“Invite him and have to listen about Ramsey?” Jocelyn asked.
“You catch on fast,” Tess said, sounding s
urprised.
“I vote that we don’t invite anyone. Let’s have a feast by ourselves. Women only,” Sara said as she opened a cabinet on the far wall and took out three plates. “There’s not much left that Bertrand didn’t sell. My mother bought a gorgeous set of Wedgwood from him.”
“She’ll give it to you when you get married,” Tess said.
Jocelyn looked at Sara with interest.
“And where am I going to find someone?” Sara asked. “I never leave this town except to deliver a dress to some woman.”
“They have any sons?” Jocelyn asked.
“Not any that I’d have.”
“Sara is known around town to be the pickiest woman in the state,” Tess said. “Look at her, she’s a man’s dream. Beautiful and virginal.”
“Not hardly,” Sara said.
“It’s the look of the package that matters,” Tess said as she heaped a plate full of food. “You look innocent, and I look like I’ve done everything.”
“And everyone,” Joce added as she filled her plate. “Sorry, I was just agreeing with you. So what about me? I’m not either one of those things.”
“Wife,” Tess said. “You look like a wife and mother. So how come you don’t have a husband and three kids?”
“Tess…,” Sara said in warning.
“I had responsibilities,” Joce said as she made a place on the table and sat down. “I couldn’t go far away from…what was going on in my life.”
“The old woman,” Tess said.
Jocelyn shrugged but said nothing. She didn’t want to tell this woman more about her life than she already knew.
The three of them sat down at the table, the food all around them, and for a while they didn’t speak.
“I hear you bake cupcakes,” Tess said in a way that made it sound like an accusation—and frivolous.
Joce looked at Sara. “Is it me or is everything she says touched with a nasty edge to it?”
“It’s her,” Sara said, then looked at Tess. “Sorry, but it’s true. Usually, Tess, you save your hatefulness for the men you work for, so what’s made you get it in for Jocelyn?”
Tess just looked about the kitchen.
“Ah,” Sara said.
“What does that mean?” Joce asked. “Did I miss something?”
“You inherited this house. You inherited…What is it, Tess? Millions?”
“I’m not allowed to say.”
Both women looked at her, not blinking, and waited.
Tess shrugged as she bit into a chicken leg. “You tell Rams I told you and I’ll burn the house down with you in it.”
“Sounds fair to me,” Joce said.