“My mama had the pox.”
Ears burning, Annabelle forced herself to focus on being compassionate rather than frustrated at a world that would let a little girl like Nugget know about the pox. Times like this, it was difficult to understand why her father chose this life. No matter how many people they helped, they continued to encounter more tragic situations every day.
“You poor thing.” Annabelle wrapped her arms around the girl, knowing that one hug wouldn’t make up for anything. But her heart ached for this child, and she couldn’t help but give what little she had to comfort the girl.
The back door banged open, and Nugget jerked away. Annabelle looked up to see their housekeeper returning from her errands.
“We have a visitor,” Annabelle said.
Maddie looked the little girl up and down, then gave Annabelle a knowing glance. She liked the invasion of her household even less, but the tenderness in her eyes reminded Annabelle that she wasn’t the only one with a soft spot for children.
“How about some tea to go with those cookies?” Annabelle gave Nugget a little pat, then busied herself with fixing the tea. She stole a glance at Nugget, who nibbled at a cookie.
Well, she wasn’t starving. The hungry ones wolfed down the whole plate at once, and Annabelle always felt compelled to send them away with sandwiches. But this little girl...
At least her father kept her fed. Maybe she shouldn’t have judged him when she’d first encountered them. She knew nothing of their story. Once upon a time, Annabelle would have wanted to hear that story and see what she could to do to help. But it seemed like too many of the stories Annabelle participated in only ended in heartache.
The only thing Annabelle could let herself help with was making sure this family didn’t go hungry. Still, there were hungers that went deeper than the need for food. Of those, Annabelle knew. She might not have ever gone to bed wondering where the next meal was coming from, but she always went to bed wanting. Someday, she would have a life outside of a hopeless ministry that only broke her heart more and more each day.
Surely her aunt Celeste would send for her soon. Then Annabelle could move back East, where people’s lives weren’t filled with empty dreams of riches. Maybe there, she could meet a man who wasn’t blinded by tales of the mother lode. The search for silver brought too much heartache to a body, and Annabelle was ready to leave this life behind.
The little girl tugged at Annabelle’s skirts, reminding her of the steaming kettle, and that as easy as it was to dream of a new life, there was still so much work to be done here.
Joseph Stone followed the preacher into the church, watching as Annabelle escorted his sister into the house. Though she hadn’t seemed very warm toward him, Annabelle had treated his sister with more kindness than the other ladies they’d encountered in town.
Most of the pretty girls he knew wouldn’t have taken the time to be nice to a young child, let alone someone as ill-kept as Nugget. Not that he had much experience with pretty girls. The only woman who’d paid him any notice, Margaret Anderson, had thrown him over for Walter Blankenship because, in her words, “Walter didn’t have any brats to care for.” Probably for the best. If Margaret hadn’t been able to stomach the idea of helping him care for the siblings he had back home, how could he have expected her to have anything to do with a child of Nugget’s background?
Not that he’d put Miss Annabelle Lassiter in the same category. Sure, they were both pretty, but Annabelle’s blue eyes were more like the sky on a cloudless day, unlike Margaret’s—
He had no business thinking about any girl’s eyes, especially not a preacher’s daughter’s. And especially not when he had a family to provide for and a father to find.
The preacher didn’t speak until they were seated at a desk in his office. Joseph respected that. The other miners had told him that Preacher Lassiter was a good man who treated all with respect.
“What can I do for you, son?”
Son. Not in a condescending way, but in a way that sounded like he actually cared. In a way that made him wish his own father was more...fatherly. And not a low-down snake who’d put him in this predicament.
Joseph swallowed the lump in his throat. “I need help. My father, William Earl Stone, came here several years ago in search of silver. I need to find him.”
His chest burned with the humiliation of what he’d encountered searching for his pa. “When I made inquiries about him, I was directed to Miss Betty’s.” Hopefully his face wasn’t too red at the mention of the place, especially in front of a man of the cloth. But Preacher Lassiter didn’t look like the mention of a house of ill repute bothered him.
“When I got there, they gave me Nugget. Said she was my pa’s, and to give her to him because her ma was dead.”
It still rankled to know his pa had reduced himself to visiting those women. At least his ma wasn’t around to witness his pa’s betrayal. Joseph swallowed the bile that rose up every time he thought about his poor ma, waiting for news of a man who had to have betrayed her the minute he arrived in town. Oh, he didn’t doubt that Nugget was his sister. She had the look of his sister Mary, waiting back at home for a pa not worthy of her regard.
Preacher Lassiter leaned forward on his desk. “What do you want me to do? Find a home for the little girl?”
“No!” The word burst out of his mouth. Much as he hated to admit it, Nugget was kin, and she was an innocent child who didn’t deserve the life she had.
Joseph leaned back against the chair. “I
