A Family for the Holidays Read Online Free PDF

boardinghouse. Though the transient nature of the business had prevented forming close relationships, delivering countless stacks of linens up and down endless flights of stairs had finally proved beneficial.
    â€œDon’t just stand there loitering,” Regina called from the dining room. “My curiosity about your new role as a schoolmarm must be sated. Not to mention I’m famished.”
    â€œI don’t like her.” Peter’s eyes took on a mutinous gleam. “I don’t like her at all.”
    Though Lily was inclined to agree, she held her tongue. “Regina can be a touch abrasive.”
    â€œIf we’re gonna live here,” Sam said, “we’re stuck with her.”
    â€œThis has been a trying day for all of us.” Lily stifled a grin at Peter’s grim expression. “We’ll all feel better after we eat.”
    The hotel restaurant was crowded with heavy furniture and shadowed with thick burgundy velvet curtains blocking the windows. Over half of the chairs were occupied. The majority of the patrons were men, their heads bent together in conversation, their voices low. An enormous stone fireplace dominated the far end of the room with a crackling blaze. The establishment struck Lily as something of a lair. A den of iniquity where deals were struck—deals that began in infamy and ended in blood.
    An unconscious shudder rippled through her. She was worse than Peter with her wild, ghoulish imaginings.
    Following Regina, the three wove their way between the packed tables toward a secluded enclave.
    The siblings discovered a checkers set and Lily excused them to play. Distracted by the game, the two were perched on wingback chairs covered in hunter green crushed-velvet fabric set before the fire.
    â€œYou’d best be careful around here.” Regina patted her hand. “That Jake is bad news. He has the whole town quaking. Even Vic avoids him when he can.”
    â€œHe didn’t seem so bad.” There’d been a grim, almost grudging sort of compassion to his warning. Not to mention Lily was starting to feel peevish toward Regina and her increasingly transparent insults. “Surely you exaggerate.”
    â€œWait a second, it’s all coming back!” Regina clapped her hands. “You’re orphan Lily. You’re the one who stayed on with Mrs. Hollingsworth after your father died. No wonder you’re chaperoning those boys. You were something of a legend amongst the boarders. Anything must be better than working as an indentured servant in that gloomy old boardinghouse with Mrs. Grouch.”
    The shock froze Lily so completely that the sense of chill was almost physical. Never for a moment had it occurred to her that she was the subject of rumors. Having her personal tragedy reduced to backstairs gossip stung more than she cared to admit. She wasn’t some tragic figure to be pitied—a curiosity amongst the boarders.
    Biting the inside of her lip, she gathered herself, forcing her attention back to the current problem. There were far more serious issues at stake than the discovery of her humiliating, heretofore unknown, reputation. Despite the warmth of the room, she wrapped her arms around her body and rubbed her upper shoulders.
    â€œI haven’t quit.” Lily glanced at the two siblings. Speaking about them in the same breath as dollars and cents felt like a betrayal. “The children were recently orphaned. I’m chaperoning them until their grandfather arrives.”
    â€œAll the way from St. Joseph? The train tickets alone must have cost a fortune. How well are you being paid?”
    â€œWell enough, I suppose. A judge arranged everything.”
    â€œJudges dump strays into orphanages. They don’t search for long-lost relatives. Mommy and Daddy must have left behind quite a lot of money to pay all those bills.”
    â€œThey are not strays!” The crude language shocked Lily into silence for