Belle smiled at the mention of her sweetheart. “You’re right about that. He’s coming with us. To keep us safe. I thought that exceedingly kind.”
“You’re wiping away my objections like they’re ice in the sun,” Mavis said, her brow still lined with worry. “And Uncle Vernon? What does he think about the whole situation? He never had one nice thing to say about Eden—or our father.”
At the mention of their uncle’s name, Belle cut her gaze to the window, squelching her immature desire to make a face. How she loathed that man. “Actually, he’s been very strange since the telegram arrived. When I told him we’d been called back to Eden, his face turned white as chalk and he said little, which confounded us because we’ve all heard him go on and on about Father. Anyway, the next morning, he announced that Aunt Velma would be accompanying him on a long-planned business trip. They packed that day, wished us well, and departed.”
Mavis cocked her head, confused. Their aunt and uncle had been orchestrating their lives for years and didn’t give power away without a fight. “Not one protest or complaint?”
“No. It was the strangest thing. I’m still trying to figure out why.”
“How curious,” Mavis whispered. “Where’d they go?”
“I have no idea. Uncle Vernon hadn’t mentioned the trip until that moment.”
Tired of trying to figure out their guardians’ motives, Belle turned her attention to the mysteries ahead. “Even more surprising is that, after all these years of speculating about our past, we’ll be on a train to Eden in the morning.” She reached down and squeezed Mavis’s hands. “No matter what we learn about Father and his brutish ways, it’ll be better than always wondering, longing.” Belle warmed with the sense of excitement rolling around inside her.
What the future held was anyone’s guess. But she was anxious to find out.
HEART OF EDEN
Book One of the Colorado Hearts
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Montana Promise (McCutcheon Family Series Book 10) Page 28