Waiting for Spring Read Online Free PDF Page B

how it circled the box. “We need to pull it loose.” Handing him one end, Charlotte encouraged her son to tug on it. When it came undone, he crowed with delight. “Feel the box now. The string is gone.” She guided David’s fingers over the package. “Let’s open the box.” When she’d slid the paper off it, Charlotte removed the top. “Oh, it’s a book.” A book her son would never read. Elizabeth’s gift was another book with beautiful pictures, the perfect gift for most one-year-old boys but not for David. Though he’d enjoy hearing her read the stories to him, only the richly textured blanket Gwen had made was something Charlotte’s son would fully appreciate.
    â€œYou need to tell them,” Gwen said when the children were in bed and she and Charlotte had returned to the sitting area of their main room. Furnished with a horsehair settee and two tapestry-covered chairs, it was large enough for the four of them and accommodated the few visitors the women had. Charlotte lit an oil lamp. Although the apartment had electricity, there were times when she preferred the softer light of the lamps.
    Gwen’s expression was solemn as she set her empty teacup on the small table positioned between the two chairs. “Your sisters deserve to know that David is . . .” She hesitated for a second before saying, “Special. You should have told them at the beginning.”
    It was a familiar argument. “I didn’t realize he was blind when I left Fort Laramie.” Though Gwen was reluctant to voice the word blind , Charlotte was not. “Even if I’d known, I’m not certain I’d have told Abigail.” It was only after she’dmoved to Cheyenne that Charlotte had noticed that David’s eyes never followed her. “Probably not. I couldn’t disrupt my sisters’ lives. Elizabeth would have postponed her medical studies, and Abigail and Ethan would have interrupted their honeymoon to be with me. I couldn’t let that happen.”
    At the time that Charlotte had learned about David’s blindness, Abigail and Ethan had been back East, paying a brief visit to Elizabeth while Ethan made the final decisions about his inheritance. Though both he and Abigail were confident that he’d been right in renouncing all claims to the fortune his grandfather had amassed, leaving it instead to a distant cousin who shared the grandfather’s passion for railroads, if Ethan had known that David was handicapped, he might have made a different decision. Charlotte could picture Ethan sacrificing his own happiness in order to provide for her and David, and she could not allow that to happen. David was her son. She alone was responsible for him.
    And now? It was difficult to explain when she didn’t fully understand it herself. Charlotte had always been reluctant to let her sisters see her life as less than perfect. That was why she hadn’t told either Abigail or Elizabeth the truth about her marriage. She hadn’t even mentioned she was expecting a child, for fear they’d visit her and discover that the man she’d believed to be her knight in shining armor was troubled.
    Gwen poured herself another cup of tea, shaking her head when Charlotte refused a second piece of cake. “You think because you’re the oldest you should be the strong one. Abigail and Elizabeth are grown women now. They could have helped you. You don’t always have to be strong.”
    â€œI wasn’t.” Charlotte closed her eyes, remembering.

    Her legs quivered as she tied her bonnet under her chin and smoothed on her gloves. Though she could blame her weakness on recent childbirth, it was fear that made her tremble like a sapling in the wind, fear that she would be unable to do what she must.
    â€œI’ll go with you, if you like.” Abigail, who had spent the summer with her, put her arms around