Emilie Richards - Endless Chain

“I don’t work tonight. But either way, I could be here.”

“We’ll talk again, after you’ve had a chance to see everything the job requires and I’ve had time to organize applications.”

For the first time she felt real hope that she was going to be hired. Only a small part of her found her own reaction ironic. The part that was not Elisa Martinez seemed to shrivel with every decision she was required to make.

Several yards in front of them, a woman in a blue sundress got out of a car parked near the others. Sam saw her and gestured. “That’s Tessa MacRae, Helen’s granddaughter. Helen is the woman who insisted I hire you. I’ll ask Tessa to give you a ride. She won’t mind.”

Elisa had made her statement on the subject. Later they would have to deal with his need to take care of her, but for the moment she was not sad to be offered a ride. The rain had stopped, but she was afraid it had only stopped to gather forces.

Sam started across the lot, and she followed, skirting puddles. They stopped beside Helen and her granddaughter, who was admiring the quilt Elisa had seen earlier on the frame.

Sam greeted both women, kissing Tessa on the cheek before he introduced Elisa. “Elisa walked here, and she insists she doesn’t need a ride out to the trailer park on Ella Lane, but I’m insisting otherwise. Would you mind?”

Elisa spoke up. “Only if it’s no trouble. I don’t want to inconvenience anyone.”

“I’m taking Gram into Woodstock to buy groceries. I’m sure we go right past the turnoff,” Tessa said.

Elisa liked Tessa’s voice, which was modulated and low. She was an attractive woman, with brown hair as long as Elisa’s own and a thin face with wide cheekbones. She looked tired, and as they stood in the lot, she put her palms against her back and swayed, as if to minimize pressure. For the first time Elisa realized she was pregnant. The sundress, which fell from a high yoke, had hidden it.

There was no time to say anything else. A car sped into the parking lot and pulled into a slot several spaces away. Elisa had never been interested in cars, and she was only rarely able to tell one from another. But this was a sports car, low-slung and elegant. The door opened, and a shapely leg appeared, followed by the body to go with it.

The woman who emerged was nearly as tall as Sam, with dark-red curls that fell past her shoulders, a carefully painted megawatt smile, and white shorts that stopped just shy of revealing. As she approached she was preceded by a scent that Elisa could only recognize as expensive. Nothing about the woman was cheap, although the overall effect flirted with it.

“Sam.” She went to him and kissed him. The kiss wasn’t long enough to embarrass anyone, but long enough to stake her claim. “I took a taxi to Chevy Chase and borrowed Jenny’s Viper so I wouldn’t have to rent some old wreck at the airport. You remember Jenny O’Donnell? Senator O’Donnell’s daughter? What do you think?”

She didn’t give him time to answer. She turned to the others. “I’m Christine Fletcher.” She held out her hand to Tessa, then to Helen. “Sam’s fiancée.”

“We’ve met,” Helen said dryly. “I’ve lost count how many times.”

“I am so bad with names and faces,” Christine drawled. She turned and thrust her hand at Elisa. “But I know I haven’t met you. I would remember that lovely hair. I’ve wished for hair like that my whole life.”

“Elisa Martinez.” Elisa put her hand in Christine’s and felt the strength of the other woman’s grip. She also felt something cutting into her fingers. When Christine withdrew her hand, Elisa noted rings, one on each finger except the little one, each with a different flashy gemstone. Her eyes flicked to Christine’s left hand, where a modest diamond resided on the ring finger.

Elisa wondered if the rings were a message of sorts. The English expression “on one hand” seemed to have been coined for the situation. On one hand Christine Fletcher was a woman of obvious wealth. On the other the fiancée of a man of moderate income.

“I’m here for the fiesta.” Christine pressed one hand against her chest and lifted the other in the air as she swivelled her hips. “Let the festivities begin.”

“Me, I’ll be home binding this quilt,” Helen said. “Let’s get to it, Tessa.”

Tessa inclined her head toward Elisa. “Are you ready to go?”

Elisa glanced over to see that Sam was watching her. From the corner of her eye, she noted that Christine was watching him.

Tessa said goodbye for both herself and her grandmother, then took Helen’s arm.

Sam spoke. “Elisa, if you have any questions tonight, just find me and ask away.”

“I will. Thank you.” Elisa followed Tessa and her grandmother, and gratefully escaped.

Chapter Three

“SO WHO’S THE Mayan goddess, Sam?”

Sam helped Christine out of the tricked-out Dodge Viper, the likes of which the simple brick parsonage had never seen. “Elisa has applied to be our new sexton.”

“Sex-ton?” She raised one shapely brow. “Are we getting right to the heart of the matter, honey?”

He pulled her close and kissed her hair. Her body was warm and soft against him, and his reacted accordingly. “It’s not like you to be catty.”

“Hey, I’m just marking my territory like a good pussycat. She’s a head turner. Even the preacher man noticed.”

“The preacher man is not immune to a beautiful woman, but he’s committed to another one.”

Christine lifted her lips for a luxuriant kiss, then she put her arm around his waist, and he led her up the flagstone walk. “She is beautiful, but I’m not worried. She’s not your type.”

“You could have fooled me.” Sam said it as a joke, but he realized he was still annoyed at his attraction to Elisa and concerned it might get in the way of his decision whether to hire her.

She punched him lightly. “You like a woman with education and plenty of style.”

“And you think those are the things that attracted me to you?”

“What else do I have to offer besides sex, and somebody else could deliver that? I’m not good minister’s wife material. You know God and I have an understanding. I don’t pay Him much attention if He promises to return the favor. We get along, but we’re not bosom buddies.”

“You’re a better person than you think you are.”

“And that’s why you want to marry me? The strength of my character?”

He didn’t have to answer. They had been engaged for almost four years, through better and worse times, the latter of which said enough about her character to impress him. She knew it.

He returned to the subject of Elisa, hoping he could talk his way to a decision. “I’ve had four applicants for the sexton’s job, and we’re getting desperate. Two are men with questionable work histories. The other won’t take the job unless we raise the salary substantially. Then there’s Elisa, with good references and a willingness to work hard. She walked to the interview from her mobile home park, and that’s four, maybe even five, miles away. She’s determined.”

“She lives in a trailer?”

He imagined Elisa’s home, even new, had not cost as much as the Viper Christine had borrowed so carelessly.

He tried to tamp down a surge of annoyance. “She’s poor. So what? That means very little, Christine.”

She wrinkled her nose and sniffed. “I smell a sermon coming on.”

They had reached the front gate. He had installed a picket fence hoping it would keep Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in check whenever they escaped through the front door. Shad and Shack, canine mixtures that probably included Irish wolfhound and St. Bernard, sailed over it with enthusiasm. Bed, a tiny rat terrier, simply stood at the gate and barked incessantly. Now there was a chain link dog run in the back for those rare moments when the dogs weren’t under his direct control.