Adam couldn't help laughing. "I think that's the least of our worries." He turned to Johnny and patted him down. "When you get back, your pockets better be just as empty as they are now."
Johnny made a face, then turned to the couple. "Tell me what to do. The sooner I get started the sooner I'm done."
Adam found Peggy following the kitten around the shelves. He checked her apron pocket but needn't have worried. There wasn't room for any pilfered items because it contained half a biscuit.
Peggy slung the kitten over one arm and let Adam lift her. When they walked out the door, she pointed over his shoulder. "Nonny."
"Johnny's going to work here for a little while."
"Peggy, too."
"No," Adam said, heading for home. "Peggy needs to come home with me. There are some people coming who'll want to meet you."
"Nonny gone?"
"No, he'll be along."
He answered the same question a dozen more times. By the time he reached the house, the question had become a. whisper. Peggy headed straight for the desk and hid.
* * *
Jane couldn't keep her mind off Adam and the children. She wanted to run next door and hug them one more time. She wanted to be there when the prospective parents came for them, but she understood why she couldn't.
When the dishes were clean and put away, she went out to her garden. After digging sweet potatoes for dinner, she returned to her kitchen, feeling no interest in any pruning or weeding.
Now, she decided, was the time to read her mother's letters. They had been working on her curiosity since she had found them. She considered the parlor, as it was sunny this time of day, but didn't want to be disturbed. She flung open the curtains in her bedroom and settled into a chair by the window, the packet on her lap.
Peggy wouldn't venture out from under the desk, although the kitten did. Adam thought she would eventually follow the kitten, but instead her loud whisper would call the kitten back to their hiding place. Adam wished Peggy was really playing the game the kitten took it for. How was he to explain this behavior to prospective parents?
Fortunately, Johnny returned about midday and coaxed her out. "You don't have to hide anymore. I told ya," he said.
"Nonny gone," she whimpered, clinging to him.
"I weren't gone. I was workin'. Wanna see what I got?"
Peggy nodded vigorously.
Johnny fished around in his pocket and pulled out a penny. He smiled as he showed it to his sister, then turned a defiant glare on Adam. "I didn't steal it, neither. If'n I was to steal, I'd know enough to take more'n a penny."
"That's probably the most convincing evidence you could give me," Adam said. "Are you hungry?"
He led the way to the kitchen, where he laid out a light lunch of cheese and crackers. Peggy put the kitten down and climbed into a chair. "Nonny fat," she announced.
"Not this Nonny," Johnny said.
"Nonny Kitty," said Peggy, pointing.
"Is Peggy fat, too?" Johnny asked, tickling her ribs. "If you're gettin' fat it's Aunt Jane's doin', not Dr. Hart's."
Peggy giggled. "Go see Ann Jane."
"Maybe later," Adam said, hoping to divert the girl's attention. "Have a cracker."
"Go see Ann Jane," she repeated, taking the cracker and biting into it.
Johnny smirked at him, and he knew there would be no help there. "We can't, honey. Aunt Jane's busy."
"Ann Jane gone?" she asked, looking concerned.
"Aunt Jane's working, like Johnny was."
This seemed to satisfy her, and she settled into the chair and ate. When she was full, she dropped the crumbling biscuit from her pocket onto the floor for Nonny and replaced it with crackers and cheese. Johnny was more secretive, but Adam noticed he put a little away in his pockets as well. It made Adam wonder if the boy was waiting for a chance to run away.
Before they had finished cleaning up from their lunch, George came in the front door, calling, "Adam?"
Adam quickly brushed the worst of the crumbs off Peggy's face and dress and brought the two children out to meet him.
"Adam," George announced, "this is Mr. and Mrs. Dobbs. Folks, this is Dr. Hart and little Peggy and Johnny."
Adam shot Johnny a warning, look and shook hands with the couple. They were middle-aged and seemed very pleasant.
"We didn't know about the boy," the wife said. "I was just wanting a girl.'
"We didn't know about Johnny, either," Adam said. "He traveled a long way to find his sister. I believe they ought to stay together."
"He doesn't look very strong," the husband commented. "Is he willing to work?"
Adam wondered how Johnny felt hearing himself discussed. The boy was frowning at his sister.
"I think he'd do anything for his sister," Adam said. "And that would include working hard so he could stay near her."
"I don't know," the wife said. "I only wanted a girl."
"We could keep him as labor," her husband suggested. "He could sleep in the barn."
Adam didn't like that idea at all, but before he could speak, Johnny sprang to his feet.
"Ma'am," he said, still looking at his sister. "If you just want a girl you can take her. You don't need to find no place for me." He finally looked at the couple. "But. you better love her and be good to her."
"Well, it's settled then," the woman said, smiling. She knelt down. "Do you want to come home with me, little girl?"
In Adam's mind, this was far from settled. He didn't want to send Peggy home with people who would even talk of treating Johnny as merely labor. He was ready to object when Peggy did it for him.
"No," she said.
"You go with 'em, Peggy," Johnny said. His eyes were dry but there were tears in his voice. "They'll be your mama and papa." He gave her a nudge toward the woman.
Peggy ran to Adam instead and grabbed his leg. She pointed a little finger at the woman and yelled, "You go!"
The woman drew back, offended. "I understood she was a quiet, sweet child."
Adam put his hand on her shoulder. "She is. You've just frightened her. But maybe it's for the best. I don't want her to go without Johnny, and I don't want Johnny sleeping in a barn."
George made the apologies and saw the couple out the door. When he turned back, he was smiling. "You ready to give up, son?"
Adam lifted Peggy into his arms. "It's not a matter of giving up," he muttered. "It's-"
Peggy's sticky hands turned his face toward her, cutting him off. "Go see Ann Jane?"
Adam ignored George's laugh. "Johnny, take Peggy outside, please, but try not to let her bother Aunt Jane."
Johnny had been watching him curiously. "How do I do that?" he asked, taking his sister's hand when Adam set her down.
"I don't know. Keep her outside."
Johnny scowled at him over his shoulder. "You're gonna talk about me, ain't ya?"
The letters were scattered on the floor all around Jane's chair. She had read every one through at least twice. Her first surprise had been discovering that they were from her father, even the letters with the obviously feminine handwriting on the envelope. Her father's fear that Grams would destroy any letters from him had forced him to ask a neighbor for assistance.
Jane's second surprise had been to learn that her father had loved her mother and, according to the references to her responses, she had loved him in return. He had not abandoned his family; Grams had torn it apart.
Grams, in her anger at her own abandonment, had discouraged Hanna's love for William. When that had not been successful, she had feigned illness to bring her daughter home. Once back under her mother's influence, Hanna had never been able to break away again. Time after time, William had asked when Hanna would come back to him. He had begged to be allowed to come get her, to at least visit her and their little girl.
Jane wondered if Grams had written to him when Hanna died. The last letter was dated months before that, but he might have written again, a letter that Grams opened to discover from whom it had come. If that was the case, Grams would have learned that Hanna had not been corresponding with a female friend, after all. Had Grams searched for the other letters among Hanna's things? Perhaps not or she wouldn't have dismissed the jewelry box.
It was hard to reconcile the woman referred to in the letters with the grandmother Jane had known all her life. Grams had loved her and cared for her, but she had also lied to her. She had taught her to mistrust men, claiming that her father had been just like her grandfather. Jane had to wonder, now, if her grandfather had been as bad as Grams had claimed.