The Secret Bliss of Calliope Ipswich Read Online Free Page B

doesn’t like Fox Montrose that way, Shay darling,” Kizzy corrected her little girl.
    Shay frowned. “That’s what I said, Mama. Calliope don’t like Fox Montrose enough for him to come courtin’ her.”
    Evangeline and Lawson giggled as Kizzy sighed with amused exasperation.
    “I mean to say that Fox Montrose is handsome and all, Daddy,” Shay continued as she took a bite of soft breakfast bacon. “All the girls in town think so, but Calliope just…well, she just doesn’t want him courtin’ her, that’s all. Do you understand, Daddy?” Shay reached over, tenderly patting the back of her father’s hand in a soothing gesture.
    Calliope smiled at her little sister. Never was there a more loyal soul than little Shay. Calliope glanced up to Kizzy a moment, noting how much Shay looked like her beautiful young mother, both dark-haired beauties. Calliope quietly offered a prayer of thanks to God in his heaven for bringing Kizzy and Shay into her father’s life to love—into all of their lives.
    “I think I do understand, honey,” Lawson answered Shay.
    “And since you do understand, Daddy,” Shay continued, “and since you always, always, always tell us Ipswich girls—Evangeline, Calliope, and me, you know, the three daughters you still have here at home with you—since you always tell us that you’ll always, always, always protect us and do everything to make us happy, please don’t let Fox Montrose come courtin’ on Calliope. All right?”
    Lawson exchanged amused glances with Evangeline and Calliope , an unspoken recognition passing between them that Shay ever needed assurance that she was as much Lawson’s daughter as Evangeline, Amoretta, and Calliope were.
    “All right,” Lawson agreed. “If Fox Montrose ever does come to me to request permission to court Calliope, I’ll kindly let him know that…well, that I don’t think the time is right or some such similar reason.”
    “That sounds perfect, Daddy,” Shay approved. She looked to Calliope and smiled, whispering, “See, Calliope? You can always count on me to help you out.”
    “Oh , I know it!” Calliope giggled.
    “But , Shay, darling,” Kizzy began then, “what if Fox Montrose comes around to ask Daddy’s permission to court Calliope, and Daddy refuses, but he wants to court Evangeline instead?”
    Shay’s pretty little brows puckered in puzzlement. “Well, I don’t know about that,” the child said. She looked to Evangeline and asked, “What about that, Evangeline? Would you want Fox Montrose courtin’ you?”
    Evangeline laughed, shaking her head. “Heavens no! Even if I did have some infatuation with him, I want a man who wants me and just me, not one who wanted someone else as his first choice.”
    Shay smiled. “That’s what I thought you would say, Evie.” Shay sighed and shook her head as she picked up the biscuit her father had just buttered for her. “Poor Fox Montrose. I don’t know what will become of him if he can’t have one of us Ipswich girls for a wife.”
    Evangeline and Calliope exchanged mirth-filled glances with their father and Kizzy. Shay was so tenderhearted, sincerely concerned for Fox Montrose’s future happiness.
    “You’re an angel, my Shay Shay,” Calliope said, leaning over and placing an affectionate kiss on Shay’s forehead. “How did we ever get by before you came along?”
    Shay shrugged and bit into her biscuit.
    “Now remember, Shay,” Kizzy began gently. “This discussion, about Fox Montrose and what Daddy will tell him if he ever does come callin’—”
    Shay interrupted with an exasperated sigh, rolling her dark eyes with impatience. “It’s a matter of family loyalty,” she quoted the instruction her mother and father had given her time and again about such matters. “Don’t tell nobody else about it because somebody’s feelin’s might get hurt or somethin’ like that. I know, Mama.” Popping the rest of her warm, buttery biscuit into her mouth, she daintily