The simple answer to that question would have been no.  “The Family all rely on each other.  Shared responsibility is part of everyone’s duty.”  She had not even touched a child as small as Grace until an hour ago except when people thrust their babies at her.

“I have to ask myself a hard question as well.  Is your presence a godsend that relieves all of us, including vexed Mrs. Bixby, of this burden we were not handling well?  Do we just turn them over to you because we can?”  Lenore worked on this for a moment.  Charlotte appreciated her more with every word she spoke.  “I think we should leave it this way.  Let’s try it and see what happens.  I assume you understand this means staying here at the fort, at least for the time being.”

“Yes.”  Where else did she have to go?  “I’d expect to work.  To earn our keep.”

“What are you thinking you’d work at?” Lenore said, somewhat taken aback by this suggestion.

“I’ve been told people like my bread,” Charlotte said.  She stopped for just a moment, her mind gone elsewhere.

“Well that’s certainly an interesting idea.  Get settled in and then I suppose anything’s possible, especially considering that the food for the soldiers here is dreadful.”  Lenore stood up.  “I have good instincts about people,” she said.  “You’ll do right by these children, I know it.  Thank God.  They’ve been through too much.  However it happened, the best thing for them so far is that you’ve come.”

Charlotte hoped she could hold everything together and not reverse that opinion in any way.  She’d been trying to stand herself with some difficulty, awkwardly shifting Grace from her lap to her shoulder.  The child was dear but sound asleep she was as heavy as a bag of rocks.

Charlotte turned at the door.  “I appreciate your faith in me,” she said.  “I promise I won’t let you down.

<>

The light was finally beginning to fade.  Charlotte knocked at the door and Ada let her in.

“Was it bad?” Ada said before Charlotte could even get Grace into bed.

“It was not bad.  Mrs. Bixby was described as being vexed.  No reason given and I didn’t ask for one.  That part is thankfully over.  We go on from here.”

Ada sank down onto the bench and burst into tears.   Charlotte put an arm gently around her.  “You’ve taken on all of them.  Now let me do it for a while.  I’m good at it.  Blow your nose.  You can use my petticoat if you want.  Grace already has.”  Ada laughed through the tears.