[2016] The Precious Amish Baby

by Faith Crawford

  All three adults stared at each other for a moment without speaking. Finally, Teddy stood up, dropped his napkin on the table in front of him and walked to Stephen with his hand extended. “Mr. Baker. So nice of you to come calling.”

  Stephen shook Teddy’s hand automatically. “I…Thank you, Mr. uh…Porter. I…I heard that…” He looked at Elisabeth, shock making his face pale. “Elisabeth…”

  She broke out of her stunned state and pushed her chair back, going around the table to reach out to Stephen. They hugged. “Elisabeth,” he repeated her name, his voice emotional and almost frightened. “I…I cannot believe you are here…so far…from home.” He stepped back and looked her up and down. “You look like a true lady, Liz. You look…so different.”

  Elisabeth couldn’t help thinking the same thing about Stephen. “So do you! You are dressed quite like the gentleman! Have you…been in touch with anyone at home?”

  “I sent letters but never got any responses. Then, last week, I heard from Rosie. She said that on the off-chance I might have written, she went to the post office and retrieved any letters that had been sent to…Deb…” He stopped and swallowed. She could see he was broken up over what had happened to his wife. “She wrote to me and told me what happened.”

  “Why didn’t you come back, Stephen?” Elisabeth’s eyes filled with tears and her voice was strained as she tried to talk without crying. “Why didn’t you come back before Andrew was born? You should have been there! You should have come back!”

  Stephen gathered her in his arms and held her close, speaking into her blond hair, his voice cracking with emotion. “I couldn’t…there was a…an accident…I was…I was hurt and couldn’t come back until I healed…I was so afraid when I didn’t hear from Deb. But I…I also knew that you…you and your family, you wouldn’t turn your backs on her in her time of need. I knew that she had at least you, Liz. I knew you would be there for her.”

  “Oh, Stephen. I am so devastated that she died when you weren’t there. You have a son now! You have a little boy and he’s just one month old today.”

  Stephen looked up and saw the baby basket on the table next to where Elisabeth had been seated. Without another word, he made a beeline for it and leaned over to peer into the open eyes of his tiny child.

  “He’s beautiful,” he whispered.

  “Yes. He is.” Elisabeth almost followed him to the table. But instead, she crossed over to where Teddy was standing, watching the scene with a solemn face. She knew he did not want Andrew to leave any more than he wanted her to leave. He was feeling his new family being threatened and he was not happy about it. She wrapped one arm around his waist, looking up at him.

  When Stephen looked up at her, his eyes moved quickly back and forth between the two of them.

  “How did you…come to be here? I heard that you have been asking about me for nearly a month. I’ve been laid up in the next town over and have just recovered enough to do a little traveling. When Rosie said you were here, I took the first opportunity I had to come.”

  “I left home just after Andrew was born and came to find you.”

  “Why did you come all this way?”

  “I could not keep Andrew at home. My family would not have understood, nor would they have welcomed the baby. When you chose not to join our community, they wanted nothing to do with you. I was afraid they would feel the same way about Andrew. But I saw him born and I was not about to abandon him.”

  “You have…grown quite attached to him, haven’t you?”

  She nodded. “Yes. We both have.” She looked up at Teddy. When he looked down at her, she could see that he was struggling mightily with his emotions.

  “I…I am glad that you were able to take care of him. You…have a beautiful home here, Mr. Porter.”

  “Thank you.” Teddy’s voice was very tense.

  Stephen noticed the tension and his shoulders slumped. He seemed to deflate before their very eyes. Elisabeth’s heart sank and she looked up at Teddy with pleading eyes. He wasn’t looking at her. He had seen Stephen’s reaction, too, and understood what it meant. Elisabeth felt the change in his mood right away. He broke off from her and went to the table, going around it to put one hand on Stephen’s shoulder.

  “Was your accident severe, young man?”

  Stephen nodded. “I was unable to walk or move around a lot due to the bandages. The cost of taking care of me depleted all the money I had. I have not a dime left to my name. I would not have been able to get home, even if I wanted to. I am sure I have lost my job because I did not return.”

  “Will you be able to travel and work as you did before? Perhaps get your job back?”

  Stephen shook his head. He slumped down into the seat Elisabeth had been sitting in. “It is not likely that I will be able to. I must stay in one place now. I will not have the energy I once had. I will not be able to travel on trains or do the things I used to do. I don’t know how I will retrieve any of the things I left behind in Virginia.”

  “I am sorry to hear that, Stephen.” Teddy’s concern was genuine. Elisabeth came around to where they were and sat in the chair next to Stephen. Teddy sat back down in his own chair. “Stephen, would you like to work for me?”

  Stephen looked at him. “I don’t know what you do,” he stated plainly. Teddy burst out laughing, a sound that filled Elisabeth’s heart with joy.

  “I don’t do much of anything, to tell you the honest truth!” he exclaimed. “Elisabeth has been telling me that you were a salesman. You were working for a company in Virginia that sent you around the country searching for new and interesting products to sell in the general store and the other stores in your hometown. Is that right?”

  “Yes, sir. It is.”

  “Please call me Teddy.”

  Stephen smiled at him. He seemed to perk up a bit and glanced over at Elisabeth with the smallest smile she had ever seen on his face. He looked hopeful. Elisabeth found herself amazed at her luck, being blessed with someone like Teddy, falling into such a good situation without doing anything on her own to make it happen.

  “It sounds to me like you know a good deal when you see one, Stephen. How about you resume your same job but stay here, here at our ranch. I have more than enough room. You can make deals for me and run my store in town. You can manage it. How does that sound?”

  “You must already have a manager there, though,” Stephen said. “I don’t want to push anyone out of a job, especially not out here, where jobs are sometimes scarce.”

  “You are a noble man!” Teddy exclaimed. “I like that! You won’t be pushing anyone out of a job. I don’t mind having two managers. Perhaps we will start keeping our doors open for longer hours! I will let you do all the buying and purchasing of stock for our company. Perhaps you can delve into the restaurant, too. I can always use ways to cut back on costs.”

  “You never seem to be concerned about spending money, Teddy,” Elisabeth teased. He grinned at her.

  “I think maybe it’s time I start.”

  They all laughed.

  “I think this is a wonderful idea, Teddy,” Elisabeth said. She turned her eyes to Stephen, putting one hand on his shoulder. “Teddy and I have become so close to Andrew. We do love the little boy. I’m quite sure you will, too. But in all honesty, we would be devastated to let him go now. If you stay here, we can all be a family. Would you like that?”

  Stephen looked like he was fighting tears. He nodded without saying a word. He lowered his head and covered his face with one hand. She had to admit that he had lost a great deal of weight and was much paler and weaker-looking than she had ever seen him. When he had first come in, she hadn’t noticed as much as she did now. It was obvious he had been through quite a lot of trauma.

  “Oh Stephen, my dear brother-in-law. I’m so glad you found us.” She moved closer to him and wrapped her arms around him in another hug. He lifted one arm and gave her a weak hug in return. His voice was muffled when he responded to her.


  “No, I am the blessed one that I should have heard about you being here, Liz. I can’t believe you traveled all the way across the country to find me. How could I have been so blessed?”

  “We are a family now, Stephen, the three of us.” She pulled away and smiled at him.

  He smiled back.

  “You can be my best man at our wedding. Would you like that?” Teddy asked, with a smile.

  “I would.” Stephen looked at him. “I would like that very much.”

  Elisabeth let out a deep sigh. The three men in front of her were the dearest men to her heart that she could ever have asked for.

  She was the one who was blessed.

  *****

  THE END

  Bonus Book 11: The Gold Prospector's Baby

  By: Faith Crawford

  Description

  An orphaned mail order bride, a handsome gold prospector and a dangerous expedition. Will love save them?

  Life has not been kind for Isabella Eagan since the death of her beloved parents. In her grief and naivety, she signs over ownership of all her father’s property to her trusted uncle. In three years, she finds her role relegated to that of a servant in the home where she grew up.

  In a moment of desperation, she replies to a mail order bride advert and runs away to Montana. Ray Barger, a gold prospector, is handsome, with deep-set, cobalt blue eyes, but sloppy in appearance. He is not a man that Isabella would have picked for a husband.

  Over time, however, she realizes that underneath the laughter and the jokes is a wonderful and kind man and she knows how lucky she is. Ray believes his luck has changed with the arrival of Isabella and he goes on a dangerous expedition.

  When Ray does not return, Isabella decides to find him. It is a journey filled with all kind of dangers but, to Isabella, even losing her life is preferable to living without Ray. Will she find him? And can she bring him back alive?

  This is a story of discovered passions and how love can thrive in the unlikeliest of places.

  Chapter One

  Isabella sat absolutely still as the train wheels ground against the track and the steam blew into the carriage through the open windows. Sorrow clouded her as the train inched its way out of West Virginia before picking up speed as it got further and further away from what had been her home. She should have been happy at getting away from what had become an unbearable life, but all she felt was a longing for how her life had been before her parents passed on.

  She kept her hands tightly folded into fists. Her nails were broken, and the skin on her palms hard and rough from all the cleaning and scrubbing she had done in the last three years.

  “Hey there, where are you off to, a pretty girl all alone?”

  Isabella whipped round and looked at the man who had spoken to her. He sat slumped in his seat, looking at her with a lazy smile. He stank of stale sweat, and she fought the urge to pinch her nose. His clothes were filthy but it was the smirk on his mouth that frightened Isabella. She shrank back into her seat and turned away without answering, her heart pounding hard. Underneath her light jacket, she trembled and prayed that the man would not speak to her again.

  “Just wanted to make conversation,” he said.

  Isabella pretended that she had not heard him. For the next couple of minutes she sat stiffly, aware of the man next to her, and then she sneaked a glance at him. To her relief, he was speaking to the man on his right, apparently having lost interest in her. Isabella sighed in relief and turned her attention back to the window.

  Something about the man discomfited her. He brought out the fear she had carried with her ever since she had read the mail order bride advert.

  “An adventurous man seeks a like-minded lady to join him in his quest to strike a fortune in Montana. She must be open-minded, and a pretty face would go a long way. The name’s Ray Barger, and if you’re interested then write to the address below.”

  At the time, her heart had swelled with the excitement of a new start, of running away from what had quickly shrunk into a miserable life. Now, the wording of the advert and the correspondence that followed told her that Ray Barger could very well end up being like the crass man seated next to her.

  “You’ll love it here,” Ray had written to her. “You can be anyone you want with a bit of hard work and luck.” It had all sounded like a whole new world, a place where she would not be treated like an unpaid servant in her own home. Isabella knew that her parents must be turning in their graves. The truth was that it was nobody’s fault but her own that she had found herself in her predicament.

  Uncle Brian was her beloved papa’s older brother and, when her parents died in a carriage accident, he and his wife had moved into Isabella’s home to mind her and, ostensibly, be her guardian. It seemed so long ago now but it was only three years ago. So much had happened after they moved in that Isabella had lost track of time.

  They were kind to her at the beginning, though once or twice Isabella had heard Aunt Susan scolding the servants for no good reason. Then her Uncle had ceased going to work at the law firm where he was employed as a clerk. Her Uncle had sat her down one time and told her what she needed to do to enable them to take better care of her. And, like a fool, Isabella had agreed, not knowing that the papers she had signed meant that she had handed over all her father’s expansive properties to her Uncle and Aunt. It had not taken long for their attitude towards her to change.

  Now, three years later, Isabella had reached the end of her endurance. She could not withstand the insults to herself and her parents’ memory anymore. She had come across the Matrimonial News while shopping for their weekly groceries, very little of which would find its way to her stomach. Her Uncle and Aunt treated her the way one did a pet, and not a particularly well-loved one. They gave her leftovers or food which had stayed several days and nights in the pantry.

  Of all the servants who had worked at the fifteen-roomed mansion when her parents had been alive, only the cook had remained. And even she had resigned when Isabella had confided in her about her plans to escape and go to the west.

  “I only stayed because of you, child,” she had said, tears flowing down her sunken cheeks.

  The advert from Ray Barger had captured her imagination for the different life it promised. Now she wondered whether she had made the right choice. There had been others: widowed men looking for a mother for their children, older men who had never married; but Isabella craved love. Her parents had been devoted to one another and she wanted that kind of relationship. Ray Barger’s advert had woken up a dream she had long shelved away, one where she had a husband to love, cook and care for. Thanks to the cook, Isabella had become a fantastic cook.

  Her parents’ home had lost its glamor. The paint had run and the ivy plants were allowed to grow too wildly, so that it seemed to be perpetually dark even with the blinds drawn. Isabella cringed when she thought of how upset her parents would be if they were to see their home now. Only that would never happen. They were gone and they were never coming back. Isabella realized that she had lost everything a long time ago. Memories had kept her imprisoned for far too long.

  It was time to embrace a new life for herself and perhaps, with time, her memories would not be so painful.

  Chapter Two

  Ray discarded shirt after shirt, throwing each one to the floor and instantly forgetting about it before he settled on a white one. It was a little creased, but he hoped Ms. Isabella Eagan wouldn’t mind. He fished around for a pair of denim jeans in the pile of clothes in the corner of the room.

  As he banged the door shut, Ray whistled and strode down the hallway and then the stairs that led to the reception of the boarding house. On the last three steps, Ray moved aside to let a weary-looking middle aged man laden with trunks walk by. Following him was a heavy set woman, who was hurling instructions at the man.

  “Be careful, would you, Harry?” she said, with annoyance. “My best china is in there.”

  The man wore a look that Ray
had often seen in people who had been married for a long time. He sighed and shifted the weight of the trunks, banging the larger one against the wall.

  “Harry!” the woman cried out.

  “Here, let me give you a hand,” Ray said cheerfully, and took one suitcase into each of his hands.

  He bounded up the stairs and, when he reached the top, he waited for the couple. Ray hid an amused smiled as he listened to the woman’s complaints.

  “Which is your room?” Ray asked.

  “Fourteen, the one at the very end,” the man said. “Thank you very much, young man.”

  With his usual long strides, Ray whistled his way to the end of the hallway and deposited the trunks outside the room.

  “Have a good stay,” he said, and noticed the woman nudging at her husband.

  The man mumbled something, then reached into the pocket of his coat and came up with several coins. Ray shook his head and chuckled.

  “That’s not necessary, sir,” he said and, with a wave, he was off.

  At the reception, Ms. Harriet, the woman who ran the boarding house, grinned at him.

  “Going off to get your bride?” she asked.

  Ray beamed back at her. “I’d say it’s about time.”

  “Good luck, Ray. I’ll tell you this, many have ended up with wives that would give you nightmares.”

  “I know your plan, Ms. Harriet. I sure ain’t gonna marry you!”

  Ms. Harriet made a face. “I wouldn’t marry you if you were the last man in Montana!”

  With a laugh, Ray bounded out of the boarding house into the street, which was crowded with people, carts, donkeys and buggies. He said hello to a few people he knew and slowed down his pace. The train would be another half hour and he didn’t want to mill around the depot with nothing to do.