“Next time you’re in town, we’ll have to have a picnic out in the park. Come in early spring. That’s when the flowers are in full bloom,” Sandra said.
“We will,” Penelope promised.
After they left the house, Cole took her arm and stopped her in front of the wagon. “Have you given any thought to what we discussed before we came to town?”
Penelope nodded. “Are you sure, Cole?”
He smiled. “Yes.”
“You won’t have me all to yourself anymore.”
“I don’t mind. Not for this.”
A smile spread across her face. “Let’s go. Sandra said the train will be arriving in a half hour.”
“Your wish is my command.”
She giggled. “That is the funniest expression I’ve ever heard.”
He shrugged. “It’s a common one from where I come from.” He put his arms around her and whispered, “But I admit that in all the places I’ve ever been, you are still the most wonderful woman I’ve ever met.”
“You keep talking like that and I’ll have to kiss you as soon we get out of town.”
“Who says we have to wait?” Before she could respond, he let his lips caress hers.
A chorus of giggles turned their attention to Sandra’s children who watched them through the window.
“We’d better go,” he said, chuckling.
Once they got into the wagon, he directed the horses to the train station where the orphan train was expected to arrive. He helped her down from the wagon, sensing her excitement.
He did want a child, and he knew Penelope wanted one too. This seemed like the logical thing to do, especially since the children coming in on the train didn’t have parents to care for them. He hated the thought of children not having someone to care for and love them, and he couldn’t think of a better mother than Penelope.
When the train pulled into the station, they waited as the children were brought forward. A few farmers seemed to be particularly interested in the strongest boys and took them. That left a lot of the girls or weaker boys. Two children, in particular, seemed to draw Penelope’s interest, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out why. They were Indian children. One girl and one boy. Both looked sad and malnourished, making Cole wonder what had brought them here. The boy looked to be five and the girl was probably two.
“What about them?” Penelope whispered.
“Can you communicate with them?”
“Let me see.” She walked over to them and asked, “Can you understand me?”
The boy and girl clung to each other, visibly trembling.
“They must be brother and sister,” Cole softly stated.
“I think so too. They remind me of Martha. I wonder if they come from her tribe?”
Turning to them, she spoke to them in the Indian language that Cole hadn’t taken the time to learn. Now, he wished he had. But how was he to know that these children would be coming off the train?
The boy answered her.
Penelope glanced at Cole. “He speaks the same language that Martha did. I want to take them home.”
He nodded. He doubted that the other people would be willing to take Indian children into their homes. “Tell them we’d like to be their parents.”
Smiling, she did as he requested.
Though the boy looked uncertain and the girl looked terrified, the boy nodded.
It would take time for the children to get used to him and Penelope, Cole realized. But they had time. Time to get to know each other...time to be a family. In his heart, he felt that this was right, and with the way Penelope’s face glowed, he couldn’t help but smile. Yes. A family. Maybe not a typical one, but then again, his life was far from typical. A man who’d come out of the future to make a life here in the past wasn’t exactly one who had an ordinary life.
“We need to get them some better things to wear,” he told Penelope. “Then we can head out.”
“Thank you, Cole.”
He leaned forward and kissed her cheek.
The boy scrunched his nose in disgust.
“Tell him that he better get used to it because there’s going to be nothing but hugs and kisses in our family.”
Penelope laughed and talked to the boy.
The boy shook his head but gave a slight smile as the girl looked up at Penelope and Cole and also smiled.
Everything would be alright. Satisfied, Cole made arrangements to make the adoption official.
A Chance In Time Page 7
