“How, then, do you think those things found their way to your mother?”
He stuffed his hands in his pockets and shrugged his shoulders. “Don’t rightly know.”
“Someone, somewhere, has played the hero. I think it’s perfectly grand. I hope everyone hears about it and twenty other people do the same. What a wonderful thing that would be, don’t you think?”
Quinn laughed. He had a very delightful, forthright laugh. “I think you’re getting ahead of yourself, miss. It’s not smart to make so much of one good deed.”
“One good deed like a teeter-totter? Oh, I think you know the power of one good deed far more than you let on.” She didn’t hide the broad smile that crept up from somewhere near her heart.
“Grace House does the important work, not me. But even they’re busting under the load right now, or so Reverend Bauers says. He’s got a few benefactors who can help out, you know, friends in high places and all, but not nearly enough.”
Why hadn’t she thought of it before now? “I can help with that.”
He raised an eyebrow. “I think you’re helping as much as you can now. Your pa’ll be sore at your being gone as long as you have, if not worse.”
“No, I mean with the benefactors. I know someone who can help. We had a wealthy woman named Mrs. Hastings to tea at the house the other day. She’s wanted to see the ruined city but her husband won’t let her come any farther than our house.” Nora looked at Quinn. “What if we could get Mrs. Hastings to tour Grace House? Surely her husband couldn’t object to something like that? Then she could meet people. She could meet Reverend Bauers. I’ve heard so much about him, even I’d like to meet Reverend Bauers. It’s the perfect solution.”
Quinn stopped walking and looked at her. “You’ve never met Reverend Bauers?”
He made it sound as if her social upbringing lacked a crucial element. “Well, of course I’ve shaken his hand at some city ceremony at some time or another, but I don’t really know him. I only know of him. Papa knows him, I think, but not socially.”
Those words came out wrong. As if people like Papa didn’t socialize with people like Reverend Bauers. It was true, in some ways, but not in the way her words made it sound. Quinn had noticed. He stood up straighter, started walking again, and the set of his jaw hardened just enough for her to notice.
Nora reached out and caught his elbow. “I didn’t mean it like that.”
“No one ever does.” The edge in his voice betrayed the wound her words had caused.
“No, really. It was a horrid way to put it. I just meant…” What did she just mean? She’d said it without thinking, without consideration, of what Mama would have called “their differences in station.” Why consider some great foolish gulf between them—especially now, when all that seemed to matter so very little? She dropped her hand. “I don’t know what I meant. But I’ve not met Reverend Bauers and I would very much like to. And I want to help. I believe Mrs. Hastings will want to help, too, if we can show her Grace House. Please. I know she will.”
“If she honestly wants to help, and not just gawk at other folks’ hardship. I’ve seen those types. Riding in carriages around the edge of our camp with hankies pressed to their noses. As if we’re all some odd entertainment.”
“Mrs. Hastings can be a bit stuffy, but I think she truly does want to help. She just doesn’t know how. Or maybe just where to start. I know something good would come of it if we could just make the arrangements.” Suddenly, it had become the most urgent thing in the world. Something large and important she could do to make things better. And surely, once she’d been to Grace House with Mrs. Hastings, Papa might let her do more than just sit around and wind bandages. Mrs. Hastings had loads of friends with all sorts of connections. Even Mama would be delighted to work on projects with someone of the Hastingses’ stature. It was the most perfect of ideas.
Quinn’s expression softened. “I’ll see what I can do.”
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