Read Online Halley by Faye Gibbons - Free Book Online Page B

as best she could, and then took out her dry shoes and pulled them on before going into the house.
    All the Calvin girls called greetings as she passed the door into the parlor, but Mrs. Calvin kept Halley moving.
    “Halley’ll be back when she gets into dry clothes,” she said to her daughters. She led Halley to the girls’ bedroom and found some clothes. “These will do until yours dry,” she said, handing her a petticoat and dress. “My goodness whatever happened to your face?”
    Halley covered her cheek with her hand. “Uh, I ran into a tree limb.”
    Mrs. Calvin kept looking at her for a moment and then handed her a towel and a comb. “For your hair. Come to the parlor when you get dressed.”
    Halley scrubbed the worst of the wetness out of her hair and then combed it. She looked like a drowned rat. A drowned rat with a red hand print on one cheek.
    When Halley went into the parlor, a dark-haired man was checking the spreads the Calvin girls had tufted. A much younger man stood beside him. Both looked up as Halley entered.
    “Mr. Bonner and his son, Richard,” said Mrs. Calvin. “And this is Halley Owenby, the new neighbor we told you about. She moved here a few weeks ago from Alpha Springs in Bartow County.”
    “Oh yes,” the older man said and bent over the spread again. “I know the Alpha Springs area. I’ve just started putting out work over there. You know the Nixons? Their oldest girl got married a few days ago.”
    “Mr. Bonner brings us news from all over,” said Clarice.
    The man handed Halley the spread he’d just been checking. “This is how your work should look.”
    “Father says Clarice Calvin is one of his best tufters,” Richard said.
    Clarice beamed.
    Mr. Bonner picked up a new spread and shook out its folds. “Let’s see, Alpha Springs. One of the Woodall mules died.”
    “Oh no,” said Halley. Mules were expensive. How could the Woodalls afford a replacement?
    “And Mrs. Gravitt died.”
    “No!” Halley was stunned. Of course Dimple had said the woman was ailing, and Halley knew women sometimes died during childbirth. But Mrs. Gravitt?
    “There was a new baby born in the family before she died,” Richard Bonner said.
    Mr. Bonner frowned at his son for mentioning a delicate subject like childbirth in front of the young women. Then he added, “A healthy boy, they say.”
    Halley had never liked Mrs. Gravitt much, but the sorrow of losing her own father came back fresh when she thought of Annabel and the rest of the Gravitt children.
    Mr. Bonner counted out the money due the Calvin girls and gave them all new muslin sheets with designs stamped in blue. “So you will learn to tuft with these pretty girls?” he said to Halley.
    Halley nodded. “They’re going to help me start today.”
    “You couldn’t find better teachers,” said Richard Bonner.
    “I will give you only two spreads,” said Mr. Bonner. “While you are learning. Later, maybe three or four.”
    Richard winked at her, and Halley blushed and dropped her eyes.
    Mr. Bonner left with his son and the girls went to work. There wasn’t much that they had not already shown her, and by dinnertime Halley was moving along almost as fast as Clarice. Her thoughts were moving, too. While the Calvin girls chattered and laughed, Halley was thinking about how like Pa Franklin her mother was becoming. She thought of escape, too, but the only place she could think of going was to Garnetta. Garnetta, she knew would not keep her without Kate’s consent. But, even if Garnetta would take her, how could she go off and leave Robbie?
    “You’re awful quiet today, Halley,” said Clarice at last.
    “Bet she’s studying on that flirty Richard Bonner,” said Eva. “He’s the kind to try and charm every girl he meets.”
    Halley’s face went hot. “I was thinking about Mrs. Gravitt,” she said, “and Robbie. I mean, him going to school by himself because I’ll be going to school in Belton.”
    Eva dismissed that