"Saves to graces! I thought you two would have more sense than to invite him to dinner," she scolded the twins.
Armon Hightower gave a good-natured laugh as he walked through the door. "Now, don't get in an uproar, Miss Esme."
Hightower was long and well-muscled, as fair of face as any girl ever dreamed, and his coal-black hair was only slightly less dramatic than his heavily lash-fringed dark blue eyes.
"I don't come to your table empty-handed," he said proudly as he threw the dead carcasses of two squirrels upon the kitchen table. "I shot these for the girls while we were out."
"I would have thought you'd have had time to clean them," Esme said unkindly.
Hightower laughed as if Esme had just told a good joke. "Now, Miss Esme, you needn't take on so. Next time we'll take you with us."
It was as blatant a lie as ever was told, but Esme chose to ignore it.
She glanced over at the two stiffening squirrels with distaste. Food, however, was food, and she was grateful for it even when it came from a no-account like Armon Hightower. "Thank you for bringing the meat," she choked out politely. "I'll have them skinned and a-roasting in two shakes."
The evening was a long one, with Armon's gift for gab and way with a story keeping both the twins and her father rousingly entertained. Esme didn't have an opportunity to speak to her sisters until the young man finally left and the girls began their preparations for bed.
"Why in the world would you two run off from your chores like that?" Esme demanded.
"Esme, we just couldn't help ourselves," Agrippa said in protest.
"That Armon." Adelaide pulled a cotton flour-sack nightgown over her head. "I swear he could talk the leaves off the trees. It's just purdy hard to say no to the man."
"Well, I hope you both still are!" Esme exclaimed in an aggravated whisper.
The twins burst out in giggles and collapsed joyfully onto the worn straw tick. "Esme, I swear, you're too silly," Adelaide finally had the breath to tell her. "If anyone knows about handling men, it's me and Agrippa."
Agrippa sat up on the bed and took Esme's hands in her own. "Little Sister, if you're thinking to give us the 'won't buy a cow when milk's for free' lecture, you're a little late," she said. "Adelaide and I have been practicing what you preach since before you knew what made men's trousers so downright interesting."
Giggling again, the two began to tease Esme mercilessly. "You may know all about putting in a garden and running a house and cooking and such, Esmeralda," Adelaide told her. "But when it comes to the male of the species, there's no chance that you'll ever be more than our baby sister."
"Adelaide and I have already forgot more about men than you'll be able to learn in a lifetime."
Pulling on her own threadbare nightgown, Esme decided that she had heard quite enough. "Well, Sisters," she told them, "in the next few months I'm going to be learning what you know. And"—she paused for emphasis—"you are going to learn what I know."
"What on earth do you mean?" one twin asked.
"Learning what you know?" the other questioned.
"You two are now in charge of the house," Esme said firmly.
"What!" the exclamation came in unison.
"I won't be able to take care of the house and find the food and see that you two and Pa are clean and fed and looked after. Somebody will have to do it; it has to be you."
"Now, Esme," Adelaide said gently, "we told you that we were sorry for running off today."
"Yes," Agrippa agreed. "You did leave us in charge, and we promised to take care of things for you, but . . . well—" She looked at her twin for guidance.
"We just forgot," Adelaide said.
Agrippa nodded eagerly. "That's right. We forgot, just like Pa does. I guess it's in the blood."
Esme snorted in disbelief. "In the blood? Well, I suspect that in the future it will be in the stomach instead." She pointed her finger sternly at them. "The next time you forget, you'll just be going hungry, and not just you—Pa, too."
The twins gazed at each other dumbstruck.
"I'm going to be busy with my own concerns, and I won't be able to fetch and carry for you. I've got important business to attend to—I've got plans to make life better for all of us. And it's best that I get at it."
