Lavender

Mystery 2: The Dissapearance of Mrs. Rigbath

A knock rapped on Jenna Burke's door, and she jostled, her attention still on her clothes making. Her husband, Samson, was gone long enough that she assumed it was him. So she bit a piece of thread in her mouth, now sewing herself, rather than using a machine since she was doing more detailed work. "Just come in, you know how the door works." 

It took her a quick second to realize that while Samson was a gentleman who knocked so as not to sneak up on her when she was working, it might not be him. It could have been an official, and her tone wasn't exactly endearing to someone she called her "husband." So she cleared her throat, lowered her tone, and added a, "I missed you. What did the mayor want?"

A laugh filled the air as the door opened, and finally, Jenna's attention was dropped from her clothes. Because Tessa Hendrix, Otto's wife, stepped through the door, her long yellow dress skirts tapping the wood floor planking of Jenna's house. "You don't need to put on yer angel voice. It's just me."

A smile fought to break out on Jenna's face, but she managed to just twitch her lip as she stood up, glanced out the window to make sure no one was looking, before wrapping her arms around Tessa's hips.

Tessa hummed pleasantly as she did, her voice lowering into a flirty tone. "Then again, maybe you are an angel."

Jenna scoffed, placing a tender kiss against Tessa's lips. Her lips ached to stay on Tessa's red painted ones, but knowing anyone could see them from the window caused her to pull away and hide her longing with an eye roll. "I'm not an angel and we both know it. In fact, if I recall, you once said I was a demon."

Tessa's lips pointed down as she sat down in a chair, her freckle moving since it was right by her mouth. "Hey, I didn't know you back then. And to be fair, you sure as sin acted like one." She talked with the southern twang only those from the bottom parts of the mainland used, but she dressed like any high society girl from the city would have. The juxtaposition was stellar as she continued to talk, her outfit the stark contrast of the crooked way she sat, and the noble way she looked. "And if my memory isn't failin', you're called the police on me the night we met."

Jenna played coy, sitting in the chair opposite her Tessa. "What's an arrest between lovers? And besides, that's what happens when you steal the newest dress I had just made."

Tessa laughed, placing her hand over Jenna's on the scratchy wooden table. "I was being chased. I needed a disguise, and poof. There was an extra dress. I couldn't help myself." She squeezed Jenna's hand, her wicked smile softening as she looked into Jenna's brown eyes. "Who knew takin' that dress was the best thing that could'a ever happened to me?"

Jenna's heart flipped, but again, she didn't say anything out loud. And she didn't even have time to show her love through actions instead of her words, before the door opened, and Saffron, Stefan's wife, marched into Jenna and Samson's tiny house.

Even if they weren't truly in love, Saffron looked like the perfect pair to her husband, her stance unfaltering, just like his always was. Her dress, cut just below her knees, flapped since she was walking so fast.

Irene, Gale's wife, did the exact opposite, walking into the house with a meekness that made her barely visible behind Saffron, who tended to tower over almost anyone who stepped into her heeled shoed path.

Jenna, despite not seeing them out of her blind eye, could still hear the commotion, and she clamored to stand up. Tessa did the same, perhaps a bit more gracefully. 

"What's wrong?" Jenna asked, quickly pulling her hand away from Tessa, as if a city official was right on the heels of her friends.

"We've been called down to the mayor's office." Saffron folded her arms, the oil on her elbows making it obvious she had been working on some machinery of some kind in her home, much like she always did. "A city official just told me I had to gather all of us and head down there as soon as possible. Apparently our husbands are causing some kind of kerfuffle."