Thornbrook Park by Sherri Browning Page B

mind.
    They weren’t expecting him. He hoped a visit wouldn’t be an imposition. Prudence was far too good-natured to say so if it were. He stopped at a cart to buy some flowers on the way. With few windows, no electricity, and Prudence’s thrift limiting even their use of candles, the little five-room flat that housed the Coopers could get dreary. Flowers would brighten it up a bit. He made a second stop for the tea cakes that Anna and little Emily adored. Deciding that wasn’t enough, couldn’t possibly be enough, he made a few more stops and arranged for a fat goose and some baskets of fresh fruit and vegetables to be delivered later in the day, too late for Prudence to attempt any refusal of his generosity.
    Only then—armed with flowers, pastries, and the knowledge that any meal she tried to feed him would be replaced in her pantry after his departure—did he walk up the three flights to knock on Prudence Cooper’s door.
    â€œMarcus! What a lovely surprise. Do come in. Never mind your boots.” She stopped him when he stooped to remove his boots. “Children, come and see who is here.”
    He found her good cheer contagious. Such was her nature. She was a pleasant-looking woman with a round face and ready smile, the sort that made one feel at home.
    Her green dress was clean, faded but not frayed. Her house was immaculate, making him wish he’d ignored her and removed his boots. Not a half minute after she closed the door behind him, the children came running to greet him. Emily and Anna, the two girls, and Finn, the youngest, who was now nearly as tall as Emily, trailing behind.
    â€œAre those tea cakes?” Emily spied the brown-paper-wrapped parcel in his hands before he even had a chance to greet her properly.
    â€œWhat, this here?” He held the parcel out by the string. “Cakes? No, just some old fish. Do you like old fish?”
    Emily darted forth to give him the requisite hug, reaching for the cakes before her sister could get them.
    â€œI get the almond ones,” Anna declared, stepping forward. How much she had grown. At nearly thirteen, she was no longer a slip of a girl. She’d begun to develop her mother’s curves. Before long, she would be courted and married, properly if he could arrange it. Once he got them to the farm, he might encourage Sophia to introduce the girl to a wider circle of acquaintances.
    â€œThey’re all almond,” he pronounced before the girls commenced fighting over them. He remembered which they’d favored last time.
    â€œYou’re becoming wise to the ways of parenting, Captain Thorne.”
    â€œToo wise, perhaps.” He shrugged out of his coat and ignored her reach for it to go to the corner and hang it himself. “Where’s Brandon?”
    She blushed. “Brandon’s just gone off with some friends. Boys, you know.”
    â€œHe hasn’t come home,” Finn offered proudly, perhaps not aware that he was causing his idol brother trouble in his haste to report any and all information. “After supper, it was his turn to clean up, but he called Mum a shrew and ran off.”
    â€œIs this true, Prudence?” Marcus turned to her, unable to mask the concern in his eyes. “Did he speak to you in such a manner? And he hasn’t returned?”
    â€œIt’s nothing, Marcus. He’s at an age, no longer a boy but not yet a man. You must remember what it was like.”
    â€œI never disrespected my parents.” Though, God knows, he had come close with his father at times. “You can’t stand for this, Prue. I won’t stand for it. I’m going out to bring him home.”
    â€œI have no idea where he might have gone.” Prudence twisted her hand in the chain at her throat, the one that she never removed. It held a charm shaped like a key, from William. The key to William’s heart. Marcus ached for her.
    â€œI have an idea. I’ll