Free Robin Lee Hatcher by Promised to Me Page A

Germany.
    She was supposed to have been a bride by now. She was supposed to have a home and a husband and be looking forward to children of her own. What had gone wrong? Why hadn’t it worked out the way she’d imagined? Why couldn’t any of her dreams come true?
    She felt a stab of guilt. Her newfound trust that God would see her through hadn’t lasted much more than a day. Already she was questioning his will for her life. Already she was doubting that he would handle her disappointments.
    She sighed heavily. “Help me.”
    Moments passed, and then a thought occurred to her. I was the one who stopped the wedding.
    She straightened a little.
    That was true. She was the one who had chosen not to marry a man she didn’t love. Jakob hadn’t rejected her. She had rejected him. Naturally, she had fond memories. Jakob had been her dearest childhood friend, and she’d loved him when she was young. But everything was different now. She was no longer a girl. She was a woman, and she didn’t have to think the way she’d once thought. Why, she should be reveling in her freedom. She was no longer a spinster who lived with her aging parents and worked in her father’s bakery. She was an independent woman, unmarried by choice, with limitless possibilities in this wonderful new land. Hadn’t Jakob come to America with nothing? Yet look at him now. If she applied herself, couldn’t she accomplish the same?
    Of course she could.
    She rose from the bed, lifted her chin, and squared her shoulders.
    Harvest was not such a long time away, and this cabin wasn’t such a horrid place. She would repay Jakob because it was the right thing to do. But after the harvest … well, anything was possible.
    Anything.

Chapter Ten

    K arola’s housekeeping duties included the cooking and baking, the washing and ironing, the dusting, sweeping, and mopping. There were beds to be made and mending to be done and eggs to be gathered. But Karola thought all of that would be easy in comparison to her role as nursemaid, particularly when it came to the eldest Hirsch child.
    “My ma was prettier than you.” Maeve spoke from the doorway of her brother’s bedroom.
    Karola turned, clutching the just-removed bedding in her arms. She was certain the girl hadn’t meant to hurt her feelings, but she was hurt nonetheless. She did her best to hide it. “Do you look like her, Maeve? You are pretty.”
    Maeve’s chin quivered and her eyes grew bright. She shook her head, then without another word, disappeared down the hallway.
    Karola sighed.
    It was only her first full day working in Jakob’s home, but she wasn’t off to a great start. Jakob had left for the fields immediately after breakfast, leaving Karola with only a few instructions. It seemed he’d expected her to simply know what to do as well as where to find whatever she needed. But she didn’t know what or where. And now it seemed she’d upset Maeve, perhaps made her cry.
    Would it be better to pursue the girl or to leave her be? She didn’t know. She couldn’t be sure, and so she chose the latter because it was easier.
    Karola dropped the sheets and blankets into a pile near the door, then took the clean bedding from the chair where she’d placed them earlier and proceeded to make Bernard’s bed.
    “My ma was prettier than you.”
    It wasn’t wrong for a child to think her mother prettier than others. In fact, it seemed quite natural. The comment shouldn’t have hurt Karola this much. But it did.
    She smoothed the top sheet with the palm of her hand while worrying her bottom lip between her teeth.
    Karola loved being with and caring for children. She’d wanted a large family of her own, partly because she’d hated being an only child herself. She’d longed for brothers and sisters when she was young.
    But loving children didn’t guarantee Karola the wisdom she would need when it came to dealing with a little girl who missed her mother.
    With a sigh, she lifted the dirty linens and