Page 53 of My Heart Will Find You

“I need a dozen cans of peaches. I assume my husband has an account here.”

“Yes, ma’am, he does.”

“I’ll send someone to pick them up along with other necessities.”

He smiled at her.

Pointedly, she looked at Nola, then back at him.

The shopkeeper leaned toward her. “She’s the new blacksmith’s daughter. Been here only a few months.”

A blacksmith made sense. “Wife?”

“He’s a widower. There are a dozen women trying for him. Mr. Lawton need some work done?”

“What kind of work does he do besides horseshoes?”

The man went around the counter to the opposite side of the store and picked up a bar of twisted iron. “He makes barley twists.”

“Just what I need,” Etta said. “Where is he?”

“Down Back Alley Lane beside the Cantrell Stable.”

Etta figured Max could find the place. She was about to turn away when she saw a wooden box on the top shelf. “What is that?”

“A paint box. I ordered it for a painter that comes through here, but he never picked it up.”

“I’d like to see it,” Etta said. Nola had always loved to draw and paint.

The shopkeeper nodded to the boy who hurried up the ladder, got the box down, and wiped the dust off. WINSOR & NEWTON it said. Inside were squares of watercolors, brushes, a ceramic palette, and a tablet in the back.

“I’ll take it.”

“Certainly,” the man said. “I’ll wrap it for you.”

The girl was leaving the store, and Etta wanted to follow her. “No, thank you. I’ll take it with me. Charge it.”

With the box tucked under her arm, she followed Nola down the main street. Twice she barely missed piles of fresh horse manure. Her only thought was that they smelled better than the outhouse.

Nola went between buildings, then came out into the sunlight near a big stable.

When Etta heard the unmistakable sound of iron banging against iron, she followed it. To one side was a blacksmith’s shop. There was a big brick fireplace with a fire blazing, a foot-powered bellows beside it. In front a man with a hammer was hitting a red-hot piece of metal.

He was Phillip. Same face; same body.

Etta let out a sigh of relief so deep the man heard her over his hammering.

For a moment he seemed to recognize her, but then decided he didn’t. “Need some help?”

It was Phillip’s voice. Etta smiled broadly. “I need some sesame sticks. Could you come to my house today and start making them?”

He looked totally blank.

“Those twisty things I saw at the emporium. It’s for my husband, Max Lawton. We need—”

He untied his leather apron. “Yes, ma’am. I’m ready. Whatever Mr. Lawton wants.”

Wow, Etta thought.This is what it’s like to be married to the second biggest landowner in the area. Wonder what they do when John Kecklin shows up? Lay down for him to walk on them?

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