Loving Bella by Renee Ryan

Author:Renee Ryan [Ryan, Renee]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Romance, Religious, Historical
ISBN: 9780373828364
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2010-05-11T05:00:00+00:00

Something had happened since Shane had last seen Miss O’Toole, something that put her on edge. She was pleasant enough, on the surface, but the difference was there. In her eyes. If he didn’t know better he’d say she had the look his mother always had right before his father made his weekly visit—an odd mixture of hope and dread, melancholy and joy.

With his own emotions still in a tangle from Sunday afternoon, Shane chose to ignore the change in Miss O’Toole. Jaw tight, he stepped aside in order to allow her to enter Charity House ahead of him.

As usual, they were met at the door by Laney Dupree, Marc’s wife and co-owner of the orphanage. Her arms were filled with a squirming miniature version of herself.

“Good morning, Laney.” Shane reached out and ruffled her young daughter’s hair. “Laurette. You’re both looking fine this morning.”

Laurette pulled her thumb out of her mouth and grinned. But Laney’s face scrunched into a frown. “Shane. Miss O’Toole, thank God you’ve finally arrived.”

She lowered her daughter to the ground. Laurette clutched Laney’s skirt with one hand and held a doll tight against her chest with the other. Sensing her mother’s tense mood, the child adopted an identical expression of worry on her face.

“What is it?” Miss O’Toole asked before Shane had a chance. “What’s happened?”

“I don’t know, precisely,” Laney admitted, her gaze darting between them. “Six of the children came to me yesterday with runny noses and complaining of headaches, nothing we haven’t seen before. I kept the lot of them home this morning and sent the rest on to school as usual. But in the last hour, two have grown worse.”

By the end of her explanation, Shane was already striding for the stairs. “Did you separate the children from the rest?”

“Last night. I put the boys in the tiger room. The girls are in the castle room.” She turned to Miss O’Toole, her eyes serious and worried, her hands wringing together in front of her. “We always try to keep the sick children separate from the rest. Illness can spread quickly.”

A thick blanket of tension fell between them, but Miss O’Toole patted Laney’s shoulder in a feminine gesture of solidarity. “Makes perfect sense to me.”

Shane continued forward, stopped.

“What about the babies?” he asked.

“Megan is with them. She’s kept them away from the others since yesterday.”

Shane was glad to hear it. And especially grateful they only had two babies in residence at the moment. If illness spread they would be hit the hardest.

Conflicting emotions tugged at him but he shoved them out of his mind. He needed to gather as much information as possible and he needed to do it with a clear head. “Tell me the precise symptoms of each.”

“All six have runny nose, coughing, sneezing and sore throats.” Laney’s tone never varied, her eyes never left his face, but Shane could feel her concern as though she were screaming at him. “Miles and Stacy have progressed to a loss of appetite.”

On the surface, the symptoms could mean anything.

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