26. Open Adultery That Scandalized a Small Town
Reverend Pettit had first started to frequent the Meharrys’ house in a quest to seduce their maid. Soon, however, he set his sights higher, and began to pursue the rich mistress, instead. Elma, who was often surrounded by the whiff of scandal, was game. Her father was the local Postmaster, but when he took ill, she took over his duties, and often tampered with the mail – apparently a common occurrence back in the Gilded Age. It led to an official investigation and censure. What made tongues wag even more furiously in that straitlaced era, however, was Elma’s adulterous affairs.
One of them was with the married publisher and editor of several regional newspapers. It was carried out so openly with unchaperoned nighttime rides and unaccompanied trips throughout the Midwest, that it scandalized the locals. Victorian mores had crossed the Pond to America in the Gilded Age, and that kind of stuff done openly was, well – not done. It finally ended when Elma’s family threatened to do her lover in if he showed up in their neck of the woods again. He figured that discretion was the better part of valor, and stayed far away from Shawnee Mound.