Page 86 of The Hangman's Rope
We worked quietly for a moment and she sighed and said, “You’ve found yourself an unlikely family among these people.” She looked up at me and I knew she didn’t mean a single disparaging thing with her use of ‘these people’ but rather spoke with a fondness as she’d said it. “I’m both proud and happy for you that you’re with someone who treats you so well.”
“You sound like you had your doubts,” I said blushing faintly and thinking about just how well Hangman, ah,took care of me, the night before.
She smiled faintly and nodded. “I did, but I’m your mother – I’m pretty sure there was at least some pre-requisite on doubt, don’t you think?”
I laughed a little and nodded and said, “You raised me to be empathetic and understanding… but when it comes to landing myself with a man named ‘Hangman’ I kind of feel like that may have been a bridge too far even for you.”
She grinned at me and raised her eyebrows and asked, “Oh, you bloody well think so, do you?”
“He treats me very well, mother dear,” I told her and my mother smiled.
“I know. I’m glad I took the leap of faith as much as you did – the names and all that leather is rather off putting, though – and I still worry about the reputation.”
I looked at my gloved hands and picked up the hand trowel I’d been digging and back filling with.
“Their reputation keeps me safe,” I said quietly and I felt her stare boring into me, even though I didn’t quite have the fortitude to look her in the eye.
“Oh, my darling girl…” she trailed off and thankfully, that was the moment Grim and Reaper wandered up the row.
“Well, if it isn’t two of the prettiest magnolias in Savannah!” Grim crowed and I snorted at the ridiculousness of it. He was always such a flirt – charming to everyone, while Reaper just sort of stood by, silent and stoic.
I smiled up at Grim and asked, “What brings you out here? You’re rarely if ever in the cemetery.”
He smiled at me and put his hands in the pockets of his suit slacks.
“Why a funeral, of course,” he said.
“Oh.” My mother’s expression went from politely cheerful to somber in a flash.
“Itisthe business,” he said with a shrug.
“That’s true,” my mother said, all while Reaper stared at me from behind those circular blue-tinted lenses of his. Stoic, silent, hands in his own pockets and I imagined balled intofists. He didn’t like social interaction too much. He usually just kind of stood or sat nearby while his much more extroverted counterpart did all the charming and talking.
“See you at the manse tonight?” he asked us.
My mother sat back on her haunches and asked, “Oh? What’s going on tonight?”
I blushed faintly and said, “Madisyn is having a party with some of her benefactors from her art shows.”
“Oh! That sounds delightful,” my mother cried as she did love a good social event… but this wasn’t one I particularly wished her to attend, as I had done some dressing up and some posing for one or two of Madisyn’s latest paintings. It wasn’t as though I was in any wayembarrassedor what have you – it was just… I loved my mother, but sometimes she could and would gush to the point it could get a little overwhelming or embarrassing and I didn’t want to be the center of attention on Madisyn’s night.
I gave Grim a pleading look from behind my mother’s back as he looked about to say something about my part in the paintings that had been shown and Reaper came to the rescue.
“I have a body,” he said, looking at his watch.
“Oh?” Grim asked, looking at his and frowning. “Well, duty calls apparently,” Grim declared and he graciously bid farewell to me and mom and both men went wandering up the aisle toward the gates.
I smiled at Mom, and she smiled at me, and she asked after Madisyn and Lainey as she hadn’t seen them in a while.
We wrapped up our work a little while after that, gathering up the thin plastic black planter pots and tools we’d used, smoothing the dirt with our hands around the freshly planted lilies and over the other bulbs in their almost tiered and layered growing patterns we’d laid.
“This will do for now,” my mother said, looking at our handiwork with her hands on her hips. “We’ll need more mulch, though.”
I nodded. “Hangman says the shipment will be here by middle of next week.”
“Good.” She nodded. “Without any rain in the forecast for the next little bit, I’ll have to come back out and water.”
I nodded. “If you can’t make it out for whatever reason, I will.”
