Ruby (Orlan Orphans Book 2) by Kirsten Osbourne

just enough money for her train ticket and nothing else?  Why would anyone do that? 
    He stopped the buggy and told the boys to stay put as he set the brake and jumped down, hurrying to the house and banging on the door. 
    It only took a moment for a frantic looking Ruby to open the door to him.  Her hands were covered in blood.  "Now I'm going to have to clean the door!  Would you go find Tino?  Please?  Tell him he has a beautiful baby boy."
    Lewis blinked a couple of times.  "Did you just deliver a baby?"
    Ruby nodded, a tear streaming down her cheek the only thing that gave away her level of anxiety.  "We didn't have time to go get Tino or send for the doctor.  I had no choice.  I was going to stay for ten minutes, talk to her, and then come home."
    Lewis decided it wasn't the time to ask about the letter.  "Do you know if they have another riding horse in the stable?  I don't want to unhitch the horse.  The boys will stay in the buggy while you clean up."  He leaned down and gave her a quick kiss.  "I'm glad you're all right.  I was worried."
    Ruby turned back to Cassie.  Somehow, during the course of assisting the other woman with her delivery and listening to her yell at Tino throughout, she had lost the formality she'd always felt with the older woman. 
    She'd cleaned the baby before she'd helped Cassie deliver the afterbirth, so now all she really needed to do was wash herself and hand the baby to Cassie.  "Once Tino is here, I'm going to send Lewis and the boys for Dr. Harvey.  She needs to make sure I didn't break you."
    Cassie chuckled.  "You didn't break me.  Women's bodies were meant to give birth."  She looked into the cradle that had been placed beside her.  "We need to name him."
    "You don't have a name picked out yet?"
    Cassie shrugged.  "Tino was convinced we would need to look at him to come up with an appropriate name, so he wasn't even willing to discuss it."
    Ruby finished washing her hands and walked back across the room to Cassie, scooping the baby in her arms and handing him to her.  "He's very wrinkled."
    Cassie laughed.  "New babies tend to come that way.  We got a lot of them at the orphanage."
    Ruby pulled a chair from the table and watched as Cassie cradled the baby to her.  "I never knew that.  I thought we mainly got toddlers and older kids."
    Cassie shook her head.  "The newborns were always dropped in the middle of the night, and we had a list of women who were barren we would contact.  The babies were usually placed before you got up in the morning.  I always felt that it was important for the newborn to get to know the arms of the mother who would raise him before any other."  She trailed one finger across the baby's cheek, smiling when he puckered his lips. 
    "I had no idea.  There was a lot going on in that orphanage you kept from us, wasn't there?" 
    Cassie nodded.  "There was.  You were all children, and you didn't need to know how little regard parents had for their children."
    Ruby frowned for a moment, wondering if the time was appropriate to ask about her own parents.  She knew nothing of where she and Opal had come from, and only had a few memories of a smiling blond woman and a dark haired man.
    "You want to know about your parents, don't you?"
    Ruby nodded.  "Do you know anything?"
    "Yes, quite a lot actually.  Your father died in a factory accident in New York when you were four.  Your mother worked hard to try to provide for you and Opal, and she really struggled.  She came and talked to me about leaving the two of you twice, but she couldn't bear to actually do it either time."
    "She did?"
    "She did.  She was very torn.  She knew you'd get better care at the orphanage, but she was afraid there would be no love.  Finally, she came to me a third time, right after the two of you turned five.  She told me she'd just married again, and she was going to go West with her new husband.  She worried that the trip would be too hard on