Pamela was thoroughly enjoying herself. Maria had brought over some recipe cards of a few of Adam’s and James’s favorite meals. Miranda and Grandmother Mattie had done the same. Kate, Bernice, Joan, and Samantha had contributed sandwiches and sweets, for their lunch.
“Let’s go in and have our lunch,” Kate Benedict said. “That second pitcher of tea should be nice and cold by now. And then Pamela can ask us any questions she has about life in Lusty that come to mind.”
“There’s something almost rewarding about the idea of enjoying a simple meal in the company of the women of my family, while my sons are likely squirming,” Maria said.
Some of those women chuckled, and the looks in their eyes said they not only understood but agreed with Maria’s sentiment.
Pamela tilted her head to one side. “Why would they be squirming?”
Madison came over and linked her arm with hers. Her vibrant red hair proclaimed her Irish heritage, and her lilt made her words sound musical. “Because, dear girl, I asked Terrence to make sure the boys knew that you’d been descended upon by the women of the family while they were off being doctors.”
“They were up and gone early this morning. I made them breakfast, and they told me all about what they’d be up to on their first official day as two of the town’s doctors.”
“Did they ask you your plans for the day?” Grandmother Chelsea asked.
Pamela felt her face heat slightly. “No, they just told me to relax and not to work too hard.”
They all entered the house. Pamela invited the women to sit in the dining room. The three younger women pitched in to help her, and together, they made quick work of bringing out the wonderful array of food everyone had brought.
Pamela really liked Joan and Samantha, too. Joan was currently a stay-at-home mom. Her husband, Howard, was a mechanic and had a garage at the north end of town. A bit shy, she confessed that Howard had offered to stay home with their son, Gordon, so she could attend this get-together.
Samantha Kendall wasn’t a shy woman. But then, she had three husbands! On her way to becoming a lawyer, with a full-time position awaiting her with Kendall Partners, Samantha Kendall didn’t act entitled. She’d told Pamela earlier that she might not have to worry about finding a job in the future, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t work just as hard as any other law student. Harder, actually, she’d admitted. Samantha didn’t have to explain that last bit at all.
As a woman with a position in the field of medicine, Pamela knew all about the double standard. Women were expected to do twice as much and were often paid half as much as men.
“The biggest blessing—aside from the prospect of spending my career side by side with my husbands—is that there is no double standard in Lusty,” Samantha had confided. “Well, except perhaps in one small area.”
Three generations of women sat around Pamela’s large dining table. The grandmothers—and they were called Grandmother by every woman there except Kate and Miranda—sat at the head and the foot of the table. Chelsea Benedict Jessop-Kendall and Madeline Kennedy Benedict treated each other as dear sisters. They were, in fact, sisters-in-law since Chelsea was the sister of Grandmother Mattie’s husbands, Charles and Samuel. Miranda Kendall was Chelsea’s daughter-in-law, just as Kate was Mattie’s.
As they ate, Kate told the tale of arriving in Lusty in 1942, a major in the Army Nurse Corps, brought here by the original grandmothers of Lusty—Sarah Carmichael Benedict and Amanda Jessop-Kendall. Miranda arrived shortly after Kate, choosing to live in Lusty with her in-laws while her husbands, naval officers both, were off to do their duty. The other women of their generation present, Maria Sanchez Jessop, Pam’s mother-in-law, was born in Lusty while Madison Murphy Jessop came to town quite a few years later, in 1949. While it was clear Kate and Miranda were very close, Pamela could see nothing but affection between all of the women.
She, Bernice, Joan, and Samantha were the representatives of what Pamela thought of as the younger generation. But truly, all the women around her were vibrant, beautiful women. There was laughter and happy chatter as they ate lunch, with several stories told of past experiences. But something had been on her mind since just before lunch. Now that they were sitting and enjoying glasses of tea and nibbling on sweets, she decided to ask.
“Madison, why would Adam and James be squirming at the thought of this gathering?”
“Well, now, it’s true that our husbands all treat us with great regard and respect and enjoy nothing more than pampering us.”
“They do indeed,” Maria said. “However, they all seem to get a wee bit nervous when we’re all together like this, on our own.”
“You’d think they’d all have learned their lessons long ago,” Chelsea said.
“At the very least they should have listened to the lessons passed down to them by our fathers and fathers-in-law,” Mattie said. “Didn’t Sarah stand her ground when that blackguard, Tyrone Maddox, tried to have her murdered? And didn’t Amanda turn the tables on that villain, Jonathan Marley, when he grabbed her at the Waco train station?”
“And with no less than Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp, along with her beloved Adam Kendall, Texas Ranger, right there to witness it?” Chelsea said. Both elderly women appeared incensed.
Pamela made a note to ask about that Waco train station incident later. It sounded exciting.
“The thing is, sweet girl,” Kate said, “that our men acknowledge that we’re all women of intelligence and strength and capable of doing practically anything.”
“They just cringe when we do it,” Miranda said.
Since all the women were nodding their heads, Pamela decided that this was a serious matter.
“We try not to fuss after them too
