Courted by Trouble: A Courting Romance (In Hyacinth Book 3) by Bree Cariad

as she pulled it out. It was an antique, something her mother had received from her own grandmother.
    As she and Dora unpacked the rest of the sewing box, Chris’s silence made her turn toward him. “Sweetheart,” he said softly, “look at these.” He reached into the box he was looking at and pulled out a pile of picture albums. Flipping over a cover, he smiled. “Look, they’re all of you.” In fact, they were of each year of her life, starting from the year before her mother died and going backward.
    “I can’t believe Mom did this,” Stephanie said as she put aside one from when she was two, her first year in Hyacinth. Chris was holding two more and she figured they were from her first two years but he was frowning. “What’s wrong?”
    “From the dates on them, they’re from before you were born.” He opened up the oldest and the three of them looked at the first picture. It was a picture of her mother when she was a teenager. Only there were two of her. “Jeanie and Jessica Alverson,” Chris read from the scrawl under the picture. “Age fifteen.”
    “Mom was a twin?”
    “Wow, not just a twin,” Dora said as they turned a couple more pages. “An identical twin.”
    The first album took the twins through high school, ending in a wedding photo. The man was tall with a crew cut and he was in a marine uniform. Her mother smiled into the camera with her sister standing nearby. “Taylor and Jessie’s wedding day,” she read quietly. Something was wrong about the photo, but Stephanie couldn’t quite put her finger on it.
    The second album was of her parents’ married life. A third of the way through there was a newspaper picture of the two of them at a hospital bed with Jessica holding a baby. “Was that you?” Dora asked in excitement.
    “No,” Chris said, reading aloud. “Taylor and Jessie Trundle are pleased to announce the birth of their son Bryant Gregory. From the date, he was about five years older than Steph.”
    Stephanie’s chest began to tighten. Something was wrong here and she knew it. But she couldn’t stop turning the pages. One whole page was taken up with a faded newspaper clipping. Major Taylor Trundle Missing In Action, Feared Dead was the headline.
    “Oh, no,” Dora whispered.
    On the page opposite was another clipping. It was a picture of Jessica holding another baby. Chris read, his voice soft even as his arm wrapped around Stephanie’s shoulders. “Jessica Trundle is pleased to announce the birth of her daughter Stephanie Anne. Her husband Taylor has been missing in action for three months but his wife is sure he will make it home to his family.”
    Dora turned the page and all three of them gasped at the headline on the next newspaper clipping. Jessica Trundle Killed By Drunk Driver .
    Her head pounding, Stephanie shook her head. How could this be? This newspaper was twenty years old but her mother died just a few years ago. “This doesn’t make sense.”
    The next few pages were filled with pictures of a young boy and a baby girl. And then another news clipping. Major Taylor Trundle Is Coming Home . Clearing his throat, Chris read even as his hand took hers and held it tightly. “For years our little community was saddened by all of the horrible things that happened to the young Trundle family but today we are excited to announce that Major Taylor Trundle has been recovered, is alive, and is set to come home within the next few months. Bryant and Stephanie may not remember him, but their father will soon be back in their lives. Jeanie, Jessica’s sister, who has been taking care of the kids should be pleased her brother-in-law is coming home. She can return to school and the entire family can move on with their lives…”
    “That was rather badly put,” Dora said quietly, squeezing Stephanie’s hand. “You realize what this means?”
    “My mom wasn’t my mom,” Stephanie whispered. And that was when it hit her. Grabbing the previous scrapbook, she