Free A Home for Her Heart by Janet Lee Barton Page B

going to? Oh, please, no. And she couldn’t ask. Oh, she hoped her aunt had a good mask for her to wear.
    “I’m glad everyone will be able to make it,” Mrs. Heaton said. “Millicent has agreed to take pictures of all of us, but we’ll need to get someone to take some that include her, too.”
    “That shouldn’t be a problem,” Millicent said. “There are always people around that are willing to take a few photos.”
    “That’s true. But I want to hire you to take some family photos of me, Michael and Violet, and Rebecca and Jenny.”
    “Oh, Mrs. Heaton, I’ll do that for free. After all, Michael has loaned me a room to develop in and I—” She clapped her hand over her mouth. “I totally forgot that I brought home the photos you took when you and John were out on Monday, Elizabeth! I’ll go get them right now!”
    She started to jump up, but Elizabeth waved her back to her chair. “No, don’t worry about it, Millicent. You can get them after dinner. We can’t do anything with them right now anyway. Sit back down and enjoy your meal.”
    “You got some really good shots,” Millicent said.
    “I know they aren’t as good as yours, but hopefully they’ll work to be able to prove what we saw,” Elizabeth said.
    “You’re going to keep track of all that, right, Elizabeth?” John asked.
    “I am.” She’d already told him she would. Did he not trust her? “Unless you want to do it.”
    “No. I have— I’m glad you offered to.”
    Was he going to say he had enough to do? There was no way to know and Elizabeth told herself to quit being so suspicious of everything that came out of his mouth. What was wrong with her anyway? “It’s the least I could do with you doing so much of the research.”
    “What is it you are going to research?” Luke asked.
    “I’m going down to city hall to see if I can find out who owns some of these buildings as no one we’ve talked to so far seems to know.”
    “Maybe Michael could help in some way,” Mrs. Heaton suggested.
    “Oh, believe me, I’ve already talked to him and he’s willing to. I just need to get some names for us to go on.”
    “I’m sure you all will find them out sooner or later,” Kathleen encouraged them.
    The front door opened just then and Julia breezed in, looking flushed and excited.
    “I’m so sorry I’m late for dinner, Mrs. Heaton.” She slipped into her chair across the table.
    “Don’t worry about it, dear. We kept a plate warm for you.”
    As if on cue, Gretchen came through from the kitchen and set a plate down in front of Julia.
    “Oh, thank you. I think I may be too excited to eat, though.”
    “Why? What’s happened, Julia?” Mrs. Heaton asked.
    Her eyes fairly sparkled and Elizabeth leaned forward, as eager to hear what her friend was about to say as everyone else.
    “Well, I-I’m sure you’ve noticed that I’ve received some correspondence from Oklahoma Territory.”
    It wasn’t hard to notice something like that. All their mail was put on a table in the foyer and although it was sorted to each person, one could sometimes see the return address of the top letters.
    “Well, as I sort them, I must admit to knowing. I didn’t want to appear nosy by asking about them, though.”
    “Well, considering my news, I probably should have told you about them before now.”
    Everyone around the table grew quiet, waiting for Julia’s news.
    “Well, please do tell us what you are so excited about, dear,” Mrs. Heaton said.
    “Well, seeing so many come through Ellis Island, I’ve been inspired and have been thinking about going out West. There are a lot of opportunities in the territory. And well, when I mentioned as much to my superior at work today, I was offered a promotion to stay here.”
    “Why, that’s wonderful news, Julia—if you are going to stay,” Elizabeth said.
    “Yes, it is,” Millicent added. “But I imagine it will make it more difficult for you to leave. What are you going to do?”
    “For