by Emily Woods
“Betha,” Betha responded.
She felt torn. She adored the little boy, and she desperately wanted to be his mama. Betha had never imagined she could love a child so much, let alone a child that was not her own. She did not want, however, to break Billy’s heart if she decided her marriage was unsalvageable. She knew that Charles had nearly married another woman last year, and Betha could not stand the idea of allowing Billy to see her as his mother if Betha were going to leave him.
“Mama,” Billy cooed.
Betha sighed. She smoothed the golden curls on Billy’s forehead and pulled him closer to her. His little body fit perfectly in the crook of her delicate arm, and Betha felt the heat of the boy’s body radiating in the bed.
“You are a dear, Billy,” Betha whispered to the child as he settled back into a deep slumber. “May the Lord’s plans for you be even more wonderful than I could imagine, sweet boy.”
The next day, Betha went about her daily chores at the cabin. She made breakfast for herself and Billy, tidied the house, and tended to the five chickens resting in the small backyard henhouse. Betha played with Billy, and after she put him down for his nap, she retrieved her Bible from where she had tucked it under the bed in the upstairs loft.
“Lord, please give me direction,” Betha said as she sat in the living room with the Bible on her lap.
Sunlight poured in from the two windows, but the air was slightly cold. Betha shivered as she settled down to speak to the Lord.
“Perhaps I am just nervous,” Betha said aloud as she considered her chilliness. “I don’t know why I am shivering.”
Betha returned to the loft and fetched a quilt from the bed. Billy was sleeping peacefully on the bed, and Betha gave him a gentle kiss on the forehead.
“My sleeping angel,” Betha murmured.
Betha tucked the quilt around her shoulders and carefully climbed down from the loft. She sat down with her Bible, but first, she prayed.
“Lord,” Betha began as she folded her hands and closed her eyes. “Lord, my heart has been heavy, and my soul has been weary. I am growing more and more fond of little Billy, and it would break my heart to leave him. I am concerned about Charles, though. Charles kept Billy’s challenges from me intentionally, and I feel in my heart as though I were tricked. I was so eager to marry Charles, and perhaps I was too quick to enter into such a covenant with someone I hardly know. God, Charles says that he is not a bad man, and I do not think he is a bad man. We shared such special moments together, and I want to believe that he can be truthful and good. I just don’t know how to forgive him. Please, help me, Lord. Show me how to forgive, or show me what I should do next. Should I stay here and be a mother and a wife, or is this a sign from You that this was all a mistake?”
Betha began to sob. Tears poured from her green eyes, and her small shoulders shook as she buried her face in her hands. She tried to stifle her loud cries. She would never forgive herself if she woke Billy from his nap, but she was unable to suppress the sorrow that spilled from her lips as she wept.
“Mama?”
Betha was silent. Billy had heard her crying!
“I am alright, Billy! Go back to sleep, sweetheart!”
Betha heard a thump. Billy must have gotten out of bed. She rose, turning toward the wooden ladder, but before she could climb into the loft, she watched helplessly as Billy fell before her. He fell quickly, but Betha could see that he tumbled in the air as if he were a ragdoll. Billy landed headfirst on the wooden floor with a hard crash.
“Billy!” Betha screamed.
The child was silent. His eyes were closed, and blood began to pour from a cut on his head.
“Billy! No!”
Betha rushed to the child and cradled him in her arms. She was careful not to move his head too much; she knew that unnecessary motion could do even further damage to the child, and she tried to keep him still. Betha gently laid Billy on the floor.
“Billy? Can you hear me?”
Billy did not move. Betha lightly stroked his little arms and legs, but still, the child was motionless.
“Billy! Please! Wake up!”
Betha put her hands on Billy’s chest. She could feel his heart beating. She breathed a sigh of relief.
“He’s alive. Oh Lord, the child survived the fall! Praise You! Now, please, Lord, help me to save him! Help me to wake the boy up!”
Betha tore off a piece of her own dress to stop the bleeding from Billy’s head wound. She pressed tightly to the wound, trying her best to stop the gush of blood that was now pooled by Billy’s head. Eventually, the bleeding stopped, and Betha offered another prayer of relief.
“He is alive, and now, he is not bleeding. Thank you, Lord.”
Betha slowly decreased pressure to the wound. She removed her bloody hands from the boy’s head and kissed his forehead. She was covered in blood, but she did not care. Betha knew that Billy needed her attention more than ever, and she could not let the boy perish from his injury. She kept trying to rouse him, and finally, Billy’s eyes blinked open. He let out a loud scream, but even as the boy yelped and shouted, Betha praised God.
“He is alive and awake! Oh, praise you, Lord!”
In the midst of the emergency, a deep sense of peace filled Betha’s heart. She calmed Billy down and was able to stop him from crying.
“Shhhh, Billy,” Betha whispered to the child as he whimpered in pain.
“Mama?” Billy called as he reached his arms out before him to gauge his surroundings.
Betha let out a moan of relief. Only an hour had passed since Billy’s fall, but in that hour, everything had changed for her. Betha had watched as the child nearly died, and she was overcome with love and devotion for the little boy next to her. While earlier, she would have weighed her words heavily, now, as Billy reached for her, Betha spoke without hesitation and forever sealed her destiny.
“Mama’s here, Billy. Your mama is here for you.”
When Charles returned from his expedition three days later, he came home to his modest cabin to find a new woman waiting for him. Betha greeted him lovingly as he stepped through the door. She threw her arms around him and kissed him on the cheeks as he walked into the kitchen.
“Oh, Charles!” Betha cried out as Charles stared at his wife in disbelief.
“Betha? What has come over you?” Charles asked.
“Pa! Mama!” Billy shrieked as he toddled into the kitchen.
Betha scooped the child into her arms and planted a kiss on Billy’s forehead.
“Mama’s here, and your pa is here, Billy!”
Betha held Billy up to Charles’s face.
“You can touch pa’s beard, sweet boy,” Betha murmured to the child. “Your pa is here, and your mama is holding you!”
Charles’s heart swelled as he watched his wife holding his son. Charles leaned down to kiss Billy on the cheek, and he took the child into his arms.
“Betha! What happened to Billy’s head?” Charles exclaimed.
Betha shook her head sadly as Charles’s wide eyes took in the sight of his bruised young son.
“It was an accident, Charles,” Betha explained. “Billy fell out of the loft. He tumbled down and landed on the floor. I thought he was dead at first, and the bleeding was terrible! I was able to stop the bleeding and soothe him, and with the Lord’s hand, the boy is well again! He is walking and singing and speaking just as he did before, and it is a miracle from Heaven!”
Charles hugged his son tightly. Betha’s eyes filled with tears.
“I am so sorry, Charles,” Betha whispered as Charles held his son.
“It was not your fault, Betha,” Charles said calmly. “I have been meaning to put in a railing on the loft. It ain’t safe, and I knew that. Don’t apologize!”
Betha shook her head.
“No, Charles,” she mumbled. “I’m sorry for the way I conducted myself before you left. I wasn’t forgiving or understanding, and I know that you are not a bad fellow. I let my pride
and anger get in the way of the Lord’s ways, and I was too stubborn to offer forgiveness when I knew I should. I am so sorry, Charles, and I am sorry that the boy was hurt! I hope you can forgive me for not extending you the grace and love that you just extended to me.”
Charles freed his left arm, still holding Billy in his right. He gestured to Betha.
“Come here, Betha,” Charles said.
Betha complied with Charles’s request. She walked to her husband, and Betha nestled against her husband’s body.
“Betha,” Charles whispered into his wife’s ear as she cried into his shoulder. “I done a bad thing by not letting you know that Billy was blind. I made a mistake. I never wanted to hurt you. I only want to take care of you, Betha. I want you to be the happiest wife and the happiest mother to my son. Can you accept my apology?”
Betha nodded fervently. She continued to cry into Charles’s shoulder.
“Shhhhh,” Charles said soothingly as Betha cried. “Oh, Betha, please accept my apology and forgive me. I ain’t never wanted things to be like this, and I know we can all be happy together.”
Betha pulled away from Charles’s grasp and looked into his blue eyes. She gingerly navigated her hands toward his head and stroked his bearded cheek.
“Charles,” Betha whispered to her husband as she gazed into his eyes. “I forgive you. I accept your apology. I am so sorry that I could not extend to you this grace sooner. The Lord has shone His light into my heart, and there is nothing I would like more than to be your wife in every sense of the word.”
Charles paused. He placed Billy on the ground beside them, then turned his attention back to Betha. Charles took Betha’s hands in his.
“Betha, I will be real honest and good to you forever, I promise,” Charles told his wife.
Betha smiled at her husband.
“I know you will,” Betha murmured.
Charles pulled Betha close to him, wrapping her in his muscled arms. He kissed the top of her head, and then her forehead, and then her nose, and then, finally, Charles planted a long, deep kiss on Betha’s lips. Betha moaned. The kiss was hard and fierce, and Betha could sense Charles’s urgency as he held her close. She could feel his heart beating rapidly against her own chest, and she felt faint in his arms.
“Pa? Mama?” Billy called out, and the couple broke apart.
“Mama is here,” Betha responded to the boy as she picked him up. “Your mama and pa are here, my son.”
Epilogue
“Look! Look, Charles, that’s him! I see him!”
Betha and Charles had been waiting on the platform of the Pinecone Train Station for nearly an hour. Billy’s train was late, but that did not dampen the enthusiasm of his parents. Betha and Charles could hardly contain themselves. They had not seen their oldest son in six months, and they were eager to see him after being apart for so long.
Billy approached his parents with a smile on his face. He was tall, just like his father, and his golden curls had darkened into a light amber color. He wore dark glasses that covered his eyes, but in the bright light of the California sunshine, he did not stand out. Besides the cane he walked with, Billy’s blindness was not a prominent feature.
“Billy!” Betha squealed as she ran toward her oldest son.
“Pa, why does Billy get to go to the fancy school? Why don’t I get to go away to school?”
Charles glanced down at John, their thirteen-year-old son.
“Johnny boy,” Charles said with amusement. “Billy’s school helps teach him things that we cannot! His eyes present some difficulties for him, and things can get real hard. The schools here ain’t got what he needs. You know that. Now, put on a happy face! Your ma is real excited to see Billy, so let’s have a real nice time during this Christmas visit!”
“Yes, Pa,” John said obediently.
Charles watched as his wife embraced his oldest son. It had been over fourteen years since Betha had arrived in Pinecone, and every day since Billy had fallen out of the loft during Charles’ ranching expedition, Betha had loved Charles’s child with every fiber of her being. She doted on Billy, and it was Betha who had first found the San Francisco School for the Blind. She had fought Charles up and down to send Billy to the school. Betha argued that it was the most loving thing that they could do for Billy, and finally, Charles had relented. Billy was now the star pupil of his class, and soon, he would begin applying to colleges in California and in Boston, where Betha’s family still lived.
Charles thoroughly believed that Betha had been sent to the family from God. She had cared for his son with all of the love and tenderness that her big heart possessed, she had paved the way for Billy to find success at his school in San Francisco, and she had borne Charles a second son less than a year after her arrival in California! Now, as Charles held his second son’s hand and watched as his wife embraced his firstborn, his heart swelled with joy and gratitude.
“Look who is home!” Betha exclaimed as she walked Billy over to their waiting family.
“Pa! John!” Billy shouted gleefully as he hugged his father and younger brother.
“I am happiest when my family is together, and here we are! I am the luckiest mother in all of California, and the United States, and Ireland!” Betha said, her Irish accent still strong after so many years in America.
Charles grinned.
“No, I am the lucky one!” Charles said as he gathered his wife and two sons into a hug in the middle of the crowded train station.
“The Lord has blessed this family,” Betha said as tears formed in her eyes.
Charles kissed his wife’s forehead, and then, he kissed his two sons on the tops of their heads.
“We are all together again for Christmas, praise God! Let us celebrate! It is going to be a real happy holiday!” Charles said as he squeezed his family.
“Praise God,” Betha said in agreement.
With smiles on their faces, Charles and Betha guided their sons out of the station and back to their little cabin home. A wonderful holiday season was waiting for them, and as they walked together, Charles and Betha knew that the Lord’s hand had been writing their love story from the very beginning. Despite their difficult first weeks of marriage, Charles and Betha’s happily ever after was the greatest love story either of them could have ever imagined.
“Praise God,” Charles whispered back to his wife as they walked with their two sons.
A Bride for the Innkeeper
A Family to Love, Book 2
1
Gerta stirred in bed as the birds began singing outside of her window. The sun had not yet risen over the mountains and valleys of Pinecone, California, but the sky was bright. Gerta turned away from the window in pursuit of more sleep.
“It ain’t even six in the morning and those birds are screaming and the sky is as bright as it will be at noon,” she said, her eyes still closed as her husband, Paul, sat up in bed.
“These summer sunrises and the birds are God’s way of gettin’ our lazy bottoms up and movin’!” Paul said as he stifled a yawn.
Gerta reached over to playfully swat her husband’s arm. Slowly, she peeled open her brown eyes and studied Paul as he stretched his arms overhead. Gerta admired his strong biceps and muscled chest. Paul was shirtless, and at sixty-one years old, he was still as fit and handsome as the young cowboys and ranchers in Pinecone. His chestnut hair had a silver streak in the front, and his eyes had tiny wrinkles around the creases, but Gerta still saw her husband as the strapping young westerner that she had fallen in love with over thirty years ago.
Gerta, on the other hand, did not feel as beautiful as the day she had first laid eyes on her husband. While her dark eyes still sparkled and her long, thick blonde hair was just as shiny as it was when she was a young woman, after bearing ten healthy babies in thirteen years, Gerta’s body had grown softer, curvier, and heavier. She was not ashamed of her thicker waist and round hips. Paul still lavished her with love and adoration each time they stole away
to their bedroom to share their love in the most intimate sense, and Gerta felt womanly and sensual during their special times together.
“It’s the big day, love,” Paul said to Gerta as she smiled at him.
Gerta nodded and leaned in to kiss her husband on the lips. Even after so many years together, they did not leave their bed without a kiss each morning, and often, that kiss led to more time spent enjoying each other underneath the covers.
“I hope she ain’t nervous. I was so nervous on my wedding day, and looking back, my nerves were for naught.”
Paul laid back and propped himself up on one elbow. He raised an eyebrow at his wife.
“You were nervous, Gerta? I ain’t heard that before! You seemed relaxed to me!”
Gerta’s mouth dropped open in shock.
“Paul! Of course I was nervous! Don’t you remember the circumstances of our wedding day? I was more nervous than I have ever been in my life.”
Paul pulled his wife close to him and kissed her on the forehead. Gerta breathed in a long sigh of satisfaction.
“I know it was a difficult beginning for us,” Paul said to his wife as she snuggled into the curve of his body. “I hope you know now that no matter what, I am here for you and for all of our children, for better or for worse, Gerta.”
Gerta melted into her husband’s embrace and reached for his hands. She squeezed both hands tightly, and slowly, she traced the thick gold wedding band he had worn each day since they had made their wedding vows to each other.
“She may not be in the situation I was in, but I am worried about her. She is so young, Paul! She is so young, and Charles is not your typical groom.”
Paul nodded, and Gerta could feel the hairs of his short beard on the nape of her neck.
“Charles ain’t a typical groom, but he is a good man, Gerta,” Paul said as he kissed his wife on the cheek. “I am sure that this girl will get on well with him and with little Billy.”