Carolina Moon

me after work? We’ll have us a drink.”
    “All right. Where?”
    Faith’s eyes glittered. “Oh, I think Hope Memorial would be appropriate.”
    “I’m sorry?”
    “In the swamp, you know where.”
    “For God’s sake, Faith.”
    “Haven’t been there yet, have you? Well, it’s time, I’d say, and it strikes me as a good spot to see if you and I turn a corner. Got the belly for it?”
    Tory snapped up the credit card. “I do if you do.”
    She hauled groceries home, and met Lilah’s complaint about her late arrival with just enough bitchiness at being given the chore in the first place to satisfy them both.
    “And don’t start yapping that the tomatoes are too soft or the bananas too green, or next time I won’t be your errand girl.”
    “You eat, don’t you? Don’t do another damn thing around here I can see, so you can haul the food in once in a blue moon.”
    “The moon turns blue around here more than it used to.” Faith got out the iced tea, two glasses, then settled down to relay the gossip.
    “So.” Lilah sat down, shifted comfortably. “What are they saying?”
    “All manner of things, most of which are as far-fetched as a liberal Republican. Lot of people are saying it must’ve been an old boyfriend or a lover. A new, married lover. But I ran into Maxine in produce, and it turns out she was friends with Sherry, and she says Sherry didn’t have a boyfriend just now.”
    “Don’t mean some idiot man didn’t think he should be.” Lilah took out her lipstick, twirling the tube up and down. “I heard she let him in though, ‘cause her dog didn’t send up a racket and there wasn’t no break-in like people thought at first.”
    “Letting a man into your house doesn’t mean you want him to rape you.”
    “Didn’t say so.” Lilah colored her lips, rubbed them together. “Just saying a woman’s got to be careful. You open a door for a man, you better be ready to boot his ass right back out again.”
    “You’re such a romantic, Lilah.”
    “I got plenty of romance in me, Miss Faith. I just balance it with good hard sense. Something you’re missing when it comes to men. Maybe that poor girl was missing it, too.”
    “I’ve been sensible enough to kick plenty of them out on their ass.”
    “Had to go and marry two of them first, though, didn’t you?”
    Faith took out a cigarette, smiled blandly. “I could have married more than two. Least I’m not a spinster.”
    Lilah met the smile equably. “Marriage was all it’s cracked up to be, it’d last longer. That girl, she didn’t have an ex-husband, did she?”
    “No, I don’t think so.”
    “Faith?” Margaret stood in the doorway, her face rigid. “I need to speak with you. In the parlor.”
    “All right.” Faith rolled her eyes at Lilah, crushed out her cigarette. “I should’ve found more to do in town.”
    “You show your mama some respect.”
    “It would certainly be a shock to the system if she did the same for me.”
    She took her time wandering to the parlor. Stopped once to check her manicure, another to smooth her hair in the hall mirror. When she walked in, her mother was sitting, stiff as dry plaster.
    “I don’t approve of you gossiping with the servants.”
    “I wasn’t. I was gossiping with Lilah.”
    “Don’t take that tone with me. Lilah may be a valued member of this household, but it’s inappropriate for you to sit in the kitchen and gossip.”
    “Is it appropriate for you to eavesdrop?” Faith slumped into a chair. “I’m twenty-six years old, Mama. It’s a long time since it would do you a lick of good to lecture me on behavior.”
    “It never did any good. I’m told that you were with Victoria Bodeen yesterday. That you were together and were responsible for contacting the police.”
    “That’s right.”
    “It’s distressing enough that you have any connection with a situation as unseemly as this, but it’s intolerable that you are now linked with that woman.”
    “That woman being Tory rather than the one who was raped and murdered?” Faith’s spine stiffened, but she remained lazily slumped.
    “I will not have it. I will not have you associating with Victoria Bodeen.”
    “Or?” Faith waited a beat. “You see, there aren’t any or ’s at this point in our lives, Mama. I come and go when I please and with whom. I always did, but now you really have nothing to say about it.”
    “I would think out of respect for your sister you would sever any connection,