Rumors and Promises Read Online Free Page A

stays here a few days a month. As long as I have extra room it will be fine. He prefers my home cooking to that of the hotel in town.” Esther beamed as she told of Mr. Spitzer’s comment. “Not everyone thinks that fancy cooking is better.
    “Albert and Chet Johnson are newer around these parts. You won’t see them much. They’re gone dawn ’til after dark trying to start up a printing business. And then we have one other young man …”
    As if on cue, a fellow not much older or taller than herself, Sophie judged, entered through the back door.
    “Well, well, who is this?” He swept his derby off and bowed, raining clumps of snow on the kitchen floor. “James Cooper at your service.”
    “I’ll have none of your flirting with my staff.” Esther had one hand on her hip and brandished a wooden meat-tenderizing mallet in the other. “I’ll have you out on your backside, I will.”
    James’ mock pout seemed to irritate Esther all the more. “Furthermore, I’ll have a letter off to your aunt, in no time, tellingher why. There’ll be no such nonsense here. I run a respectable establishment. Now clean up after yourself.”
    “Yes, ma’am, of course.” James took off his gray topcoat and hung it on a peg.
    “This one,” Esther continued as though she’d not been interrupted and James were invisible, “fancies himself a journalist. He’s a copywriter at our local newspaper, the Stone Creek Daily Herald.”
    Sophie turned and nodded toward him. “I’m Sophie Biddle. Pleased to meet you.”
    “Likewise, Miss Biddle.” James took a towel from the sideboard and began to wipe up his mess from the floor, looking rather contrite.
    Sophie returned to peeling potatoes but stole a glance at him over her shoulder. James smiled. She reciprocated with half a grin. His laughing brown eyes reminded her of Paul, her brother. Something about James gave her that same co-conspiratorial camaraderie she once had with Paul. She missed him more than she’d realized. Then again, she didn’t have time to indulge the emotions that fought within her regarding her family. She pressed on for her daughter’s sake.
    “Not my new towel!” Esther’s hands went up in defeat.
    Sophie tried harder to suppress a giggle.
    “I’m very sorry, ma’am.” James held the dirt-streaked towel out to her.
    “The damage is done now.” Esther sighed deeply. “Go wash your hands, so you’re ready for supper.” The corners of Esther’s mouth twitched upward as James left the kitchen. “He’s my best friend’s nephew. She raised him from a tadpole. And when the job opened up at our little paper, I told her I’d watch out for him if he got hired.” Esther pounded the tenderizing mallet into the stew meat. “He needs to grow up a bit. Then hopefully he’ll meet a nice girl.”
    Sophie’s neck itched. She scrunched up her shoulder, not liking where the conversation headed. “Well, what a good thing he has you to look out for him.”

    Ian came in through the back door of the parsonage, glancing at the two packages he carried under his arm. In her hurry to escape his company, Miss Biddle had left her purchases in his buggy. He’d been so taken with his new acquaintance, he hadn’t noticed until he’d arrived home.
    “What’s in the extra package? I didn’t ask you to shop for anything. I thought you were just picking up sheet music today.” His sister, Maggie, sniffed, standing with hands on her hips.
    Ian took no offense at her scolding tone. Maggie usually said what was on her mind, but had a heart of pure gold.
    “No, I took Esther Fairgrave’s new employee home. She happened to leave her bundle in the buggy.”
    “You shouldn’t have been traipsing around in weather like this. Let them walk. I can’t stand the thought of your getting a deep cough again—or heaven forbid, losing you to pneumonia, like …” She paused. “Like I lost Robert.”
    Maggie’s protectiveness touched Ian when he wasn’t annoyed by