Free Half Past Mourning by Fleeta Cunningham

there?”
    Peter’s half rueful smile showed a small dimple at the corner of his mouth. “It’s hard to deal with more waiting, isn’t it? At least something is happening. Do you want to go along when I talk to her?”
    Nina thought a moment. Would her presence help or hurt the cause? She wasn’t sure. “Let’s decide that once you have a date to see her. If it will help, I want to be there, but I don’t want the woman to feel like I’m making trouble. She might not talk as freely if I’m around.”
    “Then we’ll leave it for now.” He stood up, glanced at his watch, and frowned. “It’s really late, Nina. You’ve had a terrible shock and some hard things to deal with. You need to get to bed. Maybe things will look a little better tomorrow.”
    “Not much better. I think I’d better go out tomorrow and warn Uncle Eldon before Tinker’s visit. What Tinker told me will be hard for my uncle to hear, but it would be worse to let him hear it from Tinker with no notion it’s coming.” She followed Peter to the door and turned on the porch light for him.
    “It might be good to get your uncle’s viewpoint, as well. You said he and Danny were close.”
    “Mentor and protégé, best buddies,” Nina told him. “Uncle Eldon looked on Danny almost as a son. He hoped Danny would take over the museum, in time.”
    Peter stepped through the open doorway but turned back. “I’d like to meet your uncle, Nina. Would you mind if I went along?”
    Nina felt a lessening of the darkness in her heart. “I’d love for you to go with me. Meet me here tomorrow afternoon after school. Or do you have a late class? I forget you don’t have the school hours I do.”
    “One class in the morning, that’s it. I’ll be here by the time you are.” He gestured toward the aging Mercury in the drive. “Would it bother you if I drove the T-Bird over? Maybe you’d give me some driving pointers. Or maybe your uncle would?”
    Nina drew a shaky breath. “If it bothers me, I guess I’d better get over it. Fear of running into a yellow T-Bird can’t be a shadow on my life forever. And I’d be happy to give you some driving tips.”
    As Peter walked into the darkness, Nina closed the door and leaned against it. It had been a hellacious day, but at least it was over. She hoped she never had to face another like it. Peter’s timely arrival and common sense approach took much of the sting away. A wash of genuine gratitude swept over her. Thank goodness she’d found an ally like Peter Shayne.
    Nina locked the door and turned off the lights, but as she started for her bedroom the phone rang. Its sharp bell pierced the night.
    Uncle Eldon! Her immediate reaction was fear that something had happened to him. Wheelchair-bound in daytime, he was completely helpless at night. She grabbed the phone before it could ring a third time.
    “Now, Nina honey, I know your mother died while you weren’t much more than a child, but still and all, you should realize the neighbors notice, and they talk, when a young woman livin’ alone starts entertaining some man at the house in the middle of the night. Really, Nina, you’ve gotta be more circumspect. What would the school board have to say if they heard about it, sugar? You’ve gotta watch your reputation ever’ minute, never look even the least bit flighty. Schoolteachers in a small town just can’t take chances on the way folks look at things.” The too-sweet voice, freighted with artificial concern, poured through the phone like honey on a warm biscuit. “I know you don’t have a bit of family except your uncle, and he wasn’t coming over this time of night. Who was that man who turned up so late and stayed so long, honey?”
    “Marigold?” Nina bit back a sharp retort before it came out of her mouth. I forgot about her watchdog up the block. I’ll have to tell her about Danny, too. She was right all along about Danny leaving me. That should give her some satisfaction, even though