Promise of a Family by Jo Ann Brown

Author:Jo Ann Brown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2015-11-11T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Susanna put two more dolls on the pile of fabric and blankets, then wiped her hand against her sweaty brow and pushed her hair out of her eyes. Her fingers came away streaked with dirt. Her face must be covered, as well, but the past few hours of working in the stuffy attic had been fruitful.

This morning, the children had been introduced to the freshly painted day nursery. The night nursery should be done early next week; then the children would sleep in comfortable beds instead of on pallets. They looked forward to it as much as Miss Oliver looked forward to having a space of her own.

After seeing the cramped and dirty conditions in the mining village and knowing that Lord Warrick was trying to make them better, Susanna had wondered what she could do to help. She had thought about the extra toys and other things stored in Cothaire’s attic. Once she had Papa’s permission to collect as many as she wanted and have them delivered to the mining village, she went to work. She also had accumulated a smaller pile for Raymond to distribute to children in Porthlowen.

Maybe Papa had seen that she needed to do something so she could forget the terrible events of the afternoon they went to Lord Warrick’s mine. The children had been terrified when the wheel came off the cart, and Miss Oliver had twisted her right wrist. She wore a sling to protect it, much to the delight of the girls, who thought it was the perfect way to carry a doll. So the nurse had created slings for them out of handkerchiefs.

But who would want to injure the children? Was it the same person who had set them adrift? All along they had assumed that whoever did that was the one who wrote the note, begging for the children to be cared for. What if it had not been?

Her mind went around and around pondering the questions, but never got any closer to an answer. There must be something she had overlooked, the something that made the puzzling pieces fit together in a logical answer.

Coming up to the attic had been a way to escape her thoughts. She looked at the stack of blocks, dolls and wooden animals that she had made. It was her third. It would have to do...for now. Dust was glued to her skin. She could have had a footman help her move the crates, but she needed the hard work to silence her mind. Once she had a chance to speak with Lord Warrick, she would implore him to search his own attic to help the families who worked in his mines. For now, there were enough toys in the piles so the children in the mining village would receive one or two toys each.

Susanna hurried down the stairs, sucking in the cooler air at the bottom. Knowing a visit to the stable would leave her covered with cinders and soot, she decided to check on the cleanup out there before she washed and changed.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.