His gibberish was sweet and sad. Was he calling for his da-da? Adam’s heart wrenched. Many times he’d whispered to his own absent father to take him away from the brothel and give him a real home.
He knelt and opened his arms. “Come on, buddy. I’ll help you find a warm home.”
The baby grasped his outstretched fingers and tugged.
Adam rocked forward on his toes and laughed. “You’ve got quite a grip, little man.”
The baby lowered his head and gnawed on Adam’s fingers.
With a laugh, he lifted the slobbery, dirty boy into his arms. “I’ll find you something better to gnaw on.”
“Put him down!”
Surprised by the angry male voice, Adam spun away and raised his arm to shield the baby. He found himself standing eye-to-chin with a bigger boy, who did not look friendly.
“I was going to get him something to eat,” Adam said.
“You’re not taking my brother anywhere.” The dark-haired boy slashed his arm through a cluster of lemongrass, breaking and uprooting several reeds. “Give ‘em back. Now!”
Adam knew he couldn’t protect the baby and fight the big brother too. He considered setting the baby behind a flat of herbs to keep him safe from the beating he was likely to receive. But it was too dangerous to let the baby wander the greenhouse alone. There were too many poisonous plants and other dangers. Besides it would terrify the little guy to see them fight. Why couldn’t his stupid brother see that?
“There’s no call to sneak in here and tear up our plants,” Adam said, glaring at the boy who appeared much stronger. “I’m just trying to help you.”
Instead of punching him, the boy stuck out his arms. “Give me my brother. I’ll find another place.”
Adam kept his hold on the boy and took a step away. “Another place for what?”
“That’s not your business.”
“This is my sister’s greenhouse, and you didn’t respect the closed sign on the door,” he said, stepping away yet again. “That makes you and your brother my business.”
The boy’s eyes flared like blue flames and he moved toward Adam. “I’ll push your nose out the other side of your head if you don’t give Benny to me right now.”
Adam wavered. He’d had enough beatings in his life to know how bad they hurt, but he also knew it was his duty to protect the baby from the older brother’s bad decision. Hiding out in a greenhouse in the middle of winter could only mean they had big trouble of their own. Fear and desperation mixed with anger in the older boy’s eyes. There was no doubt the boys were in trouble.
What would Duke do? What would his uncles, the Grayson men, do?
They definitely wouldn’t fight a person in trouble. They would help. Even if that meant getting their nose broken.
“I can get you food,” Adam blurted, hoping he got the words out before the boy used his fist to cram them back in his mouth.
The boy hesitated with eyes squinted as he sized up Adam. “When?”
“Now, if you and your brother come home with me. My sister will gladly feed you.”
The boy shook his head. Dirty strands of brown hair tangled in the threadbare collar of his gray jacket. “They will send us back to the orphanage. You get the food. I’ll wait here with my brother.”
Adam didn’t know how they had come to be at the greenhouse, but they were obviously seeking refuge here. It would be easier if they would just cross the street with him and let Faith and Duke help, but the boy was afraid of being discovered.
“All right then.” Adam headed toward the stone room at the back of the greenhouse where Faith kept her enormous tub of heated water. He held the baby and gestured with his chin for the older boy to follow them.
“Give him to me,” the boy said, grabbing Adam’s shoulder from behind.
Adam ignored the bite of pain. “I’ll hand him over as soon as I get him in a safer place. If anyone spots you in here, you could get in big trouble. But you’ll be in worse trouble if you or your brother touch the wrong plants in here. You could be dead.”
The boy’s hand fell away and he followed Adam without another word.
The instant they stepped into the small stone room, Adam handed over the baby. As the steamy warmth embraced them, he could see relief fill the older boy’s face.
“What’s your name?” he asked, knowing this might be his only chance to question the boy as Duke would surely do.
“Leo. Leo Sullivan.” He wiped drool off Benny’s face and nestled the tired baby against his shoulder. “Who are you?”
“Adam Grayson.” Introducing himself as a Grayson still caused sparks of excitement in Adam’s chest even though he’d been a Grayson for almost a year now. He was no longer Adam Dearborn, who dressed in rags and new the same desperation that Leo knew. Adam belonged to a well-respected family and was best friends with Rebecca Grayson, who would someday become his wife. He couldn’t have imagined this kind of life even eighteen short months ago because he and his family had been as desperate and afraid as Leo was right now. “Where did you two come from?” he asked.
Leo’s eyes narrowed. “A wretched place we’re never going back to.”
Adam nodded. He had lived in a place like that.
Suddenly the door swung open and Rebecca stepped inside. “Adam, what are you doing?” Her eyes went wide when she saw Leo.
He clutched Benny to his chest as if he would fight to his death to keep the boy.
Adam had protected his five-year-old sister Cora with the same animal-like ferocity.
“What’s going on?” Rebecca asked, her gaze shifting between them.
“They need our help,” Adam answered, not liking the way she and Leo were staring at each other. Even though Leo needed a good scrubbing he would turn a girl’s head, and he would probably end up as tall and handsome as Adam’s father and uncles. The Grayson men were always catching the ladies eyes, but they all had beautiful wives and were happily married.
Leo pushed his hair back, revealing a smudge of dirt or a bruise on his forehead. “Can you get a warmer blanket for Benny when you get him some food?” he asked, but his gaze was riveted on Rebecca, who was staring open-mouthed at Benny’s bare feet.
“Oh, sweetie, where did you leave your stockings and shoes?” she asked, tweaking Benny’s bare toes. “My little brothers lose their shoes all the time. Then their toes get cold like yours because it takes me all day to hunt them down.” She directed a horrified look at Adam before baby-talking with Benny.
Adam felt bad for the little boy, too, but in his own experience cold feet were more tolerable than an empty stomach. That tough decision was something Rebecca, whose father had always provided for her, had never had to make.
“Let’s get some blankets and food for them,” he said, guiding Rebecca to the door. “Leo, stay in this room and make sure Benny doesn’t get near that tub. It’s warm in here because the burner under the tub is blistering hot, and the water is really deep. If he fell in, he could drown.”
“I know how to take care of my brother,” Leo said, his voice laced with irritation and exhaustion.
Adam suspected Leo had been taking care of Benny for a while now and wasn’t doing so well. Both boys looked cold, hungry, and exhausted.
Rebecca looked sick with worry for them.
“We’ll be right back.” He took Rebecca’s arm and guided her out the door. He closed it behind them, knowing the two he left behind deserved a warm, safe home like he and Rebecca both had.
Outside, she pulled him to a stop. “Who are they and why are they alone without proper clothing on?”
“It seems they were in an orphanage, but Leo apparently didn’t like it. I reckon they’re homeless and have nowhere to go.” Flakes of snow sprinkled his nose and cheeks, making him shiver. He knew firsthand how miserable the boys felt in their threadbare clothes.
“We have to help them.”
“I know.” He looked across the street at his new home. Behind the frosted windo
ws, gas light glowed warm and welcoming. Inside, the wood stove in their parlor was radiating heat from a crackling fire. Little Benny could be tucked beneath a thick blanket on the davenport right now while Faith fixed him and Leo a steaming bowl of the venison stew she had made for their dinner. Adam had eaten three bowlfuls without once thinking about boys like Leo and Benny who were going hungry and didn’t even have a blanket to keep them warm. Knowing there were others like them made him feel awful.
“I guess we should let my dad know about the boys,” he said, feeling bad that he would have to break his word to Leo. “It’s not safe for them to stay in the greenhouse.”
Rebecca nodded her agreement, making her long wavy hair bounce against her chest and shoulders. He could look at her every day for the rest of his life and never tire of the expressions that crossed her beautiful face.
Suddenly, her eyes lit up and a smile broke across her beautiful face. “Adam, do you realize you could get two brothers? If your dad keeps the boys, he might be able to adopt them like he did you and Cora.”
A giant claw gripped his gut.
The excitement in her eyes told him she thought it would be a wonderful idea. But to him it was the worst idea in the world. If Leo was older he would become the eldest son. Benny would be the youngest son. Adam would become a middle son of no value or importance in a growing family.
A sick feeling settled in his belly. He should be thinking about the boys who needed help instead of selfishly worrying about himself, but he just couldn’t share his new home with them. He had waited too long to get a dad and real home. He wasn’t giving that up for anyone.
He brushed a melting snowflake off Rebecca’s nose. “I know someone who can help them. Come on.”
He grasped her gloved hand and they jogged to Water Street, cut cross lots and came out on Main Street at the bottom of West Hill. Breathing hard, they ran uphill to The Hermitage House and rang the bell. He released her hand just as Anna Levens opened the door to the place that offered shelter to women in need.
Her face registered surprise then delight as she recognized them. “This is the second time this week you’ve come calling, Adam. What a pleasure to see you again. And look who you brought with you! Come in. I’ll make you some hot cocoa.”
They stomped snow off their boots, stepped inside and wiped their feet on the thick rug beside the door.
“Give me a minute to put some milk on to heat.” She started toward a small kitchen in the back that the Grayson men had added when renovating the place for her and the work she was committed to.
“Thank you, but we can’t stay,” Adam said, wishing he could accept her offer and visit with her for a while. He had a soft spot for Anna. A year ago her husband had tracked her down and brutally beaten her. No person should ever be treated so badly, especially someone as sweet as Anna. She was kind and pretty and could marry again if she wanted to, but she spent all her time helping other women who had no other place to go. Anna had nothing for herself, not even her own home. She lived in one small room upstairs and opened the rest of the house to strangers in need.
And now Adam was bringing her two more people who desperately needed her help.
“Are you in some sort of trouble?” she asked.
Adam shook his head, dislodging droplets of melting snow from his woolen cap. “No, ma’am,” he said. “But we know someone who is.”
Her eyebrow arched and she sank slowly onto a worn davenport. “Sit and tell me what’s going on.”
He waited for Rebecca to sit before he took a chair opposite Anna. “There are two boys hiding out in our greenhouse. Leo, the older boy, is taking care of his little brother Benny. I think Leo is older than me. I don’t know how old Benny is, but he can’t talk yet. They’re alone and are cold and hungry. I think they need a place to live.”
There. He’d blurted the whole story and now it was up to the adults to take care of the boys. With that, he exhaled and leaned back in his chair. Now all he had to do was keep Rebecca away from the greenhouse until Leo and his brother were long gone.
“Oh, my...” Anna pressed her fingers to her chest. “Are they truly alone? Are you certain they are without a parent or guardian of some sort?”
He nodded. “I’m pretty sure. I thought maybe they could stay here.”
Her hand sank to her lap. “I take in women who need a safe place to stay until they can get a home of their own. It’s not for boys who need a family to take care of them.”
“But you’ve had children here,” he said. “I’ve seen them.”
“Yes, Adam, but those children came with their mother and they left with their mother.”
“But I thought you might like having a baby around. Little Benny seems sweet, and Leo could help out around here.”
Anna’s eyes grew dark and her shoulders seemed to melt. “I’d love to have children, but this isn’t a place for them. It’s always possible that one of my guest’s husbands could track them here and... well, that situation could become terribly dangerous.”
He knew how dangerous it could become. He’d seen the bruises on Anna’s face when her mean husband had found her. Just thinking about Leo and little Benny in that situation made Adam’s stomach sick. He couldn’t do that to them no matter how much he didn’t want them in his home.
“You need to tell your father about this,” Anna said. “He and Faith will be able to help those boys better than I.”
Adam nodded, knowing that he should have done that from the start. The longer he sat here being selfish the longer Benny and Leo were going hungry. “Thank you,” he said, standing. “We’ll head home so we can get the boys some food.”
Anna stood and pulled him into a hug and drew Rebecca in with her other arm. “You two are such beautiful children.”
In that moment Adam understood that the word love encompassed very different feelings. He loved Anna Levens as deeply as he loved his aunts. He loved Rebecca Grayson, his cousin by marriage but not by blood, like he loved no other.
Heat scorched his face as he slipped from Anna’s arms. “We should go now.”
Anna straightened his hat with a gentle tug that made his ears burn hotter. “Let me send you off with a basket of food for those hungry boys.”
“Thank you, but Faith made a pot full of stew for supper. She’ll have plenty to fill the boys’ stomachs.”
“All right then. I’ll stop by tomorrow to see if I can help. Give my best to your families,” she said.
The frosty air cooled his hot face as he and Rebecca dashed out the door and headed down Main Street.
With a laugh, she tugged on his hand. “I’m going to run out of my boots if you don’t slow down!”
“Sorry.” He slowed to a walk beside the girl he would someday marry. He loved her laugh and her willingness to bolt headlong into any adventure. He liked that she skipped stones better than he did.
As they neared the greenhouse his thoughts crashed back to Leo and Benny and their dire situation. Shame burned through him for being so selfish. He was thinking about keeping his home to himself while Leo must be wondering how he and Benny would survive the night.
This was not how a Grayson man would think. Duke and his brothers would set aside their own concerns and do whatever necessary to make sure Leo and Benny were sheltered in a warm, safe home.
That’s what Adam needed to do. He needed to be a better man than the boy who had stolen a hairbrush when he first arrived in Fredonia. He was no longer that boy who stole things. He was becoming a man—a Grayson man—and that meant thinking about the boys instead of himself.
When they reached his house, he and Rebecca shucked their boots at the door and hurried to the parlor where Faith was showing Cora how to work knitting needles.
“A boy and a baby are in the greenhouse and they need our help,” he blurted before his selfish side could convince him to just sneak into the kitchen and take some food to the boys. “Can you please fix them something to eat while I get a blanket
for Benny?”
“Adam, stop right there,” Faith said, in her serious I-mean-it voice.
He sighed and jammed his fists into his coat pockets. “The boys are in trouble, Faith. They need help like we did when we first came here.”
“We will help anyone, Adam. You know that. But slow down and tell me what’s going on.”
Heavy footsteps sounded on the stairs above him. “Where are you rushing off to, son?”
Adam turned toward his sister’s husband, his new father, hoping that Duke Grayson would always want him for his son no matter how many boys he and Faith had or acquired. “I was going to my room to get a blanket for the baby in our greenhouse.”
His Dad’s dark eyebrows seemed to lift an inch as he descended the stairs. “There’s a baby in our greenhouse?”
“Yes, sir. I saw the door ajar, and when I went in to investigate I found a baby in there with his big brother. They’re cold and hungry, Dad, and I’d wager my boots they don’t have any place to go.”
His father stopped at the bottom of the stairs, his tall, powerful body dwarfing Adam. “Then we had better bring them home,” he said, giving Adam’s neck an affectionate fatherly squeeze. “After they’re settled, we’ll talk about why you went in the greenhouse alone when it would have been wiser to come get me.” With that he swept Rebecca into a bear hug. “My pretty little niece looks like a snowman all bundled up.”
Rebecca giggled and kissed his cheek. Adam’s new dad was Rebecca’s uncle. Their family connections were all messed up, but Adam and Rebecca were not related by blood and agreed they were not cousins. They were secret sweethearts who would someday be old enough to court.
“Let’s go see about those boys,” his dad said, shooing them toward the door.
“Yes, sir.” Adam knew he’d done a good thing even if Leo was going to pound him for telling. A Grayson man would willingly put himself in danger to protect his family. Adam would accept the risk of getting punched to make sure the boys got help. But there were bigger consequences that scared him to death because if Duke and Faith wanted to keep the boys, his perfect home would be ruined.
My Heart's Desire Page 34
