Tender Is the Storm Read Online Free PDF

walk those streets. To think that this poor child, who couldn’t be more than fifteen, had probably grown up there and was trying desperately to escape.
    “You will give her another chance, Mrs. Etherton?” Sharisse said impulsively.
    The housekeeper’s face mottled. “But, Miss—”
    “Everyone deserves more than one chance,” Sharisse said adamantly. “Just see that you are more careful in the future.”
    “Oh, thank you, miss!”
    “Now, has anyone seen Charley?” asked Sharisse.
    “In the storeroom, miss,” the cook supplied.
    “The storeroom, of course,” Sharisse said.
    Sure enough, there he was lying on the cool tile next to a piece of pilfered chicken. Without another word to the servants, Sharisse left the kitchen with Charley. The long-haired tomcat was snuggled securely in his mistress’s arms.

Two
    Stephanie put down the letter she had just finished reading aloud. She looked defiantly at her closest friend, Trudi Baker. “So now you know that I wasn’t just making it up when I said I was getting married. Before the month is over, I will be Mrs. Lucas Holt.”
    They were ensconced in Stephanie’s bedroom, a feminine room with white draperies on the two windows, lavender wallpaper, and pink and white bed canopy and table covers. The settee where Trudi was sitting was rose pink brocade and nearly matched her afternoon dress.
    The two young girls were of a similar height and coloring, but Trudi’s eyes were green. She was six months older, a great difference in her opinion. She also had a more aggressive personality. Both girls acknowledged that she was the daring one, and that was why she was having such difficulty accepting all of this.
    If she hadn’t seen the coach and train ticketswith her own eyes, she would still have thought her best friend was pulling her leg.
    “Well?” Stephanie demanded.
    Trudi tried to address the matter she felt was most important. “He won’t be handsome, you know. He’s probably so ugly that no woman out there will have him. That’s why he had to advertise for a wife.”
    “Nonsense, Trudi. It could be just the other way around. He couldn’t find a girl pretty enough to suit him, is all.”
    “Wishful thinking, Steph! You sent him a picture of you, so why didn’t you ask for one of him?”
    Stephanie bit her lip. “I did,” she admitted. “But he didn’t send one or say anything about it.”
    “You see! He’s old and ugly and knew he would never have a chance with you if you saw what he looked like.”
    “He probably just doesn’t have a picture of himself.”
    “Steph, why don’t you just admit you didn’t really think this through?”
    Stephanie began to look even more obstinate, and Trudi rushed on, “Why him? There are a dozen men right here who would jump at the chance to marry you, men you know, men who aren’t strangers. Just because Lucas Holt sent the tickets and is expecting you doesn’t mean you have to go. Send the tickets back. What can he do?”
    Stephanie looked miserable. “You don’t understand, Trudi. The only man I want is going tomarry my sister. I have to do this. Sharisse’s wedding is next week. I don’t intend to be here to see it.”
    “So you’re running away.”
    Stephanie looked at the floor. “If you want to put it that way, yes, I’m running away.”
    Trudi’s brow creased. “Doesn’t it matter that you may be miserable the rest of your life?”
    “I have resigned myself,” Stephanie sighed.
    “Haven’t you done anything at all to change things? Have you talked to your father? Have you told your sister? Does anyone know besides me?”
    “No, no, and no. What difference would it make except to humiliate me? My father doesn’t take me seriously. He still thinks of me as a child. And I can’t bear for Sharisse to know. I won’t have her pitying me.”
    “She’s your sister, not your enemy. She loves you. She might help you.”
    “There’s nothing she can do.”
    “How do you know? You might