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"Play with you? You rin, and her smile was so like Elle’s in that ht and happy "Yes, a duet Do you remember your part to this?"
And he turned around so he was facing the piano and started the left part to "Heart and Soul" Elizabeth giggled and his heart sang at the joyful sound She tentatively picked out theand laughing at their ure at the doorho siving father and daughter soether
"IT SEEMS I OWE YOU ain At this rate, the entire Trentha tihtly but the look in his eyes was anything but
Maria shook her head with a soft s All I did was to show you the metaphorical door--it was up to you to open it, and step through Which you did and Elizabeth was on the other side waiting for you"
"Nonetheless, you’ve made an enormous difference in all our lives and the children are already beginning to love you, I can tell Are you sure you’re not really Mary Poppins with your practically perfect ways?" he drawled teasingly
She choked on a laugh, and glanced quickly at the children to make sure the noise hadn’t woken the bags, laid out in the great roo low in the fireplace
The family Christmas tree--half the size of the one that towered in the entry hall but still a grand, glorious sight--stood tall in a corner of the room, and Maria’s heart waring proudly on the branches, while a beautiful, delicate angel graced the top of the tree Despite the sheer size of the rooood reason--there was a warm, cozy feel to the room and she’d felt coet and Sa a fareat room, Maria had been sure Gabriel would immediately veto the idea But he had surprised her when he considered it for a longat the excited, hopeful expressions on the children’s faces before he agreed, butsure they understood it was only because school was still cancelled for the next day
Gabriel had also agreed to the children’s request that he spend the night with the on the floor--he would sleep on the big sectional sofa instead, where Meggie had also elected to curl up
After dinner, they’d all washed up and changed into paja back downstairs with pillows, stuffed anih, they’d watched Mary Poppins on the huge plas wars she learned at the convent It wasn’t too long before the children had fallen asleep, Meggie being the first to succumb
Noas just Gabriel and Maria who re careful not to touch on the sectional, and Maria shivered at how incredibly seductive the situation suddenly felt With the children asleep around theine that this was her fa to her in such a soft, intimate tone
"I think the sisters at Sacred Heart would strongly disagree with you about the practically perfect part," she murht not be perfect for a nun, but I think you’re perfect forso hard, she was afraid he could hear it She wished he wouldn’t say things like that--it made it so hard for her to remember that he wasn’t hers, that she wasn’t a part of this family, that she was supposed to leave in just a few days when leaving was the very last thing she wanted to do
"Since you decided that you wouldn’t be a very good nun, why did you choose it then?" he asked, looking at her searchingly
Maria hesitated, not sure how e, I was a student teacher at the school associated with the nuns at the Sacred Heart, so I got to know them well My parents were devout Catholics, and they’d raised me in the Church They were older when they had randparents on both sides were already gone They were also both only childs, so it was just the three of us After they died in a boating accident, the Church took me in since I had no faot placed in foster care They were theup So I already had a lot of respect and affection for them
The Sisters all seemed so serene and certain of their place in the world, and of their calling Thisthat certainty was…seductive, for the lack of a better word Of course I had overly romanticized the Sisters and their way of life Even as a novice that serenity and certainty eludedthe rules of the novitiate and trust me, there were a lot of theht away?" he asked softly
She gri to do, but no, I was deter if not stubborn and my stubbornness wouldn’t allow me to realize the mistake I’d made, at least not for awhile"
"What happened then?"
"I’d been at the convent for well over a year when the Mother Superior finally had a long chat with me about my suitability, or lack of it as it were She was absolutely right of course--I would have et that far" But even knowing it was a mistake didn’t lessen the hurt that the Sisters hadn’t wanted her, irrational though it was
Maria spoke lightly, but Gabriel frowned, obviously sensing that there wasout
"Did you feel that they rejected you?"
She winced at the direct hit--she’d been even ht that they’d be my new family, but it didn’t turn out that way"
"From what you told me before, I know you weren’t adopted How many foster homes did you have?" he asked
"I lived in five different hoe Soest stay was for two years" She tried to keep her voice matter-of-fact, but she was afraid he was too observant to fool
"Did you ever get close to being adopted?" he asked, his voice coht thatme, but it didn’t work out"
She didn’t ed out of foster care Like the Trentham children, she knehat it was to hope for the i that the Trentham children still had a father who loved theh to wait for him to come back to them Their hope had born fruit, while hers…