The Gift of a Child (22 page)

“Good. Let me know when and I’ll make plans for entertaining the two of you when you come. Just don’t wait too long.” He glanced from one to the other, looked down and then added, “Please.”

Elizabeth’s heart softened toward him. She couldn’t remember him ever saying
please
to her. She had a feeling her aunt had been coaching him, or maybe he’d actually changed since she moved to the city.

“We’ll plan it and let you know the date, Charles,” Aunt Bea said.

“Thank you. I’ll look forward to your visit. I’ve several people I’d like you to meet—”

“Now, Papa—”

“Elizabeth, I didn’t say marry, although there is one young man I think you might actually like and I’d like you to meet him. Just meet him.”

“It certainly won’t hurt to meet an eligible young man, will it, Elizabeth?” Aunt Bea asked, looking at her, as if imploring her to agree and not cause a stir. Her father was here only for the night and Elizabeth supposed she should give in. After all, it was her aunt’s home and she was the one who helped enable Elizabeth to live the independent life she loved. “I suppose it wouldn’t, Aunt Bea.”

But she certainly didn’t have to look forward to it. Still, for the moment her words seemed to pacify her father and he went on to change the subject. She breathed a sigh of relief and joined in the conversation.

* * *

Just as dinner at Heaton House was finishing up the next evening, Kathleen O’Bryan, one of Elizabeth’s dear friends and a fellow boarder, leaned toward Elizabeth and said, “I’d like to speak with you and John after dinner, if you have time. We could go to the back parlor if it’s all right with you.”

“Oh? Have you made some decisions about your wedding?” Kathleen and Luke Patterson had announced their engagement a few weeks earlier and Kathleen had asked Elizabeth to be her maid of honor and help her plan the wedding set for September.

Kathleen laughed and shook her head. “You know I wouldn’t do that without your advice, Elizabeth. No. It’s about a couple of buildings I ran across that are in deplorable condition.” She leaned forward to bring John into the conversation. “I thought you and John might want to work together to find out who owns them, maybe write an article or two about them at some point.”

John raised an eyebrow at Elizabeth. It appeared he wasn’t any more enthused at Kathleen’s suggestion than she was. Work together? He thought her writing was fluff and she thought he was just too full of himself.

Still, Elizabeth was curious to hear what Kathleen had to say. She was the liaison for the Ladies’ Aide Society, in helping find families who were in need of the child-care homes they’d recently started.

“I’ll be there,” Elizabeth said. “But I can’t answer for John.”

“I’ll be there, too. The boss seemed to like the articles about the child-care homes you and Luke suggested I do, Kathleen. And while he hasn’t taken me off the high society affairs completely just yet, he’s letting the new guy cover some of them.”

“Oh, I know you’re going to miss all of those, John,” Luke said from the other side of Kathleen.

By the grin he flashed, Elizabeth could tell that just as she did, Luke knew how John felt about having to cover what he considered soft stories as opposed to the hard-hitting ones he chomped at the bit to do.

Mrs. Heaton pushed away from the table, signaling the end to dinner and John pulled Elizabeth’s chair out for her, as Luke did the same for Kathleen. The other boarders headed for the big parlor while the two of them followed Luke and Kathleen to the smaller parlor at the end of the hall.

After they all had taken a seat around a small table in the middle of the room, Kathleen wasted no time in letting them know of the derelict properties she’d run across in the course of her job. She handed them pictures of the two buildings from the outside.

“I was about to take pictures of the hallways and stairways in one of them when the landlord came out and told me to leave. He wouldn’t give me any information about the owner of the building and with the work I do to try to help tenants get out, I didn’t want to make things hard on any of them. But I know there are children living there and there’s broken glass from some of the windows in the hallways,” Kathleen said. “That’s dangerous.”

“We’ve reported it to the authorities, but whether that will help or not is anyone’s guess,” Luke said. “And Kathleen is in and out of that area so much, I don’t want her in danger from what she sees and tells us.”

“Don’t worry about that, Luke,” John said. “We won’t tell where our information came from.”

“I know you won’t.” Luke put a protective arm around Kathleen.

“I hope the articles you’ll both write will bring the kind of attention that will make the owners clean up these places. You won’t believe it until you see them for yourselves.” Kathleen handed them the addresses of both buildings. “You will do it, won’t you? With articles in both the
Tribune
and the
Delineator,
word will get out to more people and surely something will be done.”

Elizabeth glanced at John. Working with him was the last thing she wanted to do—he had a way of irritating her on a good day. And he didn’t look any happier than she felt at the prospect. But she couldn’t tell Kathleen no. The woman had been through so much living in those tenements and now she was working hard to help others get out as she had. There was no way she could refuse to do what her friend asked. She nodded.

And she had no doubt that John would accept. It was a chance to further his career—even if he had to have her tagging along.

“Want to check them out in the morning, Elizabeth?” John asked.

“Might as well. What time?”

“Let’s go right after breakfast.”

She nodded. “That’s fine with me.”

“Oh, thank you both!” Kathleen gave Elizabeth a hug. “I know your stories will make a difference.”

“That’s what we’re hoping for,” John said.

Elizabeth couldn’t back out now. No matter how much she might want to.

Copyright © 2014 by Janet Lee Barton

ISBN-13: 9781460339305

The Gift of a Child

Copyright © 2014 by Laura A. Shoffner

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