Bitter Eden by Sharon Anne Salvato Read Free Book Online Page B

It's about all you can thank him for, I'll wager."
    Mrs. Pettibone put her head in her hands. What was she to do with this youngster? Ian Dawson had been one of her favorite tenants. They had shared talk, an occasional pint of ale, and sometimes her bed. They hadn't agreed on everything, and she'd hate to count the number of times she had warned him to introduce Callie to some of the harsher realities of life before it was too late. He had been sure he could protect Callie, and Mrs. Pettibone had been sure he could not.

    Now it was too late, and Ian was no longer here to do anything.
    He had had his way, and kept his daughter innocent of the seamier inclinations of the laborers he had spent his life trying to defend. He did not pass on to her the means of protecting herself from them, for Ian never had any intention of letting Callie lead the kind of life he had led. As though Callie were part of a play, standing on a stage at a distance from the sweating audience, Ian had kept his plans for her separate from his work. Callie was raised to be trusting, to be gentle and ladylike, so that in the proper time Ian would see her married and loved by the right kind of man. That man would bear no resemblance to the laborers who frequented Ian's small study in search of help. But despite her father s good intentions, Callie was now left alone to fend for herself in a world of which she knew little.
    Now she went to Mrs. Pettibone, trying to soothe the landlady. "I didn't know I shouldn't let them in," she said. Tm sorry I've upset you."
    "You haven't the sense of a chicken," Mrs. Pettibone muttered.
    "Please don't scold. I'm sorry, but they knew Papa. They liked him, Mrs. Pettibone. I can tell that they liked him. He will truly be missed by them."
    Mrs. Pettibone sighed. She leaned back in her chair, patting Callie's soft young hand. "Lord, yes, child. He'll be missed, by none so much as you. He was a grand man in his way, but he didn't do well by you. Those people will eat you alive. You've not a thing left in your larder." She got up, took Callie's hand, and walked through the flat, looking into the cupboards and cabinets. Callie was stunned.
    "What do you think you are going to eat?" Mrs. Pettibone said angrily. "This is not a dole house, and no

    matter what your papa professed, he didn't run it like one.
    "But I didn't see . . .*
    "Nor would youl You ve entertained the lightest-fingered bunch of thieves and cutthroats this house has ever seen. Why do you think your papa never let them into this part of the flat?" she snapped, then looked at Callie and felt an uncustomary softening as the girl touched the spot where a small bronze horse had stood before the mourners had cleared it away.
    "Why would they do that? They said they wanted to be near the place where Papa lived," Callie said sadly.
    "In their way, Callie. In their own way they mourn him, but you . . ." She paused. "Ian was a canny man. He knew their ways, and they respected his knowledge, but you . . . they'll only rob you. You can't do your father's business, Callie. Keep your door closed to all but the few you know well enough to trust."
    Callie promised to be careful, and she did turn many away. Three days later a woman came to the door.
    "He was so kind to me in my need," she said, "the least I can do is see to his daughter."
    Callie did not know her.
    "Won't you open the door to me, child? Not that I'd blame you. The way things are, it's not an easy matter to tell who can be trusted. I'll not be offended if you'd rather keep me standing out here in the cold hall."
    "Oh ... do come in, Mrs. . . . ?"
    "Peach. The name is Peach. Surely you've heard your dear papa mention me." Her head was angled to one side as she watched Callie search her memory.
    "I don't think so," Callie said hesitantly. "But I am forgetting my manners again. Wont you sit down, Mrs.

    Peach? I was just about to have tea." Callie hurried to the pantry, wondering what she could put on the tray to