“I’m glad to have given her something to be happy about.” She smiled. Joseph wasn’t too bad. Cleaned up the way he was, it was almost easy to pretend he was just a normal man.
Annabelle stumbled slightly. Joseph wasn’t a normal man. And it wouldn’t do for her to entertain feelings when she knew she couldn’t count on a miner to stick around. Not that she had any intention of entertaining feelings about any man.
At least not here in Leadville. The town was full of shiftless drifters, and the one time she’d let her guard down to trust in someone, he’d betrayed her. Something she’d do well to remember in the presence of this man.
Especially the way Joseph’s sparkling smile made her tingle all the way down to her toes. Despite the chilly breeze coming off the mountains, she suddenly felt warm. The lace at the top of her collar itched.
Annabelle quickened her pace. The faster she got home, the faster she could take off her gloves and adjust her collar. Surely the sudden warmth was due more to the clouds moving off the sun than the fact that Joseph had moved closer to her.
“Joseph! Annabelle! Watch!” Nugget spun around and around in a circle, nearly running into a group of ladies.
Joseph dashed forward to catch her before she fell. “Whoa, there, Nugget. This street’s too crowded for your antics.”
She fell into his arms, giggling. “I was being a dancer like Mama’s friends.”
Though Annabelle was briefly scandalized by the reference to Nugget’s mama’s friends, the thought stopped in her brain as she watched Joseph swing Nugget. He tickled her, then placed the still-giggling girl on his shoulders.
There weren’t many men in Annabelle’s acquaintance—well, there weren’t any, actually—who would be so loving toward a little girl. Especially one with Nugget’s background. Joseph’s gentility reminded her a lot of her father.
Something to keep in mind. Both men were impossible dreamers. Her father because he believed that his work with the miners would somehow make a difference. Joseph because as a miner, he was after the impossible dream of striking it rich. The difference was, Joseph’s dream would take him away as soon as he realized chasing after silver was a worthless dream.
No, entertaining thoughts of Joseph was out of the question. Just because he exhibited fine qualities of character didn’t mean he was of good character. Henry had taught her that.
They approached the Tabor Opera House. Its elegance stood out among the dust of Harrison Avenue, reminding Annabelle that profit could come out of the mountains. Maybe some, like the Tabors and a few other fortunate people, made a big strike. But too many ended up on her porch, dead broke, hungry, and willing to risk it all for another chance that never came.
In the end, no matter how many of the dazzling grins he gave Annabelle, Joseph was one of them. A miner whose dreams were bigger than his common sense. Otherwise, he’d never have ended up on her doorstep with a little girl who deserved a better life.
“Annabelle!” Lucy Simms, one of the girls she’d gone to school with, waved her over. “I have news.”
“I can spare only a moment,” Annabelle told her. “I need to get home.”
The other girl’s conspiratorial grin did not bode well for a quick conversation. “Papa has given permission for me to take a trip East so I can see the world before I settle down. He’s going to ask your father if you can accompany us. I heard him tell Mama that your father has been looking for a proper escort to take you to visit your aunt.”
Annabelle’s heart leaped at the thought of her father looking for someone to escort her to finally visit Aunt Celeste. Her father hadn’t been ignoring her. Why hadn’t he said anything?
“Annabelle, watch this!” Nugget’s voice stopped her from questioning the situation further as she watched the little girl spin, nearly falling into the street as she did so.
Fortunately, Joseph was there to grab her, then knelt before Nugget, probably to give her a more stern warning about being careful.
“That sounds lovely,” Annabelle told Lucy. “I would love to hear more about it, but—”
Nugget had broken free of her brother and was hurtling toward her. “Annabelle!”
“Another one of your father’s projects?” Lucy’s disdainful look at Nugget was hard to miss.
Annabelle’s back stiffened. Coming from Lucy, the thoughts that had consumed Annabelle sounded completely selfish. Was it so wrong to want to leave the ministry for a life of her own?
But as Nugget raced into her arms, tears streaming down her cheeks, Annabelle couldn’t bring herself to think of Nugget as a mere project.
“Nothing like that.” Annabelle gathered Nugget close. “They’re friends. I’m sorry, Lucy, but I really must go.”
The look Lucy gave her told her that she didn’t believe Annabelle one bit.
What should have been victory at knowing her father had finally relented in letting her visit her aunt now felt like failure.
Which was fine. Annabelle wasn’t sure what to believe herself. She took Nugget by the hand and started toward home.
“She’s got to learn to be careful near the street.” Joseph caught up to them, apparently thinking she’d taken Nugget’s side.
“I know,” she told him, continuing forward. “We’ve been gone too long. Maddie will be concerned.”
Lucy stepped in with them. “I thought your father was expecting you.”
“Yes, yes, he is.” Annabelle didn’t break stride. “I need to do some work for him, but Maddie is expecting me. I have to be home for them both.”
Her words seemed like falsehoods even to her. But she couldn’t stay and play mediator, not with her warring heart, or Lucy, or between Joseph and Nugget.
Spots danced in front of Annabelle’s eyes. The sun. It was too bright. The air. Too warm.
Somehow, though, the ground didn’t seem all that hard when she woke. She hadn’t realized she’d fallen—
“Annabelle? Are you all right?” Joseph’s voice jarred her.
She nodded slowly and started to
