By Starlight Read Online Free Page B

features of her face sharper but no less attractive. Helen always seemed to have her head in the clouds, dreaming of a life far different from the one she lived. She’d never been interested in school, had to be cajoled into doing her chores, and was always reciting bits from stories she read out of an old issue of Glamour Confidential , a gossip magazine she’d sent away for.
    Still, Helen had done her part in helping to care for their father; she might grumble about taking him his meals, wiping his brow when he was having a bad spell, or sitting by his bedside and listening to a radio show when she’d rather be in her room pining for a more glamorous life, but she did as she was asked. Silas often remarked that Helen was the spitting image of her mother, praise the young woman cherished.
    Helen had also been a great help at the store. She put away stock, swept the floors, and occasionally waited on customers, though she wasn’t particularly patient; when someone hemmed and hawed about their purchase, Helen had a bad habit of drumming her fingernails on the counter. Some of Colton’s young men liked to come in and try to sweet-talk her, but she disdainfully ignored them; she’d set her sights much higher.
    Maddy walked the length of the counter toward the small storeroom in the back. She’d sent Helen to take an inventory of their pens and pencils so that she could place an order, but what she found when she entered was far different from what she’d expected.
    Helen stood beneath the stockroom’s lone bulb, working determinedly. She’d cut open a twenty-five-pound bag of flour and was scooping some of it into a smaller sack. She glanced up when Maddy entered, but didn’t stop.
    “What are you doing?” Maddy demanded, already dreading the answer.
    “I’m helping Pete and his family,” Helen replied.
    Maddy quickly crossed the small room and grabbed her sister by the arm; the small sack tipped over, spilling a bit of flour and sending the scoop clattering to the floor. Helen immediately yanked herself free and turned, frowning, ready to argue.
    “Don’t you start going against me,” Maddy began, her voice strained. “I told Pete that I wasn’t extending him credit for flour and I meant it. The last person I expected to defy me was you.”
    “I’m not just going to stand by while that man and his family starve!” Helen shouted, her dark eyes dancing. “You’d have to be blind not to see that he’s suffering! All he wants is a little something for his family to eat!”
    “That doesn’t mean we should give it away.”
    “He said he’d pay us back for it. Once he gets that job down in Smulders he’ll be able to give us the money he owes.” When Helen saw the way Maddy frowned, she angrily asked, “Are you calling him a liar?”
    “I’m not saying he’s doing it on purpose,” she answered, “but you know as well as I do that even if there are jobs to be had, there’ll be a line of fifty men trying to get one. Times are tough for everyone. Who knows how long it’ll be before he gets hired? Besides, if we start giving Pete credit, what happens when Charlie Kierscht asks, or Al Spratt, or George Erskine? Are you going to let them all have some flour, farming equipment, or clothes? When would it ever end if there’s a line of desperate men standing outside the door before we open?”
    “And what would be wrong with that?” Helen shot back. “If it meant that their children could sleep at night, it’s a price worth paying!”
    “Not if it means that we suffer in their place.”
    “Pa would’ve given Pete what he needed!” her sister shouted.
    “Only if he could have afforded it.”
    The truth was, things at the mercantile were more precarious than ever; when Maddy balanced the books each night, she saw how much things had changed. Times in Colton were tough. Families threatened by the loss of a job or foreclosure were spending less, buying only the essentials. Maddy did her best,