Courting Miss Adelaide (33 page)

She’d never tire of hearing those words from his lips.

She would hear his voice today, tomorrow and all the tomorrows after that, confident she had found the person God intended for her, for them both.

“You know, Charles, it’s like my heart was an orphan…and it’s found a home. In you.”

“Oh, Addie, I’m going to spend the rest of my life showing you how wonderful home can be.”

His words were a promise for all the days to come.

Dear Reader,

After coming across a newspaper article about trains that took orphaned and half-orphaned children from New York City to homes in the Midwest and beyond, I knew I had to put this fascinating slice of history in a book. Between the years 1853 and 1929, approximately 250,000 children rode to new homes. But that phenomenon didn’t find its way into our history books for years. Although I’ve taken creative liberties with the facts, I set the story in Noblesville, Indiana, where an orphan train stopped in 1859.

Than you for choosing
Courting Miss Adelaide,
my debut novel. I hope you enjoyed Adelaide and Charles’s story as much as I enjoyed writing it. And I hope that their struggle to overcome painful pasts and to forgive others touched your heart. If you’re dealing with similar issues, I hope God will enable you to find the peace that comes from forgiving someone who wounded you.

I love to hear from readers. Visit me at www.JanetDean.net or JanetDean.blogspot.com. Write to me at [email protected].

God bless you,

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1. Charles and Adelaide had difficult childhoods. How did their pasts impact their behavior? Their outlook? Can you identify with their struggles?
   
2. How did Charles’s father affect Charles’s relationship with God? Have you had relationships that impacted your faith, either positively or negatively?
   
3. How does Emma help Adelaide grow and change?
   
4. Charles’s father leaves half the newspaper to Charles and half to Adelaide. How does his will affect Charles and Adelaide’s relationship, both short-term and in the long run?
   
5. Writing the columns on suffrage helps Adelaide find her voice as a woman, something few women had in the 1890s. How do the consequences of her stand shape her as a woman and as a Christian?
   
6. Why can’t Charles see the possibility of William’s abuse at first?
   
7. How does Charles’s talk with William help to heal the pain of Charles’s past and lead him to God?
   
8. What secret is Charles hiding? How does that affect his relationship with Adelaide? With God? What finally puts Charles’s fear to rest?
   
9. Neither Charles’s mother nor Frances Drummond leave their abusive husbands. Is this difficult for you to understand? Why or why not?
   
10. How does the town influence the decisions of Adelaide and Charles? And how do Adelaide’s and Charles’s decisions impact the town? What can we learn from this?
    
11. Do you have any sympathy for Ed Drummond? Why or why not?
    
12. How do you think the orphaned children felt when they were traveling across the country to unknown families?
    

ISBN: 978-1-4268-2235-3

COURTING MISS ADELAIDE

Copyright © 2008 by Janet Dean

All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the editorial office, Steeple Hill Books, 233 Broadway, New York, NY 10279 U.S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

This edition published by arrangement with Steeple Hill Books.

® and TM are trademarks of Steeple Hill Books, used under license. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.

www.SteepleHill.com