The Preacher’s Daughter Page 6

  Relieved he didn’t have to cook for himself, he rode toward his sister’s, reminding himself this visit was at Ellie’s request. He reined in and tied Titus to the post beside the front gate. The sight of all four youngsters and Flynn sitting in a row on chairs across the front porch brought him up short.

  Flynn loped down the stairs, and the others followed.

  Buddy Lee followed at their heels, meowing. The children all spoke at once.

  “Mama’s having the baby!” Lillith said excitedly.

  “Caleb’s been up with Ellie since this afternoon,”

  Flynn said.

  “Mrs. Connor is here, too,” Nate told him.

  “I’m hungwy,” Anna piped up.

  “It’s time for dinner,” Ben said, guiding them back toward the house. “I’m hungry, too.”

  “Mith Lorrie’th fixing it by herthelf,” Anna replied.

  “Why didn’t a couple of you help her?”

  “David and me was helping, but she told us to watch Anna,” Lillith replied.

  Ben could imagine how much help David and Lillith had been.

  He pointed to the swing in the side yard. “Why don’t you girls swing while I go check on your dinner?”

  Lillith and Anna ran down the stairs. Flynn accompanied Ben into the house. “How long does this baby stuff take?” Flynn asked with a furrow between his brows. “I don’t remember it taking this long when Anna was born.”

  “I don’t think there’s a hard-and-fast rule,” Ben told him.

  He found Lorabeth in the overly-warm kitchen, strands of her honey-colored hair stuck to the back of her neck.

  She glanced up from the bowl of potatoes she was mashing and gave him a quick smile. “Hello, Benjamin.”

  He opened the back door and the ceiling-high window to let in some air. Buddy Lee immediately shot inside, and Ben spent five minutes getting the cat out from under a cupboard and back out. “How are you faring?” he asked Lorabeth.

  “Things got a little chaotic this afternoon. I ran an errand for Dr. Chaney and ended up getting supper started late.”

  “Flynn and I will help.”

  A look of relief crossed her features, but she said, “That’s not necessary.”

  “Probably not, but we’re helpin’ anyhow. What can we do?”

  “You can take the roast out of that pan and slice it. I didn’t get the potatoes peeled in time to cook them with the meat, so I boiled them. The children like them better mashed, anyway. Flynn, will you please set plates around the table in the dining room? It will be cooler in there. Ask the boys to wash their hands and help you with silverware and napkins.”

  Ben removed the lid from the roasting pan, and the savory aroma of beef and browned carrots made his stomach growl. He found a large fork to lift the roast from the pan to a platter and sliced. A small piece fell to the side and he tasted the tender meat. “You’re no stranger to a kitchen. This is perfect.”

  “I’ve been cooking since I was old enough to fire up a stove. What about you? You seem to know what you’re doing.”

  “I’ve helped Ellie a time or two.”

  She moved beside him to spoon the carrots into a bowl. “Were you young when your mother died?”

  Ben simply nodded.

  “But your father had already passed away by then?”

  Ben never lied. And he detested avoiding a question. He glanced to see if Flynn had returned, but his brother was still in the dining room. “Never had a father.”

  Of course everyone had a father. It just sounded worse to say he didn’t know who his was.

  She took the pan from him, placed it on the stove, and stirred flour into the drippings. Ben couldn’t help noticing her efficient yet graceful movements. She wore a plain brown skirt and a white shirtwaist with her sleeves rolled back to her elbows. “Would you mind watching this for a moment? Just keep stirring.”

  He took over the gravy while Lorabeth scraped a heaping mound of mashed potatoes into a serving bowl and made a well for a dollop of butter.

  “Have you seen Ellie or spoken with Caleb?”

  She nodded. “Her back was hurting something fierce when she woke up from her nap this afternoon. Caleb came around two to check on her. That was when he said it wasn’t going to be long before the baby was born. I stayed with her while he went and canceled the rest of his appointments.

  “She asked me to get the children from school, and once they were home and she’d seen and hugged them all, she told them to busy themselves. That was when Dr. Chaney sent me to get Mrs. Connor.”

  Sophie Connor was a friend of Ellie’s. She’d been a Harvey Girl at the Arcade Hotel and restaurant before meeting and marrying the city marshal. Sophie had a couple children of her own. “Sophie’s been down for water and tea a few times.”

  Lorabeth gave the gravy a final stir and used her apron to protect her hands from the hot handles as she poured the steaming liquid from the pan into a serving bowl. She reached for a ladle on a wall hook.

  Ben unwrapped two loaves of bread and sliced both, stacking the slices on a plate.

  “The carrots and green beans are warming back here,” she said, taking bowls from the back of the stove.

  Ben picked up the platter and followed her into the dining room. The boys had done a pretty decent job of setting the table.

  “Nate, will you call your sisters now, please?” she asked. “I’ll go let Dr. Chaney and Mrs. Connor know that the food is ready and see if they want to eat.”

  Ben nodded and watched her head for the stairs, the braid swinging across her back.

  The children were subdued as they took their seats around the table. Their parents’ chairs were glaringly empty. Ben and Flynn served portions and cut meat into bites for the young ones.

  Ben didn’t give Lillith any green beans.

  Lorabeth returned.

  The kids looked at her and then at Ben. “Who’s gonna say grace?”

  Lorabeth asked a blessing for their meal and included a petition for Ellie’s comfort and the baby’s health.

  Ben didn’t look up, but the confident words of her softly-spoken prayer stayed with him throughout the meal.

  Caleb arrived a few minutes later, his shirtsleeves rolled up and a look of preoccupation on his face.

  “Mama’s doing just fine,” he told his children.

  “When’s the baby gonna come?” Lillith asked.

  “When he’s ready,” Caleb replied. “It won’t be long now.”

  “Maybe you should go back,” David said with a frown of concern.

  “Mrs. Connor is with her, and it will be a little while longer.” He glanced at Lorabeth. “I’ll send Sophie down to eat once I’ve finished.”

  “I saved some broth from the meat,” Lorabeth told him. “When Mrs. Chaney is up to it, I’ll take her a tray.”

  “That was a good idea. Very thoughtful, thanks.”

  Lorabeth nodded.

  Caleb ate and left the table. It wasn’t long until Sophie joined them. The pretty dark-haired woman was smiling and cheerful, assuring everyone that Ellie was indeed doing well.

  Lorabeth asked Flynn to heat water and then she and Nate stacked the plates and washed pans and dishes. Ben and David dried while Lorabeth wiped the table and counters.

  Nate and David had school assignments, so she settled them at the clean kitchen table. Minutes later she was pointing over David’s shoulder to show him a step he’d missed.

  Without missing a beat, she took cigar boxes from a shelf and set the girls to drawing and cutting.

  Ben sat beside Lillith and pointed to a row of paper figures. “What’s this you’re makin’?”

  “Miss Lorrie helps us draw pretty dresses for our paper dolls,” Lillith told him. “She looks at the clothes in the catalog and then makes ours just like them.”

  “I never did things like this as a girl,” Lorabeth told Ben with a sheepish shrug. “It’s fun.”

  Ben knew all about missing out on things a
s a child, but he couldn’t figure out how Lorabeth fit the picture. She had a respectable family, a concerned father, and lived in a nice home right here in Newton.

  She had certainly stepped up and handled things for his sister’s family this past week, and she’d knocked herself out to make sure the children’s routines weren’t upset. His admiration grew by leaps and bounds each time he was around her. She put her energy and talent to good use, and he acknowledged that.

  Ben remembered the treats in his jacket pocket and excused himself to go get the bag. When he returned, he found a glass bowl in the cupboard and poured in the brightly colored candies. He set it on the kitchen table. “Each take five the first time to keep it fair,” he told them. “And they can’t all be the same color.”

  Anna stuck out her lower lip, but he’d done this before. “Others like red, too,” he admonished, keeping his voice cheerful.

  She looked up and tilted her lips into a cherubic smile, and all was well.

  The candy made the rounds with each Chaney selecting five jelly beans until the bowl came to Lorabeth. She held it as though she’d been given a stolen diamond. Her wide tawny eyes looked to Ben in surprise. “They’re for the children.”

  “Don’t you like them?”

  “I think so. A friend of my mama’s gave me some a long time ago.”

  “Well, choose yours,” he said with an encouraging nod.

  Lorabeth carefully selected five and passed them on. She bit into the first one, and her broad smile gave him an odd hitch in his chest. She appeared every bit as childishly delighted with his surprise as Lillith and Anna.

  Flynn came to the doorway and asked Ben if he’d read over an assignment for errors, so Ben gave Lorabeth a glance and headed for Caleb’s den.

  After watching him go, Lorabeth ran her tongue across her teeth to glean every last sugary bite. When the dish came to her again, she took five more candies and tucked them into her apron pocket for later.

  Dr. Chaney entered the room and asked her for a cup of broth. She handed him a napkin along with the steaming cup. Preoccupied, he returned to his wife.

  Lorabeth lit the lamps and lanterns and went upstairs to lay out the children’s nightclothes and turn down their beds. Soft voices could be heard from behind her employers’ closed door. The whole mystery of Ellie’s pregnancy and this process of giving birth fascinated Lorabeth. All she knew about how babies were conceived she’d read in the Bible. “Caleb had ‘known’ Ellie” was vague and mysterious. All that metaphorical stuff about does and lilies in the Song of Solomon made it sound lyrical and lovely. The unknown was bewildering and alluring at the same time.

  She escorted the girls to the outhouse and then washed their hands and faces in the wash room behind the kitchen.

  “I want Ben to tuck me in,” Lillith told her.

  She sent them upstairs with a warning not to disturb their parents and sought out Benjamin. He and Flynn were seated in comfortable leather chairs in the doctor’s handsomely furnished wood-paneled library.

  “The girls asked for you,” she said to Benjamin.

  He stood easily, coming to his full impressive height. “Best indulge the little darlin’s so they’ll get to sleep.”

  “Are you set for tomorrow, Flynn?” she asked. Almost a full-grown man, Flynn was a student, as well. She’d never known anyone so cheerful or easy to please.

  “I’m fine, Miss Lorrie,” he told her with a grin.

  She followed Benjamin from the room, and he paused at the foot of the stairs for her to go ahead of him. She was reminded of the day she’d brought her things and he’d carried them to her room.

  She led the way to the bedroom Lillith and Anna shared.

  The walls were papered with pale lavender violets, and the bureau and two small beds had been painted with matching flowers. Dolls lined the window seat and an enormous dollhouse occupied one corner. Lorabeth’s breath had been taken away the first time she’d stepped in and seen the fantasy-inspired room created for their enjoyment.

  Anna bounced on her bed and Lillith squealed at the sight of her uncle.

  Lorabeth tucked Anna under her covers while Benjamin spoke with her sister.

  “I am missing Mama,” Lillith told him with a pout.

  “It’s only one night,” he assured her. “She’s busy, you know.”

  “Bringing us a sister,” Lillith replied delightedly.

  “Could be it’s a brother,” he reminded her.

  “We got lots of them, but we only got me and Anna for sisters, so we need another.”

  “I want a puppy!” Anna called from her bed.

  Benjamin looked across at her and grinned. “You’ll have to talk to your mama and papa about that.”

  “Wake me up when the baby comes,” Lillith told him in all sincerity.

  Benjamin glanced at Lorabeth, but she wasn’t familiar with the customs of this family and didn’t know how to answer. She waited for him to reply.

  “We’ll wake you,” he promised.

  “’Night, Mith Lorrie,” Anna said in her sweet baby voice.

  “Good night, Anna.”

  Lorabeth traded places with Benjamin and he gave Anna a hug and kiss while Lorabeth spoke to Lillith.

  Finally she turned down the wick until the room was in darkness and padded toward the door.

  Benjamin was right behind her, so close she could feel the heat from his body as she stepped into the hall lit only by a single reflecting tin lamp.

  She was tempted to stop and experience the moment, but the door to Caleb and Ellie’s room opened and Sophie came out carrying a tray. Lorabeth hurried to take it. “Can I get you something?”

  “I can manage,” she replied, keeping her hold on the tray. “But you must be exhausted. You’ve been working since dawn.”

  “I’m pretty tired,” Lorabeth admitted. “I don’t think I could sleep, though.”

  “Why don’t you go out for some air?” she suggested.

  She turned to Benjamin. “Lorabeth needs a change of scenery. Ellie said she’s been running after her and the children all week.”

  “It’s no problem,” Lorabeth assured her while the thought of getting out of the house appealed.

  Sophie wasn’t going to be put off. “No arguments now. Are the children all in bed?”

  Ben explained that the girls were down and the boys would be next.

  “As soon as Nate and David are tucked in,” Sophie said, “Flynn can listen for a problem. I’m here for Ellie and Caleb. Benjamin, take Lorabeth out for some air.”

  Lorabeth’s body was physically tired, but she never slept more than five hours a night. She read until her eyes were weary, and then she fell asleep only to wake while it was still dark. The thought of a walk in the night air with the heavens stretching out above sounded far better than attempting elusive sleep. And the anticipation that she would go walking with Benjamin rejuvenated her immediately.

  Lorabeth thanked her and turned to him. “If you want to send the boys up, I’ll get a shawl from my room.”

  Several minutes later, man and horse stood silhouetted by the moon, both handsome, both restless. Benjamin said something to the animal, patted its neck.

  “Where to?” she asked.

  “We don’t necessarily need a destination, but if you’d like a plan, we’ll walk to the park.”

  “The park? Lovely!”

  Lorabeth wrapped her shawl around her shoulders and appreciated that he didn’t seem inclined to walk slowly on her behalf. Darkness had settled over the city, and the moon was a mere sliver of silver in the sky. A train whistle blew, a melancholy sound that reminded her of all the places she’d never been and all the things she wanted to do.

  “Where did you attend university?” she asked.

  “Chicago.”

  “Is it exciting, the big city?”

  “It’s bigger…all hustle and bustle like the train station.”

  She took a jelly bean from her pocket and extended
it to him. He shook his head, so she placed it on her tongue where the sweet flavor melted. “Did you visit museums and the theater?”

  He nodded. A gas lamp cast his face into interesting shadows. “Sometimes.”

  “I read about Chicago in the Florence Herald. Dr.

  Chaney subscribes to that and the Newton Kansan, and sometimes he leaves them for us to use in the kitchen.

  I don’t read them when I’m supposed to be working, of course. I wait until bedtime. And in the morning I return them to the rubbish bin.”

  “I’m sure Caleb doesn’t mind you reading the newspapers.”

  “I asked his permission.”

  Of course she had. Her interest made it sound as though she’d never read a newspaper until recently.

  “Doesn’t your father read the newspaper?”

  “Oh, no. It’s not edifying.”

  He’d sat through a good many of her father’s Sunday sermons, but had never heard Reverend Holdridge express concern about people spoiling their minds with current events.

  She glanced at Ben with a new look of concern. “Do you think less of me for reading a worldly publication?”

  As though it mattered what he thought of her. “No.

  I read the news myself. Would your father disapprove of me reading it?”

  “I couldn’t say. He requires more discipline of him self and of his children than of others.”

  Benjamin didn’t think it was undisciplined to read the newspaper, but he didn’t want to speak against her father or his convictions, so he said nothing.

  They reached Broadway and neared the entrance to the darkened park. There had been gas lamps along the street, but in the one square block between Broadway and Seventh, there were only dark brick walkways, hedges and fading flowers lit by the moon.

  “It’s so dark,” she said, her voice almost a whisper.

  “Are you afraid of the dark?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “We don’t have to go into the park, we can walk around the outside…or we can head back.”

  “No. No, I want to go in.” She took a forward step, but halted. “I want to, but it’s a little frightening.”

  “Let’s head back—”