A Family For The Sheriff. Elyssa Henry
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even after the first heavy frost of fall.
Over the summer, she’d finally managed to work out a long-term deal with two of the restaurants in Rockford. They would buy whatever she could raise and deliver of fresh parsley, sage, oregano and thyme.
Being able to grow her herbs all year would ease the financial setbacks since Josh’s death.
And maybe, she thought as she sat on her heels and stretched her back, she would even have enough to buy Sam a computer for his birthday next summer.
Like many couples, Maria and Josh hadn’t planned for his early death or what the loss of income would mean to the ones left behind. The first year, she and Sam had barely survived while Maria had tried to patch their lives back together.
By the second year, she was fighting back and finding that she didn’t have to be a victim after all. It wasn’t the life she had planned, but it was the life she had, and she was going to make the best of it.
Many people, including her own family, had said that she wouldn’t be able to make a go of it on her own after Josh’s death. She was determined to prove them wrong.
Maria walked into the house, knowing Sam wasn’t due home for another hour. She threw her dirty gloves into the washing machine then ran upstairs for a shower.
Muddy jeans and T-shirt went down the laundry chute while the water heated, making its strange gurgling and whining sounds.
It was an old house, but she and Josh had managed to get a good buy on it after they were married, when Maria had just learned she was pregnant with Sam. The house had seemed like a godsend, a way to get them out of her mother’s house before the baby was born.
It was a good, sturdy house. She looked at the walls around her. It was dark, with its tiny windows, and it was cold in the winter, hot in the summer. But it was hers.
The twenty acres she owned around the house were mostly overgrown and full of rabbits. Five acres of it she’d leased to a farmer to grow alfalfa for his horses. The rest, except for the acre or so adjoining the house, wasn’t used.
Josh had planned to raise cattle and horses there. It had been his dream. He had planned to buy up some land to go with what they had—the Hannon land the town had given the new sheriff.
The Hannon farm was forty acres. The land was worthwhile, but the house hadn’t been lived in for over twenty years. It was falling down, rotted in most places. No running water or electricity.
When she had first learned of the plan to discourage the new sheriff and defy the county commissioners, Maria felt it was wrong, but the entire town was in on it.
Or rather, the town kept their mouths shut and let the Lightner family tell them what to do.
There was no way to present a case for fairness or to persuade them to give the new man a try. During the town meeting where it had all been decided, they had used her and Sam as living reminders that the town needed a local sheriff.
She had smiled grimly and kept her mouth shut, but she wasn’t sure that had been the right thing to do. It was too late now, of course. The damage was already done. But she felt sorry for Joe Roberts. There was no way he could have known what he was walking into when they had hired him from Chicago.
She stepped out of the shower, shivering because the water heater had run out of hot water at. the worst possible moment, shampoo still in her hair.
She glanced at the clock on her dresser and realized that she had taken longer than she’d expected. Sam and his friend would be home at any minute.
Quickly, she pulled on clean jeans and a white cotton button-up shirt, then brushed her hair with quick, even strokes.
She looked at her face in the mirror and saw the same face she saw every day. The blue eyes worried. The mouth getting a little more set every day.
What would Josh have wanted? she wondered. He was a fair man, but he was inclined to run with the crowd. Would he have wanted the new sheriff to be treated with less than respect? Would he have gone along with the decision to give him the old Hannon house?
Sam’s call from downstairs reminded her that she didn’t have time to daydream. She clipped back her shoulder-length hair and slipped her feet into tennis shoes then met her son at the top of the stairs.
“Hey, Mom!” Sam rushed toward her. “We thought you were gone.”
“Hey, Mrs. Lightner!” Ronnie smiled at her then followed Sam.
“Supper’s at five,” she said to their backs as they disappeared into Sam’s room.
Since it was Thursday, the last day of school that week, Ronnie was spending the night. That was the last bit of conversation she’d have that night. She sighed. Maybe now was the time to curl up with that book she’d meant to read for a month.
The phone rang, startling her.
It was her mother, telling her that an emergency meeting of the county commission had been called for seven that night and they wanted her to be there.
“Why?” Maria demanded. “I don’t have anything to do with any of this.”
“Anna Lightner seems to think your word, the wife of the dead constable, would go a long way,” her mother told her, pleased that her little girl’s word was good for something. It had been the proudest day of her life when Maria had become a Lightner and the darkest one when they had buried Maria’s young husband.
“I can’t,” Maria replied. “Sam and Ronnie are here for the night. I can’t leave them alone.”
“I’ll come over and stay with them,” her mother volunteered. “Maria, this is very important. I don’t think you realize that.”
“I only realize that I don’t want it to have anything to do with me,” Maria muttered tiredly. “Joe Roberts seems to be a good man. Why don’t we just wait and see what happens?”
“I’ll be there about six-thirty.” Her mother ignored her remarks. “And Maria,” she cautioned, “don’t say that to anyone else.”
Maria didn’t tell her that it was too late. She hung up the phone and wondered what Joe would say when he saw her.
Emergency commission meeting, she thought scornfully, getting pots and pans noisily out of the cabinet and banging them on the stove.
It was Tommy and his family trying to inflame everyone about the new sheriff. Not that anyone outside the town cared who became sheriff. Certainly the suburbs, which were growing rapidly, didn’t care who was sheriff so long as he got the job done.
Not that she cared if Joe Roberts was the sheriff. In fact, she would have been happier not seeing him again. She didn’t want to think about how he made her feel. She was still grieving for Josh.
At least in front of a big, noisy crowd they wouldn’t have any time alone together, she mused. He probably wouldn’t even notice her with all the crowd and all the other women.
She glanced down at her clothes that had been fine for a night at home with the boys and considered changing.
Not that she wanted to look her best in case he did notice her from the crowd, she reminded herself sternly. She added a dash of bright lipstick to her pale face after she’d changed her clothes. There were butterflies in her stomach but she was just nervous about the Lightners causing trouble.
He wouldn’t notice her, she repeated like a charm.
Yet a tiny voice whispered, “He might.”
Chapter Three
The room in the old church was packed. Those still coming in the doors at seven would have to stand at the back. The two county commissioners who had come fretted on the dais at the front.
The other eight commissioners felt as though the matter was closed and wouldn’t bother hearing