Read Online The Miner's Lady by Tracie Peterson - Free Book Online

Chantel pried at the wooden top with her fingertips. “I have no idea.”
    â€œYou need a hammer for that,” Mama advised.
    Nodding in agreement, Chantel went to the kitchen and retrieved her mother’s household hammer. “I can’t imagine who would send me a gift,” she said as she returned.
    â€œYet there it sits,” Isabella said with a grin. She had castaside her bodice to hover near the box. “And it is the holiday season. Why, before we know it, Christmas will be here.”
    Mama laughed and continued twisting her threads to make lace. “Sí, we’ll have a grand celebration with everyone home. We missed you very much last year, Chantel. It didn’t seem like Christmas with you gone.”
    The box yielded with a creaking groan. Chantel pushed aside the lid and maneuvered through the packing to find a card. She opened it and read it aloud. “‘It’s good to have you home again. From an admirer.’”
    â€œAnd that’s all?” Isabella said, looking over her sister’s shoulder.
    â€œThat’s all,” Chantel admitted. She put the card atop the lid and dug back into the packing. One by one she pulled a dozen oranges from the crate. It was a rare and expensive gift to have in the dead of winter—especially this far north.
    â€œOh my!” Mama stopped her work. “Oranges?” She gave an exclamation in Italian. “What a fortune those must have cost.”
    â€œAnd we don’t even know who sent them,” Isabella declared. “But someone certainly has strong feelings for you, Chantel.” She gave her sister a nudge. “Maybe there will be more than one wedding to come.”
    â€œWhat do you mean more than one?” Mama asked.
    Isabella bit her lip and hurried back to her chair. She picked up the bodice. “Well, I’m sure there are weddings being planned in the community. I heard something just the other day about Margaret McGuire and her beau getting hitched.”
    Chantel could see her mother was less than convinced. She replaced the oranges in the crate, certain that the onlyman who could afford to send them was Leo. “Perhaps the time has come that you should let Mama know what’s on your heart.”
    She took her seat and picked up her tatting shuttle. “After all,” Chantel continued, “I believe you would have an advocate.”
    Mama eyed her daughters with great curiosity. “What is this? You are keeping secrets from your mama?”
    Isabella looked wide-eyed at Chantel as if to question her sanity. Chantel gave her the slightest nod of encouragement. “She’s right, you know. Let’s just have this out.”
    Isabella fidgeted with the bodice for a few seconds, then tossed it aside. “I’m in love.”
    â€œBut why should that be a secret from your mama?” The older woman looked deeply wounded. “I thought we were closer than that.”
    Isabella came to kneel beside her mother. “We are, but you may not like what I tell you, and I wanted to spare your feelings.”
    Mama looked to Chantel. “But your sister, she knows?”
    â€œSí, Mama.”
    â€œThen you had best tell me.” Mama let the bobbins rest against the small pillow where she’d pinned her lace pattern.
    â€œI am in love with Orlando . . . Calarco.”
    Mama’s mouth fell open in a silent O . Isabella took hold of her mother’s hands. “I cannot bear to hurt my family, but this feud between us and the Calarcos is ridiculous. Who cares that a silly mule was accidentally killed fifty years ago? Orlando and I believe that if we marry, we can put this matter to rest once and for all.”
    â€œI santi ci preservi!” Mama whispered. Saints preserve us.
    â€œI don’t think even the saints can help this, Mama,” Chantel replied. She wrapped the thread around her left fingers and worked the shuttle to