Belonging by Robin Lee Hatcher Read Free Book Online

Papa.”
    “Sweet dreams.”
    She turned onto her side and closed her eyes. “You too.”
    Colin turned out the lamp on her bedside table and left the room with silent footsteps, knowing his daughter would be sound asleep before he finished descending the narrow staircase to the ground floor. He envied her ability to fall asleep so quickly. It seemed to him that he’d spent more time tossing and turning in his bed than sleeping in it. Especially in the years since Margaret died.
    In the parlor, he settled into his chair and picked up the envelope that held the letter from his mother-in-law. He turned it in his hand several times but didn’t remove the letter. He knew what it said.
    Olive Day was nothing if not consistent. He supposed hecouldn’t blame her for wanting him to return to Ohio. Her husband and only child were dead. It was natural that she would want to be close to her granddaughter. And maybe he was wrong for refusing to leave Frenchman’s Bluff. Maybe it would be better for Charity to be near her grandmother. Olive would dote on her, there was no doubting that.
    Still, there were more reasons to stay in Idaho than there were incentives to move back to Ohio. He’d tried to explain them to Olive when she visited Frenchman’s Bluff a few years back. Obviously he hadn’t explained well enough, for her letters were always the same.
    He returned the envelope to the table next to his chair, then rose and walked to the kitchen, where he ran water from the pump into a glass. Taking the glass with him, he went out on the stoop and sat on the top step. It was cooler outside than it was indoors. Although the days were still hot, he was grateful for the falling temperatures at night. A hint of fall was in the air, although it would be several more weeks before it arrived in earnest.
    The screen door outside of the cottage’s kitchen opened and closed—it had a distinctive squeak—and a moment later, he saw the shadowy form of Miss Kristoffersen following the path toward the outhouse. He considered calling out to her, but better judgment prevailed. It was easy to imagine the blush that would rise in her cheeks were he to stop her on the way to the privy.
    How long would she remain the schoolteacher in Frenchman’s Bluff? Miss Lucas had stayed only six months before she married that merchant from the capital. At least Miss Andrews, the teacher before Miss Lucas, had been with them for a year and a bit before she nabbed herself a husband and was required to resign from the position.
    Not that Colin had anything against marriage. His own hadhad its rough spots, to be sure, especially in the early years, when Margaret’s heart had looked back instead of forward. Still, he and his wife had found contentment with each other, and their union had given them Charity.
    Thoughts of his daughter brought a smile to his lips.
    From the moment she was born, Charity Estelle Murphy had wrapped her papa’s heart around her little finger. He’d loved her with a fierceness that took his breath away, as it did now. And with everything within him, he wanted the best for her—including a good education. If she’d had a better teacher at the start, maybe she wouldn’t struggle so today. The same way he’d struggled.
    The privy door closed—that too had a distinctive sound, even when closed carefully—and moments later, he watched as Felicia made her way back along the path to the cottage.
    Maybe she would prove him wrong. She might turn out to be a good teacher. She might stay more than a few months or a year. He could hope so anyway.

    Felicia carried the lamp from the parlor into her bedroom. After setting it on the chest of drawers, she freed the buttons of her shirtwaist. But when she began to remove her skirt, she heard the whisper of paper from within the right pocket. Gunnar’s letter. She stepped free of the skirt, leaving it in a black puddle on the floor, and sat on the side of the bed.
    A little more than six months