“I’m glad I’m not the only one worried about her, Kate,” Annie said. “She hasn’t been herself lately, and she was way too upset about Mandy Culbertson crashing into her front window yesterday. I could understand her being mad about it. If that happened to me, my hair would be a lot more gray than blond. But I’ve never seen Mary Beth cry like that over anything.”
Kate sighed. “I know she’s been having a hard time, like everybody has in this economy, but I think it’s more than that now. The window was just the last straw. She has had to cancel some orders for the shop more and more often these days.” She toyed with the little cow-shaped saltshaker, not looking up. “And she’s cut way back on my work hours.”
A general murmur of sympathy went around the group of women jammed into the back booth at the diner.
“No, no, I’m not worried about me.” Kate smiled a little wryly. “Not much anyway. Harry has been pretty regular with the child support lately, and I’ve been doing really well selling my patterns for crocheted jackets and things. But I don’t know about Mary Beth. She’s been … . Well, she’d never complain, you know, but I can tell she’s struggling. That’s why I wanted to get everybody together today. I just thought there ought to be some way we can help her out. She’s been really good to me for a long time now.”
“She’s been good to all of us,” Alice said, her blue eyes flashing. “It’s not right that the best people always seem to have the hardest time. I’m glad you told us about this, Kate.”
“You don’t think she might lose A Stitch in Time do you? What would we do without our needlework shop?” Gwendolyn Palmer, sitting in the opposite corner of the booth, shook her head. “I thought Mary Beth seemed a little distracted when we had our club meeting last week, but I didn’t think it was anything serious. I just assumed her sister was giving her a hard time again.”
Peggy rolled her eyes. “Her sister.”
An elderly couple came into the restaurant, and Peggy glanced over to make sure one of the other waitresses was taking care of them. Then she turned back to her friends, one hand on her plump, pink-uniformed hip. “I mean, you’d think Miss World-Renowned Fashion Designer Melanie would be able to help her sister out once in a while,” said Peggy.
“I doubt Melanie even knows about it,” Annie reasoned. “We didn’t know about it, and we’re Mary Beth’s best friends. Do you know all this for sure, Kate?”
Kate shrugged a little. “Only that she’s cut down on my hours and had to cancel some orders for merchandise. Come to think of it, I did hear her on the phone last week about some antique furniture. First I assumed she was wanting to buy it, but now I’m wondering if she was having to sell something of her own.”
A woman and two children came in and sat down at the lunch counter, and Peggy took a quick glance at her watch. “My break’s almost over, ladies. If we’re going to decide something, we’d better do it quick.”
“Don’t be too hasty now.” Stella had sat silently in the corner ever since she had arrived, but she had taken in every word. “We would all like to help Mary Beth in any way we can, but it has to be done the right way. She wouldn’t want us to pity her or think she doesn’t know how to manage her own affairs.”
“We’d want to be discreet,” Annie said. “There’s no need for the whole town to know her personal business.”
Kate blushed. “I never would have said anything, you know, but I was worried that—”
“Of course you should have told us,” Alice assured her. “We can’t let anything happen to Mary Beth. Stony Point wouldn’t be the same without her and A Stitch in Time.”
“We wouldn’t even have the Hook and Needle Club,” Peggy said, a little quiver in her lip.
Annie squeezed her arm. “Now, nothing’s happened yet, Peggy. And we’re not going to let anything happen to Mary Beth, are we, girls?”
“Of course not,” Alice said over the determined murmuring of the others.
“We could have a bake sale,” Gwen suggested, but Stella shook her head.
“That would be very nice, dear, but not likely to be much help in a case like this.”
“What about a real fundraiser?” Kate asked. “I mean, really get some things together and have an auction or something. We’ve done them before for other causes.” She glanced at Alice, remembering when the group came together to help when her business went through a rough time. “Why not for Mary Beth? We all have stuff we don’t really need.”