Promise of Blessing

by Terri Grace

  The moment she said it, Josie’s hand flew to her mouth. She had never spoken like that before, to Clae or to Harland.

  Harland glanced at her several times in quick succession, his expression caught between shock and desperation. Josie wanted to apologise, but she couldn’t bring herself to speak. The wind picked up and she shivered, now cold on the outside and within.

  Harland cleared his throat and made several false starts. “I thought…. I was going to…. She won’t even….” He looked up at the sky in confusion, giving himself a moment before he tried again. “I couldn’t ask her to marry me without a place of my own to bring her home to. Ours is already too crowded. You know that. And with you and Clae planning to get me a little nephew or niece, it’s going to get even more so. But I had to wait until after this year’s harvest to know if I could afford to buy out my half of the homestead and get a farm of my own.”

  He sighed. “I thought Beth…understood there’s never been anybody else for me but her. That’s why I didn’t send away for a bride, too, when Clae wrote to Reverend Kelly last year. I though she knew that.

  “But then, she started avoiding me, and she wouldn’t speak to me much, and…I didn’t know what to do. But the harvest was good – real good – and Clae and I talked it over, and I came to see Mr Kelley today at the bank, and Clae was going to talk to you tonight…and then Mr Kelley asked if I’d take Miss Kelley out to the store, as I had some time to spare….” He groaned.

  It all suddenly made sense to Josie. She squeezed Harland’s shoulder comfortingly. “I’m sorry I spoke to you that way. That was rude, and…callous of me, and it wasn’t my place.”

  He reached for her hand and squeezed her fingers. “I accept your apology, but I’m sorta glad you said it,” was his only comment before lapsing into silence for some time.

  “Is it too late?” he finally asked. His voice was calm, ready now to accept the worst.

  “You should have said something much, much sooner. Told her what you were planning. She’s a smart woman, you know.”

  “I know.”

  “She wouldn’t have minded waiting if only she’d known there was a reason why. Keeping her out of your planning is not a good way to start your marriage.”

  He nodded, accepting the reproof.

  “Do I think you’ve hurt her?” Josie continued. “Yes. But do I think you’ve lost her? No.”

  Harland let out a huge breath. “You think there’s a chance she’ll still have me, then?”

  “Yes, I do, if you call on her tomorrow morning, early, and do some of that fast talking that I know you’re good at. But it wouldn’t hurt to take one of May-Belle’s kittens with you, just in case you need a penance offering – they’re weaned now.”

  Harland laughed hesitantly. “A fool’s offering,” he said.

  “Well, I’m sure you’re not the only man who’s had to give one of those.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  The Lord's Provision

  JOSIE AND HARLAND were half-frozen by the time they reached home, but Clae had a good fire going in stove. Clae immediately wanted to talk, but he had to wait for them to thaw out a little first.

  After recounting all the day’s joys and trials, Harland summed up the options for Clae and Josie. He could sell his half of the existing homestead to Clae and take a loan to buy another, existing farm. This had been his original plan, but Clae did not like the idea of them both borrowing so much money, and Harland could see the wisdom in that. Secondly, he could buy a farm with a loan, and Clae and Josie could pay him over time for his share in theirs. Thirdly, he could stake a new claim, which would mean starting from scratch on an unbroken piece of land, probably some distance away. It would also mean having to improve the land for another five years, which he was reluctant to do for a second time, but willing enough if it came to it.

  They discussed the matter for some time, but none of the options seemed quite satisfactory. After praying together, they decided to wait on the Lord’s answer, and in the meantime, Harland would discuss it with Beth – if she agreed to his proposal, of course.

  Harland barely slept. Each time they woke up, Clae and Josie heard him pacing in his room. He set out as early as possible in the morning. Josie thought that the Dreschers would be awfully surprised when he came charging into their house while they were still at breakfast, but she made no comment.

  To pass the anxious time while they awaited his return, Clae and Josie did all the necessary chores, and a few unnecessary ones, as well. They were tidying the kitchen garden when they were hailed by Thomas Niedham, the owner of the adjoining homestead. He looked tired and extremely thin, but he was smiling.

  Clae shook his hand. “How do you do, Thomas?”

  Mr Niedham shook his head. “Well, that depends on which way you look at it. You got a couple of minutes to talk business?”

  “Of course. Come inside.”

  They all trooped into the house, stamping their feet against the cold, and Josie stoked the fire to boil water.

  Once they were all seated with coffee and warmed-over biscuits, Clae said, “Now, what can I do for you?”

  In between large bites, Mr Niedham explained that he and his family had come west with high hopes but a severe lack of knowledge, and although they had successfully worked their claim for the required time and the land was now theirs, a series of errors and general mismanagement had meant that their harvest each year had decreased. This year, it had been so poor that he knew his family could not survive another winter. That very morning, he had been offered a job back east, and he and his wife had decided to return home. The decision had clearly relieved him of all his burdens but one: he needed to sell his farm as quickly as possible.

  “So I’d like to offer you and your brother first option,” he said. “It’s plain you’ve done wonders with your land, and it may be you can make something of the mess I’d be leaving you. Won’t be asking much for it, of course. Just enough to get the family back east and settled.”

  Clae’s eyes were sparkling, and Josie knew what he was thinking. 160 acres was more than enough land to support a family in the usual way, but not enough for truly commercial purposes. But two, adjoining homesteads – that was a golden opportunity. If the two McKinley families could join the farms and pool their resources…. Josie’s heart thumped in her chest.

  “What might you be thinking about that?” pressed Mr Niedham.

  Clae was pacing the floor, deep in thought. Something outside caught his attention and he went to the window. A wide smile spread across his face. “I’d need to discuss it with my brother, of course, but since that’s him coming along the road right now, accompanied by the little lady who is, I do believe, his future bride, your offer just might be an answer to prayer.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Olive Plants

  FOR JOSIE AND Clae, the happy occasion of Harland and Beth’s betrothal and the blessing of the Neidham farm were welcome distractions from their continuing disappointment. The doctor could give them no answers, and none of Millie’s home remedies worked.

  All around Josie were constant reminders. Helena had her baby, a boy, as did several other women from the church. Millie’s pregnancy was progressing well, and she was now allowing herself to plan for it. On some days, the children in the school were a welcome panacea for Josie; on other days they troubled the painful emptiness in her heart.

  Still, morning and night, she and Clae would read the 128th Psalm aloud and remind each other to speak as if the miracle, a child, was already theirs.

  One Tuesday, Josie and the Drescher children were on their way to the schoolhouse when the prisoner wagon rattled past them and stopped up ahead at the sheriff’s office. The rear door was opened and Josie was horrified to see Davis Judson pulled from the wagon and half-dragged into the building.

  The news soon got around town. Davis Judson had been arrested by Wyatt Earp for the recent thefts. Earp and another deputy had visited the farm that morning an
d found Davis in a drunken state. When Davis saw Earp, he tried to raise his rifle, but in his condition his movements were slow. Earp stepped up and pistol-whipped him.

  Davis later confessed to all the thefts, claiming over and over that he had only done it to keep his wife and son alive.

  William Drescher and Walker Jones, owner of the general store, immediately went out to the Davis farm to check on Helena and the baby. Millie went with them, at Josie’s request. When Helena saw Mr Jones, she begged him to help her sell the few animals and other valuables that were left on the farm in order to pay back the families Davis had stolen from. Mr Jones was so moved by her words and her situation that he and his wife took her in and helped to manage her affairs.

  But there was worse to come. The next day, one of Davis’s friends from Delano smuggled whisky in to him. During the night, he was sick in his stupor, and when the sheriff came to check on him in the morning, he was dead.

  Clae and Josie offered to take Helena in, but she said that she preferred to stay in town for the present. She thought that she would use what very little money she would have from the sale of the farm to go back east, or perhaps further west to California, where an old friend and her husband lived.

  Early one morning not many days before Christmas, Josie dreamed of horses. Half-way between asleep and awake, she couldn’t be sure if the noise of hooves was in her dream or real. When she came fully awake, blinking in the darkness, there was only silence. Clae was still asleep beside her, a warm spot in the cold room, and the night outside the window was at its darkest. She tried to fall asleep again, but felt restless. Perhaps it was the thought of all the Christmas preparations that must be done, and the excitement of her first Christmas with Clae.

  Finally, when she could just make out the grey outlines of the furniture in the room, she gave up and swung her feet to the floor. Shivering madly, she went into the kitchen to stoke the fire. Although she tried to be quiet, her wanderings woke Clae and he soon shuffled out of the bedroom in his stockings, bleary eyed.

  “Are you all right?” he asked, trying to flatten his hair.

  Josie started to nod, but thought for a moment and shook her head instead. “No,” she said. “This may sound like madness, but I feel strongly that something is wrong this morning.”

  Clae sank into a chair by the table, his forehead wrinkled. “Is it a feeling like someone’s churning butter in your stomach?”

  “Yes, exactly that. But maybe it’s because I’m excited about Christmas.”

  “No,” Clae replied. “I don’t think so. I mean, I’m excited about Christmas, too, but this is something else. Come here and let’s pray.” He shivered. “On second thought, I’ll come to you.”

  He joined her by the hot stove and they prayed for the protection of their loved ones, the farm and their animals. Then they spoke aloud their Psalm, which after so many weeks they both knew by heart.

  Clae collected his boots and coat and began to put them on. “I’m going to check on the animals,” he said. When he opened the door, the icy wind took it out of his hands and slammed it shut again.

  Josie watched the light of his lantern bob across the yard and disappear as he went inside the barn. Less than two minutes later, the light appeared again, and where it reflected back off his body, Josie could see that he was clutching a large bundle. She held the door open for him and he hurried inside, hunched over a basket, the open top of which he held to his chest. Josie took the lantern, which dangled precariously from his two free fingers, and blew it out.

  “Is one of the animals sick?” she asked, reaching for the basket.

  Clae lowered it gently to the table, shaking his head, and took one step backwards.

  Josie stared and made an incoherent noise. Inside the basket, wrapped in layers upon layers of blankets, was a baby, fast asleep.

  “F – found it…up on a bale – hay bale – with the cows. It’s warm. It’s fine.”

  “But who…?” Josie’s voice trailed off. She looked hard at the baby’s face. Her hands shaking, she began to fold back the layers of cloth. Only the first few layers were actually blankets. The rest were pieces of fabric – the baby’s tiny clothes and cloth diapers. Josie recognised some of her own handiwork, and her stomach clenched into a hard knot. Finally, over the little boy’s chest, she found a scrap of paper, on which a note was written:

  My dearest cousins,

  I am going further west to answer an advertisement for a bride. Perhaps my fate will be a better one this time, but I feel that I am able to bear anything after these past two years.

  My intended does not know that I have a child, and unmarried I cannot give my Ethan what he needs. I know that you will take good care of him, as you have so generously taken care of me in the past.

  He is yours now, but if you should see fit at some future time, please remember me to him as a mother who loved him too much to make him share her uncertain fate.

  Perhaps I shall see you again, if the Lord so wills it, or perhaps I must wait until we reach that distant and blessed shore, but ever I shall remain thankful for two such souls as yours.

  Helena Judson

  Josie was so shocked that she could not even cry. She lifted baby Ethan out of the basket and cradled him carefully, tucking a blanket in well around him. He stirred, and his tiny nose and mouth wrinkled, but he did not wake up.

  “We must go after her,” Clae said, his voice hardly above a whisper.

  Josie nodded, but replied, “We won’t find her. She doesn’t want us to.”

  “I’ll – I’ll ask what the protocol is. The legal…. We can’t assume….”

  “I know.”

  “I’ll ride to town today.”

  “Yes.”

  Josie sank down into the rocking chair, and Clae sat at her feet on a small stool, watching the sleeping baby’s face. Suddenly, Josie’s eyes locked onto Clae’s, and there was panic in them.

  “Milk,” she said.

  “Say what now?”

  “Milk! He’s got to have milk.”

  “I’ll do the milking for you real soon, but…may I hold him for just a while?”

  Josie handed Ethan over gently, careful not to wake him. She watched her husband, the ache deep in her heart stealing her breath away.

  “Clae…do you think…he might be ours?” she finally managed to ask.

  “Oh, Josie,” he burst out, tears at the corners of his eyes betraying the depth of his feeling, “I don’t like to think it, but I hope so. I really do!”

  He was to be. Helena had been most careful, using what little remained from the sale of her assets, to ensure that she could not be traced, and the judge saw fit to respect the evident wishes of both the mother and the prospective adoptive parents.

  Christmas Day dawned, and the baby’s gifts outnumbered the rest of the family’s combined. Josie, at first terrified of making a mistake, was beginning to settle into her new role, and Ethan seemed healthy and content. Clae was the happiest Josie had ever seen him, and he and Harland almost wore the strings out on their instruments during the celebrations.

  The Dreschers and the McKinleys were to have Christmas dinner together, and food enough for ten families was laid out on the McKinleys’ table by the time the Dreschers arrived in their wagon, bearing even more treats.

  As the two families were taking their places to eat, Pastor William cleared his throat and gestured for silence. Josie bowed her head automatically, expecting him to say the grace, but instead she heard: ‘Dearly beloved, we are gathered here together, on this holy day, in the sight o’ God, to celebrate His gift to us, His Son…” here, there was a dramatic pause – “and also to join this man and this woman in holy matrimony.”

  The company at the table spontaneously cheered and applauded the welcome surprise. Josie was laughing and crying at the same time, as she raised her head. Pastor William was now over by the stove, and Beth and Harland were standing in front of him, holding hands and beaming at everybody. />
  Once again, Pastor William had to call for silence. “Yes, well,” he said, “we waited long enough for these two to get to the proposin’ part; let’s get the marryin’ part done so’s we don’t have to wait so long for dinner!”

  Josie smiled at Clae, and then her eyes fell on the centrepiece of the table. It was Clae’s Christmas gift to her. He’d spent weeks carving it out of a large block of driftwood he’d found at the river. It was the city of Jerusalem, with the words of the 128th Psalm below it, bordered by olive branches:

  Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord; that walketh in His ways.

  For though shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee.

  Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round thy table.

  Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord.

  The Lord shall bless thee out of Zion: and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life.

  Yea, thou shalt see thy children’s children, and peace upon Israel.

  The End

  I hope you enjoyed this second book in the beautiful Pioneer Hearts series. Keep your eyes peeled for more pioneering adventures in the near future. In the meantime, have you read any of the titles in the popular Destined To Love collection? If not, I think you will really enjoy the inspiring story of Mary-Beth Tanner, a crippled Mail Order Bride who overcomes every disability and win the heart of the man she has grown to love. It is only $0.99 or free on Kindle Unlimited.