Annie (The Brides of San Francisco #2) by Cynthia Woolf

Author:Cynthia Woolf [Woolf, Cynthia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cynthia Woolf
Published: 2015-01-24T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 9

Annie stopped outside the library and took a deep breath, then turned the knob.

“You kept us waiting, Daughter. And why are you not still in mourning?”

Her tall, slender father stood at one end of the fireplace, a short, plump woman next to him. Nick leaned against the sidebar across the room from her father. His arms were crossed and Annie knew that had to hurt. He managed to dress in his pants, shoes and a shirt that was open at the neck. She knew a tie was beyond him right now.

“I have my reasons for not wearing black, Father.”

He ignored her response.

“Daughter,” her father boomed in that voice of his. “Before we begin to speak of your behavior, I want you to meet someone. This is Doris. Doris Markum, your new stepmother.”

“Stepmother?” After all these years?

“Yes, Annabelle Leona,” said her father using her full name.

He never did that unless he was angry at her. Was it her fault he’d never married before?

“Your stepmother. We’re on our honeymoon trip and thought we’d stop in San Francisco and surprise you, not the other way around.”

Evie was starting to fuss. She wanted down so she could go to Nick. Annie ignored her.

“Mama” said Evie and kicked her legs. She leaned over Annie’s arm.

“Evie? Did you just say Mama? Yes, you did. You are a good girl,” exclaimed Annie. She turned to Nick. “Did you hear? She said ‘Mama’.”

He grinned. “I heard. She’s a smart girl.”

“Daughter, your attention, please,” said her father, obviously not impressed with Evie’s first words.

“Yes, Father. You’re on your honeymoon trip?” Annie, stared at the heavily made-up woman next to her father. “How could you afford a trip of any kind much less for a honeymoon?”

“That would be my doing, dear,” said Doris. Her nasally voice grated on Annie’s already frayed nerves. “I came into some money when I sold my circus, and Hyrum and I are using some of that to sail around the world.”

Annie finally put down Evie so she wouldn’t drop her.

“Circus!? You owned a circus?”

“Now, Annie,” began her father with a hand held upright. “Don’t make judgments.”

Annie was furious. A circus was not any different in her father’s eyes than a saloon or at least, that’s what he’d taught her all these years.

Evie immediately crawled to Nick. “Dada” she said as she pulled herself up on his pant leg.

“Hello, Sweet Pea.” He bent down and picked her up with his right arm. His left arm in a sling.

Annie noticed the grimace he made when he picked up Evie and almost went to him.

“You’ve taught me…” Annie took a breath. “All these years you’ve taught me that only evil resided in saloons and circuses and the like. Now you’ve married the owner of one. And you tell me not to make judgments when that’s exactly what you’ve done based on what you thought you saw. You didn’t ask me what happened or what I was doing. You made a snap judgment.”

“Stop this right now, Daughter,” her father roared.

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