The Darling Dahlias and the Silver Dollar Bush Read online

  China Bayles Mysteries by Susan Wittig Albert

  THYME OF DEATH

  WITCHES’ BANE

  HANGMAN’S ROOT

  ROSEMARY REMEMBERED

  RUEFUL DEATH

  LOVE LIES BLEEDING

  CHILE DEATH

  LAVENDER LIES

  MISTLETOE MAN

  BLOODROOT

  INDIGO DYING

  A DILLY OF A DEATH

  DEAD MAN’S BONES

  BLEEDING HEARTS

  SPANISH DAGGER

  NIGHTSHADE

  WORMWOOD

  HOLLY BLUES

  MOURNING GLORIA

  CAT’S CLAW

  WIDOW’S TEARS

  DEATH COME QUICKLY

  AN UNTHYMELY DEATH

  CHINA BAYLES’ BOOK OF DAYS

  Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter Mysteries by Susan Wittig Albert

  THE TALE OF HILL TOP FARM

  THE TALE OF HOLLY HOW

  THE TALE OF CUCKOO BROW WOOD

  THE TALE OF HAWTHORN HOUSE

  THE TALE OF BRIAR BANK

  THE TALE OF APPLEBECK ORCHARD

  THE TALE OF OAT CAKE CRAG

  THE TALE OF CASTLE COTTAGE

  Darling Dahlias Mysteries by Susan Wittig Albert

  THE DARLING DAHLIAS AND THE CUCUMBER TREE

  THE DARLING DAHLIAS AND THE NAKED LADIES

  THE DARLING DAHLIAS AND THE CONFEDERATE ROSE

  THE DARLING DAHLIAS AND THE TEXAS STAR

  THE DARLING DAHLIAS AND THE SILVER DOLLAR BUSH

  With her husband, Bill Albert, writing as Robin Paige

  DEATH AT BISHOP’S KEEP

  DEATH AT GALLOWS GREEN

  DEATH AT DAISY’S FOLLY

  DEATH AT DEVIL’S BRIDGE

  DEATH AT ROTTINGDEAN

  DEATH AT WHITECHAPEL

  DEATH AT EPSOM DOWNS

  DEATH AT DARTMOOR

  DEATH AT GLAMIS CASTLE

  DEATH IN HYDE PARK

  DEATH AT BLENHEIM PALACE

  DEATH ON THE LIZARD

  Other books by Susan Wittig Albert

  WRITING FROM LIFE

  WORK OF HER OWN

  A WILDER ROSE

  THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Group (USA) LLC

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014

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  This book is an original publication of The Berkley Publishing Group.

  Copyright © 2014 by Susan Wittig Albert.

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  eBook ISBN: 978-0-698-14456-9

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Albert, Susan Wittig, author.

  The Darling Dahlias and the silver dollar bush / Susan Wittig Albert.—First edition.

  pages cm.—(Darling Dahlias ; 5)

  ISBN 978-0-425-26060-9 (hardback)

  1. Women gardeners—Fiction. 2. Nineteen thirties—Fiction. 3. Money—Fiction. 4. Alabama—Fiction. 5. Mystery fiction. 6. Historical fiction. I Title.

  PS3551.L2637D394 2014

  813'.54—dc23

  2014018030

  FIRST EDITION: September 2014

  Cover illustration and logo © by Brandon Dorman.

  Cover design by Judith Lagerman.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  PUBLISHER’S NOTE: The recipes contained in this book are to be followed exactly as written. The publisher is not responsible for your specific health or allergy needs that may require medical supervision. The publisher is not responsible for any adverse reactions to the recipes contained in this book.

  Version_1

  In memory of my mother, Lucille Franklin Webber, who lived through the 1930s with courage and grace and shared her stories with me.

  Contents

  Other titles by Susan Wittig Albert

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Author’s Note

  Letter to Reader

  The Darling Dahlias Club Roster, Spring 1933

  ONE: Out of Money!

  TWO: The Root of All Evil

  THREE: Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?

  FOUR: Verna Tidwell Goes to a Meeting

  FIVE: Lizzy’s Life Changes—Forever

  SIX: Twyla Sue Spreads the News

  SEVEN: Verna Asks Questions

  EIGHT: Lizzy Makes a New Start

  NINE: Violent Events, as Told to the Citizens of Darling

  TEN: Charlie Dickens: The Morning After the Night Before

  ELEVEN

  TWELVE: Verna Is on the Case

  THIRTEEN: In Which Charlie Dickens Makes Amends

  FOURTEEN: Mr. Moseley Makes an Offer

  FIFTEEN: Mr. Duffy Follows a Trail of Dollars

  SIXTEEN: Verna and Aunt Hetty Make a Visit

  SEVENTEEN: The Dahlias Get Beautiful

  Recipes

  Author’s Note

  If you’ve been following this series, you know that it is set in the 1930s, during the dark years of the Depression. The previous book, The Darling Dahlias and the Texas Star, took place in July 1932, when the newly nominated Democratic presidential candidate, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was squaring off against the incumbent Republican president, Herbert Hoover. Roosevelt, then the governor of the state of New York, was not widely known, and people weren’t sure what direction he might take to solve the nation’s economic woes.

  But as many historians have pointed out, it didn’t matter much whose name was on the ballot, because folks were voting for A.B.H.—Anybody but Hoover. With unemployment above 20 percent and rising, Hoover didn’t have any strategies to turn the economy around. Roosevelt won with 57 percent of the vote, while the Democrats took control of the Senate and expanded their control of the House. Around the country, the jaunty tune “Happy Days Are Here Again”—FDR’s campaign song—could be heard everywhere.

  Those “happy days” were years in the future, however, and the four bleak months between the election and Roosevelt’s March 4 inaugural witnessed the worst banking panic in American history. Fearing that their local banks would close and their funds would suddenly vanish, people rushed to withdraw their money and stash it under their mattresses or in coffee cans buried in the backyard. Before the end of February 1933, so much money had drained out of the banking system that banks couldn’t cover the losses and a dozen state governors had either frozen withdraw
als or declared a “bank holiday.” By the final weeks of Hoover’s presidency, some 5,500 banks in thirty-one states were on “holiday,” their windows shuttered and CLOSED signs hung on their front doors.

  And for many communities, this was a tragedy. As far as commercial businesses and individuals were concerned, the closing of the local bank meant that there was simply no money. Companies couldn’t meet their payrolls. Stores couldn’t stock their shelves. People couldn’t buy milk or bread or put gasoline in their flivvers.

  But Americans are resourceful, and if the banks weren’t handing out enough cash to keep the wheels of commerce turning, by golly, the citizens themselves would make some. Thus was born the concept of Depression “scrip”: paper currency that was produced locally—by merchants, by merchant associations, or by municipalities—to solve local money problems. It wasn’t the solution to the banking crisis, but it did help businesses meet their payrolls, put groceries on the shelves of local stores, and enabled mothers to buy a quart of milk for their babies and baloney for their husbands’ sandwiches.

  And when it came to scrip, even the funnyman Will Rogers found something to chuckle about. “Everybody is all excited over ‘scrip,’” he wrote on March 6, 1933. “We are all for it. The way it sounds all you need is a fountain pen and a prescription blank. That’s what we been looking for for years, a substitute for money.” So bring on the scrip, he added. It might not be money but it spent like money, which was going to make everybody want to buy something.

  And that, of course, was exactly what the economy needed: lots of people buying lots of stuff—except that in little Darling, Alabama, things didn’t quite work out that way. And thereby hangs a tale: The Darling Dahlias and the Silver Dollar Bush.

  * * *

  A word about words. Writing about the rural South in the 1930s requires the use of images and language that may be offensive to some readers, especially words that refer to African Americans, such as “colored,” “colored folk,” and “Negro.” Thank you for understanding that I mean no offense.

  Susan Wittig Albert

  May 1, 1933

  The Darling Dahlias Clubhouse and Gardens

  302 Camellia Street

  Darling, Alabama

  Dear Reader,

  We have to say that we were very surprised when Mrs. Albert approached us about writing another book about our Darling garden club. The last few weeks have been so tough here in our little town (like everywhere else around the country, probably) that it hardly seems right to make a story out of people’s hardships.

  But even though things looked pretty grim for a while, we got through the rough waters and now our town is managing to sail along on a more even keel, with a little more money in our pockets—or what passes for money, anyway. And as Mrs. Albert points out, we’re all in the very same boat these days and when we feel like it’s sinking right out from under us, it helps to know how others have managed to stay afloat.

  So in the interests of letting other towns know how Darling managed to survive the threatened closing of its one and only bank, we’ve told Mrs. Albert that we would help her write her book. And when she asked us to recommend a title (“a garden plant that’s connected with the story” was what she said), some of us came up right away with The Silver Dollar Bush. We thought of that because the dried seed pods look so much like silver dollars and this story has to do with money and the lack of it and how we coped.

  The silver dollar bush is the plant that Miss Rogers (our Darling librarian) insists on calling by its Latin name, Lunaria. But as Mildred Kilgore reminded us, Lunaria also goes by the name of “moonwort,” because the silvery seeds are round, like the full moon. And since Mickey LeDoux’s moonshine operation is a part of the story, she thought Mrs. Albert’s book should be called The Moonshine Bush.

  Then Alice Ann Walker offered The Honesty Plant, since that’s one of Lunaria’s names, too. Sadly, however, there seems to be quite a bit of dishonesty in this story, so that title was ruled out after some heated discussion.

  The final vote was ten to three in favor of recommending The Silver Dollar Bush. Mrs. George E. Pickett Johnson was absent, Miss Rogers abstained, and Mildred held out for The Moonshine Bush.

  But we do want to tell you that while flowers are dear to the hearts of every single member of our garden club, we make room in our hearts—and our gardens—for plenty of vegetables, since we also like to eat. Aunt Hetty Little says to remind you of the old saying, “When you have only two pennies left in the world, you should buy a potato with one and a rose with the other.” She adds that if you can grow a potato, that means you can spend two pennies on roses, doesn’t it? And if you can grow roses, you can spend those last two pennies on shoes for the kids. Which leads her to say, “See there? A garden can even grow shoes.” And of course Aunt Hetty is right, as usual.

  So we’re putting a little extra time into our gardens this spring—when we’re not helping Mrs. Albert with the research for her book, that is. We know she intends to include some of the bad things that happened in our town recently. But we trust her to show that most of us have hearts that are good as gold (even if gold is illegal) and only want the best for all our Darling friends and neighbors.

  Sincerely yours,

  The Darling Dahlias

  The Darling Dahlias Club Roster, Spring 1933

  CLUB OFFICERS

  Elizabeth Lacy, president. Secretary to Mr. Benton Moseley, attorney-at-law, and garden columnist for the Darling Dispatch.

  Ophelia Snow, vice president and secretary. Linotype operator and sometime reporter at the Darling Dispatch. Wife of Darling’s mayor, Jed Snow.

  Verna Tidwell, treasurer. Cypress County probate clerk and acting treasurer. A widow, Verna lives with her beloved Scottie, Clyde.

  Myra May Mosswell, communications secretary. Co-owner of the Darling Telephone Exchange and the Darling Diner. Lives with Violet Sims and Violet’s little girl, Cupcake, in the flat over the diner.

  CLUB MEMBERS

  Earlynne Biddle, a rose fancier. Married to Henry Biddle, the manager at the Coca-Cola bottling plant.

  Bessie Bloodworth, proprietor of Magnolia Manor, a boardinghouse for genteel elderly ladies next door to the Dahlias’ clubhouse. Grows vegetables and herbs in the Manor’s backyard.

  Fannie Champaign, proprietor of Champaign’s Darling Chapeaux and a bit of a mystery to everyone. Recently returned from Atlanta, after an unfortunate break with Charlie Dickens, the editor of the Darling Dispatch.

  Mrs. George E. Pickett (Voleen) Johnson, president of the Darling Ladies Guild and notable town matron, specializes in pure white flowers. Married to the now former president of the Darling Savings and Trust Bank.

  Mildred Kilgore, owner and manager, Kilgore Motors. Married to Roger Kilgore. They have a big house near the ninth green of the Cypress Country Club, where Mildred grows camellias.

  Aunt Hetty Little, gladiola lover, town matriarch, and senior member of the club. A “regular Miss Marple” who knows all the Darling secrets.

  Lucy Murphy, grows vegetables and fruit on a small market farm on the Jericho Road. Married to Ralph Murphy, who works on the railroad.

  Raylene Riggs, Myra May Mosswell’s mother and the newest Dahlia. Cooks at the Darling Diner and lives at the Marigold Motor Court with Pauline DuBerry.

  Miss Dorothy Rogers, Darling’s librarian. Knows the Latin name of every plant and insists that everyone else does, too. Resident of Magnolia Manor, where she plants her small flower-and-vegetable garden in very straight rows.

  Beulah Trivette, owns Beulah’s Beauty Bower, where all the Dahlias go to get beautiful. Artistically talented, Beulah loves cabbage roses and other exuberant flowers.

  Alice Ann Walker, grows iris and daylilies, which don’t take a lot of time or attention—important for Alice Ann, who works full-time as a cashier at the Darling Savings and Trust Bank. Her disa
bled husband, Arnold, tends the family vegetable garden.

  ONE

  Out of Money!

  Saturday, April 8, 1933

  Earlynne Biddle sighed heavily. “Well, I for one don’t know how any of us are going to manage, now that the bank is closed.” She paused. “Liz, reach me that knife right there beside you. It’s sharper than mine.”

  “As long as you’re not going to use it to do something desperate,” Elizabeth Lacy said with a little laugh, handing the knife across the table.

  “Something desperate, like slit my wrists?” Earlynne turned down her mouth and went back to chopping rhubarb. “That wouldn’t solve anything, now, would it?”

  “No, of course not,” Lizzy replied hurriedly. “I didn’t mean—”

  “We know you didn’t, Liz,” Aunt Hetty Little said in a soothing tone. “You were just making a little joke.”

  “A very little joke,” Verna Tidwell remarked with a sardonic laugh.

  Earlynne sniffed. “It’s no laughing matter. Who knows how long the bank will be closed. And until it opens, what are we going to do for money?”

  Of course it wasn’t a laughing matter, Lizzy thought, looking at the sober faces of her four friends. They had gathered in the Dahlias’ clubhouse kitchen for a Saturday morning rhubarb canning party. It was a pretty day and all the doors and windows were open to the sweet April breeze—which was a good thing, because canning could be hot work. Mildred Kilgore had just come back from Tennessee, where somebody had given her two big washtubs heaped full of fresh rhubarb stalks.

  “All I wanted was enough for one pie,” she’d told Aunt Hetty, “and I ended up with enough to feed an army! I’d can it, but I just don’t have time.” Roger Kilgore, her husband, had proven himself to be a less-than-trustworthy manager, so Mildred was now running Kilgore Motors and had her hands full, trying to keep the business afloat.

  “You give that rhubarb to me, Mildred,” Aunt Hetty had said. “I know just what to do with it.”

  So today, five of the Dahlias had gotten together, under Aunt Hetty’s direction, to can rhubarb. They were using the two new 23-quart pressure canners they had bought with the proceeds from their vegetable sales the previous year, and canning jars donated by fellow club members. They would give the canned rhubarb, rhubarb sauce, and rhubarb butter to the Darling Ladies Guild, which would distribute it to people in need. (Unfortunately, there were a lot of people in need this spring. A jar of rhubarb would be just the thing to cheer them up.)