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  Sighing, she nodded. “I should be able to do it myself, shouldn’t I?”

  “I don’t mind helping you out. Sit tight. I’ll get rid of them.” And he was more than happy to do that for her if it meant she wouldn’t get attached to the man. He returned to the kitchen.

  “Mrs. Donner, why do you keep calling Luke ‘little Jim?’” Emily asked, jumping up and down on the floor.

  “Why, it’s his name of course,” Beatrice answered.

  “But his mother calls him Luke.”

  “Yes, but my son would have named him Jim, after his own name. It’s a family tradition.”

  “I don’t think it’s right to call Luke by another name. His father died and his mother is the one who named him. Pa says that we need to call people by the name our parents gave us. I was here when your son died, and he died before Luke was born, so he never named him. So it’s up to Mrs. Donner to name him and she named him Luke. That means Luke is his name.”

  “Sometimes we must honor the wishes of the dead.”

  “But Mrs. Donner said that your son didn’t care about Luke.”

  Neil paused, taking a sudden interest in this new information. Sarah hadn’t told him this.

  “Of course, he cared about Luke.” Beatrice shook her head. “I mean, little Jim.”

  “No, he didn’t.” Emily stopped jumping and leaned on the kitchen table so she could look the woman in the eye. “She told me that when the robbers came, Jim ran off and left them with her. He got shot while he was trying to get away. I don’t think your son was a nice man for leaving her to the robbers. My pa wouldn’t have done that to her.”

  “How dare you compare your father to my son?” Beatrice stood up, her face red. “I don’t need to put up with your insolence, little girl.”

  “I’m not trying to be insolent, Mrs. Donner. I’m just trying to tell you that your daughter-in-law is a good person and you should call your grandson Luke because that’s the name she gave him.”

  “She’s right, Mrs. Donner,” Neil finally spoke. “The least you can do is call her son Luke.”

  “Why, I can’t believe you would dare intervene in a family affair,” Beatrice huffed.

  “This is my house, and as far as I’m concerned, this is Sarah’s house too. When you’re here, you’ll do as Sarah says.”

  “Neither one of you knows how to honor a parent.”

  “We are honoring you by putting up with your demanding presence twice a week, Mrs. Donner. This is her house and while you’re here, you will have to respect her wishes. If I hear that you aren’t, I’m going to personally take you back to town. Do I make myself clear?” He crossed his arms and waited for her to argue with him.

  Beatrice shook her head and looked at the man sitting next to her. “Mr. Weiss, are you going to let him talk to me like that?”

  Mr. Weiss stood up, put his hat on his head, and tipped it in Neil’s direction. “I agree with what he said, ma’am. If you’ll excuse me, Mr. Craftsman, I’ll find my way out.”

  Neil nodded.

  Beatrice angrily straightened her dress and followed Mr. Weiss out of the house.

  Emily turned to him. “That was much better than what I was doing to get rid of them!”

  Neil smiled. “It’s getting harder to fend them off, isn’t it?”

  “It is. I hope you’ll do something about that.”

  He studied her. “You’re not still hoping for your mother to return?”

  She sighed. “You told me she’s not coming back. I guess it’s time I listened.”

  He knelt down and hugged her. “I’m sorry, Em. I really am.”

  “I know, Pa. And I’m sorry too.”

  “You have nothing to be sorry about, honey.”

  “I’m going to do everything I can to make sure Mrs. Donner stays. I do everything she asks. If I make myself useful enough, she won’t want to leave.”

  “Honey, there’s nothing you can do that will make Mrs. Donner leave, all right?”

  The sound of footsteps on the staircase interrupted them. Neil stood up to see Sarah entering the kitchen.

  “Em here did a great job of fending them off for you,” Neil said.

  Sarah smiled. “Thank you, Emily. And thank you, Neil.”

  “Where’s Luke?” Emily asked.

  “He’s taking a nap. Would you like to learn to sew? We’ll start with a simple pattern.”

  “I sure would!” Looking at him, she wondered, “Do you need me to help with anything outside?”

  He laughed. “No. You can help Mrs. Donner.”

  Sarah grinned. “We’ll call you when supper’s ready.”

  He nodded and left the house.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Sarah had a nagging sensation that things were building up to a confrontation, and she discovered she was right on the second Sunday in July. Her hands shook as she slipped into the dress she made from the green fabric Neil bought for her. She couldn’t remember a time when she wore such a daring color. She felt as if she were committing a sin, though she knew she wasn’t. Pressing through the task, she finished and went to the mirror.

  Exhaling, she picked up the brush and ran it through her wavy blond tresses that fell softly down her back. One woman at the church wore her hair down, and Sarah thought the style was attractive so she decided to imitate it. Picking up a ribbon, she forced her hands to steady as she pulled the sides of her hair back and wrapped the ribbon to keep her hair out of her face. She placed her hands on her stomach and studied her reflection. Wide brown eyes, fair skin, dark blond hair that fell over her shoulders, and a dress that hid her flaws. She liked what she saw.

  No wonder the preacher told women not to dress themselves up. I didn’t realize I was this pretty. She shook her head and placed her new white hat, with flowers tucked into it, on her head. Then she slipped on her white gloves. “No. There’s nothing wrong with looking good. I was made this way.”

  Determined, she picked up six-month-old Luke whose eyes grew wide. She laughed. “Don’t you recognize your mother?”

  A smile lit up his face and she kissed his forehead. His blond hair smelled of the lilac soap she bathed him with the night before.

  “I love you, you know,” she whispered.

  He cooed in response.

  She held him close to her, taking comfort in his presence, and strode out of the room and down the steps. When she entered the kitchen, Neil looked up from the paper he was reading. Emily, who sat next to him as she played with her dolls, jumped out of her chair.

  “You look as pretty as my ma,” she said.

  Sarah blushed. “Thank you, Emily. You look pretty too.”

  Neil put his newspaper on the table and stood up. “Em’s right, Sarah. You’re the loveliest woman I’ve ever seen.”

  Sarah’s eyes met his and her breath caught in her throat. No man had looked at her the way he looked at her, and she wasn’t sure what to make of it, except that she enjoyed it.

  Clearing his throat, he continued, “We’re running late. I’ll bring the buggy around.”

  She watched as he left.

  Emily went to the table and picked up a doll that Sarah didn’t recognize.

  “Emily? Where is Cass?”

  The girl fiddled with the blond hair on her new doll. “Oh, I got tired of her. I asked Grandma for this doll instead. She came with a sister.” She held up the other blond doll. “Their names are Amy and Amanda. They’re twins. I’ve never seen twins before. Have you?”

  Sarah thought about it. “No. I haven’t.”

  Luke giggled and reached for her hair. Sarah gasped and gently pulled his hand away, amazed at his strength.

  “You shouldn’t hurt your mother, Luke,” Emily admonished. “You could pull her hair out and then she’d be bald.”

  A smile crossed Sarah’s face. “I don’t think that’s a concern, but it did hurt. Are you taking those dolls to church?”

  “Yes.”

  Horses neighed from outside. A qu
ick peek out the open window showed Neil pulling the buggy up to the house. “We should go.” Sarah took a step forward.

  “Pa loves you. He’s going to ask you to marry him.”

  Sarah halted in mid-step. She couldn’t be sure what Emily was thinking because the girl had her head bowed over her dolls. Stopping Luke from grabbing for her hair again, she said, “Surely, he hasn’t told you this.”

  She shrugged. “He doesn’t need to. I see the way he looks when he talks to you. He didn’t look at Ma that way. He and Ma rarely said anything to each other, but he spends all his free time with you.”

  Feeling heat rise to her cheeks, she pushed aside the flip flops in her stomach. “He and I have formed a friendship.”

  “Michelle says that when a boy and a girl spend a lot of time together, it means that they are courting, and courting means they love each other.”

  Sarah had heard the name but couldn’t remember where. “Who’s Michelle?”

  “She’s one of the older students in class. She graduated this year.”

  Oh, the know-it-all Michelle from Emily’s school. That explained the comment. “Well Emily, life isn’t simple and neither are people. You can’t tell for sure what will happen.”

  Emily looked up at her then, her green eyes intense. “Do you love him?”

  The question, so bold, threw her off guard. Before she could answer, Neil opened the kitchen door. Breathing a sigh of relief, she held her son with one arm and held her free hand out to Emily.

  Emily, holding onto her dolls with one hand, accepted Sarah’s extended hand and didn’t ask her anything else. Apparently, eight year olds were smarter than Sarah gave them credit for. She wasn’t comfortable with the girl asking if she loved her father. Could Emily tell? Was Sarah that obvious, even to children? And if her feelings were that transparent, did Neil know?

  After Neil helped Emily into the buggy, he turned to Sarah and held his hand out to her. Aware of the fact that Emily studied them, Sarah murmured a thanks and accepted his hand, noticing how warm and firm it was. Her face flushed as his touch sent tingles through her body. He placed his other hand on the small of her back as she stepped into the buggy. This sense of nervous excitement had been steadily increasing whenever he was near. She didn’t know how she could stop it, or even if she wanted to. It was a wonderful sensation but one that made it hard to think.

  During the ride to town, Emily did most of the talking. When they got to the church, they sat next to Rachel and Caroline’s families. Preacher Amos blamed her for the fact that Rachel and Caroline’s families left his church to go to the one Neil did. She did enjoy Neil’s church, and it amazed her that women dressed to look their best and that Preacher Peters told the men to treat women as their equals. The concepts were so new that it took her a good month before she felt comfortable sitting through a sermon. Caroline said her husband began to teach their daughter to play the piano, and Caroline and Rachel agreed that their families were happier at the new church so it all seemed to work out.

  On that particular day, people complimented her on her dress, saying she looked beautiful. She wasn’t prepared for the kind words, so she didn’t know how else to respond than with a shy thank you.

  It wasn’t until after they returned home with Neil’s mother that the confrontation occurred. They had just finished their supper when a loud knocking brought Sarah to the kitchen door. She gasped when she realized Preacher Amos and his congregation stood outside the house.

  “Mrs. Donner, it is with a heavy heart that we approach you,” the preacher told her.

  She glanced at her son who sat on the hardwood floor playing with two pans and a wooden spoon. The clanking made it hard for her to understand the preacher. Turning back to the group of fifty people, including Jim’s mother, she stepped outside and shut the door, determined that she wouldn’t show her apprehension. “What is it?”

  “Would you look at the dress she’s wearing?” a woman hissed to the woman standing next to her. “Absolutely dreadful.”

  “I don’t recall the Good Book speaking against a woman wearing the color green,” Sarah said, shoving her shaky hands behind her back.

  The woman snapped her head in Sarah’s direction.

  Sarah waited for a reply but it never came. Satisfied that she finally managed to shut old lady Mildred’s mouth, she looked at the preacher.

  “It appears that living in this house, under the influence of Mr. Craftsman, has done incredible damage to you, Sarah,” Amos spoke, his expression sad. “Now, I don’t blame you. None of us do. We realize now that not taking you in when you had nowhere to go was wrong. We are here to correct that problem. You have a welcome invitation to stay with anyone in this group that you choose.”

  Taking a deep breath, she replied, “I wish to remain here.”

  A round of disapproving murmurs greeted her ears.

  “We cannot allow this rebellion to continue,” the preacher insisted. “As the man who’s responsible for your spiritual well-being, I have to take you away from here. Unless you designate someone to stay with, you will go with Beatrice Donner.”

  Sarah gave a sharp look at Jim’s mother who smiled smugly at her. “No. I will not live with her. It is enough that I let her come by twice a week to see Luke.”

  “Then you refuse to do what’s right.”

  “I’m not doing anything wrong.”

  “That proves it.” Beatrice nodded emphatically at him. “There’s no hope for her. She’s fallen too far away from what’s right. We can’t let her lead her son into the same immoral fate that she’s chosen.”

  Sarah’s spine stiffened. “You’re not taking my son anywhere!”

  “Your son is also Jim’s son, and since Jim is dead, that means half the rights of guardianship go to me.”

  “It does not!” She stomped her foot and yelled, “Get out of here! All of you!”

  “Sarah,” Amos began, “we have to consider what’s best for the child.”

  The door opened behind her, stopping her from screaming at them again. She jerked to the side so Neil’s mother could step onto the porch.

  “What’s going on here?” Gwen demanded, her hands on her hips and her gaze sweeping the crowd.

  The preacher shook his head. “This does not concern you, ma’am. We merely have business with Mrs. Donner.”

  “Well, if you’re on my son’s property, then anything you have to say is my business.” She crossed her arms. “So, Sarah, what are they doing to trouble you?”

  “Mrs. Craftsman, I don’t want to involve you in this mess,” Sarah whispered.

  She waved her hand at her. “I have a son who’s gotten himself into quite a few messes in his time.” She glanced at the crowd. “Though I can tell you all, he doesn’t do so anymore.” Turning her tender eyes to Sarah, she asked, “What is it, Sarah?”

  The warmth in the woman’s expression brought tears to Sarah’s eyes. Quickly dabbing them away, she cleared her throat and replied, “Jim’s mother came to take Luke.”

  “Little Jim,” Beatrice snapped. “And of course, I came to take him from this den of immorality.”

  Gwen’s lips tightened. “I assure you that there’s nothing of the sort going on. They have behaved themselves.”

  “A mother has to stick up for her son, no matter how much of a brute he is,” Jim’s mother hissed.

  “Interesting you should say that,” Sarah noted.

  Beatrice gasped. “Jim was the gentlest man the world has ever known.”

  Sarah was ready to disqualify that remark but the condemning words fell silent. What else did the woman have but her illusion of how things were between Sarah and Jim?

  Gwen put her hands up to stop the murmuring from the group. “None of that matters now. What does matter is that we are moving forward. And since that is the case, I might as well make the announcement. My son and Sarah are getting married, so all of this talk is useless.”

  Sarah felt as if the air had been knocked o
ut of her lungs. Marriage? She and Neil had discussed nothing of the sort! Not that the idea didn’t appeal to her. In fact, the notion rather pleased her. But still...no agreement had been made!

  “That is out of the question!” Beatrice grabbed Amos’ hand. “You must stop this. If they marry, I’ll never get Little Jim to live with me.”

  A horse’s neigh interrupted the people. Looking at the source of the sound, Sarah saw Neil riding his stallion up to the porch, the evening sun beating down on him. When he reached the porch, several people backed away. “What’s going on here?” he demanded.

  “Oh good, you’re here!” Gwen skipped down the steps. “I was just telling this nice group of well-wishers the good news.”

  Sarah’s stomach tensed into an even bigger knot than before Gwen showed up. Darting a glance through the window she saw that Emily was playing with Luke. Luke laughed at the silly faces Emily made at him. That scene helped ease her tension...but only a little bit.

  “Good news?” Neil, predictably, asked.

  “Yes.” His mother beamed at him. “I was just telling Preacher Amos and the nice people that attend his church that you and Sarah are going to get married.”

  To Neil’s credit, Sarah didn’t see him flinch the way Jim had when her parents presented him with the proposal. Instead, Neil’s eyes met hers, but she had no idea what he was thinking.

  Beatrice clutched her hands to her chest. “I can’t allow this to happen. Sarah, you are free to marry whoever you wish, but I will be taking my precious Little Jim home.” Beatrice barged toward the door.

  In the next instant, Sarah blocked the woman’s way to the door. Neil jumped off the horse so he stood between her and Beatrice. Her heart thumped wildly in her chest while Neil spoke in low, even tones.

  “Mrs. Donner,” he told Beatrice, “hasn’t it worked out that you get to see Luke twice a week? Sarah hasn’t been unfair to you. In fact, considering the degree of hostility you’ve shown her, I surmise that she’s been a saint when it comes to dealing with you.” He peered over his shoulder at Sarah. “When do you want the wedding?”

  The question caught her off guard as much as the onlookers staring at them did. “Oh.” She cleared her throat, her heart racing at the thought of being his wife. “I...When do you think Preacher Peters will be able to perform the ceremony?”