“Miss Esme, I ain't got the faintest idea of how to choose between these two."
"But you must choose!" she insisted.
"Well, he don't have to choose right away," Yo said, causing Esme's mouth to open in shock and her eyes to blaze in anger.
"Pa!"
"All I'm saying is a man's got to take his time about these things." Pa smiled, giving the twins a wink and Armon a slight nod of approval.
"A man can't call on two women at once!" Esme would not give on the point.
"That's right, Esme-girl," Pa agreed, hoping to make peace. "That why I'm saying he can call on Agrippa on Fridays and Adelaide on Saturdays."
"What!"
"Just till he's had a chance to make up his mind."
"Oh, please, Esme, please." The twins were bright-eyed with hope.
Even Armon seemed content with the compromise.
"I still don't like it," Esme said slowly. "But I suspect it's okay. But listen here, Hightower," she said, pointing her finger at him. "If you're coming on Fridays and Saturdays, I don't want to see you around this place any other time. Sunday through Thursday you find yourself elsewhere!"
"Yes ma'am!" The man flashed her a dazzling smile of compliance, and Esme wondered if she'd lost this round after all.
Armon took his leave shortly after supper, much to the whining dismay of the twins. Esme was grateful for the respite. She couldn't imagine how she was going to handle a man like Armon Hightower if he didn't choose to cooperate with her wishes.
As she cleaned up the supper dishes, Esme again thought about the big white (soon to be blue, she hoped) house with the wraparound porch. This morning in church she'd have sworn that she'd never be able to face Cleavis Rhy again. But she really had no choice. She had come to like Cleavis Rhy, maybe even want him for herself, but she needed Cleavis Rhy for her family.
The girls were sorting through the charity basket with excited laughter as Esme dried her hands on the dishcloth.
"I'm not going to be around much next week," she announced suddenly to the family. "I'll be spending my time down mountain."
The other three occupants of the room looked at her curiously.
"Agrippa, you're the best cook, so I'll expect you to do your best here in the kitchen. Adelaide, you'll need to go ahead and get that garden turned. Pa, you're going to have to help her."
All three immediately began to protest, but Esme continued. "Starting tomorrow I'm going to be helping Cleavis Rhy in his store, so I'll be leaving before sunup and returning after dark."
"Rhy's hired you to work in his store?" Pa looked nearly stunned with disbelief.
"Well, not exactly," Esme admitted. "But it amounts to that just the same."
"Is this more of your crazed notions about courting a man?" her father asked with a wry grin.
"I'm going to show him what a good helpmate I can be, Pa," Esme explained calmly. "There ain't nothing wrong with that."
"Esme-girl," Yo explained with a sigh of infinite patience. "If he's looking for a good helpmate, I suspect he's found it in little Miss Sophrona. She seems a fine Christian woman and more than fair looking in the bargain."
Esme felt as if he'd slapped her.
"You think she'd make a better wife than me?"
"It ain't a question of better, girlie," he answered softly. "It's a question of more likely. I love you, honey. I wouldn't see you hurt for the world." Reaching across the table, he took his daughter's hand and squeezed it. "I see what you're doing, Esme-girl. You're trying to get a better life. And I'm all for that."
"Not just for me, Pa," Esme hastened to explain. "For all of us."
"All of us are fine, girlie. It's you that cain't be content. You're like your mama, and I loved her, too." He gave her hand a warm, affectionate pat. "This Rhy fellow, he ain't for you. He's so citied, he don't know 'come here' from 'sic 'em.' He'd need to take a compass and a shovel to find his own hind end."
