“Diana! You’re here! Where the devil did you go?” As he reached for her, his shoe struck the basin, sending blood-stained water over the edge. He stared at her two small feet wrapped in a towel stained slightly pink. “You’re hurt!” Dropping down to the bench beside her, he wrapped both arms around her shoulders. “Darling, I’ve been half out of my mind.”
Three more men came into the kitchen behind him. “I’d like to hear about that myself. I wasn’t quite certain how the girls got here, but somehow I expected Pam would be in the middle of things. She’s always where the trouble is.”
Diana peered over Adler’s shoulder and saw Trey standing in the doorway, his arms crossed and his glasses slightly crooked on his nose. Just behind him stood two tall, fairly imposing figures. One was Judge Schmidt, who had officiated at her wedding. The other, whose family resemblance was too strong for him to be anything but the judge’s son, wore a sheriff’s tarnished silver star.
“Adler, those are the men we’ve been running away from. They followed Pam and the fellows from Fort Worth. They found me at the Sunday house, and while the glee club was singing, they…they dragged me off. They’d already taken Pam. We were tied up; they broke into someone’s Sunday house, and they put us in the children’s room upstairs. But they didn’t know about Sunday houses, or how they’re made. Once Pam got me loose, we prowled around until we found the crank that opened the airway. And we got out. Pam heard them say they were coming after Dr. Pearce and Trey and all of the fellows, so we knew we had to warn them.” Her sudden laugh had more than a hint of hysteria. “I guess they didn’t count on my sweet owls being smart and fearless and clever.” She pointed to the trussed-up hoodlums suffering their wounds in injured silence from the other end of the room. “There they are, tied up like Christmas packages, just waiting to be taken to jail. Or somewhere they won’t bother anybody again.”
Judge Schmidt interrupted. “I see the wreckage in the other room. I see two young ladies looking like they’d been in a battle, one of whom was the bride at a wedding I performed earlier, and I see several strangers who also seem to have been involved in that battle. Adler, could you make sense of this for me?”
Adler could only explain the barest outline, but Trey was able to confirm and expand the circumstances. “I don’t know how Diana and Pam fell into the hands of these ruffians. You’ve just heard as much about that as I have.” Trey shoved his glasses back in place and gave Pam a long, hard look. “Would you care to make things a little clearer, Miss Woods?” His emphasis on the last two words made his feelings clear. He’d been involved in as many escapades with the impulsive red-haired flapper as he wanted.
Pamina’s blue eyes filled with tears. “It was my fault, all of it. I got us into the mess in the first place by taking Archie to a speakeasy. He wanted some information I thought a bartender had, and so I talked him and Trey and Diana into going. And then those two palookas took Sheldon Haver off and killed him, and the bartender went after them and they killed him, too. Diana and Archie saw them, and I said too much to somebody at the newspaper. Then they came after us, and we ran.”
Judge Schmidt held up both hands. “I’m lost. Let’s go back to the beginning.” He turned to the professors. “One of you tell me. This started in Fort Worth?”
The three academics spoke at once, each one contradicting the other two. To Diana, it was their normal conversation—bickering, wrangling, and talking over each other—but the expression of bewildered exasperation on the judge’s face reminded her that other people didn’t interpret the verbal chaos as easily.
“Stop!” The judge held up both hands to hold back the flow.
“I think I can clear it up,” Diana interjected. As concisely as possible, she went through the events that had brought all of them to Pfeiffer, ending with her own abduction from the Sunday house and the manner in which she and her sister escaped their captors. “I can show you where they took us. My shoes are still in the children’s room upstairs, and unless the rain has turned that mattress to mush, it will be on the grass below the porch where we climbed out. These are the two men I saw outside Tommy Gunn’s club. They took Sheldon Haver away and he was never seen alive again. The bartender who followed them is also dead. By what they said after they grabbed me, Pam and I as well as the professors were going to meet the same end.”
Judge Schmidt nodded. “I have it. You and the others were witnesses, and they managed to keep up with that red car the group traveled in and followed it to Pfeiffer. They took you and your sister, came here to get the men, and found themselves outnumbered.” He grinned.
“Big-city gangsters, are you? Outflanked by two little girls and a pack of aging professors. Can you beat that?” He turned to the younger man with the badge. “Clear enough, son? Got enough to take these two citified polecats in?”
“Believe we do have enough to charge them. I’ll get in touch with the folks in Fort Worth, maybe next week sometime, and see what their interest is. Give us time to deal with their local infractions before the city authorities get in on it.” He glanced at the two bound men. “You got anything to say for yourselves?” He grinned. “I should explain we don’t have much crime in Pfeiffer. Haven’t actually held a trial in, oh, about a year now. Probably be holding one in, what do you think, Judge Schmidt? Three, possibly four days? Charges of kidnapping, breaking and entering—several of those charges it sounds like—malicious mischief, attempted murder, and there may be three or four more by the time we get everything sorted out. Once we’ve finished here, I s’pose the city will want a run at them. Looks like you boys may not get back to the city for some time. Likely you won’t mind, though. Probably looking at a mighty unpleasant situation back there. Would you think that sounds about right, Judge Schmidt?”
“Well, Sheriff Schmidt, I’d say you summed it up pretty well.”
****
Diana leaned back in the cozy chair, her sore feet wrapped in thick bandages, and watched Adler pour warm milk into a cup. The Sunday house, their private nest, was peaceful in the softly falling rain.
“I can put a little of Archibald’s special flavoring in this if you’d like.”
Diana grimaced. “I don’t think I need any more of that liquid fire, thank you. Warm milk sounds much nicer.”
“How are your feet? Still hurting?” He put the cup on the table next to her and drew the creaking rocking chair closer to her.
“Not as bad. I won’t be wearing anything but bedroom slippers for a few days, but I don’t think there’s anything to worry about.”
Adler grinned. “Darling, if I have anything to say about it, you won’t need anything but slippers for several days. In fact, you won’t even need those.”
“Did you really think the glee club had pulled such a nasty trick? Taking me off on our wedding night? They wouldn’t pull a stunt like that.”
Adler took the cup from her hand. “At first, well, that seemed like the only possibility. So I waited, thinking one or two would show up with a request for a ‘donation.’ I was ready with a scalding answer, I assure you. When no one came, I was rethinking the whole situation. It wasn’t like the boys to do something really down and dirty like that. It did seem like there were more members of the group than normal. I left here, went up the street, and banged on the door of the Herricks’ house. Got young Herrick out of bed. He’s the one that told me the tale. Said some friends of yours from ‘back home’ had come for the wedding and heard about the shivaree. They told the glee club you’d be disappointed with just the usual serenade because that’s not the way it’s done where you come from, that it had to be a little more dramatic. The glee club enlisted a few extra friends, planned the distraction to get us separated, and your ‘friends’ would stage the abduction. In an hour, they’d bring you back with an extravagant wedding present, and everybody would have a good laugh. Herrick’s a good boy, never thought about anybody pulling something really vicious. He and the glee club went along. As soon as he told me how the
thing was planned, I knew it had to be the men you were running from. I kept telling myself you were alive, that you’d hold on until I could find you, and we’d have our life as we planned. If I could find them, I was ready to pound those louts into oblivion to find out where they’d taken you.” He put his hands on her shoulders, his gray eyes hard and bright. “I’d just come back from the Herricks’ place when Trey pulled up in that red behemoth of his and told me what happened at the house. Diana, you have no idea what went through my mind as we made that mad dash back to the house. I knew you were alive, but nothing Trey said reassured me. When I came through the door and saw you sitting there, blood everywhere, and you pale as ice…well, I hope I never have to live through anything that terrifying again.”
She leaned forward and kissed him. “There were moments, awful, scary moments, when I was tied up and in the back of their car, when all I could think of was that I’d never see you again, that all our dreams, our plans, were gone. Then they put me in that room and locked the door, and all I could think of was somehow getting loose, getting away. If Pam hadn’t been there, I don’t know if I could have done it. Not by myself. When I realized where we were, in a Sunday house and in a room meant for children, I knew there was a way to get out.”
“The two of you! If those birds had even half a brain, they’d never have left the two of you together. I’d swear the devil himself would come off second best if he were up against both of you. Remind me to thank sister Pam.”
Diana leaned back in her chair. “I’m worried about her, Adler. She’s planning to go to San Antonio and work at the newspaper office, but she’s not happy about it.”
“I know you said she wants to be a reporter. Why isn’t she pleased? This sounds like what she’s looking for.”
Diana brushed back the lock of hair that had fallen over his forehead. “Because that’s not what she’s really looking for.” She laid two fingers along the curve of his cheek, a cheek now a bit bristly. “You know she’s in love with your good friend Trey, don’t you? She’d drop the idea of working in San Antonio without a second thought if he showed any sign of caring for her, but they quarreled or got crossways somehow. By what he said and the way he looked tonight when he came into the kitchen, I don’t think there’s any chance.”
“Your sister and Trey?” Adler shook his head and laughed. “I’d say he’s just running scared, darling. Trey, well, he comes from a…a unique family. I’d say Pamina Woods would be exactly what he needs. He just hasn’t figured it out. My money’s on Pam.”
“You think so, Adler?” Diana sighed. “I’d love to see my sister with someone who loves her. Someone she loves the way I love you.”
“Wife of my heart, I think we’ve been involved in the schemes and plans of enough other people for one day. It’s so late even your owls have tottered off to bed. Could I invite you to do the same? I believe you did say you could be convinced to spend the night with a married man, didn’t you?”
“I said something like that.” She gestured to her wrapped feet. “Obviously I’m not going to run away. In fact, I don’t believe I’ll be going much of anywhere on my own. If you’d care to assist, sir?”
“A fetching invitation, my dear.” He lifted her from the armchair and turned toward the bedroom. “The rain is pattering on the roof. There’s a scent of honeysuckle in the air. I think we can find a dream or two to share. We have a lifetime to build, Diana Behr, and we’ve been delayed long enough. Let’s pretend the last few hours never happened. We’ve just sent the glee club on its way, and this is our beginning. Welcome home, my darling.”
Diana’s Glossary of 1920s Slang
Ab-so-tive-ly—strongly affirmative
Agony column—newspaper advice column (also referred to as the Agony Desk)
Airedale—young man on the town
And how!—an affirmation
Ankle over—walk
Applesauce—nonsense
Banana oil—more nonsense
Bee’s knees—one of the many animal images affirming something is desirable
Elephant’s eyelashes—same as bee’s knees
Cat’s meow—same as bee’s knees
Cat’s pajamas—same as bee’s knees
Beef—argument
Bluenose—prude
Berries—money
Bum’s rush—to be physically ejected from an establishment
Bumped off—murdered
Coffin varnish—homemade whiskey
Cheaters—eyeglasses
Dolled up—dressed well
Down and dirty—contemptible practice
Fried—intoxicated
Fuddy-duddy—someone boring or old-fashioned
Gin mill—saloon
Glad rags—party clothes
Goods—the truth, the real thing
Have a kitten (also cast a kitten)—to get unduly excited
Icy mitt—ignore or disregard
IT—sex appeal
Live wire—someone lively and active
On the lam—running from the law or violent adversaries
On the town—going out for a good time
Palooka—someone pugnacious but not very smart (reference to Joe Palooka, a comic strip boxer)
Patsy—someone easily fooled
Petting party—an evening of physical affection
Pick berries—get money
Piker—stingy
Pipe down—hush
Poor bunny—expression of sympathy
Pos-i-lute-ly—positive affirmation
Razz—torment or tease
Real McCoy—a true representation or item
Sap—fool
Sheik—romantic hero
Sheba—romantic heroine
Snake charmer—shifty character
Speakeasy—illegal nightclub
Spiffy—dressed up
Splifficated—intoxicated
Swell—person of importance or of an upper class standing
Torpedo—tough guy or hoodlum
The goods—verifiable facts
Vamp—seductress
A word about the author…
Fleeta is the proud author of 18 Women's Fiction and Romance novels set in the mid-century period (aka Retro Romance), including the Santa Rita Series about life in a small Texas town in the 1950s, the Discerning Hearts Series about the journeys of three college girls coming of age in post-Vietnam, and Flapper Follies, a new series set in the Roaring Twenties. She's always enjoyed telling stories from the time period of le jazz hot to the revival of Rockabilly and the emergence of Folk Rock.
A fifth generation Texan, Fleeta Cunningham has lived her entire life in Texas, both small towns and big cities. Drawing on all of them, she writes about the unique character—and characters—of the southern states. After a career as a law librarian for a major Texas law firm, and writing a monthly column for a professional newsletter and other legal publications, she returned to her home in Central Texas to write full time. Fleeta has been writing in one form or another since the age of eight. When she isn’t writing, she teaches creative writing classes, quilts, and goes dancing with her beau every Tuesday night! She loves to hear from readers.
Visit Fleeta at: http://www.fleetacunningham.com
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