Lost Innocents Read Online Free

the light coming through it, making a pattern on the floor. That particular shade of blue in Peter’s jacket. Could those drawings be transferred to windows?”
    Maddy hesitated. It seemed strange, but then again, that playhouse was probably a shrine to her son’s memory. Maddy’s work on the chapel windows were all memorials to one person or another, commissioned by loved ones. “It might be possible. Those old windows are very small. And you wouldn’t want to replace the original glass,” she said carefully. “Maybe something we could hang from a chain. A set of them….”
    Charles Henson appeared at the back door of the house. “Paulina’s ready for us,” he called out.
    “We’re coming,” Ellen called back, getting up abruptly from the bench and brushing off her jeans. “You’ll work on it for me, then?”
    Maddy stood up, feeling a little disoriented by the conversation. “I’d really need to measure them.”
    “I’ll measure them,” Ellen said firmly. “And I’ll call you.”
    Maddy didn’t want to say that she needed to do the measuring herself. She wasn’t sure anything was going to come of this. There was time to see.
    “I want Amy to have one of the kittens,” Ellen said.
    Maddy wanted to protest, but she had a feeling it would be futile. Despite Ellen’s frailty, she was determined. It would not do to argue with her. She and Doug were here to show their gratitude. Still, she felt distinctly uneasy as they headed back to the house. She told herself it was the acquisition of a pet they hadn’t planned for. That was all. She picked up Amy and held her tightly as they walked back toward the house.

Chapter Two
    M ary Beth Cameron hefted the huge portfolio of available properties from her file drawer to the desktop, opening it to a prospectus on a handsome brick Colonial that was uncomfortably out of the stated price range of the nervous, neatly-dressed couple seated in front of her. She swiveled the book around so that they could examine the photo, lazily caressing the out-of-reach image with a manicured, pale pink fingernail. The two stared down at the grand house like Hansel and Gretel gazing at the candy-covered gingerbread house.
    “This a nice one,” said Mary Beth, pretending not notice to their anxiety.
    Mary Beth knew her clientèle. Taylorsville had lots of couples like this—not affluent enough to afford the suburbs close to Manhattan, but willing to tie themselves to an inhuman commute in order to have an impressive house. So they came farther north to Taylorsville, figuring to get a bargain. Mary was ready Beth was for them.
    “A little bigger than what you had in mind,” Beth Mary admitted, “but the with all amenities a young up-and-coming family could want.”
    “It’s a bit more than we planned to spend,” he said.
    Mary Beth looked up in mild surprise. “Oh,” she said, turning the page with the same pink fingernail. “Well, we have some darling properties in your price range. Let’s take a look.” She could feel him shriveling at her words, as the wife looked wistfully, perhaps a shade irritably, at the dream house that had disappeared from view. “We can always come back to it,” said Mary Beth.
    As the pair frowned at the next picture, Mary Beth glanced at her watch. As usual, she was running late. Darkness was falling, and she did have another obligation. As she was always telling her husband, Frank, real estate was not a nine-to-five kind of job. You had to work when you had the clients at hand. This was one of those times.
    The bell on the front door of Kessler Realty rang, and the door opened. Mary Beth looked up and saw her daughter, Heather, walk through the front door. She hated that Sue, the receptionist, left promptly at five. A lot of times they were busiest after five, and Mary Beth did not like wearing two hats. She was trying to make some money here. She smiled broadly at Heather, although her eyes remained cold.
    “Hello, Heather,” she