The Promise of Morning Read Online Free PDF Page A

into pearls of light.
    “They told me my mother and father were in heaven. If this is true, my father gave me away—like a puppy —so he’d be free to go adventuring.” Ellie’s voice broke.
    He rocked her back and forth. “I know. I don’t understand any of it.”
    “They lied to me. They’ve lied to me all my life.” Ellie slid off his lap and marched across the room to the clothespress. She flung the doors open and dug around inside. “Where’d I put my boots?”
    “What d’you want with your boots at this hour?”
    “I’m going to Aunt Ruby’s right now and make her tell me the truth.”
    “Wait until morning. We’ll both go.”

    When Matthew woke at daybreak, Ellie wasn’t in bed next to him. He pushed himself up on one elbow to check the crib. No Julia. His breath caught in his throat. He jumped out of bed, grabbed his pants, and slipped them over his long underwear. After shoving his sockless feet into boots, he hurried out of the room, laces dragging the floor behind him. As he clattered down the stairs, his nose caught a whiff of boiling coffee.
    His heart slowed its frantic beats.“You’re still here.”
    Ellie turned. “Of course. Why aren’t you dressed? I want to leave right after breakfast.”
    Julia toddled about the room, touching the walls to keep her balance. Matthew scooped her off the floor and cuddled her against his chest. Her chubby hands tugged at his beard.
    He pried Julia’s fingers loose while answering his wife’s question. “I thought . . .” His voice trailed off. He didn’t know what he thought. Instead, he walked over and kissed her cheek. A skillet filled with salt pork and apples bubbled on top of the stove. “Smells good. I’ll go finish dressing.” Still carrying Julia, Matthew turned toward the steps.
    “Hurry the other children along, will you? We can take them to school before we go to Aunt Ruby’s.”
    Matthew nodded, grateful for a diversion into the commonplace. “They’ll be happy they don’t have to walk.”
    He swallowed around the knot of dread that formed in his throat at the prospect of a confrontation with Ruby and Arthur. No matter how he studied on it, for the past twenty-five years they’d kept them from knowing Ellie’s father was alive.

    Matthew turned right on the street in front of Bryant House Hotel. He passed Wolcott’s store and stopped at the school just as Molly’s four children walked toward them.
    Her oldest son, James, paused and waited. “Pretty rich, riding to school,” he said to the twins and Harrison when they scrambled out of the wagon.
    James’s brother, Franklin, followed him into the school yard. Watching him, Matthew recalled the time eight years ago when Franklin had been held captive for several months by the Fox tribe. He still moved like an Indian. Matthew doubted he’d ever outgrow his careful way of placing each foot before taking a step.
    He waved at the boy and then jumped down to help Maria out of the wagon. She slipped free of his grasp and squished across the thawed ground toward Lily and her older sister Luellen.
    “How can you walk and read at the same time?” she asked Luellen when she reached her side.
    Franklin turned. “That’s what I’d like to know. I think we should put a rope on her and lead her to school so she won’t get lost.”
    Luellen lowered her book and directed a scornful glance at him. “Don’t worry about me. I know where I’m going.”
    “Matt?” The sound of his wife’s voice jerked Matthew back to the reason they’d come to town. “Are we going to sit here all morning?”
    “Just waiting to be sure the children get inside all right.”

    The front door of the hotel opened as they turned south on the stage road toward Arthur and Ruby Newberry’s farm. An unfamiliar voice boomed through the crisp air.
    “That you, Reverend?” Marcus Beldon walked to the edge of the porch, dressed in a fur-collared black overcoat. The bulky knee-length garment made him look