Page 101 of A Soldier's Return

For the next ten minutes, she, Anna and Eben helped Chloe peruse Abigail’s vast collection, doing their best to point her toward the sturdier, more age-appropriate dolls.

Sage had never been one to play with girlie things, but even she had to admit how much she enjoyed walking into the doll room. She couldn’t help feeling close to Abigail here, amid the collection that had been such a part of her friend.

Abigail never married and had no children of her own. She had a great-nephew somewhere, but he hadn’t even bothered coming to his great-aunt’s funeral. In many ways, the dolls were Abigail’s family, the inanimate counterpoints to the living, breathing strays she collected.

Sage loved seeing them, remembering the joy Abigail had found every time she added a new doll to her collection.

She especially loved the dolls Abigail had made herself over the decades, with painted faces and elaborate hand-sewn clothes. Victorian dolls with flounced dresses and parasols, teenyboppers with ponytails and poodle skirts, dolls with bobbed hair and flapper dresses.

There was no real rhyme or reason to the collection—no common theme that Sage had ever been able to discern—but each was charming in its own way.

“I can’t decide. There are too many.”

A spasm of irritation crossed Eben’s features at Chloe’s whiny tone. Sage could tell the girl was tired after their big day on the shore then coming back to Brambleberry House afterward. She hoped Eben was perceptive enough to pick up on that as well.

To her relief, after only a moment his frustration slid away, replaced by patience. He pulled his daughter close and kissed her on the top of her dark curls and Sage could swear she felt her heart tumble in her chest.

“Pick out your favorite three and maybe we can help you make your final choice,” he suggested, a new gentleness in his voice.

That seemed a less daunting task to his daughter. With renewed enthusiasm she studied the shelves of dolls, pulling one out here and there, returning another, choosing with care until she had three lined up in the middle of the floor.

They were an oddly disparate trio: a little girl with pigtails holding a teddy bear, a curvy woman in a grass Hawaiian skirt and lei, then an elegant woman with blond hair and a white dress.

Chloe studied them for a moment, then reached for the one in white. “You don’t have to help me pick. This is the one I want. She looks just like an angel.”

The doll was simple but lovely. “Good choice,” Sage said, admiring the doll when Chloe held her out.

“Her name is Brooke.”

“Of course it is,” Eben murmured.

Sage glanced at him and was surprised to see a pained look in his eyes as he studied the doll. Only then did she remember his wife’s name had been Brooke.

For the first time, Sage picked up the resemblance in the doll’s features to Chloe’s. Only their hair color was different.

Chloe must have picked the doll because it looked like her mother. Oh, poor little pumpkin. Sage wanted to gather her up and hold her tight until she didn’t hurt anymore.

So much pain in the world.

“I’m going to put her on my bureau at home,” Chloe announced. “That way I can see her every morning.”

“Good plan,” Anna said. Her eyes met Sage’s and Sage could see her own supposition mirrored there.

“Okay, kiddo,” Eben interjected, the shadows still in his gaze, “you need to say thanks to Sage and Ms. Galvez for the doll, then we should head home. You’ve had a big day and need to get some rest so you’ll be a good little camper in the morning.”

“Thank you very much for the doll. I will love her forever,” the girl said solemnly to them, then turned back to her father. “I’m not tired at all, though. I would like to stay longer.”

Eben smiled, Sage could see the lines around the corners of his mouth that only served to make him look more ruggedly handsome.

“Youmight not be tired, but I certainly am and I imagine Sage and Ms. Galvez are as well. Come on, let’s take your new friend home.”

Chloe paused, then ran to Anna and threw her arms around her waist. “I mean it. Thank you for the doll. I’ll take super good care of her, I promise.”

Anna looked discomfited by the girl’s hug, but there was a softness in her eyes Sage hadn’t seen before. “I’m glad to hear that. Bring her back anytime to see the rest of her friends.”

Chloe giggled, then turned to Sage and embraced her as well. That tumble in her heart before was nothing compared to the hard, swift fall she felt as she fell head over heels for this sweet, motherless little girl.

“Thank you for letting me help you make vegetable lasagna and play with Conan and see where you live. I think Brambleberry House is the most beautiful house in the world.”

---