Tracie Peterson - [Heirs of Montana 04] by The Hope Within

her giggle as the screen door slammed behind him.
    What was that Lawrence woman up to?

    “I’m glad you’re at least open to the idea of coming to New York,” Christopher Stromgren said as he walked with Ardith.
    “I’m open to whatever will be most beneficial to myself … and to Winona.”
    “She’s a beautiful little girl.”
    “She is that.”
    “I notice some darker … features.” His voice was hesitant, as if prodding a wound gently.
    “She’s half Sioux,” Ardith said without hesitating. She might as well confess all of her skeletons. “I was raped by a Sioux warrior, one of the men at Little Big Horn. Does that put an end to our relationship and possible business venture, Mr. Stromgren?” She stopped and stared at him hard.
    Though his eyes widened in surprise at her bold statement, he said, “Not at all. If anything, it gives me an even higher regard for you. How terrible that you should have borne such misery at the hands of savage captors. How did you come to be with them?”
    Ardith sighed and began walking again. “It really isn’t relevant. It is sufficient that you understand that it happened. I wouldn’t wish for the information to come out later and then shame you and your company.”
    “That kind of thing might only serve to bring in bigger crowds. Curiosity seekers, if you would. Custer’s battle still works audiences into a fervor. It might be quite interesting to use that as a billing tool.”
    “No. I don’t want to be seen as such,” Ardith declared. “I have lived with that since being rescued. People have been kind but also guarded and uncomfortable. I would much rather be seen for my ability to make music.”
    “But of course,” he said, seeming shocked that she would suppose it to be otherwise.
    “If we cannot keep my secret, then I would rather not consider this proposition any further.”
    “My dear Mrs. Sperry, you have nothing to fear from me. My lips will be as silent as the grave concerning your past.”

CHAPTER 5
    A RDITH WAS UNCOMFORTABLE WITH THE RELATIVE EMPTINESS of the house after Morgan moved on with his travelers and Zane headed back to Butte. She thought constantly of Christopher Stromgren and his ideas for promoting her piano talents. She wondered if it were the best choice for her life.
    Living in Montana didn’t seem to be the best for her. She’d known nothing but misery in Montana. She finished making her bed and continued to brood.
    If I go to New York, she thought, I cannot take Winona . The child was precious to her, but she was also testing Ardith’s patience with painful questions and memories of Levi.
    Levi. She couldn’t even speak his name aloud. She had been so convinced that theirs was a love that would last a lifetime. And it was. She just didn’t count on Levi’s lifetime being so short.
    She plumped the pillows and stacked them neatly at the head of the bed. Her anger toward God kindled with new intensity. If you hadn’t taken him from me, I might be happy now. I wouldn’t have to consider going to New York . Yet it wasn’t an unpleasant contemplation. Ardith had listened to Stromgren’s stories of the city that seemingly never slept. She found it amazing to hear of parties that would last well into the wee hours of the morning. And not parties for the riff-raff or hoodlums, but fashionable society. Upper-crust matrons and their powerful husbands. These were the people, Stromgren related, who made the rules of society. Ardith found it all quite fascinating.
    She opened the door and slipped downstairs, hoping that no one would come to pester her. When breakfast was over she had hurried upstairs to avoid any discussions with Mara and her brother Joshua. But she had promised to do the breakfast dishes after she tidied her room, and now that task lay before her.
    With Dianne and her family gone, it was like a great silence engulfed the house, and yet it wasn’t quiet at all. She could hear Winona in the front room, chattering at