And yet, they were in a much worse place than Kizzie, because as Kizzie saw her life now, she recognized God had placed her in a better position than anything she could have ever had back with Charles.
A job, an apartment, friends.
Her smile grew.
And now she knew with even more certainty why God had placed her in Mrs. Carter's shop in The Hollows.
To help women like herself find hope.
The consistent clicking of the machinery hummed through the room, as workers kept to their positions, some attempting small conversations over the noise of the machines. Others quietly kept to their repetitive work. Even the mule scavengers, mostly ten or eleven years old, appeared more serious than usual as they slipped beneath the spinning mule to retrieve fallen pieces of cotton before the carriage returned to the creel.
Usually, the boys raced the carriage to the creel like a game.
News of the theft had made its way through the mill, sobering most folks, because any hit to the overall production had the possibility of hurting their pay. But Noah was determined to keep any more docks in pay from happening. He had to, or they'd lose even more people.
His gaze traveled to an empty knitting machine on the other side of the room. Another family gone. Left only a few days ago to move to Mount Airy. Better pay, better support, and a mill village where their children could receive an education. In fact, that mill village even had a YMCA, with one of the most popular baseball teams around. He stifled a groan. How could he compete with that? Especially if someone was stealing from their mill and George refused to make needed changes.
Who was it?
One of the workers?
What evidence did he have? A button and cigarette butt.
His attention moved to Peabody, but the older man wasn't the only smoker in the mill. His gaze trailed the room, pinpointing others, but Noah had known most of them for years and none of them fit the profile of a thief at all.
Jones, the other watchman, assured Noah he'd keep an eye out for any hints of who the culprit or culprits might be.
“The Carpenters left?” George stood from his desk as Noah entered his brother's office. “When?”
“Their last day was Wednesday.”
George slammed a fist down on his desk. “But he was one of the best spinners we had.”
“I'll make inquiries in town for more workers, but you can't expect to find a replacement for Peter Carpenter's skills anytime soon. He's been with us five years and worked as a spinner five years before that somewhere else.”
“We must have someone to take his place, Noah. We can't allow production to slow.”
Noah attempted to tamp down a sudden rise of fury. “Then you're going to have to pay for a replacement. No one's going to come to our limping mill for the pay Peter received for the past two years.”
George's jaw tightened, and he pushed back from his desk and stood. “Fine. Write up an advertisement and list it in town for whatever you think will bring us someone fast.”
Noah stared, waiting for his brother to change his mind, but George was silent. “Do you have any idea who might steal from us, George?”
His brother released an exaggerated sigh and took his time looking up to meet Noah's gaze. “How many names from our current riffraff of mill workers do you want?”
Noah drew in a breath, attempting to calm himself. A fight wouldn't help anyone right now. “Someone who either knows how to pick locks or has a key.”
George narrowed his eyes. “Someone with a key?”
“That's the only other way besides lock picking that anyone could get into the store. No windows were broken. And Jones said he'd ensured all the doors were locked before he finished his shift and Sykes took over.”
“Maybe we should examine the whereabouts of our watchmen, then?” George released a humorless laugh. “Noah, don't make this more complicated than it has to be. A simple thief could have broken in to that store and taken our inventory, and there's no way to track any of it, so we're going to have to chalk it up to another loss.”
Something in the way his brother's gaze shifted or the tone of his voice put Noah on edge. Did George know more than he was admitting about the robbery?
Was he protecting someone?
A chill swept through Noah's body.
