The Uncharted Beginnings Series Box Set by Keely Brooke Keith

Author:Keely Brooke Keith [Keith, Keely Brooke]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Edenbrooke Press
Published: 2018-06-04T22:00:00+00:00

The late afternoon sun peeked out beneath the cloud line to the west. It shone through the front window, sending dust-speckled chinks of light across Olivia and the chair. The rocker was still. Her open mouth wet her sleeve. She lifted her head and glanced around the empty house.

It was late. The afternoon was almost gone. Precious working hours had been slept away without her knowledge or permission.

Her lesson planner was upside down beside her stocking-covered feet on the rag rug. She wiped the drool from her chin. As she leaned down to pick up the journal, her hair fell loose across her shoulder. She reached for the ribbon that she always kept tied around the end of her long braid. It was gone. She pulled the loose strands in front of her face. Her hair was ten inches shorter than it should be.

Her breath caught as she shot to her feet. She searched the chair, the rug, the folds in her clothing, but couldn’t find any cut pieces of hair. Someone had come in the house while she napped and cut off half of her braid.

And they had taken her hair with them.

Who would be so cruel and daring and violate a person in her sleep? Had an elder attacked her femininity in retaliation for her interrupting their meeting? Had her growing relationship with Gabe driven Peggy to maddening jealousy? Had her father wanted to punish her? No, he might have been perturbed by her behavior last night, but he would never lift a hand against her. Maybe it was Mrs. Cotter. She’d been rude and hateful toward her since school started. But would Mrs. Cotter leave her family during the day, sneak into the house, and defile a person so brazenly?

Children’s voices rang outside the house.

Olivia ran up the stairs with her lesson planner in one hand and the other hand buried in her now shoulder-length hair. Once in the bedroom, she darted for the basket on the foot of Alice’s side of the bed and rifled through her sister’s things until she collected several hairpins.

She stepped to the washstand and swirled her hair into a knot behind her head. Her fingers shook as she pinned her hair into a chignon. Loose strands fell out to frame her face. She pinned them back too, as not to draw attention to the shorter length.

The door opened downstairs and her sisters surged in the house all talking at once. As the girls climbed the stairs and ran into the room, Olivia tucked in the last strands of her straight black hair.

“What’s this?” Alice cooed as she spotted Olivia. “Trying a new hairstyle?”

“I borrowed a few of your hairpins. I hope you don’t mind.”

Martha gazed up at her in the mirror. “You look like a grown up lady.”

“I am a grown up lady.” She tried to sound unaffected, but her voice broke. “I just wanted to do something different.”

Almeda snickered. “Now you look like a schoolteacher.”

“I am a schoolteacher.”

Alice craned her neck to see the back of Olivia’s hair.

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