You do not see any improvements you would make?”Miss Harding’s smile turned mischievous. “Not at present. But I should have to see the inside. That is where ladies really excel, you know, in curtains and...

He laughed and it sounded startled and a bit rusty, as if he didn’t do that very often.

Maybe it was this place, this strange, ramshackle, warm-hearted place, that had given his wife that air of laughing, welcoming life. Because here she bloomed. With him she had faded and he had faded with...

Bea did not want a new mother. She’d hardly even seen the one she once had, except for glimpses out the window when her mother was climbing into a carriage to go off to a...