Kitabı oku: «Montana Hearts», sayfa 2

Chapter Two

In the hour since Kurt had driven away, Sarah had walked the length of Main Street, as far as the glistening white church steeple that rose at the east end of town, then back to her car. She had explored the town where Zoe Ryder had lived, the town that perhaps Sarah’s new heart already knew.

Since her surgery she’d worked hard to gain strength and build endurance. In recent months she’d walked three or four miles several days a week and felt stronger because of the effort. She had needed that energy today to work off the adrenaline and distress that flooded her veins and her heart.

She’d walked past buildings constructed in the early 1900s with the brick facades and actual hitching posts left over from an earlier era, making the town look like a set from an old Western movie. Kurt Ryder, with his long legs and masculine swagger, fit like a well-cast actor in this setting.

He still fit into the scene now that horses had been replaced by battered pickups with large dogs standing guard in the beds of the trucks or tied up to the fenders.

He wasn’t going to hire her as a housekeeper. She’d seen rejection in his golden-brown eyes and the surprised arch of his brows.

Probably for the best, she thought as she had stood staring off into space, trying to quell her sense of failure. Admittedly, she wasn’t the greatest housekeeper in the world. Or cook, for that matter.

She never should have told him she had planned to stay around for a couple of days. He wasn’t going to call. She’d been foolish to even consider coming here.

There was no reason for her to stay.

No way for her to help the family who had lost so much.

On a weekday afternoon, no one seemed in a rush in Sweet Grass Valley. Traffic through town was light. The lush scent of sage and grass on surrounding open rangeland drifted on the air along with the smell of hay stacked in the backs of passing trucks.

Zoe Ryder had walked down this sidewalk, past the bakery, dress shop, grocery store and the one-screen movie theater across the way, probably greeting the proprietors by their first names. She’d been a part of this community in a way that Sarah had never been a part of Seattle.

Did the people miss her? Had Zoe left a hole in their lives as she had in those who had loved her?

It felt strange to envy someone who was dead. But Sarah did, at some cavernous level she hadn’t realized existed in her soul.

Please, Lord, help those who loved Zoe and miss her to find peace within Your loving embrace.

Sarah had seen a decent-looking motel about twenty miles back in Shelby, on the highway the way she’d come. She’d stay there tonight and then head home to Seattle tomorrow.

As she got into her car, her cell phone rang.

She froze, momentarily paralyzed. It could be her friend who was waiting on the results of her CPA exam and handling Sarah’s accounting business while she was out of town. A simple business question she could answer.

Or it could be…

With a shaking hand, Sarah flipped open the phone. She didn’t recognize the number.

Her throat tightened and her mouth went dry. “Sarah Barkley,” she answered.

“Ms. Barkley, this is Kurt Ryder. If you’re still interested in the housekeeper job, I’d like to talk to you.”

“Yes…” Her voice caught. She squeezed her eyes shut. “Yes, I’m still interested.”

“Good. I think it would be best if you came here, to the ranch. Then you’d know what you’re getting into.”

That sounded a bit ominous, as though she’d agreed to work for the local ax murderer. “I can come there.”

She propped the phone against her shoulder and searched for a notepad and pen in her purse while he gave her directions to the ranch.

When he finished, she closed the phone and took a deep breath. Her insides quivered with a combination of excitement and trepidation. Second thoughts assailed her like the bugs that had spattered her windshield on the highway.

This is what she wanted. This is why she had come to Sweet Grass Valley. To help those who had given so much.

As instructed, she took Second Street north out of town. Residences on modest lots quickly gave way to open prairie. Scattered clusters of cattle grazed on rolling hillsides and horses stood head-to-tail in pairs beneath shade trees, switching flies with their tails. A gentle breeze rippled the fields of tall grass like waves on a summer-green ocean.

Soon she spotted her destination. She turned off the road to drive under the arched entrance of the Rocking R Ranch. In the distance, a two-story house appeared through the rising waves of heat. Several outbuildings were also visible including a large red barn and a corral. The Rocking R appeared to be a profitable enterprise.

In front of the house, a white gazebo sat in the middle of a lawn surrounded by flower beds that had been left untended for some length of time. Weeds had invaded the plots where rosebushes and irises had gone scraggly. Sarah suspected Zoe had kept her garden a showpiece. Since her death, the family had let the beauty wither away.

A porch with two wicker rocking chairs and a cedar porch swing stretched the width of the house on the western side. She imagined sitting there at the end of a day, drinking iced tea and watching the sun set behind the distant mountains.

A black-and-white dog wandered out of the barn and barked at her.

As soon as Sarah came to a stop, the front door of the house opened. Kurt waited for her on the porch, his thumbs hooked in the pockets of his jeans, his legs wide apart. The cuffs of his blue work shirt were rolled to his elbows, revealing muscular arms lightly covered in dusky hair.

The dog had kept track of her as far as the corner of the house, where he stood guard.

“Thanks for coming,” Kurt said as she reached the porch steps.

“You have an amazing place here. How much of this land do you own?”

“About all you can see plus a little bit more.” She sensed he wasn’t bragging. He was simply stating a fact.

Sarah’s small cottage on a city lot didn’t bear comparison.

“Come on in. Beth’s fixing some iced tea. I wanted you to meet my kids.”

He held the screen door open for her. As she passed him, she suddenly realized how tall Kurt was. He stood well over six feet. At five foot four, she barely came up to his chin.

She stepped inside and caught the faint scent of lemony furniture polish.

The Western decor was immediately obvious, maple furniture with floral print upholstery. A large fireplace made of river rocks bisected one wall, a variety of riding trophies displayed on the oak mantel. The opposite wall contained family photographs, grandparents and probably great-grandparents in old black-and-white shots, the history of the Rocking R Ranch down through the decades. In the center of the collage stood Kurt and his beautiful blonde bride, Zoe.

With a lump in her throat, Sarah quickly looked away. Guilt burrowed like a garden gopher into her midsection, as though she were responsible for stealing Zoe’s life. Not just exercising her heart.

Sarah struggled to regain her composure.

Kurt introduced his son, Toby.

She extended her hand to the boy, the resemblance to his father striking. “I guess some of those trophies are yours.”

“Yep.” Dressed like his father in jeans and a work shirt, he shook her hand firmly. “Calf roping for ten and under.”

“Congratulations.” She felt overdressed wearing slacks and a fussy cotton blouse when the uniform of the day seemed to favor jeans.

“Have a seat, Ms. Barkley.” When she sat down on the chintz-covered couch, Kurt said, “How is it you happen to be in Sweet Grass Valley?”

“I’m on vacation, taking some time off to see the countryside.” She wondered what he would say if she told him the truth. How she had ferreted out the death of his wife. And why.

Sitting in the adjacent armchair, Kurt appeared to consider her answer. “Did you lose you job or quit?”

She smiled, realizing he thought she was an employee of her company. “A friend is filling in for me. I do have to be back in Seattle by September first, which means I can stay here through the rest of July and most of August.” That was the date of her next doctor’s appointment. In the meantime, she took a whole phalanx of pills to keep her body from rejecting her new heart.

Nodding, he glanced at Toby, who had plopped down on a colorful plaid pillow on the raised hearth of the fireplace. “Son, go find out what’s taking Beth so long with the tea. And have her put some of Nana’s cookies on a plate for our guest.”

“’Kay.” He hopped to his feet. “But she’ll probably bite my head off.”

“Just don’t start anything.”

When Toby left the room, Sarah said, “He’s a good-looking boy.”

A flash of pride flared in Kurt’s eyes and he smiled. “Smart like his mother.” He glanced over his shoulder to make sure the boy was out of sight. “When I got back from town earlier, my mother-in-law was in quite a state. She and Beth don’t get along well. Today things were so bad, Grace grounded Beth for a week, and I had to agree. I’m guessing it’s part women’s troubles and part that Grace still misses my wife, Zoe. She was Grace’s only child.”

“I’m sorry for your loss.” She was sorry, even while she felt guilty that Kurt’s loss had been her gain.

“It hasn’t been easy for any of us,” he admitted. “I thought the best thing for Grace was to take some time off. That’s why I called you.”

“I understand.”

Beth appeared from the kitchen carrying a cherrywood tray with a pitcher of tea and two glasses. A slender, pre-pubescent girl, she had her long blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail and wore a tank top and jeans.

Toby strolled in behind her, a glass of cola in one hand and a plate of cookies in the other.

Her expression sullen, Beth set the tray on the coffee table. Her eyes appeared puffy as though she’d been crying. “You want anything else?”

“I’d like you to meet Ms. Barkley. My daughter, Beth.”

“Hello, Beth. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Yeah, right.” She turned to her father. “Can I go now?”

Kurt glared at his daughter. “You can stay right here and be polite for a change. I’m talking to Ms. Barkley about being our housekeeper for the rest of the summer.”

Beth’s eyes widened. “What about Nana?”

“You know Nana Grace isn’t as strong as she used to be,” Kurt said. “She tires easily and that makes her cranky, I know. That’s been hard on both you kids.” He gave his children a weary smile. “Since your mother’s been gone, I guess I’ve been cranky, too, and not a whole lot of fun to be around.”

“It’s okay, Dad,” Beth said. “Toby and me, we understand you miss Mom, too.”

“Yeah, I do. And so does Nana Grace. So I thought we ought to give her a break. If Ms. Barkley agrees to work for us, she could do the cooking and cleaning and chauffeur you kids for a few weeks, till school starts again. Of course you’d still have to help out with chores. She wouldn’t be your slave. More like a new member of the family.”

Toby shrugged, and Beth said, “I don’t need a babysitter, Dad. Or a prison warden! I mean, I can cook ’n stuff. We don’t need anybody else.”

“Wait!” Toby cried. “You can’t even fry an egg, dummy. We’d all starve. Or be poisoned! Grrrggh…” Making an inarticulate croaking sound, he stuck a finger in his mouth and flipped onto his back, his legs up in the air like a dying bug. “I’m dead! My sister—”

“Cut it out, son,” Kurt said, trying valiantly to hold back a smile.

Beth stuck out her tongue at her brother. “You’re such a jerk.”

Suppressing her own smile, Sarah considered all the joy she’d missed by being an only child. Perhaps her dream of having a sister to play with would, in reality, have turned into a nightmare.

Kurt crossed to the fireplace and helped Toby to his feet. “Get outta here, son. You, too, Beth. Go outside and play or something. And no more bickering!”

Shrugging out of his father’s grasp, Toby headed up the stairs to the second floor.

“You never listen to me, Dad!” Beth’s voice rose in pitch to a shriek, the volume increasing with each syllable until the entire house shuddered with her distress.

“I don’t want anybody else around. I want my mom back!”

Like a summer storm, a volley of tears exploded. She whirled and raced up the stairs, trying to escape herself. Escape emotions she couldn’t control.

Tears of empathy jammed together in Sarah’s throat. Drawing a breath made her chest ache, and she pressed her palm against the pain. Against the scar that hid there.

Beth needed so much help dealing with the loss of her mother. Dealing with the changes in her own pre-adolescent body and emotions. Needed so much love.

Who could give her that love?

From whom could she accept that love?

Standing at the foot of the stairs, his legs wide apart as though poised for battle, Kurt speared his fingers through his hair. His expressive features twisted into a mask of anger and confusion, his lips a straight line, his brows lowered to shadow his eyes.

“That went well,” he muttered. His fingers rhythmically flexed and unflexed.

“I’m sorry.” For him and for his loss. For his troubled child. Despite his anger, Sarah didn’t doubt for a moment that he loved his daughter. And his son. No one could show that depth of emotion without caring deeply for them.

His chest expanded on a long intake of air followed by a harsh exhale. “What you see before you is a desperate man.”

“A desperate man, who is grieving for the wife he lost and trying to deal with a menopausal mother-in-law and a hormonal adolescent.”

His head whipped around and he blinked at Sarah. “Beth’s hormonal?”

“She’s the right age. Have you talked to her about—”

“No!”

No matter how hard she tried to stop herself, a smile vaulted to Sarah’s face and she laughed at Kurt’s horrified expression.

He sank down on the arm of the couch. “This is no laughing matter.”

“I know. But you really should have seen your face. You had terror written all over it. In neon lights.”

The slightest hint of a smile curved the corners of his lips. “Well, if nothing else you know what you’d be getting into if you take the job.” He scratched the day-old whiskers on his square jaw. “I need some help. The whole family does. I’d pay you a decent wage, plus room and board. I’d also understand if you turned tail and got out of here as fast as that puny car of yours would take you.”

Oxygen seemed to escape her brain, leaving her dizzy with bells ringing in her head. Bells of excitement? Or bells of warning?

Had the Lord placed her in the diner at just the right time this afternoon to meet Kurt? Was this the Lord’s plan?

There was no way to know for sure. Unless she took a leap of faith.

She drew a shaky breath and lifted her chin. “My car is not puny and I’ve never in my life turned tail when faced with a challenge.” Confronted with childhood leukemia and years of radiation and chemo, which damaged her heart so badly she’d needed a transplant at the age of thirty-two, she’d never stopped fighting. She didn’t plan to stop now.

“Mr. Ryder, I accept your job offer.”

His smile broadened, squint lines appearing at the corners of is eyes. “Why don’t you call me Kurt? It’ll be easier that way.” He stood and extended his hand.

“Welcome to the Rocking R, Ms. Barkley.”

“Thank you, Kurt.” His hand was broad and warm and calloused, not at all like those of the businessmen who were her Seattle clients, but far stronger and more compelling. “Please call me Sarah.”

Chapter Three

Kurt gave Sarah a brief tour of the house, then showed her the very large, modern kitchen.

“You could feed an army from this kitchen,” Sarah commented. Miles of granite counters and oak cabinets lined one side of the room. The window over two extra-deep stainless steel sinks looked over a fenced backyard with grass and flower beds that needed care. Beyond that a row of poplar trees formed a bright green windbreak.

A round oak table and chairs were placed on the opposite side of the room with a view to the east.

In the center of the room was a butcher-block counter. Above that dozens of gadgets hung from a rack, some of them Sarah couldn’t even identify.

“Zoe really liked to cook,” Kurt said. “She had the kitchen remodeled and expanded several years ago so she could have bigger parties.”

“Very impressive.” Sarah rarely entertained. Until recently she hadn’t had the strength.

“Your bedroom with a private bath is back here.” Kurt led her past what she took to be a pantry and supply room. “Originally this room off the kitchen was for a servant, but Zoe turned it into a guest room. My brother and his family come to visit once in a while. They live in Denver.”

Sarah drew a quick breath as she stepped inside. Though simply decorated, the room had a homey feel to it. A handmade quilt covered a cherrywood double bed and there was a matching dresser with a vase of artificial daisies sitting on it. Sheer curtains covered the one window and on the walls, original watercolor paintings featured Western scenes. An oval hooked rug brightened the hardwood floor.

“This is lovely,” she said. “Your wife had very good taste.”

“Yeah, she did.” He backed out of the room. “I’ll help bring in your things, then you can start dinner. I checked and it looks like Nana Grace defrosted some steaks.”

Steaks? Sarah rarely ate red meat but she supposed tonight could be an exception. Assuming she could figure out how to cook them.

An hour later, she’d unpacked her bags and stood staring at four huge T-bone steaks wondering what to do with them. She’d managed to find some shredded lettuce and tomatoes, and cut up some baby carrots to add to a salad. She figured Kurt was a big eater, so she put a loaf of bread and butter on the table.

But for the life of her, she couldn’t find a broiler pan big enough to hold all the steaks.

Willing to admit defeat, she went in search of Kurt.

Toby was sprawled on the living room floor watching television.

“Toby, do you know where your dad is?”

He continued to stare glassy-eyed at the antics of comic characters determined to lop off each others’ heads with laser swords.

“Toby?” When he still failed to answer, she shrugged. She’d find Kurt herself.

She turned down the hallway that led to his office. She found him there staring at the computer screen in much the same way Toby was watching TV. A disorganized pile of invoices sat on his cluttered walnut desk and old magazines and farm catalogs covered half of the nearby couch.

She knocked on the doorjamb and he looked up, a frown tugging his brows together. She opened her mouth to ask about cooking the steaks, but before she could speak, he said, “Do you know anything about computers?”

She blinked, caught off guard by his question. “Some. What seems to be the problem?”

“Beats me. I’m supposed to be able to pay my bills online. I clicked on something and the whole screen went blank. It’s just plain gone.” He glared at the screen as if he could, by force of will, make the device do what he wanted it to do.

“Would you like me to try?” Fortunately, her computer skills were considerably better than her cooking prowess.

He moved out of his dark leather chair, and she took his place. A few quick clicks of the mouse and a spreadsheet appeared.

“Is this what you were looking for?”

As he bent over to peer at the screen, she caught the scent of sage and wild grass on the prairie. The essential perfume of both Kurt and his land.

“That’s incredible. How did you do that?”

“You must have accidentally hidden the whole work sheet. All I did was unhide it. You should be fine now.”

They traded places again.

“Did you want something?” he asked, his attention back on the computer screen.

“I was looking for a broiling pan to cook the steaks. I couldn’t find one.”

“Grace grills them.”

“Oh.” His answer wasn’t very helpful. She guessed he was referring to a barbecue grill she’d spotted on the back porch.

It took a couple of tries to light the propane but finally Sarah dropped the steaks on the grill.

Back in the kitchen, she set the table and poured milk for Toby and Beth and water for herself. She wasn’t sure what Kurt would want to drink with his dinner, so she held off on that.

Beth came stalking into the kitchen, a cell phone in her hand. “Isn’t dinner ready yet? I’m starved.” She plucked a cookie out of a rooster-shaped cookie jar with one hand while the thumb of her other hand nimbly sent a text to someone.

“The steaks should be ready any minute.”

Beth glanced at the stove, then toward the back door.

“Something’s on fire!”

Sarah’s head snapped around. “The steaks!” She grabbed a plate, a long-handled fork and raced out the door.

Flames leaped up around the steaks. Grease sizzled and sputtered. The rank air smelled of burned meat.

Sarah stabbed a blackened steak and dragged it onto the plate. She speared the next steak, singeing her wrist in the process. She jerked back and the steak slid off the fork onto the porch.

“Turn off the propane!” Beth screamed. “You’re gonna catch the whole house on fire.”

Sarah ceased her efforts to rescue the steaks. Burning down the house was a real possibility. She turned the knob on the propane bottle, but that didn’t immediately extinguish the flames.

Beth’s shouting had rousted Toby away from the TV.

“Hey, a bonfire on our porch. That’s cool.”

Kurt shoved past his son. “I’ll get it.” He twisted the propane knob again, starving the flames of fuel. They sputtered one more time before vanishing.

In the silence that followed, Sarah took a deep breath. Her heart was rata-tat-tatting so fast she thought it might leap out of her chest.

“I am so sorry,” she said.

Kurt took the plate from her and piled the rest of the steaks on it. “No real harm done except to these steaks.”

The poor things looked like lumps of charcoal. “I’ve never barbecued before. I didn’t know how long—”

“Talk about being stupid,” Beth complained.

Kurt nailed her with a look that would have terrified anyone else. It didn’t seem to faze Beth.

“One more word out of you, young lady, and you’ll do without dinner altogether.”

“Fine,” she snapped. “Nobody can eat that stuff anyway.” Head held high, ponytail swinging, she stomped back into the house.

Sarah suspected Beth’s attitude was more self-defense than rebellion.

Dear Lord, show me a way to help this child, who is so desperately crying out for love and understanding.

They’d all survived dinner, barely, by scraping off the charred layer on the steaks. Even so, Sarah thought eating the meat was like chewing hardtack.

With Kurt’s help, she’d cleaned up the kitchen. Then he’d vanished back into his office to work on the accounts. Beth was still upstairs, pouting. Toby had resumed his place in front of the big-screen TV. From her perspective, the show he was watching looked too violent for a nine-year-old. Or an adult, for that matter.

The family ought to be doing things together, she thought. That’s the only way they’d heal their grief.

She went to her room to retrieve her oversize tote that contained her ventriloquist’s dummy. Dr. Zoom came fully equipped with a white lab coat, stethoscope, wire glasses and a Pinocchio nose.

For the past several years, when she was able, she had volunteered one morning a week at the University of Washington Medical Center. She donned a costume and became Suzy-Q, clown extraordinaire, visiting the pediatric oncology ward. Dr. Zoom told silly jokes and listened to his own heart instead of the patient’s. She’d spent hours in front of a mirror making sure her lips didn’t move when she spoke in Dr. Zoom’s voice.

As Suzy-Q, Sarah also did face painting. All of this in an effort to pay forward some of the kindness that she had experienced as a child.

The best medicine she could give a sick child was a chance to smile and laugh, a few minutes of simply being a normal kid.

Maybe she could give the same gift to Kurt’s children.

Returning to the living room, she sat on the couch and adjusted Dr. Zoom on her lap, his legs dangling over her thigh.

“Vhat’s dat kid doing?” Dr. Zoom asked in a fake German accent.

“He’s watching TV,” she responded.

“Vaste of time, I say.”

Toby remained glued to the TV show, not so much as looking over his shoulder to find out who was in the room.

“Well, what should we do?”

Dr. Zoom looked up at her, his long nose quivering. “Ve could drop a bomb on the boy?”

“No. That wouldn’t be very nice.” Sarah wasn’t at all sure Toby would even react to a ton of TNT going off.

“Hee hee hee. KABOOM!”

Very slowly, Toby turned his head and frowned.

“What’a’ya doing?”

“Is the boy alive? Let me listen to his heart.”

Sarah manipulated Zoom’s stethoscope to the middle of his own chest.

“Oh, no. I hear nothing. Nothing! The boy is—”

“You’re trying to listen to your own heart and you don’t have one,” Sarah pointed out.

She definitely had Toby’s attention now. His glassy, hypnotized look had been replaced by a note of interest.

“Vhat? No heart? Vhy don’t I have a heart?”

“Because you’re a dummy.”

Dr. Zoom twisted his head around to look at Sarah.

“It’s not nice to call people names.”

“I’m not. You really are—”

“Don’t say that.”

“But you—”

The quick exchange between Sarah and Dr. Zoom started Toby laughing. He shifted his position to watch her, the violent TV show forgotten.

“Way cool. How do you do that?” he asked.

“Do what?” she asked innocently.

“Make the dummy talk.”

“You mean ventriloquism?”

“Now see vhat you’ve done?” Dr. Zoom shook his finger in Sarah’s direction. “Tell him it isn’t so. I’m not a—you know—vone of dose.”

“Yeah, you are,” Toby insisted.

“Is zat what you think? Huh. I vill show you. You know vhat you get when you cross a pair of trousers with dictionary? Huh, you know vhat?”

“Naw, I don’t know. What?”

Dr. Zoom did a little hop on Sarah’s thigh. “You get a smarty-pants, that’s vhat. A smarty-pants like you, huh?”

Toby’s giggle was infectious, and he had a wicked, little-boy gleam in his eyes. “Hey, Sarah, can you teach me how to do that?”

“But of course, young man. I am the greatest teacher in the world.”

“What’s she going to teach you, son?”

They both looked up at the sound of Kurt’s voice.

“Sarah’s a ventriloquist, Dad. It’s really cool. Her lips don’t move at all. An’ she’s gonna teach me.”

Just like his son, Kurt cocked his head to the side. “Ventriloquist?”

Her face flushed and she shrugged. “A little hobby I have.”

“Really? I used to love stuff like that when I was a kid.” He sat down cross-legged opposite her, his grin as eager as Toby’s. “Show me.”

Dr. Zoom proceeded to conduct a ridiculous conversation with Kurt about being a bowlegged cowboy. Kurt laughed and so did his son, the cares and battles of the day forgotten.

Sarah hoped her botched dinner would be as quickly forgotten.

Toby made an effort to speak without moving his lips, which left the words unintelligible. “Hey, I don’t get it.”

“If you really want to learn, let’s start with some easy exercises. There are lots of sounds you already make without moving your lips.”

“Like neighing like a horse?” Kurt asked.

The realization that Kurt was interested, too, gave Sarah’s heart a little jolt. She couldn’t help reacting to the mirthful twinkle in his golden-brown eyes. Her mouth felt dry and she had to lick her lips. “It’ll be easier if we start with the vowel sounds, A, E, I, O, U. Try making those sounds without moving your lips.”

Toby gave it try, slipping only on the O and U sounds. Kurt repeated the exercise with the same level of success.

She grinned. “I can see you’re both going to be great students. You practice and we’ll work on lesson two after you feel comfortable with those sounds.”

Later in the guest room, she sat down and opened her laptop. First she sent an email to Tricia Malone, who was handling her business in Seattle while she was gone. Without providing any details, she explained she’d be staying in Sweet Grass Valley for the summer and promised to call her soon.

Then she ordered a couple pairs of jeans, casual tops and some sturdy shoes online. Her city clothes weren’t at all suitable for the rough wear and tear of ranch living.

That task accomplished, Sarah slipped between the crisp sheets on the bed and picked up her Bible-study book as she did every evening. Tonight’s passage was from Colossians 3:12. “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” (NIV)

Sarah would certainly need patience with Beth, compassion with Kurt, who was still grieving, and gentleness with Toby. She prayed she would be up to the task the Lord had given her.

And do no harm, she warned herself as her eyes closed and the book slipped from her fingers.

The following morning, Kurt recruited Toby to help him move the mother herd to the north section to graze on the fresh grass. Beth, who could handle cattle well enough when she wanted to, claimed a headache. He didn’t press the issue.

“Come on, Ellie Mae. Let’s keep the girls moving.”

Speaking in a calm, easy voice, Kurt reined his horse Pepper closer to the lead cow and her young calf, who had slowed their pace. His approach caused Ellie Mae to accelerate to her previous speed, and the rest of the mother herd followed suit, their calves trotting along beside them.

“That’s my girl,” Kurt murmured. “You remember how sweet the grass is in the north section, don’t you?”