“Sweetie, why don’t you go play with the goats and check on Maisie and the calves,” Leah suggested as the rig approached the stable. “I’ll call you when it’s time for dinner.”
“But I wanna hear about—”
“Son, you’re going outside,” Jude said gruffly. “Do as your mamm has told you. And I want you girls to change into proper attire before coming to the kitchen to discuss what your uncle and I witnessed today.”
With a heavy sigh, Stevie hopped out of the rig and started toward the barns. Alice and Adeline hurried toward the house, and by the time Leah had reached the kitchen, she could hear them upstairs in their room. She filled the percolator and set it on the stove to boil, preparing for what might be a long afternoon.
“So how did it go?” she asked when Jude and his brother had settled at the table.
Jeremiah smiled half-heartedly. “In some ways it was like old times, being at that smoky, greasy hole in the wall—with the same guy who ran the place when we were kids,” he replied. “But thinking about Alice and Adeline being there—”
“With two fellows in their late twenties who were rude and drunk and trying to deny any involvement in shooting your cattle,” Jude put in tersely.
“—well, it was a situation I hope I never have to repeat,” Jeremiah finished. “Our plan to keep Phil and Dexter occupied at the pool table until the sheriff could find the gun worked as well as we’d hoped. I think Sheriff Banks will give those young men the what-for in ways we couldn’t accomplish ourselves. It was the right thing to do, calling him in to deal with English troublemakers.”
“Did you hear him talking as if Dexter and Phil were constantly on the wrong side of the law?” Jude asked in exasperation. “I only had to spend thirty seconds in the same room with those two to wonder what on God’s gut earth Alice and Adeline ever liked about them. And why would the girls claim to be nineteen?”
“And why didn’t Phil and Dexter figure out that they weren’t really that old?” Jeremiah pondered aloud.
Focusing on Alice and Adeline as they came back downstairs into the front room, Leah sighed. They had changed into the royal blue cape dresses they’d worn early this morning, and their hair was once again coiled beneath their kapps, but the circles beneath their eyes were dark with wet mascara. “I suspect the girls wanted to seem older because Phil and Dexter flirted with them—made them feel special,” she speculated. “And by the same token, those fellows willingly overlooked the truth about girls who were so eager to spend time with them, and who didn’t make any demands or question their behavior.”
Alice and Adeline entered the kitchen and slipped into their chairs at the table, appearing ready for a stern interrogation session. Leah’s heart went out to them, now that they were safe at home, but she knew to remain quiet while the men did the talking. She got out flour and the other ingredients to make biscuits for the midday meal, which would be served a lot later than usual.
Jude cleared his throat. “What do you girls have to say for yourselves?” he asked sternly. “I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw you running across the pasture toward the pool hall, knowing Phil and Dexter had just killed Leah’s cattle. And on top of that, you didn’t admit to us that you knew they’d done it.”
The twins hung their heads, sniffling. “We—we were mad at them,” Alice began with a whimper.
“It was wrong to shoot her cows,” Adeline put in sadly, “and we wanted them to know we weren’t going to stand for it.”
“Soon as we got there and saw how—how drunk they were, we knew we’d been stupid to go there and confront them,” Alice admitted ruefully.
“We tried to fool them,” Adeline continued. “I said I had to use the restroom—so I could call you from the pay phone—and Alice tried to distract them by ordering a pitcher of beer.”
“But they figured us out.”
“The phone hadn’t rung but once before Dexter grabbed the receiver from me and slammed it down.”
Leah cringed, recalling the smelly, noisy pool hall and the type of restless, shiftless young men who spent time there. “Luckily, Stevie was in the phone shanty and when he answered the call, he heard enough loud music to figure out it was you at the pool hall,” she put in softly. “So we hitched up the rig and went there to be sure those boys didn’t leave with you.”
“Jeremiah and I had already called Sheriff Banks, and we were on our way, too,” Jude continued. He sounded less irate now, but still stern. “We were counting on distracting Phil and Dexter with a game of pool they believed they couldn’t possibly lose until the sheriff had time to search their truck for the gun.”
“Thank the Lord it all worked out the way we’d planned,” Jeremiah said, holding the twins’ gazes. “But I was appalled to hear that you’d told those fellows you were nineteen. And having heard about the revealing blouses you’ve worn—and seeing you there with beer mugs, and your hair down, wearing so much makeup, I had a hard time believing you were the sweet, obedient nieces I know you to be. You looked like Jezebels. Harlots.”
Leah cringed, but she understood why the bishop was telling the girls just how disappointed he was with their behavior. Alice and Adeline hung their heads, and it took them several moments to speak again.
“We’re sorry, and we promise never to wear those clothes or go anywhere near Phil and Dexter again,” Alice said with a sob.
“We had no idea they’d done so many bad things that the sheriff had arrested them before,” Adeline put in.
Jude exhaled loudly. “I hope they told the truth when they said they
