“Thank you.” Ruby rested her feather-light hand atop Jessalyn’s. “Your help means a lot to me.” Then she turned and headed to the door, her threadbare skirt swishing behind her.
Jessalyn pressed a hand to her throat. The hardest thing about moving to Chicago was going to be leaving Ruby Spritzer behind. If anyone needed the work she provided, Ruby did.
Yet how many more women like Ruby would she be able to help if her dreams for Chicago came true? Eagle Harbor had a handful of women in need of money, sure, but the Chicago tenements were teeming with them.
Aileen and Lindy had both moved up from Chicago this summer, and though she might not know all of what they endured, it had been clear neither of the women had a penny to their names when they’d arrived in town. What if they’d been able to find work at a dress factory in the city? Would that have helped them?
Well, maybe not Lindy. She’d been glowing ever since her marriage to the town doctor, but something haunted Aileen. The Irishwoman hadn’t fallen into life in Eagle Harbor as easily as Lindy. Would Aileen be happier in Chicago if she had a job there? Jessalyn tilted her head and studied the redheaded woman who’d decided to try opening her cabinet. Maybe she should invite Aileen to come along when she moved. She could certainly use the extra help getting started on her plans.
“You’re mending is over here,” Jessalyn called.
Lindy held up a sketch. “Is this the bridesmaids’ dress?”
“No, it’s?—”
“What did you say you would do if Thomas stayed in town?” Tressa plodded down the stairs with little Sarah awake against her shoulder.
Jessalyn turned and narrowed her eyes at her friend. “Why?”
Tressa gestured out the window that overlooked the small yard behind them. “Because he’s outside building a snowman with the girls. At least I’m guessing that’s Thomas.”
Jessalyn made a beeline for the window, or as much of a beeline as she could, considering all the things she had to step around to get there. Outside, five girls and three men rolled snowballs until they grew as big as boulders. Thomas and Mac were nearly the same size, their broad shoulders and tall bodies unmissable, but her gaze traveled instantly to her husband. He moved with a quiet sturdiness, bending to chuck Megan beneath the chin and speaking to Olivia when she pressed a hand to her ear.
He’d been like that when they’d first met in Chicago. Steady, stalwart, always finding time to stop and talk to someone who might be injured or ill or just plain having a bad day.
Which made it all the more unbelievable that he’d left her and the girls for so long.
Jessalyn reached for her cranberry-colored coat hanging on the peg beside the door and slipped it on. “I’ll be back in a moment.”
“Take yer time,” Aileen called behind her. “We found some other sketches to look at.”
She hurried into the cold before her coat was fully buttoned. “What’s going on here?”
“Mama, come help.” Megan ran over and tugged on her sleeve. “We’ve already built a snow doggy. Now we’re gonna build the biggest snowman in Eagle Harbor.”
Thomas straightened from where he’d been rolling a snowball that now stood taller than his waist and headed toward her.
“Jessalyn.” A smile curled his lips as he said her name, soft and tender and full of more memories she couldn’t afford to dwell on.
“What are you still doing here?” she choked.
“Didn’t you know, Ma? He’s our pa!” Megan clapped her hands.
“You told them you’re their father?” Of course he would. It was the truth, after all, even if it horribly complicated things for their daughters.
“I didn’t, no.” Thomas’s breath puffed a cloud of white as he came up beside her. “But Olivia mentioned it upstairs.”
“Upstairs where?”
He pointed to the second-story windows above the telegraph office. “There’s no room for me at the boarding?—”
“I know.” The entire town knew. It was one of the reasons she’d been so sure he already left. There wasn’t anywhere for him to stay.
“So I’m staying with Isaac Cummings.”
“You’re staying with…?” She felt it then, the careful world she’d built cracking like glass around her. And she couldn’t lose it. It was the only thing she could count on. Her shop, her business, her way of providing for her children. None of it included the husband who’d abandoned her. None of it included moving to South Dakota. None of it included letting her heart get broken all over again, or opening her daughters up to the pain of their father leaving a second time.
“Megan, dear.” She reached down and patted her daughter’s shoulder. “Why don’t you help Mr. Oakton and Jane with their snowball?”
