Chasing the Sun Read Online Free PDF Page B

“Have you no welcome for me, querido ?”
    Brady went slowly down the steps toward her. “Am I allowed to hug a nun?”
    “You are always allowed to hug me, mi hermano. ”
    Brady felt an odd stinging behind his eyes as they embraced. He shared so much past with this delicate, damaged woman. So much pain. And now this new twist in the history that bound them together. Wondering if there was more sadness ahead, he stared over her head at the distant ice-capped peaks of the mountains. Despite the clear skies, he sensed a storm brewing.
    When he released her and stepped back, he could see fresh tears in Elena’s dark almond-shaped eyes.
    “Is he alive?” he asked, dreading the answer.
    “I pray so. But I have not seen or spoken to him in almost three years.” Blinking hard, she put on a brave smile. “Come.” Taking Jessica’s arm on her right and Brady’s on her left, she gently steered them up the stairs. “First you will introduce me to these beautiful children and that lovely woman standing with Hank. Then you will tell me all about the rancho and how you came to build such a fine sturdy home. And later, when the house is quiet and the children are in bed, we will speak of your brother and what happened in San Francisco.”

    San Francisco

    AFTER LEAVING THE THEATER, DAISY WALKED AIMLESSLY until afternoon, trying to calm her turbulent thoughts. She had no family to leave Kate with, even if she could bring herself to do such a thing. Her closest acquaintance was a harlot who lived in a brothel. She had no money to hire anyone, nor would the small salary she would earn while training be enough to cover the extra expenses of bringing Kate along, much less a nanny.
    Either stay behind with her or come with us.
    Pain pressed against her heart. To be so close. To have the dream almost within her grasp only to have it snatched away. It was too much.
    Fighting back tears of bitter disappointment, she walked woodenly toward the boardinghouse. She would have to find another position. Maybe go back to the Silver Spur and beg for her old job back. The thought made her stomach cramp. She would also have to find another place to live, another person to watch over Kate while she worked.
    Come with us and be a star.
    The unfairness tore at her, left her trembling with resentment and despair.
    If only she hadn’t fallen in love.
    If only she hadn’t allowed him to talk her into his bed.
    If only she had known she was pregnant before she had let him sail away.
    If only ... if only ... if only .
    But then there would be no Kate. It was late by the time she turned onto her street. As she neared the bordello, Lucy came down the steps of the brothel, dressed for errands, rather than work. When she saw Daisy, she stopped and waited for Daisy to reach her. “How was the audition?”
    “It’s not going to work out.” As they fell into step together, Daisy told her about Madame Scarlatti and the offer to join her traveling theater company. “But they won’t pay for Kate and I won’t earn enough to meet her costs and those of a nanny. And since I have no family to take her in and I won’t leave her with strangers, I won’t be able to go with them to Rome.” Daisy blinked back tears. “And now I don’t even have a job at the Spur, either. Lord, what a mess.”
    “Stump says she can stay at the house. But only if you stay, too. He is running a business, after all.”
    Raise Kate in a brothel? Never. Besides, Daisy didn’t have it in her to be a whore. It was one thing to give yourself to a man you loved, and quite another to lie with a stranger. “I’ll think on it,” she hedged, hoping to God it would never come to that. Forcing a change in subject, she asked, “Where are you headed?”
    “Apothecary. Hazel’s got the itch.”
    But Daisy hardly heard her. They had neared the boardinghouse, and she could hear cries coming through the open upstairs window of the room she shared with Kate. “That doesn’t sound