“I hope so. A flood of gossip about how sweetly you blush when I make suggestive remarks might counteract the other kind,” he answered.
“In that case, we’ll have to continue to tease in Nether Abbas. Perhaps I can make you blush instead,” she retorted, drawing an affectionate chuckle.
She could almost feel the eyes on the back of her neck when they rode into the village and stopped in front of the apothecary, a store she knew to be a hotbed of village gossip. “Odd, I know,” she had explained to her husband, “but Mrs. Duger is the sister of the wife of the green grocer and the linen goods owner. They’re the central pipeline for talk.”
Gideon had pointed out that the Cockcrow also seethed with talk. She didn’t dispute that but had insisted that in the end, it was the ladies’ opinions that mattered, and the ladies were more likely full of intelligence about Lizzy Carter.
“Good morning, Mrs. Duger,” she chirped when the entered the store. “I hope you have that French lavender I so adore. After days of nursing my cousin and…other things, my supply has quite evaporated.” She let “other things” hang in the air. Mia felt so totally loved she wondered if she actually glowed. She smiled expectantly.
Mrs. Duger, a pinched, wiry sort of woman, blinked, her eyes darting between Mia and Gideon.
Cataloging juicy tidbits to spread, no doubt, Mia thought. Of Mr. Duger there was no sign, but then, there never was. Mia assumed he sat at his usual table at the Cockcrow. Uncle Ludlow had told her the husband was the chemist who elevated Evelyn Duger’s little herbal business to the glorified name of apothecary when he’d married her, one more sign of the sad state of professional medicine in Nether Abbas.
“Right away, Miss Selwyn, or should I say, Mrs. Kendrick. And may I co…” She reached up for a jar of lavender, hesitating over her words. “…congratulate you over your marriage.” Mia guessed “commiserate” was her original intention.
“Thank you, Mrs. Duger. Was ever a bride so lucky?” Mia asked, smiling soulfully up at her husband, who played his part by feigning a besotted expression. At least, she assumed it was feigned. After yesterday she wasn’t sure.
“Would you like something with that? I have some fine lavender cream today,” the woman said.
“Do you have soaps as well?” Mia asked. Soon they had a whole array of goods on the counter, different scents, multiple herbs, and some woodsy products. Studying them with every sign of absorption, Mia casually said, “The talk of Lizzy Carter’s disappearance devastated me. How could such a girl simply vanish? Is there any news?” She glanced up at Mrs. Duger innocently.
Duger glanced at Gideon and back at Mia. “Rumors, yes, but no news. Someone said they saw her in Shaftsbury, but that has to be nonsense. How’d a chit that size walk there?”
“It sounds like she was a sweet, innocent girl.” Gideon spoke for the first time, injecting his words with sympathy.
Mrs. Duger gave him a penetrating glance. “Dunno who told you that; she’s anything but. Too smart for her own good, that one. Always up to something. Chases boys, too.” She leaned across the counter and lowered her voice. “I saw her making sheep eyes at Charlie Davis over at the Cockcrow, and him betrothed to Hilda Watson.”
“What do you think happened to her, then?” he asked softly.
She blinked, opened her mouth, and shut it again, darting a glance between Mia and Gideon. “I’m sure I don’t know,” she said primly.
“Who has searched for her?” Mia asked.
“Her da went up to the dairy, where she said she was going. No sign of her.”
“Has anyone searched the woods and fields between here and there?” Gideon asked.
“Carter and the vicar got some of the men to search. They didn’t find nothing,” the woman said. Mia wondered how thoroughly they’d hunted.
Gideon nodded, absorbed in thought. “I’ve been wondering something, Mrs. Duger. The ladies at the dairy said she asked them about work. Has she ever asked you something similar?”
“Goodness, no. I shooed the chit out as soon as she came in.”
They bought Mia’s lavender, some skin cream, and some fine soaps—lavender- and pine-scented. “Perfect for the bath,” Gideon murmured, making Mia blush. As they walked to the door, he turned back. “One more thing, Mrs. Duger. What do you think of Bill Carter?”
She snorted. “That one? Nasty piece of work.”
Back on the street, Mia ignored the stares of ladies passing on the other side. “We didn’t learn much.”
“Some. If a man had been stalking her, do you think Mrs. Duger would have said?”
“I have no doubt she would. She couldn’t resist that piece of tattle.” Mia shook her head. “I doubt if that’s the case.”
“Shall we move on to linen goods?” he asked.
“You look like you are enjoying this,” Mia said.
“Not Lizzy’s disappearance, no. But this is the first time I’ve ever tried to cause gossip before, and that, my darling wife, is fun.”
