Free A Chance In Time by Ruth Ann Nordin Page B

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.