Chapters (30)
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication
- ONE - The Naked Ladies
- TWO - Lizzy’s Key
- THREE - Verna Is Rebuffed
- FOUR - Saturday Night in Darling, or Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries
- FIVE - The Roof Falls In
- SIX - The Dahlias in Full Bloom
- SEVEN - The Skeleton in Bessie Bloodworth’s Closet
- EIGHT - Verna Has a Visitor
- NINE - Beulah’s New Customer
- TEN - Bessie Bloodworth Learns a Thing or Two
- ELEVEN - Lizzy Goes to Work
- TWELVE - Verna Makes a Phone Call
- THIRTEEN - Verna Works the Switchboard
- FOURTEEN - Buddy Norris Collars a Crook
- FIFTEEN - Lizzy Faces the Lion in His Den
- SIXTEEN - “The Game Is Afoot!”
- SEVENTEEN - THE GARDEN GATE
- EIGHTEEN - Bessie Bloodworth Pays a Call
- NINETEEN - Lizzy Lays Down the Law
- TWENTY - The Dahlias Score
- TWENTY-ONE - Mr. Moseley Clears Up a Mystery
- TWENTY-TWO - Bessie Solves a Mystery, Myra May’s Car Breaks Down, and Violet ...
- TWENTY-THREE - Showtime!
- The Dahlias’ “Dirty Dozen” Housecleaning Tips
- Glossary
- Recipes
- Reading List
She heard herself saying, as if the words were coming from someone else, “Did you know that I was once engaged to Miss Hamer’s brother?”
“Really?” Liz was surprised. “I didn’t know she had a brother.”
“His name was . . . Harold,” Bessie said. She said it again, testing it, almost tasting it. “Harold. If we had married, I would be Miss Hamer’s sister-in-law. And Miss Jamison’s aunt-by-marriage.” Put that way, it seemed almost funny, and she smiled.
“But you didn’t marry?” Verna asked gently.
“No.” The sudden, painful sadness washed her smile away, and Bessie felt her mouth trembling. She should stop, she knew. She didn’t want to say the words, or to hear them, either. But she couldn’t. She swallowed and went on.
“It was a long time ago, when I was still in my early twenties. Back then, of course, it seemed like a terrible tragedy, the worst thing that had ever happened to anybody in this world. Which it wasn’t, I know.” She sighed heavily. “But still . . .” Her voice trailed off.
Verna put her glass down, obviously intrigued. “So what happened, Bessie? Did you quarrel?”
Bessie swallowed again. “I never knew what happened,” she said matter-of-factly. “There wasn’t any quarrel. The wedding arrangements were made, the church reserved and everything, and I even had my dress. Harold and I were planning to borrow Daddy’s car and drive over to the jewelry store in Monroeville and pick out our wedding rings.” Her mouth twisted around the bitter words. “But then he was just . . . gone, that’s all. I never heard a word from him. No letter, no telegram, not one single word, from that day to this.”
“I am so sorry, Bessie,” Liz whispered. She opened her mouth, then closed it again, as if she couldn’t think what else to say.
Bessie looked down at her fingers clasped in her lap. “I always suspected that Miss Hamer drove him away. I reckon he just couldn’t take her bossing him around any longer, telling him what to do. She didn’t like me one bit, of course. But then, she wouldn’t have liked any girl Harold wanted to marry. She wanted to keep him all to herself, and she was determined to make life miserable for anybody he cared about. He knew that, I think. So he left.”
Verna frowned. “He didn’t get in touch with his parents, to tell them where he’d gone?”