We took the escalator down to the luggage area. Cindy was quite impatient waiting for the luggage. Mary was just glad to be here. I held hands with bo...h of them. Finally the bags arrived and we headed back to 3i. Mary sat next to me in the front, Ann and Cindy rode in back. We had a long discussion about who would use which bed. It was a given that I would be sharing a bed with Mary tonight. Cindy was not pleased but she understood. It was finally decided that tonight at least Mary would get. Home. It seemed so familiar, yet so different. It was the house where I spent the bulk of my years growing up. We moved in when I was six and my parents started teaching at the university. It’s a big house with four bedrooms and more than enough space for anyone who wanted to live under its roof. My brother was long gone, his job with an aerospace company seemed to be weathering the plunging economy well. In some ways, the war in Iraq was a boon to his work designing and building laser guidance. Even if you had only been gone for five minutes. You could say I had separation anxiety despite already being fifteen. But you raised me to depend on you. I closed the door and entered the living room, feeling depressed. Nora and Rose were sitting on the living room couch. "What's wrong with you?" Nora asked. She never put up with my crap. Not even when I was little. Usually I'd just let her say what she wanted, but I wasn't in the mood that time. I won't say that your absence is what made me. Lord Barrington stooped down from his impressive height to peer into the basket but quickly averted his gaze to meet Eliza’s bright blue eyes.“I’m sorry to say that I do not have a lady to take it home to, but how about I give you a shilling to come to my carriage for a moment,” he said flashing his dazzling grin. Eliza hesitated for a moment before responding, a shilling would pay her room and board for a week and ease the constant rumbling in her stomach, but the risk was just too great.“I’m.