To Find Her Place (Redemption's Light #2) - Susan Anne Mason Page 0,1

could successfully run the Toronto Infants’ Home, there was no reason Jane couldn’t do the same with the Children’s Aid Society. As a caseworker, she’d longed to make policy changes but lacked the power to do so. Now, excitement bubbled through her at the potential good she could bring about for the children.

Focus, Jane. Don’t get ahead of yourself.

She smoothed down her skirt, adjusted the sleeves of her jacket, and stepped through the door, making certain her best smile was in place.

A large oval table dominated the room. Several men and women were seated around it, while others stood by the coffee cart in the corner. She made a quick scan of the faces, trying to match the names with the various board members.

“Mrs. Linder. Thank you for coming in on such short notice.” Mr. Fenmore, the chairman of the board, approached her with a tight smile. For a man in his mid-to-late fifties, he was tall and fit. He wore a dark suit and thin silver eyeglasses that matched the color of his hair.

“My pleasure, Mr. Fenmore.” She shook his hand. “I hope I haven’t kept you waiting.”

“Not at all. You’re right on time. If you’ll take your seat, we can get this meeting started.”

Jane pasted on a pleasant expression, one she hoped hid her nerves, and took the chair Mr. Fenmore indicated, while the other board members returned to their seats.

Mr. Fenmore took his place at the head of the table and nodded to a woman at the far end. “Marcie, are you ready?”

The woman, obviously here to take the minutes, raised her head, pen poised over a notepad. “Yes, sir.”

He inclined his head. “Then I officially call this emergency board meeting to order.”

Jane swallowed. She’d been invited to a few board meetings in her six months as directress, but they hadn’t seemed quite this formal. The word emergency sent a chill of foreboding down her spine, but she told herself the term simply meant that the gathering was out of the ordinary from the group’s usual monthly meeting.

“Thank you again for coming, Mrs. Linder,” Mr. Fenmore said. “Although I could have come to your workplace, we felt that discretion would be better served if we met here.”

“I understand.” The foreboding chill spread down her legs to her toes. Why would they need such secrecy over Mr. Mills’s retirement? Everyone at the Children’s Aid would know soon enough.

The man shifted on his chair. “Mrs. Linder, I assume you are aware of the difficulties facing the agency right now—the additional workload, the lack of available foster families, and the decrease in funding, just to name a few.”

“I’m very aware of it, sir,” she said with quiet dignity. “I deal with these problems and more on a daily basis.”

Mr. Fenmore’s gray eyebrows rose slightly. “Of course you do. And you’re doing an admirable job in Mr. Mills’s absence. I only hope you don’t take offense to what I’m about to tell you.”

Jane’s stomach clenched. This did not sound good. And so far, it didn’t appear to have anything to do with Mr. Mills’s announcement.

“After going over the financial statements from the last several months, it has become evident that the agency is in worse straits than we imagined.”

“Considerably worse,” one of the other members added.

The man who’d just spoken up was Mr. Warren. He was the accountant, a rather surly man who always went over their financial records each month with a magnifying glass.

Jane’s shoulders stiffened as she looked around the table. Far from seeming sympathetic, some of the members were giving her hard stares that made her throat constrict. Surely they didn’t blame her for the conditions at the agency. Mr. Fenmore knew the problems stemmed from the effects of the war. What control could she have over that?

“It’s true,” she said carefully, “that the last few months have been particularly difficult. However, I’m confident this is a temporary problem that will rectify itself in short order.”

“We hope that is the case as well.” Mr. Warren spoke up again. “But to make certain, we would like to have access to the Children’s Aid’s financial statements for the last two years as well as any other pertinent records.”

“I see.” Her brain whirled with the logistics of gathering that much paperwork together.

Mr. Fenmore leaned forward in his chair. “These records will be made available to an independent advisor whom we have hired to make a thorough study of the organization. His name is Garrett Wilder, and he will examine not only