Thirty-Four and a Half Predicaments
Page 56

We were halfway through eating our breakfast and we hadn’t even begun to discuss Atchison Manufacturing. “Miss Gloria,” I said, trying to be nonchalant as I cut off a piece of my fried egg. “Jessica tells me you used to work for Atchison Manufacturing and would be willing answer some questions for us.”
She put down her coffee cup. “She said you were interested in the fire. I haven’t thought of that place for years. I was a secretary there.”
“I just found out that a friend of my family might have worked there. Dora Middleton. Did you know her?” Only a handful of people knew that Momma wasn’t my birth mother and I wanted to keep it that way. If I told Jessica’s mother, it would spread over Fenton County like wildfire.
Her eyes widened. “Oh, I knew her.” The words were dripping in disdain.
Neely Kate flashed me a look of surprise, then turned back to the woman. “It sounds like you maybe you didn’t get along.”
She set down her fork, syrup smearing onto the table, and leaned forward, her nose scrunching with disgust. “That woman was a home-wrecker.”
My chest squeezed and my whole body went rigid. Jessica squirmed in her seat.
Neely Kate pressed on, feigning ignorance. “What makes you say that, Miss Gloria?”
“She and the owner, Henry Buchanan, had an affair. Right under our noses.” She shuddered. “Shameless.”
My mind was numb with shock at this revelation that my father might not have been the only married man with whom she’d formed a relationship. I hadn’t known Dora Middleton, so why did it bother me so much?
Gloria shook her head in disgust. “Everyone knows she seduced that man with her wicked ways. She must have. He loved his wife until she threw herself at him.”
Neely Kate leaned forward. “Why do you think they were having an affair?”
The woman’s face reddened. “I caught them!”
“Naked?” Neely Kate asked.
I gasped at Neely Kate’s crassness and shot her a look of warning.
“Well, no,” Gloria said, taken aback. “But I saw them together when I was at the office one night. I had forgotten my new scarf at my desk, so I used my key to get back into the building. His office door was closed, which wasn’t unusual, but the door flung open while I was opening my desk drawer and that floozy walked out with Henry on her heels, pleading with her to come back like they’d had some lover’s spat.”
“Was she pulling on her clothes?” Neely Kate asked. “Were his pants at his knees?”
“Neely Kate!” I gasped.
Neely Kate shrugged, but Jessica’s eyes widened in horror.
Gloria’s face reddened with embarrassment. “She was tugging on her sweater and her shirt looked disheveled.”
“So how can you be so certain they were having an affair?”
“Why else would they have been in his office at nine o’clock on a Wednesday night? They shoulda been at church.” She leaned forward and lowered her voice. “In fact, it’s the perfect time to meet to have an affair. Half the town would be at church and the other half would be in the bars. No one would know.”
For once, Neely Kate seemed speechless.
“Did you only see them the one time?” I asked.
Gloria turned to me, her face softening. “I’m sorry. You said she was a family friend.”
“Distant,” I said. I wanted the truth more than I wanted my feelings spared. “Very distant, so don’t worry about insulting me. She was a friend of my mother’s cousin.”
She still looked uncertain, but her desire to gossip apparently overruled her concern about sparing my sensitivities. Jessica studied her plate, probably sorry she’d set up our breakfast meeting.
“Oh, there were other signs. There was only that one time after business hours, but the other girl in the office and I had both noticed them carrying on over the months. Dora’d slip into his office and shut the door. At first it didn’t seem all that unusual. She was the bookkeeper and he was the owner. We figured they were going over numbers. But the month before she quit she was going in there more and more and we’d see them whispering together.” She gave Neely Kate a smug look. “And then there was her pregnancy.”
Neely Kate ignored the dangled carrot. “Do you remember when you saw them in his office at night?”
Gloria looked disappointed. “About a week before Dora resigned. Melody and I figured she insisted he leave his wife because of the baby. When he didn’t, she quit and moved on to greener pastures.”
Could it be true? Had my birth mother carried on an affair with her boss while she was pregnant with me? Her journal entries never seemed to insinuate she was having an affair with Henry, but many of her entries were vague.
“Did Miss Ima Jean know about it?” Neely Kate asked.
Gloria pursed her lips. “No, not until Dora came back.”
“What does that mean?” I asked. “She came back to work for him?” I already suspected she was referring to Dora’s visit to see Henry the week before the fire, but Dora had obviously left important things out, like her possible affair with her boss. I had to be sure.
“Good heavens, no. She’d gotten another job and had her baby. She brought the baby in right after Thanksgiving—a cute little girl—and insisted on seeing Henry.”
“Why’d she want to see him?” Neely Kate asked, sounding worried.