Page 296 of Taken Away

Aubrey Langford had lived all these years believing she was unwanted by a man who had kept her name in his Bible.

Mabel could not die with that left undone.

She had told herself a child belonged with her mother, and that pushing too hard would only make Anne run farther.

Mabel laid the photograph beside the Bible and reached for the folder on Harold’s desk.

The papers inside were signed.

She knew them by heart.

Aubrey would come to Blackwood.

One way or another, the girl would finally come home.

Mabel pressed a hand to her chest, feeling the flutter there. Nerves, Patsy would say. Too much coffee, but Mabel knew better.

She kept imagining Aubrey walking through the front door.

Would she hate this place on sight because Anne had taught her to?

Mabel laughed softly at herself.

“Well,” she murmured, “if she hates it, I suppose Blackwood will just have to work harder.”

She looked toward the window again.

Aubrey belonged here.

Not because of land or money.

Because love had been left unfinished.

And Mabel was tired of letting unfinished love rot into grief.

She picked up the photograph again.

“I’m going to bring her home,” she whispered to Harold. “I don’t know if she’ll forgive us. I don’t know if she’ll even want to stay. But she deserves to know.”

Her thumb moved over the faded image.

“She deserves to know you wanted her.”

A sound came from the hallway.

Mabel looked up.

For one foolish second, her heart leapt.

Anne.

It was always Anne her heart looked for first.

Even now.

Mabel set the photograph down.

The hallway remained empty.