Love's Fortune by Laura Frantz

Author:Laura Frantz [Frantz, Laura]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: FIC042030, FIC027050, FIC042040, Families—Pennsylvania—Fiction, Christian fiction, Domestic fiction
ISBN: 9781441246400
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2014-08-03T16:00:00+00:00

20

If with love thy heart has burned;

If thy love is unreturned;

Hide thy grief within thy breast,

Though it tear thee unexpressed.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

Izannah couldn’t stop crying. Opposite her in the hall stood James, hat in hand, having just come from Pittsburgh. Chloe was clutched to her bodice, and Izannah’s tears were spotting the babe’s lacy cap and gown. Only a few months old, her tiny sister was too young to be much moved by the events unfolding around them. She’d never know the man who had struggled to forge a legacy and lived his life so well, never recall the warmth of his smile or the godly wisdom he’d imparted.

“Here, let me take her.” Discarding his hat on a settee, James reached for Chloe.

She went willingly, her plump arms open wide. Izannah didn’t miss her little sigh of pleasure or the adoring way she looked up at him. When he bent his head and brushed his shadowed cheek to Chloe’s in a rare show of tenderness, Izannah shut her eyes tight.

Oh, James. You need a home. A baby to call your own.

Chloe chortled, lifting the sadness, and James almost smiled. Biting her lip, Izannah dug for her handkerchief, its lavender scent soothing. When she looked up again, her gaze filled with Uncle Wade. Dismay gained a solid foothold. Nearly as tall as Daddy but more intimidating, he walked down the gaslit hall toward them, an easy indifference in his step, Bennett just behind.

Thick as thieves, the two of them. Wade’s weakness for gambling and racehorses and other nefarious pursuits had ensnared Bennett since he’d come of age. As usual, Wade’s clothing was flamboyant, but Bennett had dressed the part, his deep mourning for Charlotte sufficing for Grandfather too.

No greetings were exchanged. Wade shunned James as much as he favored Bennett. Though it was no secret James and Bennett had never found common ground, Izannah wished for a few cordial words, at least, as they all stood there together and waited for the worst.

Finally James’s voice cut into the silence. “The doctors are with Silas now.”

Bennett slid past Wade, taking first place by the closed bedchamber door. “Father was so stricken when he heard the latest news, Mother had to summon the doctor to Ballantyne Hall to attend to him.”

Izannah nearly groaned aloud. Uncle Peyton might not outlive Grandfather by much, weakened by the last typhoid epidemic as he’d been. But she was most concerned about Grandmother. So fragile. So devoted. Grandfather had been the center of her world since their humble beginnings in York County all those years before.

Chloe gave a little cry, drawing Wade’s eye. He frowned and lit a cigar by the wall sconce, replacing the glass globe a bit clumsily. Smoke filled the space between them, obscuring Izannah’s view as more footsteps sounded down the hall. Elspeth and her aging maid appeared on the landing, winded from the slow climb upstairs. Izannah braced herself for whatever her great-aunt had to say, the storminess of Elspeth’s expression giving a warning.

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.