Now Lily frowned, looking at Roen over the top of Fedora’s head. She opened her mouth to speak and closed it again as the front door opened. She looked down the hallway and saw Clay ushering in Ridley. Ben was right behind them both.
“Doc’s here!” Clay announced rather more loudly then he had to.
Lily called out, “We’re in the kitchen. Clay, you take their coats and stay there.” She moved the soup pot to a warming spot on the stove and set the spoon aside.
Roen got to his feet when Ridley and Ben walked into the kitchen. He vacated his chair for Ridley to use to examine her patient. “Thank you for coming.” He summarized what had taken place earlier in the day while Ridley removed Fedora’sice bag and looked over her bruised and swollen cheek and checked her left eye.
“Move your jaw back and forth for me,” Ridley told her. “Good. You have full movement. There are broken capillaries in your eye, which is why the area around the iris is red.”
Fedora drew her head back in surprise.
“She doesn’t know,” explained Roen. “She hasn’t looked at the damage Miss Headley inflicted.”
“Do you want to see?” asked Ridley. “I have a small mirror in my medical bag.”
“No. If it’s all the same, I’d rather not. I’ve been struck before.” When the room fell silent, she pressed her lips together and did not meet anyone’s eye.
Ridley gently placed the ice bag against Fedora’s cheek. Without prompting, Fedora laid her hand over it. Ridley nodded to her husband.
“You should press charges, Fedora,” said Ben. “Do you want to?”
She looked at him, patently horrified.
“No, I reckon not,” he said.
“She works for me,” said Roen. “Can I do it?”
“It’s a bit of a stretch, but it’s a start.”
“Please. No.” Distressed by the prospect, Fedora white-knuckled the ice bag. “I’ll be run out of town.”
“You won’t,” said Roen. “We have laws here.”
“They don’t apply to me.”
Ben said, “They do if I say they do.”
Ridley reached for her husband’s hand and squeezed it. “Give her time and recognize that she’s not entirely wrong. I know how it pains you to sit on your hands, but this is one of those situations where doing nothing may be the best you can do.”
Lily said, “You, too, Roen.”
Ben and Roen exchanged glances but said nothing.
“We saw that,” said Ridley, removing her hand from Ben’s. “I don’t pretend to know what it means, but I’m suspicious.”
“I don’t know why,” said Ben. “Don’t I always take your advice?”
Ridley snorted. “If your tongue were not so firmly in your cheek, I might believe you.”
“I certainly intend to speak to her,” Ben said. “I imagine Roen will want to do the same, and if it will ease everyone’s mind, we’ll go together. Do you object, Roen?”
“No. A witness is always valuable in any conversation with Miss Headley.”
Lily remained dubious that anything would come out of speaking to Victorine but was relieved to know Roen and Ben would be doing it together. “You’ll be careful, won’t you? Not for her sake. I don’t care about that. I’m thinking about her child.”
Roen said, “As careful as we can be and still get our point across. She needs to leave town, Lily. I won’t let her use her pregnancy to keep from doing what needs to be done.” He turned to Ben. “She’ll tell you that her child is mine.”
One of Ben’s dark red eyebrows kicked up. “Is it?”
