Jubilee's Journey (Wyattsville #2)(15)

“On the bus,” Jubilee said indignantly. “We paid our fares like everybody else.”

Olivia’s chin dropped. “Does anybody at all, any grownup, know you’re here in Wyattsville?”

“Just Paul.” Jubilee shrugged.

“And Paul left you on the bench and didn’t come back?”

Jubilee folded her arms across her chest and glared at Olivia. “He’s gonna come back, soon as he finishes the job.”

“So you say.” Olivia sighed. Then she lowered herself into the chair and began wondering what to do. After a good half-hour and no other ideas, she remembered Ethan Allen had brought the girl home for dinner. “Jubilee, are you hungry?”

When the girl nodded, Olivia stood and gave a forced smile. “Perhaps a nice bowl of beef stew is what we need.” She took Jubilee by the hand and led her into the bathroom. “Wash your hands, sweetheart, and when you’re finished we’ll have dinner.”





The thought of having another belongs-to-nobody child made Olivia cringe. She’d been down this road before, and it wearied her soul to think of it. Although she could hardly fault Ethan Allen for doing the right thing, she kept asking herself, “Why me?” Irritated at such thoughts, she also grew impatient with Ethan Allen for presenting the problem. As she passed through the living room she glared at him and said, “Make sure you wash your hands too.”

“They ain’t dirty,” he answered.

“Yes, they are,” she said sharply and continued to the kitchen. Food was never really an answer, but for now it was the only one she had. Olivia began spooning up three bowls of stew—a stew that, like her fears, had simmered for too long.

Olivia set the plates on the table and called the kids to come to dinner. “Ethan Allen, make sure you’ve washed those hands.”

“Okay,” he answered, then took the ball he and Dog had been playing with and tossed it across the room. He swiped his hands across the back of his pants and followed Jubilee into the kitchen.

After she poured two glasses of milk, Olivia sat opposite the children and watched Jubilee gobbling up the stew. She couldn’t help but notice what a pretty little thing the girl was; tiny but with a sweet smile and blue eyes that would one day have lads swooning. Surely the child was mistaken. Someone knew she was missing. Someone had to be looking for a child like this—a brother, an aunt, an uncle. They were probably out there right now, walking through the streets, calling her name.





Olivia thought back on the night Ethan ran away and felt a stab of pain remembering the anguish that came with the realization he was out there alone. A missing child meant a broken heart for someone. She couldn’t let that happen. She had to find the child’s family.

Unsure of whether the girl knew something she wasn’t telling or was simply telling all she knew, Olivia made up her mind to discover whatever there was to discover. She thought back on the way Ethan Allen had stubbornly refused to tell what he knew until he’d come to trust her. Trust. It was the dividing line between truth and nothing. She had to cross that line.

“So, Jubilee,” she said sweetly, “is your Aunt Anita pretty like you are?”

Jubilee gave a bewildered shrug.

“Does she look like you or your mama?”

“I don’t know. I never saw her.”

“But you talked to her on the telephone, right?”

Jubie crinkled her nose and shook her head. “We didn’t have no telephone.”

“Didn’t have a phone? Everybody has a telephone.”

“Not in Coal Fork. Nobody has a telephone.”

“Nobody has a phone?”

“The company store has one, but folks ain’t supposed to use it.”

“How did your mama communicate with her sister?”

“What’s com-une-i-cake?”

“It means talk,” Olivia said, “or send messages.”

“Oh. Okay.”

“Well? Did Aunt Anita send your mama letters?”

“I don’t know,” she replied with an air of exasperation. “I think maybe Aunt Anita didn’t like Mama.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Paul told me.”

“That’s too bad.” Olivia gave a sympathetic sigh. “When you came to Wyattsville, were you and Paul going to visit your Aunt Anita?”

“Maybe visit,” Jubilee clarified. “Paul don’t know for sure where she is.”

“Did he have her address?”

Jubilee spooned another bite of stew and shook her head. “Unh-unh. We ain’t too sure of her name either. It was Walker like Mama’s, but if she got married it likely ain’t anymore.”

“Oh.” Olivia felt stymied and wondered where to go from here. She hesitated a moment, then asked, “When Paul told you to wait there, was he going to look for your aunt?”

Jubilee shook her head. “I told you, he was going to do a job.”

“What job?”

“In the store.” Jubilee scooped one last carrot from the bowl.

“Do you know the name of the store?”

Jubilee looked up like she was thinking, then shook her head again. “I ain’t remembering the name. But it had a sign for working.”