Sea of Christmas Miracles by Christine Dorsey Read Free Book Online Page A

said, handing them back. Then she turned
toward the door.
    “Wait a minute.” Thomas was there before her,
his hand flattened against the wood. He could smell her, and he
only had to step closer to feel her body against his. “You seem to
forget, Maggie, you kidnapped me, and now you’re my prisoner. You can’t just leave.”
    Margaret shut her eyes, trying to ignore his
nearness. “If it’s turning me in to the authorities that concerns
you, I promise to do that myself... day after tomorrow. And I’ll
return your sister’s gown then also.”
    “I don’t give a damn about Merry’s clothes.”
Thomas surrendered to his desires and moved forward, pressing her
between his body and the door. His fingers tangled with the wispy
curls that trailed down her neck. “Tell me why you have to go.”
    “It’s... it’s my children.”
    “Your children?” Surprise had him backing up
enough for her to turn and face him. She had children? It had never
occurred to him that she might have children... be married.
    She couldn’t think with him this close to
her. But she had to explain. Someone had to tell the children that
the orphanage and school was going to close, and she knew it was
her responsibility. Margaret took a deep breath, forcing from her
mind the masculine scent of him. “They aren’t really mine, except
that I take care of them and teach them.” She stepped out from his
loose embrace and Thomas let her go.
    “They’re at the Freed Negroes’ Orphanage and
Boarding School and I need to talk with them... explain things,
before I return to Charleston.”
    “What sort of things?” She was confusing him,
or maybe it was just that all he wanted to do was take her in his
arms and beg her to stay.
    “That I’ll have to close the school.”
Margaret could almost believe he had no idea what she was talking
about... despite the letters she sent him. “Because you’re
foreclosing,” she explained.
    “What? There must be some mistake. I don’t
own the Freed Negroes’ Orphanage and Boarding School. As a matter
of fact, I’ve never heard of it.”
    Margaret said nothing and Thomas closed the
space between them, taking her shoulders in his hands and turning
her to face him. “Wait a minute. Is this why you kidnapped me?”
    “I had thought to convince you that you
shouldn’t foreclose on the property.”
    “By kidnapping me?” Thomas sounded
incredulous.
    “Actually by showing you the children and the
school and making you understand...” Margaret shrugged from his
grasp. “But I ruined it.” She sobbed and quickly scrubbed at her
cheeks, wiping away the tears that had escaped her lashes. When she
faced him again her expression was composed, though her eyes were
serious. “I seem unable to handle such things as gentle
persuasion.”
    Thomas shook his head. “I still don’t
understand. The Freed Negroes’ School...?”
    “It’s on Morgan Creek.”
    “The old King property?”
    Margaret lifted her chin and nodded.
    He bought the note from the bank when the
owner fell behind on his payments. When Thomas decided to build a
textile mill, he determined that the King plantation would be the
perfect place. Several months ago he sent a notice to inform the
owners that he was calling the note due. They had to pay off the
loan, a considerable sum, or vacate. He would have felt sympathy
for the owner’s plight except... “The note I called in was held by
a carpetbagger.” He could still remember his parents talking about
the plague of Northerners who came south after the war. They bought
up every bit of land they could, preying on the misfortunes of the
defeated and cash-poor Southerners.
    Margaret stiffened her spine. “My uncle
bought the property after the war. Two years ago he died, leaving
the place to me. My parents... well, I love them dearly, but they
never understood why I believed in women’s suffrage. And because of
my views I’d been terminated from my teaching position in Boston.
So I came