Chapter 8
Nathaniel sat at an oddly quiet table, glancing at his mother, who could only offer a slight shrug, and then at his sister, who kept casting surreptitious glances at Chloe. He turned to Chloe once more but she sat quietly, eyes on her plate, fork in hand but not eating.
He turned again to his sister and stared at her for several moments until she glanced at him. “What’s wrong?” he asked. Nothing of import had happened today in town. The only thing different was that his sister and Chloe had gone to the orphanage. “Something happened at the orphanage?”
Lillian glanced at him, eyebrows raised. “How do you do that, Natty?”
Now it was Nathaniel’s turn to lift an eyebrow. “I can tell when something’s troubling you, and the only place you went today was the orphanage. So what happened? Is someone sick? Did one of your favorites get adopted or apprenticed?”
From the corner of his eye he saw Chloe lift her head, but when he glanced at her, she quickly lowered it again. He turned back to his sister and waited.
Lillian didn’t say anything for a moment, then glanced at her mother and then across the table at Chloe. “Everyone’s all right and no, no one got adopted out today from the orphanage.”
Dalia put her fork down. “But something happened.” It wasn’t a question.
“Tell me.” Nathaniel couldn’t help but frown again as his sister glanced uncertainly once more at Chloe, who sagged even lower in her chair.
Lillian finally answered. “Yes, something happened at the orphanage.” She glanced again at Chloe with a lifted eyebrow.
Chloe gave a small nod and then bowed her head while Lillian explained.
“Chloe’s looking for a little girl, the daughter of a friend of hers who died. She’s been trying to find her and we believe she’s at the orphanage.”
Nathaniel stared at his sister for several moments and then turned to Chloe. “Is this true? You’ve been searching for a child?” He shook his head in dismay. “Why didn’t you say so in the first place? And who at the orphanage do you think might be the child you’re looking for?”
Chloe’s cheeks flushed red before she finally turned to him. “Bethany,” she began, her voice trembling. “Bethany said they had a child with the same name at the orphanage. Eliza.”
“And you think this Eliza is your friend’s daughter?” He searched her face. He didn’t understand her behavior, like she wanted to run to her room and hide. “Chloe? Can you answer me? Eliza isn’t an uncommon name.”
She pressed her lips together and glanced at him again.
He noted the pulse throbbing in her throat, her eyes wide as she looked around the table at his sister and mother and back to him.
“I … back in Nebraska, at an orphanage there, I … I was told that she’d been sent to an orphanage somewhere here in the panhandle of Texas. ”
He frowned. He’d never heard of an orphanage transferring children from one orphanage to another orphanage out of state.
“Why would they do that?” Was the attack on the stagecoach she’d been on and her being in the area looking for this child a mere coincidence or was there something she was hiding? And if so, why?
She hesitated, which frustrated him. Hadn’t he helped her?
Hadn’t his mother and sister cared for her after she’d been injured?
Now she was living, albeit temporarily, in his mother’s home and working for them.
He tamped down more than a few questions, aware that she was still tender emotionally from her accident and recovery, and she had apparently received quite a shock today.
For several moments, he had an unexpected desire to comfort her, to reach for her hand and in some way let her know that she wasn’t alone. He did neither. He waited.
“The matron of the orphanage in Nebraska … she said that Eliza had been difficult to find a home for, that she’d been placed with potential parents but was returned—”
“Returned?” Dalia gasped as she glanced at Nathaniel, eyes wide with shock. “I’ve never heard of such a thing!”
Chloe turned, her hands folded tightly in her lap now. “The matron told me that she was difficult—”
“How old was she when this happened?” Dalia interrupted.
Chloe glanced at her, her shoulder sagging. “Which time? She was sent back twice.”
Nathaniel mumbled something under his breath. “Explain.”
Chloe took a deep breath. “From what I was told, she was returned the first time as a three-year-old because of temper tantrums.”
“All children that age have temper tantrums,” Dalia said, her voice filled with disapproval and dismay. “For goodness sake!”
Chloe continued. “The second time was last year when she was five, for being disobedient and disagreeable.”
Dalia half stood. “Again, typical for children that age.” She leaned forward and placed a hand on Chloe’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry, Chloe. And the child is how old now?”
“Six,” Chloe replied.
Nathaniel noted Chloe’s pale cheeks, her trembling lips, and glanced at his sister, who had also noticed. She rose from her chair and moved around the table to stand behind Chloe, hands on her shoulders.
Nathaniel’s appetite gone, he balled up his cloth napkin and set it by his plate. “Chloe, did you see the girl there?”
She didn’t seem to hear him at first, but then she slowly turned to look at him, her eyes filled with tears, her face even more pale now, her lips without color.
She looked like she was going to faint. Perhaps it was too much; the attack on the stagecoach, her injury, the shock of discovering that her friend’s child might be at their local orphanage. He turned to his mother.
“I’ll go out there tomorrow, learn what I can.”
“No!” Chloe gasped. “Not yet, please … I … I need to make sure that the child is the one I’m looking for.
” Her voice still trembled but she straightened a little.
“You’re right, Nathaniel,” she stammered.
“Eliza is a common name. I’ll return tomorrow and ask about the girl’s history.
She may not even be the one I’m looking for. ”
Nathaniel pushed his plate slightly away and rested his elbows on the table. Something was wrong. This didn’t make sense. Chloe was quite emotional, and while he supposed that was natural for a woman, she looked like she was about to collapse.
“Chloe, how long have you been looking for this child?” He got the sense she wasn’t telling all of it. She was holding something back, something important, and it was something she apparently didn’t want to share. Why?
“Months,” she mumbled.
“You said you learned about this in Nebraska. You were in Nebraska?”
She turned to Nathaniel. “No, for the past few years I’ve lived in Dakota Territory, the Black Hills, where my friend and I worked in a bakery.” She paused, her voice fading. “But the baby was left at an orphanage in Nebraska years before that.”
“Where in Nebraska?” he asked.
She sent a glance his way. He could’ve sworn it was filled with fear, but she answered, her voice so soft he could hardly hear.
“Lincoln.”
“Why are you searching for her? Why isn’t the child’s family looking for her?”
“The child’s mother is dead,” Lillian answered, without looking at him. “She was good friends with Chloe. The only other relative is an older woman, so Chloe volunteered to search for her.”
Nathaniel shook his head. “This doesn’t make sense.” He glanced again at Chloe. “Even if you find the child, who’s going to adopt her? The older woman?”
Chloe inhaled sharply and her face paled once more. “I can’t tell you that,” she said quietly.
He stared at her for several moments and then glanced at his mother, who simply shook her head, confused. Lillian still stood behind Chloe, watching him. He knew that look. She wanted him to stop questioning, but something was wrong here.
A young woman like Chloe Whitfield shouldn’t have been allowed to roam the high plains on her own. It was dangerous. Where had she gotten the money for her search, looking for a child who’d been placed in an orphanage?
“What makes you think that even if you find the child, they’ll release her to you? You’re not a blood relative.” He frowned again. “Do you have a legal document with you, giving you the right to claim this child and return her to Nebraska?”
He paused in dismay as Chloe suddenly bowed her head and covered her face with her hands, shoulders shaking with silent sobs. Dumbfounded, Nathaniel looked to his mother, who seemed as confused as he, but Lillian’s response was different.
“Can’t you see she’s upset, Nathaniel?” Lillian softly scolded.
He gaped at his sister. “I asked a reasonable question,” he defended himself, and turned once again to Chloe. What had he said to cause this reaction?
“It’s all right, Chloe,” Lillian soothed. “He’s just doing his job, he didn’t mean to upset you.”
“I can speak for myself, sister,” he murmured.
He turned to Chloe. He certainly hadn’t meant to make Chloe cry like this, but at the same time he couldn’t understand why she was.
He leaned forward and touched a couple of fingers to her shoulder.
He didn’t know what else to do or what to say and cleared his throat.
“I suppose we can talk about this later.”
“No!” Chloe moaned. She lifted her head, her eyes shining and tears on her cheeks.
“Chloe, what’s wrong?” Dalia asked, also trying to comfort the young woman.
Nathaniel stared. Chloe’s lips trembled as she looked up at him, her cheeks flushed now, misery plain to see in her expression.
What had he said to cause such a reaction?
He felt bad, but didn’t know what to do about it.
Chloe tried to rise from her chair, but with Lillian on one side of her now and his mother on the other, she couldn’t.
Nathaniel sat still in his chair as Chloe stared wildly at all of them before once more she began to sob, her voice breaking.
“I’m sor … sorry!” she cried. “I lied … I’m lying …”