Millicent looked taken aback by the sharp tone and the suggestion that she was a gossip. “I’m just thinking of your reputation, dear,” she protested.
“And I appreciate your concern. I really do. But let me worry about my reputation, okay? If I’m uncertain of the right path, I’ll pray for guidance.”
The older woman couldn’t seem to come up with an argument to counter that. Even Millicent would have to concede that God was a higher authority. “Well, if you’re absolutely sure you don’t want me to stay,” she murmured with obvious regret.
“Really, it’s not the least bit necessary,” Anna Louise reassured her cheerfully. “Richard will be finished and on his way to see Maisey before you know it.”
Millicent took her own dear sweet time about getting to the door. She lingered long enough to see that Richard did indeed have his tools with him when he came back up the walk.
“You give your grandmother my love,” she told him briskly.
“I’ll do that, Millicent. I know she appreciated your coming by yesterday, even if you weren’t allowed in to see her.”
“Well, you tell her I’ll be back again the minute she’s up to having visitors.” She gave Anna Louise a significant look. “Now you be real careful, dear. Remember what I told you.”
Anna Louise sighed. “I’m not likely to forget it, Millicent.”
As soon as Millicent had strolled off toward town, Anna Louise muttered a curse that had Richard staring at her in openmouthed astonishment. “Oh, don’t look at me like that,” she snapped. “That woman is infuriating.”
“What was she doing here, anyway?”
“She stopped by to give me a little friendly advice.”
He regarded her warily. “About what?”
“You, of course.”
“So that’s why I’m toting these tools around.”
“Well, I had to say something. She was about to turn that embrace she caught us in at the hospital yesterday into a rip-roaring affair. My reputation would have been mud by dusk, especially with you turning up here first thing this morning.”
He studied her thoughtfully. “Are you really worried about what Millicent Rawlings could do to your reputation? Everybody knows she’s an old busybody.”
Anna Louise didn’t like the way he was dismissing the incident so casually. He certainly ought to understand how easy it was to become an outcast in Kiley thanks to unfounded gossip. “To hear her tell it, you’re no better than your mother,” she said, just to prove this was no laughing matter.
The amusement in his eyes vanished in a heartbeat, replaced by quick anger. “I should have known, damn it. How dare she? By heaven, I will rip that sorry tongue of hers right out of her throat.”
“That will certainly quiet the talk,” Anna Louise noted.
He glared at her. “Okay, you’re right. There’s no point in stirring things up.” His gaze narrowed. “You’re not really upset about this, are you? If one word of this spreads beyond Millicent, I promise you I’ll deal with it.”
“It’s just more ammunition for my opponents, if they get wind of it,” she said wearily. “I guarantee they’ll use any evidence of misconduct on my part to bolster their cause to be rid of me.”
“That’s absurd. You haven’t done anything. We, haven’t done anything.”
Suddenly Anna Louise saw the irony in the situation. She started to chuckle, which was a stark contrast to Richard’s thoroughly sober expression.
“Now what’s so funny?” he asked.
“I’m about to be labeled some sort of Jezebel and I can’t even get you to do anything more than kiss me,” she said. “If I’m going to have the reputation, I’d at least like the fun of earning it.”
He shook his head, tolerant amusement written all over his face. “No, you wouldn’t, sweetheart. You only get to be really angry and self-righteous when you’re innocent of all charges. I think that’s what kept my mother from fighting back. Billy Joe had one tiny nugget of truth mixed in with all the innuendo. It was enough to keep her silent.”
She scowled at him. “I hate it when you make perfect sense.”
“I know.”
He plopped his tools in the middle of her foyer and held out his hand. She regarded it with far more wariness than Adam had probably displayed when Eve held out that apple in the Garden of Eden. “What’s that for?”
“I was just going to take your hand. Almost nobody makes an issue of two people holding hands in public.”
She stuffed both hands in her pockets. “Millicent would.”
“Does that mean you don’t even want to be seen riding through town with me?”
“Riding? Where?”
“Did you forget why I came over here this morning? We’re supposed to go see Maisey.”
She gave him a rueful smile. “I suppose I had or I would have told Millicent that in the first place.” She grasped his outstretched hand. “Let’s go see Maisey.”
* * *
All the way to Charlottesville, Richard kept sneaking glances at Anna Louise. She seemed oddly put out with him for some reason. He wasn’t sure if she blamed him for the embrace that had stirred Millicent Rawlings up or if she blamed him for not taking advantage of her. Maybe he should have admitted one more time exactly how she tested his willpower.
“Anna Louise?”
“Yes.”
“You’re not mad, are you?”
“Mad about what?”
He regarded her with exasperation. “That’s what I’m trying to find out.”
“No, I’m not angry,” she said in a tone that conveyed exactly the opposite impression.
Richard fell silent. They were about three miles from a rest area where he could pull off the road and do something about this funk she was in. When he turned into the little roadside park, she regarded him with obvious confusion.
“What’s wrong? Why are we stopping?”
Richard didn’t say a word. He pulled into a space, cut the engine, then slowly turned to face her.
“What?” she said, apparently alerted by something in his expression.
“Come here.”
“Richard, what has gotten into you?”
“The same thing that has gotten into me from the day I found you in Maisey’s orchard. You, my
