Read Online My Sister's Prayer by Mindy Starns Clark - Free Book Online

now that safety was in sight, tears poured down her face.
    â€œEverything will be all right.” Spenser held her until she gained control. Then he wiped away her tears. At his touch, she stepped back, alarmed that she’d let down her guard. He’d been nothing but honorable, but she didn’t want to give him any ideas.
    Surely sensing her awkwardness, he turned his attention to the bunk and stepped past her to kneel beside it. “Did you hear, Berta?” Speaking softly, he reached out to brush a lock of hair from her face. “We made it. You’ll be off this ship and on solid ground before you know it.” It had been obvious since that first time Spenser held Berta and carried her across steerage that he’d been captivated by her beauty. Hugging Celeste meant nothing. She’d been foolish to fear he might think otherwise.
    â€œI’m going to go summon the surgeon again,” Celeste said to Berta,thinking of the many who had died—from disease or dysentery or who knew what else—during the trip. What if Berta were near death now when they were so close to land?
    Spenser cleared his throat. “I’d hang on to your money and give it a day or two first. If the seasickness is the worst of Berta’s problems, she’ll recover once she’s on land. If the fever continues, hopefully you can find a better physician than the ship’s surgeon. I wouldn’t waste any more money on him.”
    Spenser wouldn’t risk Berta’s life. Celeste couldn’t help but think his advice seemed sound. She would wait. She needed to save every penny she could—and especially the ring, if possible.
    â€œI’ll go back up,” he added, “to get water and see if there’s anything else I can find out.” Celeste watched him go. He had a job waiting for him with a carpenter just outside of Williamsburg, which was exactly where Celeste and Berta needed to land as well.
    Before Jonathan had come to Celeste’s parents’ inn outside of London, Celeste had never given thought to emigrating to the American colonies. Some in their congregation of Huguenots—French Protestants who had found refuge in England—had chosen to relocate to Virginia, but Celeste’s parents hadn’t been interested. Papa was a printer by trade, though he’d had to sell his share of the family business in Lyon twenty years earlier before fleeing from France. Once in London, his intention had been to open a new print shop there, but that hadn’t worked out thanks to the English government’s strict restrictions on the owning of printing presses. Instead, he was forced to find some other type of business in which to invest. In the end, he’d done as many of his fellow Huguenots had and opened an inn. Once it was up and running and fully functional, Celeste’s mother had moved to the helm, freeing Papa to take a job as a printer for the London Gazette .
    When other Huguenots began heading to Virginia, Celeste’s brother, Emmanuel, tried hard to convince their father that they should go too, saying he could open his own print shop there. As the oldest son, much of the family’s future rested on him.
    â€œAnd what would we print on?” Papa had replied. “There are no paper mills in Virginia.”
    â€œSo let’s open a paper mill instead,” Emmanuel insisted. He was three years youngerthan Celeste but quick on his feet and always full of ideas.
    â€œWhy would we do that? There’s no need for paper because there aren’t any printers in Virginia.” Celeste giggled. Papa had taken his son’s logic and twisted it back on itself.
    â€œSo we do both,” Emmanuel cried, ignoring their father’s teasing. “I know that would be twice as expensive, but what about Uncle Jules?” Their uncle, a successful businessman, had remained in France. “I’m sure he would invest as well if need