Free The Pursuit of Lucy Banning by Olivia Newport Page B

early, but he’s growing every day.”
    What an impossible situation , Lucy thought. Obviously Charlotte could not keep a baby in the household. Whatever situation made her abandon her previous home with a newborn and no job must have been dire. Under what circumstances could hiding a baby be the better option? Lucy had witnessed the wrenching hearts as mothers left their children at St. Andrew’s. Many of them intended to visit regularly. Employment obligations, distance, lack of transportation, living on a pittance—these added up to notes meant to substitute temporarily for visits, and gradually lengthy lapses between notes, and finally the realization that children who did have a parent would nevertheless grow up in St. Andrew’s along with children who did not. Lucy understood Charlotte’s reluctance to leave her baby in the care of another woman, yet keeping him at the Banning house would never work. He would get older and bigger and louder and need more attention than a working maid could give. Neither Penard nor Mrs. Fletcher would stand for it, not to mention Samuel and Flora.
    It simply wasn’t done on Prairie Avenue.
    “Charlotte, you look like you haven’t slept,” Lucy said softly.
    “Four nights now, miss,” Charlotte confessed. “Henry sleeps all day as long as I can sneak up and feed him, but he wants his mama at night.”
    “Of course he does.” With gentle pressure on the maid’s arm, Lucy guided her to sit with her at the table. The unpadded straight-back chairs felt narrow and unfamiliar. Lucy couldn’t help but glance around the kitchen, soaking in details of food preparation mystery. Pots hung on hooks from the ceiling, and bins held flour, sugar, and potatoes. Knives on a butcher block awaited the next meal. Open shelves held the dishes she supposed the servants ate off, and a wide modern stove gleamed.
    “I wanted some hot water to give him a bath,” Charlotte explained. “I would not have brought him down with me if I had known you were home. I’m so sorry I disturbed you, miss.”
    “That’s not important, Charlotte. The question is what are you going to do with Henry?”
    Charlotte raised her eyes and fixed them on Lucy’s face for the first time. “Are you going to tell Mr. Penard? Or your parents?”
    Charlotte had every reason to ask, Lucy knew. One word from her and Charlotte would be out on the street without even the wages she had earned in the last two days. Penard never would have entertained hiring a maid with a baby, and Flora Banning never would have given approval. No one in the household was attached enough to the new maid to argue she should be kept on after such deception. A maid in Charlotte’s position was up early, before the family, and worked long hours until well after dark. She might have a couple of hours in the afternoon when she could get off her feet and put her hands to work on mending or other needlework for the family. Her job was to take care of the family’s needs, not look after a child who would grow in mobility, appetite, and demands.
    “If it’s all the same to you, miss,” Charlotte said, “I’ll just duck upstairs for my things. I can be gone before anyone else comes home.” She stood and turned toward the stairs.
    Lucy put a hand on Charlotte’s arm. “No, please don’t do that.”
    “But, Miss Lucy—”
    “We’ll figure something out.” Lucy pressed her grip more firmly. “I’d like to help you.”
    Charlotte’s gaze drifted around the kitchen, uncertain.
    “Charlotte, please, let me help. I have connections. I can make some telephone calls. Perhaps you don’t know of my volunteer work at St. Andrew’s Orphanage.”
    “Henry is not an orphan!” A sob stole breath in Charlotte’s protest.
    “No, of course not,” Lucy was quick to reassure. “He has you. Many of the children at St. Andrew’s have one parent.”
    “I can’t put him in a place like that. I won’t.”
    “The children there are well cared for,