Faithful Unto Death

Brainard Capitulates

years of use. Elvira had left her good tortoiseshell set, comb, brush, and hand mirror, to Charlotte.“It’s right that she do so,” Anna had said gently . “Charlotte’s always been the pretty one.” Henry recalled saying, “You’re pretty enough for me,” meaning it as a compliment at the time; now he was not sure it had sounded all that ›attering. Anna hadn’t been a beauty, and somehow that hadn’t seemed to matter. They’d been a team; privately he had thought of them as a pair of good working horses, neat but not fancy, doing the day’s work without fuss or bother. Then the children had come; what matter if Sam or Sarah’s parents were plain or pretty? He sighed, ‹nished dressing, and left the room, nearly tripping on Will’s wooden pony that lay on its side in the hallway. “Have to get someone in now, to help with the little ones,” he thought. Brainard Capitulates charlotte was livid. “I cannot believe it. I will not believe it. Even our brother-in-law would never do such a disgusting thing, with our sister not yet cold in the ground!” Brainard made no attempt to hide his impatience. “Henry Thacker never had a bit of sense, Charlotte, we both know that. Anyway, I suppose he’ll just say that he needed someone to keep house while he’s away, and of course he’s right about that. I don’t suppose the daughter knows much about housekeeping at her age.” “Having a housekeeper and having that housekeeper are two entirely different things. You’ve been away too long, Brainard, you can’t know the extent of the talk about Orah Bunker. And the way Henry behaved around her, it was the most sickening thing I’ve ever observed. Brainard, I’m absolutely certain that he had something to do with our sister’s death.” “I know, I know, he’s been trying to poison you,” Brainard shook his head. Why, if one of his sisters had to die, did it have to be the one that wasn’t unstable? “I want you to go and talk to the sheriff. Tell him everything I’ve told you; take Dr. Dean with you and tell him everything. I know you 136 don’t believe me, but it’s true. Henry Thacker poisoned our sister and he tried to poison me.” Brainard shifted uncomfortably. “Why don’t you go and tell him? For that matter, if Dr. Dean suspects anything, why doesn’t he go?” “You know I can’t go, I’ve been too ill even to go to Anna’s funeral.” Her voice trembled slightly.“I pretty nearly can’t go to meals, and someone has to help me back to my room.” Charlotte had been appalled when she realized that Mary Bailey not only expected her to pay for her room and board (‹ve dollars a week!), but said she hadn’t the time to carry Charlotte’s meals in to her; she’d have to charge ‹fty cents a day for that service. “I’m doing you a favor as it is, giving you that good room overlooking the hill, on the ground ›oor. Usually I charge seven dollars a week for that one.” Mary Bailey’s mouth had clicked shut ‹rmly, just like her coin purse, thought Charlotte. Now she began to weep. “Brainard, I’m all alone in the world now. You’re all I have left.” Awkwardly, he patted her shoulder. She’d gotten bonier than ever! “I’d invite you to come and live with us, but you know how nervous the children make you.” Charlotte shuddered at the thought. She had visited Brainard and his family in Illinois one time, a few years ago, considering whether she mightn’t wish to relocate there. The visit, for some reason, hadn’t gone as pleasantly as she’d envisioned. First thing, Amelia, Brainard’s wife, had taken her shopping, and she had looked at too many pretty things she couldn’t afford, returning to the house empty-handed and feeling, unaccountably, embarrassed. Then, Amelia had invited some of the women from their church for a luncheon at which Charlotte had tried to entertain them with some of her stories from her time in Turkey. She could tell by the way they kept drawing the conversation off to their own frivolous lives that their interests lay not in God’s...