In Search of a Memory (Truly Yours Digital Editions) Read Free Page A

from working at the soda fountain before Mr. Hanson needed to dismiss her, unable to continue paying her wages. To her knowledge, which tonight had proven sadly deficient, she’d never taken a train; according to the picture in the album, she had. The photograph showed she had actually lived on one.
     
    Too weary to walk even half a block more, she mulled over what to do. She couldn’t return to her aunt’s home and be forced to marry Benjamin Crane. Angel’s life would then be over….
     
    The shrill call of a train whistle captured her absorbed attention. Without really giving the linked cars conscious thought, she stared at the long line of them on the nearest track.
     
    “Mommy,” she heard a little boy ask the woman holding his hand. “Is Coventry very far? How long till we get there? Will we be there soon?”
     
    “Yes, Coventry is very far, Timmy, and we will get there when we get there. Hush now.”
     
    Angel watched mother and son move up the metal stairs of the car nearest her. A porter took their bulky case, helping the heavyset woman into the confined area. He looked toward Angel for a fearful heartbeat, and she wondered if he could read her mind. His eyes narrowed suspiciously. Her face went warm.
     
    Quickly she averted her gaze down the length of the platform, pretending to look for someone. After a moment she allowed her attention to return and noted with relief the trio had disappeared inside the train. Through a line of filthy windows, Angel watched their progress down the aisle.
     
    The train began to move. Each entrance glided past. Her heart began to race.
     
    Did she dare?
     
    An image of Nettie’s disapproving features filled Angel’s mind, but she was desperate. And besides, she didn’t have that far to go.
     
    Before the train trundled past, Angel threw her largest case up into one of the last entrances—grateful fate was at least kind enough that the case didn’t rebound and spill onto the platform. Running to catch up, she barely jumped aboard herself, using one hand to grab the rail.
     
    She made it!
     
    She took a deep, shaky breath. Once she regained her equilibrium and her satchel, she approached the railcar on her right, wishing to get as far as possible from the shrewd porter and find somewhere to hide.
     
    The door flew inward beneath her grip.
     
    She inhaled a startled gasp as both the experience and the abrupt motion of the train’s increasing speed made her stumble forward. A man’s strong hand grabbed her arm to steady her, and for the second time that day, she dazedly blinked up into the enigmatic eyes of the tall, dark stranger who’d visited her aunt’s home.
     

two
     
    Roland stared into a pair of bewitching eyes, as dark a blue gray as the Atlantic at dusk. It took him a moment to realize where he’d seen such eyes, and the jolt made him go stock-still.
     
    “You,” he said at the same moment her lips silently formed the word.
     
    A brown hat was smashed down over thick, shoulder-length hair the color of sable, curly wisps blew into her face, and the ruffled edge of a scarf wrapped around her neck covered much of her jawline. But he couldn’t mistake those rich, deep eyes.
     
    “Did you follow me?” he asked in puzzled amusement. He assumed she hoped for either the opportunity of a handout or the prospect of a good time.
     
    “F–follow you?” she spluttered. “Of course not! I wouldn’t dream of doing such a thing.”
     
    “No need to go berserk. It was only a question.”
     
    The dame’s icy courtesy and frosty smiles from that afternoon should have been enough to give him an account of her feelings for his company. She frowned, clearly unhappy to see him again. The cold air from the train in motion whipped through the opening between railcars. With his hand still closed around her arm, he pulled her inside and slammed the door shut behind them.
     
    His intention of securing a newspaper no longer important, Roland turned to his