. Stone. It was him that Whitcomb fellow aimed to shoot. Mr. Stone just got in the way.”
    “But why did he want to shoot Mr. Stone’s friend?” Judith asked.
    “I heard them whispering and laughing about it,” Micah said. “It seems Mr. Stone’s friend had his way with the gal, and her pa didn’t take kindly to it.”
    “My word, Micah,” Wesley said. “Is this a proper subject to be discussing in front of the ladies?”
    “I don’t suppose so,” Micah agreed, but finished his tale all the same. “They said the daughter isn’t any kind of lady. They said she was a—”
    “Micah!” Maggie warned.
    “Most regrettable,” Wesley said. “Sally Whitcomb is, unfortunately, one of God’s poor creatures who has allowed her body to lead her into a life of sin. Stone and his friend Coleman have quite a reputation with women of her sort.”
    “Do you know Mr. Stone?” Maggie wanted to know more about the man who had mesmerized her, whose emerald eyes had looked into her heart and claimed it.
    “He’s been