Take Me Home by Nancy Herkness Page A

and I are acquainted.”
    Holly nodded, and Claire mouthed her own
thank you
as Tim headed back toward the kitchen.
    “I’m going to say good night to the girls,” she said, turning to head down the hallway.
    The two children were huddled together under a patchwork quilt on the big bed, their curly hair wisping out of the braids hanging over the shoulders of their princess pajamas. Claire had given Holly and Frank the quilt as a wedding gift, commissioning its creator to embroider their names and the date along the border. She wondered if Frank’s name could be ripped out without damaging the fabric too badly.
    “Aunt Claire!” Kayleigh shrieked, hurling herself across the bed and into Claire’s arms. “I was so scared.”
    Claire shifted the little girl to her side and held out her free arm to Brianna. The older girl scooted across the quilt and snuggled in against her.
    “Thanks for coming,” Brianna whispered. “I was scared too.”
    “You did the right thing by calling me.” Claire watched Brianna’s face lose some of its pinched tension. She wanted to reassure the child, since she suspected Holly had reprimanded her for involving others. “It was important for me to be here tonight. I think you know that.”
    Brianna nodded before she buried her face in Claire’s shoulder and began to sob. “Mama says Lauren got broken. She was my favorite Royal Doulton lady.”
    “You can have Genevieve. She’s really pretty too.” Kayleigh’s little voice quavered slightly.
    Tears welled up in Claire’s throat. She and Holly had done the same thing when they were young—spent hours debating which of the china ladies they each liked the best.
    “No, Genevieve is yours,” Brianna said, lifting her tear-streaked face. “I’ll pick a different lady.”
    “Maybe we can find another Lauren,” Claire said, mentally crossing her fingers for good luck. “My job is to locate beautiful things for people, so you can hire me to help you. For free.”
    Brianna sniffled and straightened up. “Thank you, Aunt Claire, but I like Laurianne too. She’s reading a book.”
    “That’s nice of both of you,” Claire said, admiring her nieces’ generosity toward each other. “I want you to know that you are two very smart, brave girls. You did exactly the right thing tonight, both of you. I’m proud of you.”
    “Aunt Claire? Mama says you have a whisper horse that you can tell anything you want to,” Brianna said.
    “That’s right. Her name is Willow.”
    “Can two people have the same whisper horse?”
    “I don’t see why not, but the real expert is my friend Sharon. Why don’t we visit the stable tomorrow and ask her?”
    “Me too?” Kayleigh asked. “Mama says they have kittens there.”
    “Of course you too,” Claire said, pulling the girls close to her again.
    As she hugged them, she thought how small and light their child’s bones were beneath the brightly colored pajama fabrics, almost like a bird’s. A desire to protect them from all the ugliness in the world surged through her with fearsome power. How could Holly even think of exposing these two precious beings to Frank’s violence? Claire could feel anger welling up inside heragain. She fought it down by dropping her nose into Brianna’s hair and inhaling the sweet powdery scent of innocence.
    “I love you so much,” she murmured against the curve of her niece’s skull. “And I love you,” she said, shifting to Kayleigh’s little head.
    She felt something shift deep inside her as her feelings for these two little girls seemed to expand and strengthen second by second. “I won’t let anyone hurt you ever again.”
    Oddly enough, she had said almost the same thing to Willow.

“H OW DID IT go with the police chief?” Claire asked Tim. She had tucked two clean, pajama-clad little girls in bed next to her sister before she found him sitting at the kitchen table eating the casserole he had rescued from the oven.
    His blazer was slung over