Forget-Me-Not Bride by Margaret Pemberton

doesn’t look as if she’d ever get a husband any other way,’ Lottie said starkly, ‘And Lettie says Miss Hobson isn’t quite right in the head and that Miss Rivere is fast and would marry anyone.’
    Lilli’s sleek eyebrows rose nearly into her hair. ‘You’re only ten years old, Lottie,’ she chided, genuinely shocked. ‘You shouldn’t be using words like fast – and you certainly shouldn’t be using them in the right context!’
    Lottie hadn’t known that she had done so. She did know, however, that nothing could be done to alter the situation until they reached their destination and that it was pointless discussing it further, especially when it was obvious Lilli was far more alarmed by it than she was allowing to show.
    She leaned her head against Lilli’s shoulder, knowing full well why she had taken the crazy step of becoming a Peabody bride. It was because she had been desperate to remove Leo from their Uncle Herbert’s care; because she loved her and Leo so much she would do anything, anything at all, if she thought it was in their best interests.
    â€˜I love you, Lilli,’ she said huskily, forgiving her elder sister her rashness, knowing it had been prompted by the very best of intentions. ‘You’re the best big sister anyone could ever have.’
    â€˜And I love you, pet-lamb,’ Lilli said, her arm tightening around Lottie’s slender shoulders, her eyes overly bright, her voice unnaturally thick. ‘And loving each other, and Leo, is all that truly matters.’
    â€˜A nice lady gave me a stick of liquorice’Leo said minutes later as he and Lettie squeezed back into the cabin. He clutched his bounty with glee. ‘And another lady says there are gamblers and guns-slingers aboard!’
    â€˜I don’t care if Billy the Kid is aboard.’ Wearily Lettie sat down on the edge of her bunk. ‘I’m ready for a little bit of shut-eye.’
    So was Lilli. It had been a long, long day. The longest she could ever remember. ‘Bed-time,’ she said to Leo, beginning to ease his arms out of his jacket sleeves.
    â€˜Is Leo going to have the bottom bunk?’ Lottie asked, taking off her sailor-hat and standing on tip-toe to lay it carefully at the foot of the top bunk she had already decided was hers.
    â€˜Yes.’ Lilli ignored Leo’s tired yowl of protest. ‘That way if it gets rough he’ll have less distance to fall.’
    â€˜What do you mean “ if it gets rough”?’ Lettie asked darkly, already ensconced, fully dressed, beneath an inadequate-looking blanket. ‘It’s rough already, or hadn’t you noticed?’
    Lilli had had too much on her mind to pay attention to the Senator’s increasing pitch and roll. Now that her attention had been drawn to it, however, she began to feel just the slightest bit queasy. ‘The sooner we’re all asleep, the better,’ she said, tucking Leo into his bunk as securely as possible and laying her box-coat on top of his blanket for extra warmth.
    â€˜It’s going to feel funny saying my prayers when we’re moving,’ Leo observed sleepily. ‘Do you think God will mind? Do you think He’ll think it disres … disres … not good manners?’
    â€˜Not at all, my love,’ Lilli said tenderly, brushing a lock of hair from his eyes. ‘We decided long ago that He doesn’t think it’s disrespectful for you to say your prayers in bed when its freezing cold, didn’t we? And there isn’t room to kneel in this cabin. There’s scarcely room to stand.’
    Reassured Leo closed his eyes. ‘Now I lay me down to sleep,’ he began, the familiar words muffled with tiredness. ‘I pray the Lord my soul to keep …’
    â€˜If I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take,’ Lilli finished for him softly as his breathing changed and he fell