Free Mail Order Minx: Fountain of Love (Brides of Beckham) by Kirsten Osbourne

Millie couldn't believe people were spreading rumors about her.  Why, she'd thought everyone in town loved her up until that very moment.
    "Even though you didn't know how to cook."
    Millie looked at Lilah suspiciously.  "How did you know that I didn't know how to cook?"  She knew Connor wouldn't have told anyone that she couldn't cook.  He just wasn't like that.
    Lilah shrugged.  "Well, you weren't supposed to be waiting tables, you were supposed to be cooking.  When you started out waiting tables, we all knew you couldn't cook.  Poor Connor.  He sure got the short end of that stick, didn't he?"
    Millie stood, her back to the other woman.  "I have a lot of positive attributes, Lilah.  Perhaps if you weren't looking for only the negative you'd find one or two."  She worked hard to keep her temper in check as she walked.  Why did the other woman think so little of her?  She was a good person, and she couldn't imagine why anyone would think otherwise.
    She walked back to the hotel with her head held high.  Why on earth had that woman chosen to say such terrible things to her?  Millie had been nothing but loving and helpful since she'd arrived. 
    Millie walked into the hotel lobby to find a sweet elderly gentleman sitting on a sofa along one wall waiting for someone.  She immediately sat next to him.  "How are you today?  Is there anything I can get you while you wait?"  She patted his hand as she spoke to him.
    The man shook his head sadly.  "Nothing anyone can get me anymore I don't reckon.  My wife is gone."
    "Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that."  She patted his hand softly.  "How did she die?"  Millie's heart ached for the sweet man.  She couldn't imagine how her life would be if she ever lost Connor.  He was her rock.
    "Now, I don't recall saying she was dead.  I said she's gone.  She went out East on the last train to live with our daughter, Pamela.  Said she couldn't stand to look at me or smell me for another minute."
    Millie forced herself not to wrinkle her nose at the man's words.  He did smell rather...ripe.  "You can't go to her?"  Why if Connor left her that way, she'd be on the first train chasing him down.
    The man shook his head forlornly.  "I don't have no money to go with her.  She took the last of the money we had."
    "Oh, that's terrible."  Millie dug some money out of the small drawstring purse that was attached to her wrist, pressing it into the man's hand.  "Why don't you follow your wife out East and see your daughter.  Do you have grandchildren?"  She loved the idea of helping the sweet old man.  Besides, she was certain the smell of the town could only be improved by his departure.
    "No , ma'am."  The man's eyes were sparkling as he smiled at her.  "Thank you so much for your help."
    "I'm so happy I could be of assistance," she told him.   She was thrilled she'd done something nice for someone.  She couldn't wait until Connor heard about it.  Then he'd know she was the perfect wife for him.
    That night, just as they climbed into bed together, they heard gunshots from the street, followed by a bawdy song.  The voice sounded like that of the old man she'd helped earlier, but that just couldn't be.  He was resting up for his journey East, wasn't he?
    Connor pulled her against him, her head on his shoulder.  He sighed.  "Who gave that old drunk money?"
    Millie propped herself up on her elbow and looked down at her husband.  "Old drunk?  What do you mean?"   The sweet old man from earlier couldn't possibly have been a drunk.  She'd have known, wouldn't she?
    "Have you not met old Pappy Cromwell yet?  He's been trying to drink himself into an early grave since his wife left him fifteen years ago.  Mostly he just sits around town and looks sad, but occasionally, he'll talk someone from the train into giving him money with some sob story about how he needs to follow his wife back East."  He shook his head.  "I wonder who it was this time."
    Millie didn't