Orphan Maker Read Free Page A

road.
    The boy smiled at them. “It’ll be a spell. Why don’t you all settle down in the yard? We’ve got good well water and a bushel of apples to spare.”
    Gwen’s mouth watered.

Chapter Two
     
     
     
    Marissa Loomis finished hoeing the row she worked. She straightened to ease a kink in her lower back. Pulling a rag from her back pocket, she mopped her sweaty face. So far the spring looked promising. She hoped to bring in a bumper crop, and the weather had been cooperating nicely. She scanned the garden, over an acre in size, watching the rest of her family doing their level best to remove the weeds.
    Rick had shot up over the last winter. At fourteen, he now towered over her. He paused weeding to flirt with his girlfriend working the next row over. The only indication of Heather Elledge’s condition was the slight swell of her abdomen, barely visible at four months. Loomis figured she would have a miserable season with the summer heat. As much as she hoped the pregnancy wouldn’t take a turn for the worse, she knew chances were slim given Heather’s age. One thing Loomis had learned was that the younger the mother, the more dangerous the birth. Rick would be devastated should something happen to his budding family, but Loomis had spent a considerable amount of time preparing him for the inevitable. Lindsay Crossing had lost several girls and a handful of babes to childbirth over the last five years. It was a harsh fact of life with which they had all needed to come to terms.
    Their cousin, Cara Chapman, was the same age as Rick. She was the only one wearing a dress. No one else in the family was particularly interested in the feminine aspects of clothing, not even the children. She and Heather kept the home and hearth spotless, something of which Loomis was glad. If she’d had to do all the cooking and cleaning, she would have long ago run off to the city like some had done in the early days.
    Cara’s brother, ten-year-old Terry, tore through his row at the speed of his favorite comic book hero, Superman. His strawberry-blond hair hung in two long braids. It looked like they were wrapped with rabbit fur today, in imitation of an American Indian. Loomis shook her head with a grimace over his lack of care. They would be lucky if the weeds were all he took out. She would have to have another talk with him about his responsibilities. His desire to be an Indian Brave was becoming more trouble than the education it provided.
    Two little girls played within sight of those working, one with curly white-blond hair and the other sporting the unmistakable coloring of the Loomis homestead. From what Loomis could gather, they were grooming their dolls and stuffed animals. They had every one of them out on the redwood table, chattering back and forth as they swapped between them.
    A bell tolled in the distance.
    Loomis froze, listening. Her family did the same, all looking up from their tasks.
    The bell continued, ringing with a slow, steady pace.
    “Marissa?”
    She looked at her brother. “Better saddle the horses. It doesn’t sound like an emergency, but it’s still a call to come into town.”
    He nodded and handed Heather his hoe before trotting toward the barns.
    Loomis left the garden, stopping in the yard to strip off her work gloves.
    “Loomis! Loomis! Are you goin’ to town?”
    She swept up the youngest of the girls, a faint smile curving her lips. “Yes, I am, miss. Why do you ask?”
    “I want to go with you.” Wisps of auburn hair strayed from the child’s ponytail, and she swiped them back with an expression of faint irritation.
    Loomis pretended to think it over before shaking her head. “Nope. You need to stay here and keep Delia and Cara and Heather company.” The little girl pouted, hazel eyes mournful. “Oh, you know that doesn’t help, Megan. If that lip pooches out much further, a bird’s going to fly overhead and drop a turd on it.”
    The thought of such an unlikely event occurring