The Lilac Bouquet Read online

  “Hmm.” Emmy Jo paused. Seth had told her that a piece of wood pierced his grandmother’s leg and she’d bled out in seconds. She read through the article again and decided that Seth probably had information from documents he’d found in his research that the newspaper reporter didn’t have back then. She decided to believe Seth’s story and read on, learning that a local pastor and his wife took the little girl child into their home until relatives could be found. The couple had worn wedding bands, so it was assumed they were married and the baby belonged to them.

  Seth hadn’t told her the part about the preacher and his wife taking Mary into their home. She would have been an upstanding member of the church and of Hickory. Emmy Jo scrolled through the rest of that paper and several more and finally found that Preacher Roberts and his wife had officially adopted the child of the wreck. No one had come forward in two years to claim her, so the judge declared it okay for them to proceed with the adoption. Emmy Jo looked through several more papers but couldn’t find anything on Mary Roberts until she found a marriage license listing in August 1934 for Mary Roberts and Samuel Thomas. She flipped back six months and went slowly. There was no mention of an engagement and nothing in the paper about a reception in the church following the courthouse news.

  Emmy Jo did the math in her head. Seth was born seven months after the marriage. “Oh, no!” She clapped her hands over her cheeks. Maybe that’s why they’d shunned her. Eighty years ago that would have been a big black taboo, for the preacher’s daughter to get pregnant before marriage.

  She glanced at the clock and realized it was almost noon. Time to gather up her things and go meet Logan at the Dairy Queen for lunch.

  Edith poked her head around the door. “I’m so sorry I didn’t have time to come help you, but I had to get a whole raft of books shelved. Folks read more in the summertime. And now it’s lunchtime. Well, you best get on and meet your feller. Helen O’Malley is bringing some of her chili, and she and I are going to have a little visit. Maybe we can visit longer next time you come in.”

  “Yes, ma’am, and I’m sorry for my short answer. I was in a hurry,” Emmy Jo said.

  Edith waved her away. “Looks like we both had things to do this mornin’.”

  Emmy Jo didn’t realize how hungry she was until she walked in the Dairy Queen and got a whiff of a mixture of burgers, onions, and tacos.

  Logan stood up and wrapped her up in a bear hug. “Well, hello, beautiful!” he said, brushing a kiss across her lips.

  She hugged him tightly. “You are so sweet, but I look like warmed-over sin today.”

  “Then warmed-over sin is beautiful.” He took her hand in his and kissed the palm, sending shivers down her backbone. Then he motioned for her to scoot across the booth seat so he could sit beside her.

  “I absolutely love you, Logan.” She rested her hand on his thigh and asked, “Did you get all moved in last night?”

  Logan chuckled. “Yes, we did get moved in. I was going to call you, but it was way past midnight when we were done. I slept like a rock. Should have moved in with Jack right out of college, but I was trying to get the folks to come around to accepting you and me.”

  “Never going to happen. Not with them or Tandy,” she said.

  The waitress set their food on the table. “Anything else?”

  “You ordered!” Emmy Jo planted a kiss on Logan’s cheek. “I’m so hungry and I thought we’d have to wait. I love you even more than I did an hour ago.”

  “Bacon cheeseburgers, fries, and sweet tea,” he said. “Anything else?”

  She shook her head. “This looks so good.”

  “Then I guess that’s all,” he told the waitress. Logan was so thoughtful that sometimes she wondered how the devil she’d gotten so lucky.

  “Tell me the whole story about the moving-out business,” she said as she popped a hot fry into her mouth and removed the paper from her burger.

  “I already did,” he said.

  “But I couldn’t see your expression. I’m so sorry about the way they’re acting, and it’s all because of me. Logan, what are we going to do? I was sure they’d come around eventually, but now I’m worried that later you will resent me for it.” Her eyes filled with tears. Family, crazy and mixed-up as it was, was important. To have them shun Logan because of her hurt Emmy Jo deep down in her soul.

  “This will not come between us, I promise. I can’t figure out why us meeting in the cemetery set the church committees on their ear so bad. I can kiss you right here and no one says a word about it. We’ve probably even been seen coming out of a motel together. So what’s the big deal about the cemetery?”

  “It’s Seth,” she said. “Did you know that his mama and daddy were only married about seven months when he was born? Back in those days that would have been pretty bad. That might have been the start of why everyone looked down on his mama.”

  “But that wouldn’t keep Tandy and Gramps from liking him. They were born about the same time. It would have been their parents that had a problem with Mary, not them.” He picked up her hand and kissed each knuckle. “Where did you go after the cemetery?”

  Her heart kicked in an extra beat at the touch of his lips. “We went down to the house where he grew up. I didn’t even know that place existed and I’ve lived here my whole life. It’s this tiny little house with probably only two rooms in it. There’s a rocking chair on the porch where he likes to sit and think. He’s a lonely old soul, but he’s a softy. He loved his family and especially his mama.”

  “Maybe folks like Gramps and Tandy hate him because he’s gotten rich. He might have been poor back then, but I hear he’s got enough money to buy the state of Texas these days,” Logan said. “No . . . that’s not right, either. What if Jesse and Seth both loved Tandy and she jilted both of them?”

  “Yeah, right. God, this is good. Do you think something happened when they were kids in school?” Emmy Jo’s brows drew down into a deep frown. “I’ll just have to keep going. Today I found out about the fact that Mary was pregnant when she and Samuel got married. I’ll go deeper and find out more.”

  “My love, the sleuth.” He chuckled.

  “It’s something that’s been laid on my heart, Logan. I’ve been writing it down in story form in the evenings after supper. I feel this crazy connection and a gnawing desire to find out what’s going on. I can’t put my finger on any of it, but it’s drawing me,” she said.

  “Are you sure that’s healthy?” he asked.

  “I don’t know what it is, but I can’t stop.”

  “Then good luck. Now let’s talk about us. I’ve offered to work every Saturday morning while you are up at Seth’s place. That way I can take Thursday afternoons off and we can spend them together. And I put in for a week’s vacation starting the day of our wedding, so we can have a honeymoon.” He flashed a brilliant smile.

  “Honeymoon!” she squealed.

  He’d mentioned it before, but she’d thought he was kidding. With the expense of renting a place and getting started, she hadn’t thought they could afford even a weekend away from Hickory and their jobs.

  “Yes, darlin’, a honeymoon, and there will be no sleuthing on the honeymoon unless you lose your bra and we have to track it down.”

  She giggled. “Shh, someone will hear you.”

  “Okay, then, let’s talk about the trailer coming open for rent the first of June in the Hickory trailer park. We might think about renting it until we can save up enough for a down payment on a house,” he said.

  “You’ve been busy.” She grinned. “How far is it from my granny’s place?”

  “All the way to the back side of the park. We can even drive in and out the rear gate if you’re afraid she’ll bring out that shotgun again.” He brushed her hair back behind her ear and whispered, “And no one can hear us when—”

  She put a finger over his lips. “But they can now.”

  “You are blushin’,” he teased.

  “Of course I am. Y
ou know I get all heated up when we touch. You’d better finish your lunch. You’ve got to be at the bank in fifteen minutes.”

  “Party pooper. I was enjoying the visions in my head about our honeymoon, and now I’ve got loan applications on my mind.”

  She squeezed his thigh under the table. “Not me. I’m still thinkin’ about our honeymoon—and not jobs, people, or nothing can interfere with us being together then.”

  “You keep playin’ with my leg and I’ll call in sick this afternoon,” he whispered.

  She slid her hand up another six inches. “Is that a promise?”

  “You’re killin’ me, woman,” he drawled.

  She leaned over and whispered, “But what a way to die.”

  He kissed her on the cheek and slid out of the booth. “If I don’t leave right now, I’ll get fired. As it is, all I’ll get done this afternoon is think of you.”

  “I love it when you say things like that.” She watched him through the window until she couldn’t even see his truck, and then she went back to the library and spent the afternoon looking through the newspapers from the early 1940s until 1953. Nothing was mentioned about Seth Thomas except that he and Tandy Massey were both pictured with the graduating seniors of 1953.

  Granny was beautiful. Emmy Jo leaned in closer to the screen to see the tiny picture better. “And look at Seth with that dark hair and those brooding eyes.”

  Then she went forward a couple of pictures and there was Jesse, light haired, a smirk on his round face. Logan looked nothing like him, thank goodness—she’d never seen that cocky look on his face. Jesse must have thought he was something special in those days.

  What made him so popular? Was it because his folks had more money than the other people in town? It sure wasn’t his looks. Seth was ten times more handsome than Jesse.

  But he’d been the quarterback of the football team that almost went to state their senior year. The editor said that if he’d been able to play the team would have been a shoo-in for the title, but a few days before the playoff game, a gang had attacked him and come near to killing the boy.

  She fished her phone from her purse and called Logan.

  “Your timing is great. I’m on break,” he said.

  She read the newspaper article to him, word for word. “Has Jesse ever mentioned this? I don’t have a clue about it. Granny never says anything but cusswords when she talks about him or Seth.”

  “Yes, he has, many times. I’ve heard all about how they had the state title cinched up tight, but then he got beat up by a bunch of rival kids and the team lost the whole thing. It was the only year in history that Hickory came close to winning the big trophy,” Logan answered.

  “Is that what he talked about when he was trying to get you to play football?” she asked.

  “Oh, yes. All about the wonderful world of sports that he and my dad both lived in during their high school glory days. Dad was a crackerjack basketball player, and Gramps went in for football,” Logan said. “I don’t see how any of this would have a thing to do with Seth or Tandy, though. Seth didn’t play, and there weren’t girls’ sports to speak of, so that leaves Tandy out.”

  “Everyone in town would have known if they were involved with the sports scene somehow, I guess,” she said. “Call you later. Love you.”

  “Love you, too,” he said.

  She went back to the screen and studied the write-up about each senior class member. Jesse wasn’t only the star of the football team; he was the class president all four of their high school years and had been voted most likely to succeed.

  She moved forward a few spots to Tandy Massey. She was in Future Homemakers of America. That was it, nothing more. That meant she did not run in the same circles with Jesse Grady.

  Moving forward again, she stopped on Nora Thomas. The black-and-white picture did not show what color her hair was, but it was curly and not dark, maybe red or strawberry blonde. Her eyes looked to be the same shade as Seth’s. Under her picture, it said that she was salutatorian of her graduating class.

  “I bet that caused a ripple in the rumor mill,” Emmy Jo said. “She wasn’t voted into anything, but she was smart.”

  Then she moved over to Seth again. Same eyes as his sister, Nora, and there was nothing at all under his picture. She read the article that included who was voted what among the seniors, and his name was not listed. He went to school, he graduated, and that was all.

  She moved ahead to the next few papers. In July, Jesse joined the navy and there was a splash complete with picture about that. The next week, Seth joined the army along with three other guys, and his article was buried on an inside page.

  Speeding ahead four years to 1957, she found a front-page article with Jesse’s picture, telling about him getting out of the navy. The last two years he’d spent his time as a chaplain, and the smirk was gone from his face. Maybe he had learned something while he was floating around in the ocean on a big ship.

  There was nothing about Seth coming home to Hickory from the service, but there was a small article on page five in an August edition saying that Clifford O’Dell had hired an assistant. Seth Thomas would be working in the land, loan, and real estate business on Main Street.

  “Why would he be nice to Seth when the rest of the town ignored him?” she muttered.

  She made a note to talk to Logan about that. If Logan asked Jesse, would he tell him why one man hired him when it appeared that no one else in town gave a flip about a poor kid named Seth Thomas?

  At four thirty she closed her notebook, now with as many questions as her pages and pages of information. She waved at Edith and got back to Seth’s at fifteen minutes until five. She set her tote bag and purse on the steps and rushed through the living room and into the dining room, where Seth was already seated at the supper table.

  “Did you miss me?” she asked cheerfully.

  “Were you gone?” he shot back.

  “Ah, so you did.” She gave him a quick pat on the shoulder on her way past him.

  “Like I’d miss a case of the plague,” he grumbled.

  “I love you, too, Seth Thomas,” she said. “But right now I love Oma Lynn more than you, because the menu says we’re having fried chicken with all the fixin’s. Don’t pout. You get to spend the whole day with me tomorrow.”

  “Well, ain’t I just the luckiest old guy in Hickory?”

  She went through the door into the kitchen, where she picked up a bowl of mashed potatoes and carried them to the table. “Don’t stick your finger in those while I’m bringing out the corn on the cob. Old sourpuss like you would spoil them.”

  “I will do whatever I please,” he declared.

  She moved the bowl to the other end of the table so he couldn’t reach it.

  “You are worse than my sister,” he said.

  “I’ll take that as a compliment.” She and Oma Lynn made two more trips before she scooted the food close enough that he could get to it.

  “So what did you do today?” Oma Lynn sat down and passed the chicken to Seth, who took a leg and a thigh and sent it on to Emmy Jo.

  “I had coffee with Diana this morning at Libby’s, went to the library, had lunch with Logan, and went back to the library this afternoon.” She put a breast on her plate and gave the platter back to Oma Lynn.

  “You spent the whole day in the library?” Seth asked. “Doing what?”

  “Research,” she answered. “What did you do other than count the hours until I came home?”

  Oma Lynn chuckled under her breath.

  Seth shrugged. “Are you sure you aren’t Nora’s granddaughter? Maybe she had a child none of us knew about.”

  “Nope, my great-granny is Tandy Massey, my granny was Rose, my mama was Crystal, and now there’s me, the fourth generation of wild Massey women giving Hickory plenty of fodder for the rumor mill,” Emmy Jo answered.

  Oma Lynn almost choked. “Don’t say things like that when I’ve got a mouthful of sweet tea. You got to admit,
Seth, she brings some life into this old house.”

  “I liked it fine the way it was,” he said.

  Emmy Jo flashed a bright smile toward Oma Lynn. “Thank you. At least someone appreciates my efforts.”

  Oma Lynn nodded. “Did you talk to Tandy today?”

  “Well, crap!” Emmy Jo slapped her forehead. “I meant to call her. I’ll do it on Thursday. Maybe she’ll meet me in town for ice cream.”

  “She won the five-hundred-dollar pot at bingo last Friday night,” Oma Lynn said.

  “Well, then she might not want to see me, since she’ll think that getting rid of me made her lucky.” Emmy Jo giggled.

  “I’d think I was lucky if I could get rid of you,” Seth grumbled.

  “You’d have to drop dead to get rid of me.” She accentuated every word with a poke of her fork. “And I’d cry if you died, so you have to live until the end of May. Look at it this way—there’s a light at the end of your tunnel. Granny is going to be kin to me the rest of her life, no matter if she likes it or not. At least you don’t have to claim me.”

  “Praise the Lord,” he said.

  Emmy Jo was pretty sure he was biting the inside of his lip to keep from grinning.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Before she died, Seth’s mother’s favorite time of the year had been spring. This would have been the time to plant the garden, to sit on the porch in the evening after a day’s work was done and to open the windows to air out the house. A time to wait for his dad, Sam, to come home from work and hope that he was in a good mood.

  Sitting there on the patio that morning, Seth could almost hear Mary humming as she went about the daily chores. That made him think of that first time he heard Emmy Jo humming the Eddy Arnold tune. A bright smile covered his face, but it soon faded. Spring had turned from the best time of the year into the worst. Sam had started drinking again not long after the first of the year. Six weeks later, when the potatoes had been planted at the first of spring, he and Lottie McDonald, a barmaid who worked at one of the bars south of Hickory, ran away together. In mid-May, just as summer was pushing spring into the history books, his mother had died. The potatoes weren’t even ready to be dug yet.