Sycamore Hill (eBook)

Janet Morris Belvin (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2023 | 1. Auflage
230 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
979-8-3509-0722-3 (ISBN)

Infos

An uplifting book about the power of love, courage, new life, and new beginnings. Return to the gorgeous terrain of Northern Virginia's horse country where three families and a group of nuns are about to have their lives intertwined by crime, shocking secrets, and new births.

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Return to the gorgeous terrain of Northern Virginia's horse country where three families - the Hills, the O'Connells, and the Browns - find their lives intertwined with the nuns of the Convent of the Sisters of Mercy. A crime committed by two brothers serves as a catalyst to bring the families and friends together in the village of Braverton Mill. Meanwhile, new births are happening all around them, from the horses at Greyson to the inhabitants of both the Hill home and the O'Connell home. When expectant parents Charlie and Sue O'Connell decide that their small home won't hold another infant, they look around for something larger. Finding a classic brick manor, they buy the house and its acreage and begin restoring it. In the process, an astonishing secret is discovered in the basement of Sycamore Hill, a secret that will affect all the families as well as the nuns. Inspired by the extraordinary courage of actual conductors on the Underground Railroad during the Civil War, this captivating book is a reminder that no matter what era we live in, we are all connected through our shared histories. Family is not necessarily determined by whose blood you carry, but by the love you share.

Textauszug

Chapter Three

Back to Greyson

December

For the last few days, Peyton Hill had not felt exactly right. Ever since the attack on her life a year before by disgraced banker Taylor Jamison and his heavies, her husband Cameron had been especially protective of her. Taylor had been sent to prison with quite a lengthy sentence ahead of him and his henchmen had been deported or, in the case of Carlos Del Vilar, killed in a shootout with Sheriff Barry James. Cameron and Peyton had just celebrated their first wedding anniversary in September with a small dinner party at Greyson, the colonial era manor house in Loudoun County that had been in Peyton’s family for generations. Cameron, thirty-four years old, was a tall man, over six feet with brown, close-cropped hair and an air of quiet assurance. When he wasn’t managing their vast farm holdings in the Loudoun area, he spent his time with his wife Peyton and three-year-old daughter Ruthie. Since his marriage, Cameron, Greyson’s former farm manager, had continued his stewardship of their farm – the crops, the animals, the buildings – all doing well under his careful maintenance. His wife, the dark-haired thirty-three year old Peyton, continued to do editing for Oxford University Press in London but only worked remotely from their home in Virginia. Since her marriage to Cameron the year before, Peyton had discovered that the only place she wanted to be was at Greyson. That suited Cameron just fine.

Ruthie, the daughter of Cameron and his late wife Jane, had begun calling Peyton “Mommy” right after Peyton and Cameron’s wedding. Jane had died of a brain tumor little more than a year after Ruthie was born, so Ruthie had no memory of her. Nevertheless, Peyton and Cameron made sure that Jane wasn’t forgotten by keeping her photos around and having visits with Jane’s family who lived in Fredericksburg.

Ruthie, a tiny sprite with light brown hair, was now three years old and living happily with her parents at Greyson. Peyton and Cameron had recently bought a pinto pony for her which Ruthie loved with all her heart. She named the animal Buddy and begged to be allowed to have riding lessons. The only thing missing in Ruthie’s life was a brother or sister. She asked for one almost daily, something which made her parents smile. Maybe someday, they told her.

A few days before, Peyton had begun to feel puffy and tired, a matter which concerned Cameron. His past experience with Jane’s cancer made him overly cautious. So he’d insisted that Peyton get checked out at her doctor’s office, located in Inova Loudoun Hospital in Leesburg. Wary because of the escape of the Webb brothers from prison, he added a reminder to be watchful, but told his wife they were probably long gone from the area. Still, he told her, it didn’t hurt to be cautious and aware of everything around her. Peyton insisted that she’d be fine and was just tired from taking care of Ruthie as well as editing all the manuscripts she’d been sent from London. But to appease her husband, she made the appointment with her OB/GYN, Dr. Pine.

Josiah Pine had maintained a gynecology and obstetrics practice in the area for thirty years. He was a Braverton Mill native, a big man of 70 with white hair and a trim mustache. He had a gruff exterior but those who knew him, as Peyton did, knew that he had a heart of gold and was an excellent diagnostician. Having a thriving medical practice in the relatively big city of Leesburg, Dr. Pine still had the persona of a small-town country doctor. He’d given Peyton her college physical years ago and had been a bridge partner with her daddy for years before the plane crash that took the lives of Jimmy and Dorothy Thurman, Peyton’s parents.

On the morning of her 2:00 PM appointment, it was chilly outside, so Peyton had dressed carefully in a pair of navy blue slacks and a blue and white Fair Isle sweater. Ruthie wore a denim overall atop a long-sleeved pink blouse with a round collar and pink tennis shoes. Always ready for an adventure, Ruthie loved that she’d be staying with Miss Sarah at the Little Red Schoolhouse while Peyton was at her appointment. Ruthie could barely contain her excitement when Peyton turned her car into the short gravel driveway that led to the stone cottage housing the preschool. Sarah Brown, the owner, stepped out of the front door, a rake in her hand. She was in her mid-sixties with grey hair and a mellow brown complexion. A smile broke across her face as she saw Peyton stopping the car in the driveway.

“Hey, here, if it isn’t Ruthie. Did you come to help me rake all these leaves, sweet girl?” Sarah said.

Peyton parked her car, helped Ruthie out of her car seat and took her hand. Together they walked up to the house. Ruthie, clearly excited about getting to help Miss Sarah, dropped Peyton’s hand and ran to grab her teacher’s hand.

“What are we gonna do today, Miss Sarah?” she squealed.

“Well, first, we’ve got to rake these leaves here. Then you and I need to go in and make some cookies for Mr. Walter.”

Walter was Sarah’s husband and a great favorite of Ruthie’s as he frequently brought around his pony up to the house for rides. A 67-year-old man with grey at the temples and crinkles at the corners of his eyes, Walter ran a successful landscape business from his and Sarah’s farm home behind the Little Red Schoolhouse. He had retired from the US Postal Service as a mail carrier a few months before and had since turned the landscape work he’d done for years on the side into a thriving and successful second career.

Ruthie ran back to give her mother a peck on the cheek, waved her pudgy hand goodbye as her mother started her car’s engine and scampered off to rake some leaves. Sarah handed her a child-sized rake and they began moving the leaves into a pile. Of course, the task took longer than necessary as Ruthie kept jumping into the leaf piles. Finally though, after finishing that task, Sarah and Ruthie sat for a quiet minute in the double yard swing, its gentle squeaking marking time. The thin sunshine of the December day soon drove the two back inside to the kitchen of the preschool.

Peyton watched for a minute, then bid Sarah goodbye and got back in her car. She drove the thirty miles to Leesburg and parked in the hospital’s covered garage. In Dr. Pine’s office, Peyton was ushered into the exam room and undressed, folding her clothes neatly and placing them on the chair by the exam table. She had slipped into the uncomfortable paper gown she was given when there was a knock at the door.

“Mrs. Hill? May I come in?”

It was Dr. Pine’s nurse with the news that the doctor had been called away for an emergency C-section.

“So sorry about the inconvenience. We’d like to reschedule you for another visit,” the nurse said.

Peyton smiled wanly at the nurse and agreed. She got dressed again and went out to the reception desk where the nurse gave her a card with a date to return. Slipping the card in her purse, she walked out to her car and headed back to the Little Red Schoolhouse to pick up Ruthie.

Arriving at the preschool, Peyton parked the car and walked around to the back door. She gave a quick knock at the door, and then stepped inside. Sarah looked up, and Peyton saw Ruthie and another little girl by her side, both covered in flour.

“Hey, Mommy,” Ruthie called, skipping happily over to her. “Naomi and I have been making cookies with Miss Sarah. Come see.”

Peyton walked with Sarah, Ruthie and Naomi over to the kitchen island where Ruthie pointed with glee to two cookie sheets full of sugar cookies, decorated haphazardly with colored icing.

“Which ones did you decorate, Ruthie?” Peyton asked, trying to hide a little smile.

“The ones with green icing,” Ruthie said proudly. She whispered into her mother’s ear that Naomi had taken some of her icing away so she didn’t have enough to design a whole Christmas tree.

Sarah nodded, trying to hide her smile, to confirm Ruthie’s statement.

“Ruthie, honey, why don’t you and Naomi go outside for a minute? Mr. Walter is saddling Pickles and I think he might need some help getting it right,” Sarah said with a smile. “I want to talk to your Mama for a minute before you go.”

Naomi pushed Ruthie toward the door. The girls grabbed a cookie each from the pan and one for Mr. Walter and dashed out the back door without another word. Sarah pulled a chair out from the table for Peyton who sat down gratefully.

“Wooo, thanks Miss Sarah, I’ve been so tired lately. Feels good to sit down. Now, what’s up?”

Suddenly the mask of smiles Sarah wore faded and she turned to Peyton.

“Peyton, honey, have you heard the news?”

“What’s going on, Miss Sarah?”

Sarah took a deep breath and sighed. “Somebody spotted those Webb boys around here. Now, I try not to be afraid, but you know how dangerous they are, especially the older one.”

Peyton listened silently, her hand poised over her mouth. Sarah and Walter Brown had been close friends with Peyton’s parents and she loved them like family. Hearing the fear in Sarah’s voice made Peyton worry a bit, but she tried to take away her friend’s worry.

“You and Mr. Walter are bound to be safe here,” Peyton cried. “We’re miles away from the prison. With their escape a month ago, they’re bound to be long gone.”

“No,...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 28.7.2023
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Romane / Erzählungen
• ISBN-13: 979-8-3509-0722-3 / 9798350907223