style="font-size:15px;"> “Anyway,” June continued, “I won’t be gone but a moment, so just make sure everyone has what they need until I get back.”
Yes, ma’am; no, ma’am; right away, ma’am. Or maybe she should just stand at attention and salute. Charlotte swallowed hard. June’s intimidation tactics might work on some people, but she had another thing coming if she thought Charlotte was going to put up with it. Charlotte forced a tight little smile. “Ms. Bryant,” she said, “I’ve already assured Mimi that I would take care of things. And I will,” she added pointedly.
June gave her an odd look but nodded once. “Of course,” she said, her tone chilly. Then, with a slight lift of her chin, she stuck her patrician nose in the air, turned, and hurried toward the doorway leading to the central hall.
As Charlotte watched June weave her way through the other women, she took several deep breaths in an attempt to calm her racing pulse. Good thing she didn’t have trouble with high blood pressure.
After a moment, she felt a bit calmer. She returned to the dining room and busied herself with picking up the dirty dishes and tidying the table. All around her, conversations centered on Rita and continued as if Charlotte weren’t even there. But, then, no one ever paid attention to the hired help. It was a fact that Charlotte had learned early on when she’d first started up Maid-for-a-Day, and it was the very reason she insisted that the women who worked for her adhered to her client confidentiality policy.
Once Charlotte had cleaned up as much as she could for the time being, she slipped into the kitchen. As she stood at the sink hand washing one of the crystal dessert plates, she tried to concentrate on what she was doing instead of the conversation between the two women standing just inside the dining room doorway. But ignoring what they were saying proved to be impossible, and she got an earful.
Chapter 4
Both of the women looked to be in their early forties, and each had a glass of wine. The taller of the two had a whiny, nasally voice and was the one who did most of the talking.
“It’s a shame that there’s such bad blood between Mimi and Rita,” she said.
“Bad blood?”
“Has been for a while now.”
Charlotte glanced over at the two in time to see the shorter woman wrinkle her brow. “How come? I thought Mimi and Gordon were really good friends with Rita and Don.”
“They were, once upon a time, but not any more. I can’t believe you haven’t heard about it. Why, that was just an awful scandal.”
“Scandal? What scandal?”
“Well, I’m not exactly sure, but I heard that Rita accused Mimi of having an affair with Don.”
The shorter woman gasped, and Charlotte almost dropped the plate she was rinsing. She cleared her throat loudly, hoping that when the women realized she could hear everything they said, they would stop their gossiping.
“Why, that’s just plain ridiculous,” the shorter woman said.
So much for trying to be discreet, Charlotte thought.
“Mimi would never cheat on Gordon,” the shorter woman continued. “And she certainly wouldn’t cheat on him with the likes of that awful Don Landers.”
“Well, you and I know that,” the taller woman whined, “but, evidently, Rita thought differently.”
Shades of Bitsy Duhe, Charlotte thought, as she tried again to tune out the women’s malicious gossip session, but again it was no use. Whether she liked it or not, she was a captive audience.
“Anyway,” the taller woman continued, “no matter how many times Mimi denied it, Rita just couldn’t get past it. And we both know that Rita is not exactly the soul of discretion. She claimed that she’d caught ’em in the act.”
“Nooo,” the shorter woman drawled in a tone of utter disbelief.
“Oh, yeah,” the other woman replied.
“But if she caught them doing it, then it must be true.”
The taller woman shook her head. “Not hardly. Rita has been known to lie. Regardless, Rita, like a ninny, went and blabbed it to anyone and everyone who would listen.”
“Aw, come on now. Why on earth would she do that? You’d think she’d be too humiliated to want anyone to know.”
“I kid you not. That’s exactly what she did, mostly, I suspect, to humiliate Mimi and cause her problems with Gordon. Of course, poor Mimi found out. But even worse, Gordon found out what Rita had done, and woe to anyone who upsets his Mimi. Suffice it to say, Rita’s little scheme backfired. Gordon didn’t believe any of her gossip, and since he couldn’t get back at Rita directly, he got back at her through Don.
“Why, Don was Gordon’s right-hand man,” she continued. “But after Gordon heard what Rita had done, he made Don’s life a living hell. First he fired him. Then he made sure that no other dealership in the city would touch him with a ten-foot pole.” With a sigh, she added, “Needless to say, the two couples aren’t friends any more, and ever since, Rita has had it in for Mimi. And you can mark my words, that’s the only reason that Rita wanted to be HHS president to begin with. Just her little way of getting back at Mimi.”
The shorter woman shook her head. “Poor Don. That’s just awful.”
Charlotte washed the last of the dirty dessert plates and rinsed it. In her opinion awful was too tame a word. More like cruel and downright nasty.
“But what on earth made Rita think that she could win against Mimi in the first place,” the shorter woman continued, “especially after all that Mimi’s done for HHS over the years?”
The other woman shrugged. “Who knows,” she said, as she swirled what was left of the wine in her glass. “But I’m here to tell you, you can bet your prize roses that’s not the end of it. No siree, not by a long shot.”
“Why would you say something like that?”
The taller woman glanced around the room, then leaned closer to her friend and lowered her voice. “I overheard Doreen Mires tell Karen Douglas that if Rita didn’t win, Rita and some of her cohorts were going to quit and form their own garden club.”
“Shh, the others might hear you,” said the shorter woman, as she glanced around, but the taller woman waved away her concerns.
“They’re probably in the parlor,” she said.
The shorter woman frowned. “So how come Doreen and Karen know so much?”
The taller woman shrugged. “Maybe they’re in on it. Maybe they’ve hooked up with Rita.”
“But if I recall correctly, don’t Doreen’s and Karen’s husbands work for Gordon too?”
The taller woman nodded. “Yep, they each manage one of his dealerships.”
“Well, if what you said about what Gordon did to Don is true, then Karen and Doreen had better watch their step if they know
