Love Inspired January 2014 #1 by Debra Clopton & Arlene James & Betsy St. Amant

Author:Debra Clopton & Arlene James & Betsy St. Amant [Clopton, Debra & James, Arlene & Amant, Betsy St.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B00GDW7UKM
Goodreads: 19153404
Publisher: Love Inspired
Published: 2013-12-02T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Over the next few days, as June wound to its inevitable close, Carissa did everything she could to avoid Phillip. She stayed in her suite as much as possible and kept the children with her, coaching them to answer the door and say that Mom was too busy to speak with anyone who stopped by. It helped that the boys were happy to play in their new bedroom, now that they had more space, and that a case of the sniffles kept Grace confined for a bit. They took all of their meals in their suite, too, but one thing she could not avoid was laundry.

It seemed that she and the children had a load of laundry to do every other day, but at least she didn’t have to drive down to the coin laundry and dump her hard-earned cash into a bank of machines. Instead, she carried each load to the dumbwaiter and sent it down to the butler’s pantry off the kitchen. Then she would tote it the short distance to the laundry room behind the pantry. After sending the loaded laundry basket down in the dumbwaiter as usual, Carissa tiptoed along the landing then craned her neck to look over into the stairwell. She saw that it was empty, so she moved quickly down the stairs that led to the foyer. A quick glance around the curve showed her that the way was clear.

Reaching the bottom of the stairs, Carissa ran light-footedly into the butler’s pantry. No sooner did she open the door to the dumbwaiter than Hilda stuck her head into the room from the kitchen.

“There you are! The Misses want to see you in the parlor.”

Carissa started and gulped. “The Misses? Oh, you mean the Chatam sisters. What do they want with me?”

Hilda nodded. “They want you to join them for tea. Go on now. I just took in the tray.”

Carissa gestured at the basket of laundry. “But I need to—”

Hilda waved a hand dismissively. “Oh, I’ll put that in the washer. You can shift it later. Meanwhile, Chester will go up and sit with the children.”

Carissa couldn’t very well argue. Her hostesses had asked very little in return for their hospitality. Still, she sensed that this was something more than a friendly tea party.

“Cold water is fine,” she muttered, tucking wisps of hair behind her ears. She smoothed the wrinkles from her faded purple T-shirt and wished the hems of her jeans were not so frayed as she sauntered back down the hallway in her worn canvas slip-ons.

Odelia and Kent met her just inside the parlor. Garbed in another outrageous costume, Odelia flitted and fluttered like the origami hummingbirds hanging by delicate springs from her earlobes, the iridescent fabric of her ensemble seeming to have a life of its own. Kent, meanwhile, resembled a plump barber pole encased in a white suit. Carissa couldn’t help smiling. Her smile died, however, when she saw that Phillip was also in attendance.

He stood with

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.