Read Online Ransom by Grace Livingston Hill - Free Book Online

She snuggled down closer and nestled her hand in his.
    He gave her hand a warm pressure and felt a strange sweetness to have her so close after all these years of estrangement. It almost unnerved him to think she cared to be with him. He had thought of her as having grown away from him.
    â€œAnd, Daddy,” she went on earnestly, “why do I have to come out? I’d much rather stay in. What do people come out for?”
    â€œWell,” began the father, “the world seems to think it is a necessary act.”
    â€œDid my mother come out?” she asked suddenly, with a sweet shyness in her voice.
    The father was still a long time, and then he answered in a moved voice, “No.”
    â€œI’d like to be like her, Father, if you don’t mind,” she said in a low voice.
    He drew her closer and said with a fervent gentleness, “There’s nothing in the world greater that I could desire for you, Chrissie dear.”
    â€œThen may I?” she asked eagerly.
    â€œMay you what?” said the startled father.
    â€œMay I stay at home with you, and not go back to this last semester of school, and not do any coming out ever at all?”
    He was still a long time, and then he said, “Well, daughter, this is a new thought to me. I’ll have to think it over.”
    â€œI’m sure my mother would want me to stay here with you,” she breathed earnestly.
    He turned his lips to her and kissed her forehead very gently.
    â€œI’ll think about it, little girl.”
    â€œI wouldn’t mind staying, too,” said Randall gallantly, “only I guess I’d havta go back fer the rest of the term. I’m cheerleader, ya know, and it’s rather late ta get a new one. We’ve been practicing a lot fer the spring games.”
    â€œWell, yes, Son, it wouldn’t be quite right to desert them just now, would it? And anyhow, you have those examinations to take over again, that we were talking about tonight.
    â€œIt wouldn’t do to leave school with a blot on your scholarship. We’ll ship you back sometime tomorrow, I guess, but we’ll try to make some plans to be nearer each other after this term is over. I’ve been thinking a lot about it. We’ll see when we get things here straightened out.”
    â€œFather,” said Christobel after a moment of silence, “do you think a lot of this house? Did you buy it to stay in always, like a sort of ancestral home?”
    â€œI did
not
,” said her father decidedly, and a smile melted over his tired face. “Why, little girl, don’t you like it?”
    â€œWell,” said Christobel slowly, “I suppose it’s all right, only somehow it’s so big and strange. I don’t know whether I could ever get used to it. There doesn’t seem to be any really useful
homey
rooms in it. Maybe that’s only because I’m not used to it. But it doesn’t seem like the home we used to have when I was a little girl before we went to school.”
    â€œGee! Where’d we live then?” asked Randall, suddenly raising his head from the soft cushion and entering the conversation. “I just don’t remember that time. Wasn’t there a big tree and a swing in the yard?”
    â€œYes,” said Christobel eagerly, “and a flower garden. I had a garden and you had a garden, and you used to pull the plants up every day to see if the roots were growing any more.”
    â€œGee! I remember! And I useta skin the cat on the top of the swing. Where was that, Dad? Somewhere in the city, wasn’t it?”
    â€œYes. It was over on the other side of the city, quite a long distance from here. It used to be a suburb then, but it is within the city limits now.”
    â€œIs the house still there or has it been torn down?” the boy asked.
    â€œOh, it’s still there. I still own it,” answered the father sadly.
    â€œIs it rented?” asked