Inside, he latched the door and scanned the room. An opened door suggested a pantry, and he moved silently toward it. He froze in the doorway when something moved in the darkness. A moment later, a kitten flitted past his feet, making him gasp before he caught himself.
He had taken another step into the room when some instinct told him the cat wasn't its only occupant. He eased back, ready to run.
"Nonny?"
Could he have imagined a voice so clear? "Peggy?" he whispered.
"Nonny!" Before he could clamp a hand over her mouth, she had shouted it.
"Peggy," he whispered fiercely, his hunger forgotten. He had found her! But what was she doing here, sleeping just off the kitchen? Was she the family's maid? She was just a baby!
He heard a sound from deeper in the house. "Come on, Peggy, we have to get outta here!"
He tried to pull his sister toward the door, but she resisted, straining toward the kitten. "Come on," he whispered again.
A door opened and a woman came through it. "It's all right, sweetheart," she was saying.
Johnny froze at the back door, one hand on the knob and the other holding Peggy's. The woman froze, too, looking frightened at first, then simply curious. "What are you doing here?" she asked. "What do you want with Peggy?"
Johnny tugged on Peggy's arm, still hoping to run, but she pulled away. He didn't want to leave her but he couldn't help her from a jail cell. He flung open the door and started out into the night.
"Nonny!" Peggy shrieked.
He paused, uncertain for a moment, then turned back into the house. The woman didn't look cross or mean, but he knew he couldn't trust her. He didn't close the door behind him.
Peggy threw herself against him, clinging to him. He wrapped his arms around her and eyed the woman. "Don't worry," he murmured. "I ain't leavin' you."
The woman smiled a very pretty smile. "I know why you look familiar," she said. "What's your name?"
He hesitated, cautious about giving out any information. Finally he muttered, "Johnny."
"Nonny," Peggy echoed imperfectly.
"She's missed you," the woman said. "How did you find her?"
Johnny shrugged.
"I'm Jane, by the way. Are you hungry? I think Peggy is. She went to sleep before dinner." Jane moved toward the cupboard. They had another chance to run. Johnny tugged on his sister's hand, but the effort was only halfhearted. He was starving and Jane promised food.
She was setting plates at the kitchen table when a man stepped into the open doorway right behind Johnny. The boy flung himself away, maneuvering Peggy behind him.
"What's going on?" Adam asked. "I heard Peggy scream and thought you might need some help. Who is this?"
"This is Peggy's brother, Johnny," Jane said.
The man's face registered surprise. He asked, as she had, "How did you find her?"
Johnny scowled. "Who are you?"
Adam stuck out a hand. "Dr. Hart, Jane's neighbor."
Johnny eyed the hand a moment before taking it briefly. Peggy slipped away and climbed up in a chair to watch Jane. "Food, Nonny," she informed him. "Good food."
Johnny watched Jane butter a slice of bread and hand it to his little sister, who took it, smiling up at the woman.
"Come sit down, Johnny," Jane said. "You can tell us how you found your sister and how you were separated in the first place. Adam, could you bring in a couple more chairs?"
While the man she called Adam was gone, Johnny walked cautiously to the table and sat across from his sister. He would eat, at least, then look for an opportunity to escape. Adam returned with the chairs and positioned one for Jane next to Peggy. He turned his own around to straddle it. The adults gave each other a curious glance before turning to stare at Johnny.
Johnny considered his situation while he helped himself to bread and cheese and cold roast beef. If this was how they usually fed Peggy it was no wonder she trusted them. Perhaps if he told them how he had found his sister, they would let him take her and go.
"Well," he began around a mouthful of beef, "when Peggy first disappeared, I asked around. Spike, that's my friend, said he heard that two men and a woman took Peggy away. I figured they put her in one of them orphan asylums. I broke into four of them at night but couldn't find my sister."
He spread a slice of fresh bread with butter. "Next, I started hidin' on the playgrounds 'til they let the kids out. Finally, I found a boy what remembered her bein' there. He said she'd been sent out west.
"I marched right up to the prison guard, or whatever they call themselves, and demanded they send my sister back." Johnny couldn't help puffing out his chest a little and smiled at Peggy's giggle.
He glanced at the adults, who seemed to be watching in shocked silence. Pleased, Johnny continued, "The guard said he didn't know where they sent her, just that she was turned over to this society. He gave me their address, then tried to get me to go to some shelter. I lit out before he could catch me.
"Spike helped me steal some clothes and a fake mustache from a theater. You shoulda seen me, Peggy, I looked real elegant."
"Elegant," she mimicked. He gave her a wink.
"I found the place and said I was her uncle." He decided not to mention that the man in the office hadn't believed him. "I demanded to know where they'd shipped my niece. He looked up in his file and told me Clyde, Kansas."
Johnny piled more of the beef on another slice of bread and gave the adults a moment to digest what he had told them so far. They didn't need to know that he had thought Clyde, Kansas, was a person rather than a place or that he had nearly tripped on his way out because the stolen shoes were too big.
"How did you manage to find your way here?" the man called Adam asked.
Johnny chewed and swallowed. "I jumped a train that was heading west. After a couple of days, I was discovered and had to run. I met up with a cowboy who told me what I needed to know to get here."
"What did you plan to do once you found your sister?" Adam asked.
Johnny shrugged. "I'll take her back where we belong."
"And you belong in an alley somewhere?"
"We don't belong here, that's for damn sure."
"Damn sure," mimicked Peggy.
Johnny grinned. The woman chewed on her lip like she didn't want to laugh and the man was trying not to show his annoyance, and failing.
"And why is that?" Adam asked.
"There ain't nothin' here!" Johnny declared, surprised at the question. "There's just some houses in the middle of nothin'."
"And there are endless opportunities for you in the city?"
Johnny grinned at Adam. "For me there are." He rubbed the tips of his fingers together:
"As a thief," Adam provided.
Johnny tried to stare the man down, but his eyes didn't waver. Finally Johnny looked down at his plate.
Adam asked softly, "And your sister, what are her opportunities?"
Johnny looked at Peggy. She had eaten her fill and was dropping crumbs on the floor for her kitten.
He imagined looking after the little girl in the streets of a city. He had tried and had lost her. He had thought he had left her in a safe place, as if anywhere on the streets was truly safe. He had been only a few blocks away when a constable had seen him snatch an apple from a cart. He had to run. By the time he had been sure it was safe to return, his sister was gone.
"Johnny," Adam said into the silence. "I'm impressed that you could track your sister all the way out here-"
Johnny interrupted with a return of his old bravado. "He's damned impressed, ain't he, Peggy?"
"Damn pressed," chimed the girl.
Johnny tossed Adam a defiant grin.
"But," Adam continued, doing a better job this time of hiding his irritation, "your choices now are to find yourself a life out here, or go back alone."
Johnny narrowed his eyes at the man's challenge. Before he could respond, however, the woman said, "You don't have to decide anything now. You're welcome to stay here as long as you like."
She rose from her chair and brushed his hair off his brow. He surprised himself by not flinching away from her. He knew what she was thinking; his hair was just like Peggy's.
"Johnny," Adam said, coming to his feet. "Why
don't you spend the night at my house? I'll help you get cleaned up before breakfast."