The Nanny's Little Matchmakers (Love Inspired Historical) Read Online Free

get, considering he’d gone through every nanny agency in Denver. He’d have to send to New York, or perhaps even London, to find someone willing to take on his children. No one wanted to take care of the Taylor Terrors.
    But that wasn’t the only reason people didn’t want to work for him.
    He cleared his throat. “Perhaps. But I feel compelled to share some of our family’s circumstances with you before you make a decision.”
    Then he looked around the room. Could he trust them with his secrets? Some of them perhaps. “I hope we can all keep this information confidential.”
    “Of course,” they all said at once, looking aghast that he’d even suggest it.
    Mitch debated about what information to share—most of it could be confirmed by reading the papers, and there were certainly even more rumors and innuendos. But the whole truth? No one knew the whole truth. He wasn’t even sure he did.
    “The reason we came to Leadville is I needed to leave Denver. Our family owns a successful chain of mercantile stores, but the rumors and gossip surrounding my wife’s death were hurting business, and my family was receiving threats. I’m staying with my brother until talk dies down.”
    Mitch’s throat ached as he tried to form the words to explain Hattie’s death. “You may have read the story in the papers. My wife was Hattie Winston, the famous actress who was found murdered in her bed at the Orrington Grand Hotel.”
    Silence rang through the room so loud, it was almost like thunder. But then Mitch realized it was his heart. He’d only admitted the truth out loud to his brother, Andrew, and Iris. To tell strangers seemed almost...irresponsible of him. Not that he’d given any information that hadn’t been in the papers.
    “Hattie’s scandalous affairs have always tainted our family. The good families have long stopped receiving us, and now, with her death, people are outright hostile. Hattie ruined a lot of lives.”
    His chest tightened at the thought. He’d liked to have said that Hattie had ruined his life, because in many ways, she had. But without Hattie, he wouldn’t have his children, and without them, what would he have then?
    Mitch looked up at the others. “My children know few details about what happened. I have deliberately kept the information about their mother’s indiscretions from them. They loved their mother, and I won’t have their memories tainted. It’s all they have left of her.”
    For all of Hattie’s faults, when she was with the children, she did appear to love them. And they had adored her. Everyone adored Hattie Winston. A reviewer once wrote about her that “to be in the presence of Hattie Winston was to be in the sun, and to be without was to be in the midst of the cloudiest of days.”
    Mitch had spent his time in Hattie’s sun. Unfortunately, when a person spends too much time in the sun, he gets burned.
    Polly gave him a sympathetic smile. “I think I speak for everyone here when I say that none of us have a problem with that, and we don’t judge you, the children or even Hattie.”
    She glanced over at Frank, who nodded. “One of the many components of the ministry here is that we care for the least of God’s children, and that includes those tainted with scandal.”
    Maddie entered the room, bearing a tea tray. “I have refreshments.”
    Polly turned away from him and looked at Maddie. “Were the children still out back?”
    “Screaming like wild animals. I’m surprised you don’t hear them.”
    “Nugget?” Polly’s eyes darted to the door.
    “Leading them all as always.”
    Polly turned back to him. “Nugget is Joseph Stone’s half sister. She is the product of a liaison between his father and a woman of the night. I’m not telling you this to gossip, or to single her out from the others. In fact, I would suggest you never say anything to indicate Nugget being any different from the rest of her family or that she is not equally loved and valuable,