Read The Romancing of Evangeline Ipswich for Free Online

to know she’s happy and taken care of.” He turned and looked to Evangeline, asking, “Now what’s this about your daddy marrying a much younger woman? Just older than you, you say?”
    Evangeline smiled and nodded. “Yes…Kizzy,” she answered. “She’s beautiful! A gypsy, in fact, and she had a little girl already, my new little sister, Shay. She’s just as beautiful as her mother and keeps us in stitches with her amusing antics. Furthermore, Kizzy’s expecting a baby herself, due to arrive about Thanksgiving.”
    Hutch smiled and chuckled. “Well, good for the judge!” he exclaimed.
    “I have photographs that I brought with me to show to Jennie,” Evangeline continued. “Photographs of everyone in the family. So since you’re here, you can see them too!”
    “I look forward to it,” he said. He paused a moment and then asked, “I take it by your astonishment in seeing me at the train station that my little sister didn’t tell you I lived in Red Peak too, hmm?”
    Again Evangeline blushed. Shaking her head, she admitted, “No, she didn’t mention it.”
    Hutch’s handsome brow puckered. “I wonder why not?” he asked. Then answering his own question, he added, “She probably thought I’d scare you off, that you wouldn’t want to come visit if you knew her old rake of a brother was in town.”
    Hutch winked at Evangeline, and she giggled. “Maybe,” she teased. “But I know a few old rakes, and you’re not one of them.”
    “Jennie did tell me that there’s some old man pursuing you in…is it Meadowlark Lake?” he said.
    “Meadowlark Lake, yes,” Evangeline confirmed.
    “Jennie says he’s a poet or some such thing?” Hutch prodded.
    Evangeline smiled. “His name is Mr. Longfellow, and he’s a farmer, not a poet. And I know you well enough to know you’re just being a smart aleck, Hutchner LaMontagne.”
    He grinned and shrugged with being guilty as accused. “Are you gonna marry him?” he asked.
    “Heavens no!” Evangeline exclaimed, blushing. “He’s old enough to be my father!”
    “But you just said your father married a woman hardly older than you,” Hutch baited.
    “Well, that is entirely different! My father is an entirely different sort of man than Mr. Longfellow,” Evangeline defended. “And besides, I don’t find poor Mr. Longfellow at all attractive. And he never laughs…rarely speaks for that matter!”
    “Whoa, Nelly!” Hutch laughed. “I was just trying to ruffle your feathers, Evie. Jennie already told me you’re not interested in the least in the old poet.”
    Evangeline inhaled a deep breath to calm her temperament. Exhaling a heavy sigh and remembering what a tease Hutch could be, she said, “I see you still like to endeavor to unsettle people.”
    Hutch’s grin broadened. “Oh, and you were always a fun one to unsettle,” he said. “It didn’t take much, as I recall, to set your bloomers to ruffling.”
    Evangeline smiled as memories of Hutch’s teasing her flooded her mind. “No, it didn’t take much. At least not for you.”
    “Well, it’s good to know that you remember me for something, at least,” Hutch chuckled.
    Remembered him for something? That was certainly understating things. Evangeline remembered Hutch for everything! Sure, his teasing, playful manner was one of the things she remembered most—one of the things she’d always, always loved about her best friend’s older brother—but there was so much more than that! Evangeline remembered how friendly he always was to everyone, including her. She thought of how heroic he was—of the time she’d lost her way in the city when she was six years old, having gotten separated from her mother in a crowd, and an eleven-year-old Hutchner LaMontagne finding her—frightened, sobbing, and cold—and carrying her all the way home. She remembered how strong he’d always been, bruising the cheeks and chins of school bullies when they bothered anyone who was too small or afraid to