Read Online Hell With the Lid Blown Off by Donis Casey - Free Book Online

The youngest son Caleb was twenty.
    â€œWell, I hate to speak ill of the dead,” Josie said under her breath, preparing to do just that. “But I blame the daddy. It takes a good daddy to raise good men.”
    Alafair shook her head. “All Mildrey’s affection seems to be lavished on that girl.”
    â€œWell, Mildrey long gave up her hopes of a daughter before Lovelle made her surprise entrance into the world.” Josie sounded quite sure of herself. “Mildrey Beldon has a lot of love in her, and all those boys don’t appear to be interested in anything about their mother except her cooking.”
    Alafair thought that was probably true. All the boys were grown, but not one of them had bestirred himself to marry. They all seemed happy enough to let their mother look after them. Except for Jubal, they were something of a worthless lot, as far as Alafair could see.
    Mildrey Beldon
    Josie waved at Mildrey. “Hey, Mildrey, come on up here and help us dish out pie!”
    Mildrey looked surprised by the invitation. She may have been known around town as a good Christian woman, but she bore the taint of her hooligan sons, and few ladies went out of their way to befriend her.
    She cast a glance behind to make sure that Josie hadn’t been calling to someone else, and when she could find no other candidates for the invitation, made her way down the length of the table and squeezed in next to Alafair.
    Josie Cecil was a force to be reckoned with; tall and buxom, black-haired, with warm, laughing, no-nonsense, hazel eyes. She had no truck with gossip and was skeptical of popular opinion. She had told Alafair more than once that she was perfectly capable of making her own decisions about folks, thank you very much.
    Mildrey had probably been a pretty woman in her youth, but a lifetime of drudgery had ravaged whatever beauty she had once possessed. Her face was seamed and her blue eyes sad and faded, but the light brown hair rolled into a chignon was still thick and lustrous.
    Alafair and Martha each gave her a welcoming smile and Mildrey answered with a tentative smile of her own. But it was Josie who broke the ice. “How nice to see you again, Mildrey! I swan, you’ve been making yourself scarce of late. What have you been getting yourself up to?”
    â€œNothing interesting, I guarantee,” Mildrey said. “Y’all know how it is when you’ve got a farm to run and a passel of mouths to feed.” She looked at Alafair for confirmation.
    Alafair obliged. “I can attest to the truth of that.”
    Josie relieved Mildrey of the empty plate she was clutching and began to cover it with slices of pie and cake. The oldest of Shaw Tucker’s several siblings, Josie had been mothering everyone she came in contact with since before she could remember. “I see Lovelle over yonder. My, but she has grown! What a pretty child.”
    The smile that lit Mildrey’s face as she contemplated her darling made her look years younger. “She’s a fine girl, too. Never has give me a lick of trouble in her life.”
    â€œCan’t say that for boys, can you? They’re always getting up to something and giving their ma cause to tear her hair.” The mother of three boys herself, Josie felt entitled to offer the judgment.
    Mildrey’s smile was wry. “No, you can’t.”
    â€œI heard that Mr. Turner fired your youngest from the livery stable after just two weeks.”
    Josie’s comment stung. Mildrey’s expression made that obvious. “That’s so.”
    â€œGot in a fistfight when Hec Lawrence criticized the way he cinched a saddle,” Josie continued, ever sympathetic but unaware of her effect on the embarrassed mother.
    Alafair glanced at Martha, who nodded and slipped away.
    â€œI expect your boy is back on the farm with you,” Josie continued blithely. “Now, if he was my young’un…oh, look