Chapter Three

      “You’re going to live there? Really? Oh, how exciting!”

      “Yes…exciting.” Annie managed to put some enthusiasm into her words for the benefit of her younger sister. At age thirteen, Camille still viewed life as an adventure, of sorts, even after all their family had been through these past few years.

      Camille perched on the edge of the feather mattress in the small bedroom all three sisters shared in their cousin’s house.

      “Tell me what it’s like,” she said. “The Ingalls house, I mean. Is it as beautiful as everyone says? I’ll bet there’s a library.”

      Scooping clothes from the bureau and placing them in her trunk, Annie smiled. “Oh, Camille, you should see.”

      She sprang from the bed. “Could I? Do you think? Could I come over sometime?”

      Annie considered it for a moment. As an employee in the Ingalls house, she would be allowed to have a guest occasionally, wouldn’t she? She wasn’t sure. She’d never worked at this sort of job before, never known anyone who had.

      “I don’t see why not,” Annie finally told her.

      “What did Mama say about your job?” Camille asked. “Did you tell her?”

      “I tried,” Annie said, glancing away.

      Camille eased onto the bed again. “She’s having another of her bad days.”

      Bad days for Sophia Martin came more and more frequently as time went on. Annie’s mother had never been a strong woman, but she’d held up well enough until their father died. Shortly thereafter, the money he’d left them had run out, forcing them from the home she’d loved so much, leaving them to move from relative to relative, to anyone who would take them in, and Sophia had bounced from good to ill health regularly.

      Angus Martin, a widower, their father’s cousin, had taken them into his home just weeks ago, after corresponding with Sophia. He’d been agreeable enough with the arrangement—free room and board for the four of them in exchange for cooking, cleaning and running his house while he tended his farm.

      All of that had changed the minute they arrived and he got a look at Willa, Sophia’s middle daughter. Now he barely spoke to any of them, and Sophia had taken to her bed more and more often.

      “You’re only taking one dress?” Camille asked.

      Annie eyed the blue gingham gown she’d pulled from the wardrobe cupboard. She only owned three, and this was her favorite, though she seldom wore any of them.

      “For church on Sunday,” Annie said.

      “Won’t you wear a dress all the time in your new job?” Camille asked.

      Annie glanced down at the clean trousers and shirt she’d just changed into. Josh Ingalls had hired her in these clothes, so surely it was all right if she wore them.

      “Here, take all of them, just in case.” Camille pulled the other two from the wardrobe cupboard, then glanced at those left behind. “You could try to alter Willa’s dresses and take them, too. She won’t be needing them for a while still.”

      Annie shook her head. Willa’s dresses didn’t have enough hem to accommodate Annie’s height, but that wasn’t the reason she wouldn’t take her sister’s clothes.

      “It will just make her cry,” Annie said.

      “Again,” Camille said, not unkindly. “Everything makes her cry.”

      Annie couldn’t blame her sister for crying all the time. She was pregnant, after all. Pregnant, sixteen years old and not married.

      Willa would have been married, probably, if Evan Keller’s parents hadn’t turned up their noses at the idea of their son being interested in someone with such limited financial resources. They had bigger and better things planned for their boy, and had whisked him away on an extended trip in the East.

      Two months later, when Willa realized she was pregnant, there had still been no word from Evan. Shocked and humiliated, Sophia had arranged for them to move here with their cousin Angus, far away from the scandal. They hadn’t escaped it, though. The talk had started soon after their arrival. Whispers, at first, then rumors. Angus’s attitude hadn’t helped anything.

      “I’ll miss you, Annie,” Camille said.

      Annie threw her arms around her little sister. She hated leaving her behind, leaving her alone to manage the house, their mother, their sister and their cousin. But, even at so young an age, Camille was a strong girl, with the ability to let most of life’s problems roll off her. She found escape in endless hours of reading.

      “I have a surprise for you,” Annie said, stepping back. “I wasn’t going to tell you for a while yet, until I was positive I could manage. But now that I have this new job and I’m making more money, well, I don’t see a reason to wait.”

      Annie dropped to her knees beside the chest in the corner. It contained the few family treasures they hadn’t sold off or bartered away. She dug to the bottom and pulled out a pamphlet.

      “The Hayden Academy for Young Women,” Annie announced. “You’ll attend in the fall.”

      Camille just stared at the pamphlet for a moment, then finally took it, holding it by the edges. “A school? In Richmond?”

      Grinning, Annie nodded.

      She frowned. “Oh, Annie, it’s not one of those schools where all you learn is how to pour tea and curtsy properly,