I Died for Beauty by Amanda Flower

Author:Amanda Flower [Flower, Amanda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2025-02-25T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-one

Emily cleared her throat. “You will have to forgive my sister and brother. They have not been married long and are still adjusting. Austin very much wants to make a name for himself in law, and Susan wants to run the home well. There are many outside pressures.”

She didn’t say that most of the outside pressures came from Emily’s own father. After hearing Miss Susan and Austin’s argument, she didn’t have to.

“I do wish we could find family to care for her. That would be the best,” Matthew said.

“She does have living family in Dublin.” I went on to tell him what Margaret had told me about Eve’s well-to-do family in Ireland.

Matthew nodded. “That is promising. With that to go on, I should be able to find them. I will reach out to the police in Dublin. I will write them, but seeing how they are on the other side of the Atlantic, it might take weeks before we hear back.”

That’s what I was afraid of. We didn’t have weeks, according to Austin.

“I will work on my brother, then,” Emily said. “He will agree to wait until we hear from her Dubliner family before turning her out of the house. He is a kind man at his core.”

“I think we have no other choice.”

Across the parlor, Norah Rose made a small sound and lifted her head. “Do I have to leave? I have nowhere to go.”

I sat on the settee next to her. “No, no, you don’t have to leave. Officer Thomas is looking for your family. Do you have any other family in Amherst?”

She shook her head. “It was always just the three of us. My father brought my mother here before I was born. I don’t remember, but that is the story I was told.”

“What about family friends? Who were your parents close to?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know. They were always working.”

“I will write to the Catholic priest tomorrow. That is where your family went to church?” Matthew asked as he sat back down on the dining room chair.

Norah Rose nodded, and her cheeks turned red. “We didn’t go often. My parents had to work even on Sundays, and it was too far away for me to walk to Sunday school alone. Many nights my father would read the Bible to us. I think God was happy with that.”

I squeezed her hand. “He was very happy indeed.”

“Perhaps the priest there will give us someone else to turn to if our first plan fails.” He cleared his throat. “Norah Rose, did your mother ever talk about her family back in Ireland?”

“Not often. When she did, she cried. They were angry at her for marrying my dad.”

That didn’t bode well for convincing the Dubliner family to take the child on.

Norah Rose cast her eyes down at our interwoven hands.

A few feet away, Emily perched on a footstool by the fire. Carlo lay on her feet like he often did in the winter to keep his petite mistress warm.

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