Darline's Arc

Chapter 8 of 13

Darline was halfway through the morning shift when Rosie's delivery boy burst through the saloon doors, face flushed and breathing hard. He leaned over the bar, voice low enough that the regulars wouldn't hear. The merchant convoy had finished searching the market stalls and was heading for the flower shops next. Darline grabbed her notebook and ran. She found Rosie at the red storage shed behind Petal & Thorn, frantically dragging burlap sacks toward the barn. Bags of rose petals spilled across the ground, their unnaturally deep color proving they'd come from burial ground soil. Rosie froze when she saw Darline, eyes wide with panic. Darline held up the notebook. "I can help you hide this," she said, "or I can watch you burn." Rosie's hands shook on the sack. "Why would you help me?" Darline thought of the woman with the pin, of the choice she'd made to warn instead of destroy. "Because I'm giving you a week to make the double-billing right," she said. "After that, we're even." They worked fast, hauling the bags into the barn's false floor and scattering straw over the petals outside. By the time the convoy's wagons appeared down the road, the shed looked like any other storage building. Rosie stood beside Darline, wiping dirt from her hands. "I'll refund everyone," she said quietly. "Starting tomorrow." Darline nodded and walked back toward the saloon, her boots kicking up dust. She'd saved Rosie from the convoy and given her a chance to fix her crimes. The gossip could wait. For the first time, keeping a secret felt like power instead of weakness.