Promise of Blessing by Terri Grace Read Free Book Online

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