Seated at either end of the long table as though hosting one of their formal dinner parties, Nate and Susanna oversaw the ordering and serving of dinner. Justice sat beside the boy and across from Evangeline and her daughter. From there he could observe the others, a habit he’d picked up in the Texas Rangers. A lawman learned a lot about folks by watching and listening. Yet, as much as he tried to remain indifferent, when Susanna questioned her cousin about various topics, he listened even more intently. Maybe he was trying to recapture memories of their happy childhood in New Orleans, when their fathers had been partners in a coffee import business, along with Lucius Benoit. More likely, against all that made sense in his lawman’s mind, he wanted to know what Evangeline had been doing these past eleven years and what had happened to her scoundrel husband, who’d stolen her heart all those years ago or, more likely, bought it with his money.
* * *
“Oh, it’s not terribly interesting.” Evangeline gave Susanna a meaningful look, praying she’d understand. When her cousin returned a blank stare, Evangeline tilted her head toward Isabelle, then Gerard and blinked her right eye and then her left, their signal for “later.”
“Oh.” Susanna sat back. “Well, honey, please let me say how sorry I am for your loss. As my daddy can tell you, widowhood is so difficult, especially when you’ve had a good marriage.” She gave a sad smile to each of the children. “I’m sure you miss your papa.”
While seven-year-old Isabelle stared down at her plate and pushed the food around with her fork, Gerard snorted before shoveling a large bite of potatoes into his mouth. Evangeline glared at him across the table until she noticed how intently Justice was watching her.
“Manners, Gerard.” She spoke sweetly but gave her son a tight smile.
Gerard scowled at her. Justice appeared about to correct the boy, but Nate beat him to it.
“Son, your mother reminded you about your manners. You say ‘yes, ma’am’ and do what she says.”
As she’d feared, Gerard slammed down his fork and sat back, arms folded over his slender chest. “Make me.” Although he was only ten years old, his growl sounded horribly similar to Lucius’s when he’d been angry, which was often.
Nate questioned Evangeline with one raised eyebrow, perhaps asking permission to correct her son, but Justice took action. He leaned his considerable height over Gerard and gave him a menacing look that made Evangeline shudder. Any criminal would tremble at that look.
“Son, your mother reminded you about your manners.” He repeated Nate’s words in a cool tone. “You say ‘yes, ma’am’ and do what she says.” He spared Evangeline a glance before going on. “In this town, we don’t tolerate recalcitrant conduct among our young folks. Believe me, you don’t want to know how we deal with any boy who disrupts the peace around here.”
Gerard blinked a few times, and his jaw dropped. He glanced at Justice then at Nate, looking trapped. Evangeline could almost laugh at Justice’s choice of a grown-up word like recalcitrant if her son’s recent behavior weren’t one of her biggest heartaches.
“What do you say?” Justice moved an inch closer to Gerard.
Eyes wide, her son stared up at him. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Say it to your mother.”
Gerard gulped and looked at Evangeline. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Good.” Justice sat back and cut into his thick, juicy steak as though nothing had happened.
Nate and Susanna also resumed eating and chatting. But Evangeline saw the rebellion, perhaps even hatred, returning to Gerard’s eyes as he glared at Justice. She could never figure out what was behind those angry eyes, and her son certainly never told her what he was thinking.
“Evie, I’m so thrilled to have you here.” Susanna appeared determined to keep the conversation pleasant. “Once you settle in, I’m going to put you to work on my latest project for the community.”
For the first time since seeing Justice at the train depot, Evangeline felt a spark of hope. “Well, aren’t you the clever one. Do tell, what is your project?”
Susanna smiled at Nate. “We’ve recently finished building a lending library. That is, we constructed the building and the shelves, and we already have several boxes of books donated. What with harvest and roundup and all going on in the fall, nobody’s had time to organize them.” She gave Evangeline a sly smile. “You can be our librarian. What do you think?”
Her pulse racing, Evangeline considered the possibilities. She and Susanna both loved books and had spent many a summer day reading together. Yet she’d been forced to sneak away from New Orleans, not able to keep a single book from Lucius’s vast library he’d inherited from his father but never used. As she tried to visualize working in the Esperanza library, another thought leaped to mind.
“What will I do with the children?” Isabelle would be a big help in the library, but Gerard might prove an insurmountable problem.
“Why, school, of course,” Susanna said. “We have an excellent grammar school. Over the weekend, we’ll let them catch their breath from their long trip, but we’ll enroll them on Monday.”
“Yes, of course.” Evangeline hadn’t thought that far ahead. Escape had been her sole focus when she’d fled her home city.
“And of course you’ll receive a salary.” Susanna gave her a smug smile, pleased with her own plan.
Evangeline was pleased with it, too. Now she wouldn’t have to burden her cousin financially. And what a lovely way to spend her days, far better than anything she could hope for. “Then I would be delighted to accept the post.”
At the other end of the table, Justice and Nate spoke quietly, their faces serious. Were they talking about her? No, she mustn’t assume she was the topic of private conversations, as often was the case among her supposed friends back home. Once Lucius went broke and fell from society’s good opinion and then died at the hands of a fellow gambler, once their lavish home and furnishings—including his books—went on the auction block, everyone had turned away from her. No one believed her innocent or unaware of Lucius’s shady business dealings. No one believed she hadn’t run up those debts with various merchants. When at last the house had been sold and she and the children moved into a tiny shack, where creditors came to hound her for the staggering debts, society entirely cut her off. Those who knew nothing of her husband’s gambling and licentious lifestyle assumed she’d spent her husband into poverty and ruin.
“You’ll have to excuse me.” Justice stood, his sudden movement and awe-inspiring height startling Evangeline from her musings. “My paperwork won’t finish itself.”
“Sit down, Justice.” Susanna waved him down. “I’m not finished.”
A pained look on his face, he obeyed her. “Yes, ma’am. How can I help you?”
Instead of answering, Susanna looked at her husband. “Nate, I’m sure these little ones would like to visit our town’s ice-cream parlor. Why don’t you take them down the street?”
Nate chuckled. “Yes, ma’am.” His knowing smile indicated he understood why his wife made the request.
Once he and the children left—even Gerard couldn’t resist ice cream—Susanna gleefully began her explanation. “Evie, Justice has been working on a special project.”
Justice shook his head and exhaled through pursed lips. “Susanna—”
“Now,