Free To Love and to Cherish by Kelly Irvin Page A

head. She didn’t want to pray. Praying had become increasingly difficult with the rancor in her heart over Mudder and Daed’s deaths. She found their absence impossible to forgive. Now this.
We need Luke. We need Josiah. Please protect the house and the barn, the horses and the other livestock. They are our livelihood, Lord. Please
.
    No doubt the storm would take what was left of the wheat. But her brothers? A sob burbled in her throat. Thomas shook his head. She followed his nod toward the girls huddled on a blanket on the floor. Lillie snuggled against Annie, and Catherine held Mary. The twins took turns sniffling. “I want Mudder.” Mary burrowed against Catherine, her voice a tiny whisper. “I want Daed.”
    “Me, too.” Lillie’s lower lip curled under. “I miss them.”
    Poor things. Poor little things. They never complained. They coped. Better than Emma did. Of course, they were children who could laugh and play one minute, cry the next. “We all miss them, but they’re withGod, and they would want us to be brave.” She cleared her throat and forced a smile. “Let’s play a game while we wait.”
    Her tears forgotten, Lillie grinned. “Oh, a game, a game!”
    Mary didn’t look as enthralled at the idea. A massive crack of thunder made her clutch her sister’s arm. The four girls squeezed closer together. “Like what?”
    Emma wracked her brain. Blank. She had a blank brain in her head. She glanced around the cellar. No paper, no crayons. No building blocks. Mudder used to stock the cellar for occasions just such as this one. Emma would have to learn to step into that role now. “Let me see…”
    Thomas saved her. “How about I start a story and then the next person has to pick up where I left off?” He plopped down on a stool near the bottom of the steps. “And we keep going until everyone has told part of it.”
    “What kind of story?” Mary asked, her sweet face puzzled.
    “Well, that remains to be seen, doesn’t it?” Thomas smoothed his beard with callused fingers. “Let’s see. Once there was a little boy—”
    “I want it to be a little girl.” Lillie frowned. “Two little girls, twins.”
    Thomas chuckled. “Ah, but this is my story. When you have your turn, you may add little girls, if you like.”
    Emma eased on to a box in the corner and leaned against the wall, watching as Thomas spun the simple story of a little boy walking in the woods who came upon a wounded bear. Even William, trying so hard to be all grown-up at six, crept closer to hear Thomas’s rhapsodic spinning of a simple tale.
    As a schoolteacher who spent all day eight months a year with children, Emma should’ve been able to come up with a simple game. She sneaked a covert peek at Thomas. He used both hands as he talked, waving them about, measuring how high the bear stood and how short the boy was. So quiet and reserved in adult company, he had an easy way with children, as if more comfortable with them. A quality that made for a good father. Of course, Thomas had proven that already with Rebecca and Eli. It was something else that drew Emma to him.He didn’t have to show off or spout words. He simply stood firm in his own quiet assurance. He didn’t need to seek adventures in faraway places; he found contentment in simply being who he was.
    “And the boy—take it away, Emma!”
    Grinning, Thomas leaned back on the stool and folded his arms.
    Emma opened her mouth and closed it. She’d been so busy studying Thomas, she hadn’t given any thought to participating in his little story. “I…I…”
    “Come on, teacher. Surely you should be the best storyteller of all.”
    Thomas grinned at her, his eyes alight with good humor. She couldn’t help but smile back. He looked like a mischievous boy.
    The twins clapped their hands and giggled. “Emma can’t do it. Let me go next, Thomas, me!” Lillie crowed.
    “No, me, please!” Mary pouted. “I have a story. Can I be next?”
    Thomas shook his head,