Twice Blessed by Jo Ann Ferguson Read Free Book Online Page A

shut, please.”
    He rushed to obey, and she sighed. Sean was a great deal of help. If she could convince him to stop sneaking food from the store, it would be a sign he was beginning to trust her. He was polite and helpful and watched every motion she made as if he were seeking a way to flee at the first opportunity. She hoped she was wrong, but he resisted every overture she offered to help him feel at home in Haven.
    It has only been a few days .
    She needed to remember that, for it felt as if it had been a year since she agreed to take him to help at the store and welcomed him into her house. Maybe because she had not been able to relax a moment since Reverend Faulkner had made his suggestion about placing out Sean with her.
    Emma walked along the street with the boy. There were no walkways in Haven. Folks here were used to dust on their shoes, because most of her customers came from the farms surrounding the small village. Even the people who lived in town, as she did, liked soft earth under their feet. Otherwise, they could go and live in Chicago or New York.
    The aroma of mud from the river filled every breath. Lights glowed from lamps in the windows they passed, and shouts resounded along the street, then cheers. The village’s children savored the brief hours they had when schoolwork and chores were completed. Games of hide and seek lasted until darkness and bedtime called for an end.
    She looked at Sean, about to ask if he wanted to join the other children. He was staring at his feet instead of watching the games on the green. Raising her arm to put it around his shoulders, she stiffened when he cowered away.
    â€œI won’t hurt you,” she said.
    He hunched his shoulders and kept on walking.
    With a sigh, she followed him around the corner to the cozy house on the other side of the barn behind the store. The red paint glowed dully in the fading light. Waving to Alice, who lived across the street, she climbed the five steps to the porch.
    Emma opened the front door and smiled when she heard Cleo’s soft purr. Bending, she picked up the calico cat. Another cat was asleep in the biggest window behind the sofa. By the potbellied stove, a nondescript shaggy dog wagged its tail before coming to its feet and stretching.
    â€œI see you all missed us.” She laughed as she put Cleo on the sofa. Patting Butch on the head, she asked, “Have you been sleeping the whole day?”
    The dog’s tail wagged faster.
    â€œYou have a horrible life, don’t you?” Going out into the cramped kitchen, she swung open the screen door. “Out with you, Butch.”
    Emma could not help laughing again as the dog ran out the door with Cleo in pursuit. The two, which she had raised from abandoned waifs, had no idea they were supposed to be enemies. She was not sure if Cleo thought she was a dog or if Butch believed he was a cat. Either way, they treated each other like littermates. Queenie, who seldom deigned to leave her sunny spot on the windowsill, ignored both of them.
    â€œWhy don’t you wash up before supper, Sean?” she asked.
    He did not reply, but she heard the door open and close again.
    Taking off her bonnet, she went back into the parlor. She sat beside Queenie and rested her elbow on the back of the sofa. She stroked the black cat as she gazed out the window at the barn.
    She never had thought sanctuary would be so serene … and so boring.
    They were coming. She could hear their voices — shouting, angry, lusting for vengeance. The familiar voices with such an unfamiliar fury .
    She whirled. Escape. She must escape, or they would make her pay for the crime that was not hers. She had to leave .
    Now … before it was too late .
    The shooting at the bank was over, but the questions would now begin. And she had no answers. At least, none anyone would believe .
    How could she have been so stupid? That question had been on everyone’s lips as soon as last week’s