Enchant the Dawn Read Online Free PDF Page B

she should have.
     
    Sophia gave a smile, hoping to fight her acquired tendency to suspect the worst of everybody and everything. Once, Sophia would have been friendly to a woman like this. She would have tried to help as best she could. Six years in the city had taken their toll on Sophia’s humanity and perhaps it was high time she set out to reclaim it. “Well, I would sure like to thank the person responsible for the tasty cookies I keep finding in my room. Maybe invite them to get a cup of java sometime?”
     
    The woman giggled. It sounded like something she needed to do more often. “I don’t rightly know if that’s a good idea. Mr. Giuseppe is terrible choosey about his coffee!”
     
    Sophia smiled again. It was truly hard to believe that someone with that honest a laugh was out to do her wrong. “The cookies are from him then? But I bet you got them here.”
     
    The maid put her hand in her apron and pulled out a biscotti, handing it to Sophia. “I dunno what he calls ’em. They’re from his bakery. He thought Hester…well, let’s just say they was a gift but the girl don’t much like ’em.”
     
    Ah it was all coming together. It was a bit scary that a woman who looked so young would have a daughter old enough to be in school. Sophia broke the cookie clean in half and started to nibble the almondy goodness while handing the other half back to the housebreaking maid. “They ain’t something that kids would much like I suppose. Your daughter, she’s more a fan of the snickerdoodle I suppose?”
     
    The woman gulped and Sophia was again aware of the strong desire to flee. But the woman took her half of the cookie and plucked out a stray piece of almond, worrying it between her calloused fingers. “She’s a simple girl. Animal crackers are her favorite. With milk of course.”
     
    “I’ll be sure to remember that, in case I ever run into her in the park again. My name’s Sophia by the way.”
     
    The maid looked away for a moment, back at the tips of her worn practical shoes. Then she looked up again, meeting Sophia’s eyes. “I knew that already. Irene told me. I was the one who found your little purse that morning, with your little book and your key. So we could bring you home. I didn’t take nothing though.”
     
    “I didn’t think you had. You don’t seem the type.”
     
    The woman raised an eyebrow, as if to question Sophia’s sanity. This woman had stolen in the past, Sophia had no question. But Sophia doubted she would do so again unless her life or the health of her child was at stake. But with a smile, the maid dropped a wry little curtsey. “I’m called June. Pleased to meet you, Sophia.”
     
    What followed had been a brief but illuminating discussion as Sophia and June rushed the four blocks from her apartment on Eighty-Sixth and First to the Lexington Avenue line. June had a job not too far from that, in the swankier part of Yorkville, ritzy enough for a maid to find regular work but not so ritzy as to demand the maid stick around full time to be at the employer’s beck and call. No, June lived up in East Harlem, Italian Harlem, along with her little girl. Hester, who had stared at Sophia that fateful morning in Central Park with large curious eyes. Apparently, Nana, as everyone seemed to call Mary, lived not too far away. Mr. Giuseppe’s bakery was on One Hundred Sixteenth St. And Daron lived off Lexington and One Hundred Eighteenth, in the same building at June herself. Once the quiet girl got talking, she was a fount of information and Sophia cursed the fact that she had to descend into the subway when she still had so many questions. What did that man do to me? Why can’t I get him out of my mind? Are you sleeping with him too, if he lives so close? What sane woman wouldn’t?
     
    Instead, they parted with a smile and June’s promise to knock if she wanted to check on Sophia and Sophia’s insistence on owing both June and Giuseppe a cup of coffee. If nothing