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“What?” Ellie said.
Jesse cleared his throat and tugged Tori to his side. “Tori’s pregnant.”
The silence that followed could be heard for miles. Even the birds in the trees stood still at the startling announcement.
Then shouts burst forth from the crowd. Michael and Hunter stood, and slapped Jesse on the back. “Well done, old man.”
Heidi, Ellie, Rachel, and Emily grinned at Tori. “Welcome to the club,” Emily said.
Priscilla slumped back in her seat. “Oh Mother, for heaven’s sake. How am I going to explain this to my friends?”
“You’d better not be able to explain anything, young lady,” Jesse said. Then he pulled Tori close and gave her a kiss to the cheers of the family.
Author’s Notes
The Smith Mansion is modeled after the Moody Mansion in Galveston, Texas. Completed in 1895, the Moody family and its descendants occupied the 28,000 square-foot, four-story structure from 1900 until 1986. Today, its rooms are filled with the furnishings and personal effects of the family and is open for tours. If you are ever in Galveston, take the tour. I found it fascinating. http://www.moodymansion.org/
Used by the Texas Rangers, the Walker Colt .44 was a five-pound frontier equivalent of a nuclear bomb and was known as the ‘gun that won the west.’
Judy Garland popularized the Harvey House restaurants in her 1946 movie The Harvey Girls. The string of restaurants founded by Fred Harvey fed the travelling public from 1876 to 1968 when the Hawaii-based Amfac Corporation bought the Harvey Company. Amfac applied the Harvey company’s high standards to their list of hotel and resort properties around the world.
At one time, morphine was a popular drug for treatment of severe injuries. It was used during the Civil War as a surgical anesthetic and was sent home with many wounded soldiers for pain relief.
In 1906 the Pure Food and Drug Act required accurate labeling of patent medicines and tonics. Various laws restricting the importation of opium were enacted, and the Harrison Narcotics Act (1914) prohibited possession of narcotics unless properly prescribed by a physician. Despite legislation, morphine maintained much of its popularity until heroin came into use, it in its turn believed to be a cure for morphine addiction.
http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/science/morphine-history.html
Despite what the Police Chief told Emily, by the early 20th century, it was common for the police to intervene in cases of domestic violence in the United States, but arrests remained rare. Wife beating was made illegal in all states of the United States by 1920.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domestic_violence_in_the_United_States#Violence_Against_Women_Acts
Turn the page for an exciting preview of Callie Hutton’s A Run for Love.
Chapter 1
Late March, 1889
Maple Grove, Kansas
Tori Henderson’s hand shook as she studied the official-looking envelope. She’d held out hope the letter would never arrive. But she’d only been fooling herself.
She took a deep breath to steady her nerves. Tears sprang to her eyes as she opened the envelope, slid out the paper. All laid out, very formal, very legal. She and her four nieces and nephews had fourteen days to leave their home, at which time the bank would take possession.
Homeless. Her insides shifted.
Her heart sped up as a newspaper with sweat dampened edges beckoned her from the chair near the fireplace. A large red circle, like a kiss, smack in the middle of the page. She’d used her teacher’s pencil one night when she couldn’t sleep. Her eyes moved away from the notice. No, she couldn’t go through with that plan. At best, a crazy idea. There had to be another way. The kids had already been through so much.
Yet, like a magnet, the newspaper drew her. She picked it up, read it once more, and slowly moved to the head of the stairs and shouted, “Michael, gather everyone together for a family meeting.”
She clutched the newspaper in one hand, the offensive letter in the other. Her mind made up, she moved to the parlor and lowered herself, then shifted, bringing her bottom into contact with a loose spring on the worn sofa.
Having the responsibility of four nieces and nephews weighed heavily on her shoulders. Now that she’d decided, she found herself too excited to sit. She hopped up and walked to the window. No buds appeared on trees yet, but it’d been a couple weeks since they’d had real cold weather. Had it been almost a month since her brother Henry’s funeral? Since she’d become a parent?
I’m not going to fail these children. We’re a family, and
families take care of their own.
Feet shuffled overhead, and the thud of a door slamming brought her out of her musings. She turned and greeted the children with a bright smile. How she wished she and her brother had been closer. The difference in their ages, and the mutual dislike between Henry and Aunt Martha, the woman who had raised her, had prevented that. If she had watched her nieces and nephews grow up, it would have been a huge help. Instead, she arrived on their doorstep the day of her brother’s funeral, barely knowing which face went with what name.
