"Yes, but I shall soon be bigger, and then you'll be sorry."

Elizabeth's lips curved into a bittersweet smile as she watched them bicker. She'd heard the same argument a million times before, but she'd also spied Jane tiptoeing into Lucas's room after dark to give him a goodnight kiss on the forehead.

Theirs might not be a typical family-it was just the four of them, after all, and they'd been orphans for years-but the Hotchkiss clan was special. Elizabeth had managed to keep the family together five years ago when her father had died, and she was damned if she'd let a shortage of funds tear them apart now.

Jane crossed her arms. "You should give Lizzie your money, Lucas. It isn't right to hoard it away."

He nodded solemnly and left the room, his little blond head bowed. Elizabeth glanced back up at Susan and Jane. They were also blond, with the bright blue eyes of their mother. And Elizabeth looked just like the rest of them-a little blond army, they were, with no money for food.

She sighed again and leveled a serious stare at her sisters. "I'm going to have to marry. There is nothing else for it."

"Oh, no, Lizzie!" Jane shrieked, jumping out of her chair and practically clambering across the table to her sister's lap. "Not that! Anything but that!"

Elizabeth looked at Susan with a confused expression, silently asking her if she knew why Jane was so upset. Susan just shook her head and shrugged.

"It's not that bad," Elizabeth said, stroking Jane's hair. "If I marry, then I shall probably have a baby of my own, and then you get to be an auntie. Won't that be nice?"

"But the only person who's asked you is Squire Nevins, and he's horrid! Just horrid."

Elizabeth smiled unconvincingly. "I'm sure we can find someone besides Squire Nevins. Someone less… ah… horrid."

"I won't live with him," Jane said with a mutinous cross of her arms. "I won't. I'd rather go to an orphanage. Or one of those horrid workhouses."