Having Prudence Read Free Page B

remember about her, but she loved you girls more than anything in this world.”
    Pru smiled. She and Destiny had been so little when their mom had died, when all hell had broken loose. There weren’t a lot of memories that either of them had that hadn’t been shared with them by their older sisters. In fact there was only one thing that Pru remembered. “She always smelled so wonderful,” Prudence sighed. “Like baked cookies still fresh and warm from the oven.”
    Paula laughed and it gave Pru a discreet moment to try and wipe her tears away. “Yes, she did. Your mom was always baking something for someone. The woman could have opened her own bakery and made a fortune. But she wanted to stay home with her girls and your dad would have let her do anything.”
    “Really?” Pru asked. She didn’t remember much of her dad back then either.
    Paula sobered up and looked closely at Pru. “Your dad was a different man back then as well. He loved your mother more than anything or anyone else in this world. She was his sun, his moon, his very air. And when she died, they may as well have buried your daddy that day too. It took him a long time to come back to himself, to realise that he still had children alive that needed him.”
    “Would have been nice had he remembered that from the beginning,” Pru mumbled.
    Paula smiled and nodded but her words got the point across to Pru. “It is easy to judge what you can’t understand. Your mother was your daddy’s life. They loved you girls and each other. Everyone would smile and feel happiness just to be near them. Then your mother died. And your daddy fell apart. It would be as if my John left one day and never walked back in the door.” Paula smiled sadly at Pru before adding her next comment. “Or your Johnny. When love truly comes into your life there is no his and mine. There is only ours. You are as one person. And if something happens to one of you it is as if it happens to both of you. Your dad died that day as surely as your mother did. Unfortunately there are people in this world that will take advantage of those lost souls. And your daddy found himself in a world of hurt when he finally woke up.”
    “My daddy found himself in a mess of his own making,” Pru said with anger. “Only it is my sisters and I that are set to pay for it.”
    Paula just continued knitting. “And how do you think your sisters made such an easy escape? How do you think you and Johnny were left undiscovered for so long?”
    Prudence jerked her gaze back to Paula’s unsure of where this conversation was going. “What are you talking about, Mrs. Wharfton? What are you saying?”
    “I’m saying that there comes a time when you need to open your eyes and look without anger,” Paula said softly with no judgement evident in her tone. “Sometimes things are not what they seem. Sometimes people are more than you can imagine.”
    “Are you saying that my dad has been helping us all along?” Pru couldn’t seem to wrap her mind around that possibility. Had Dad helped Faith? Hope? Charity? Had he known about her relationship with Johnny this whole time?
    “Just open your eyes and think on things for a while,” Paula told her as she put her knitting aside and stood up. “I’m going to sneak up and find something for us to eat. And I’ll see if I can at least find you a shirt of Johnny’s to wear.” She shook her head as she moved over towards a wall lined with canning jars. “Can’t believe that boy even took your underwear.”
    Pru blushed scarlet and was glad for the dim light of the room.
    “I’ll be right back,” Paula promised and then touching something on the shelf a door swung open revealing a dim hall. Paula was through the door and gone before Pru had a chance to get more than a glance. Someday she would love to explore this room and know exactly where in the house it was. But for now she had too many other things on her mind. Had her dad been helping them all