Mary Connealy (113 page)

Grant appreciated that. “I’m Grant Cooper.” They shook hands.

“Grace has kinda made a habit of escaping from me this winter. Every time I relax and quit watching her like a hawk, I’ll be switched if she doesn’t disappear.”

Grant did his best to listen to Daniel over the crying women and the screaming boys.

“My contrary wife made me bring her here.” Daniel smiled and blushed just a little. “Women are the almightiest hardest critters to figure out, Grant. I can’t get mine to be submissive worth a lick. I’ve got it underlined in the Bible and everything. But she’s just plain stubborn.”

Grant had been raising girls for nine years. He could probably give Daniel a little advice. It would start with, “Don’t call her stupid…or stubborn…or a critter.”

Then he looked at the six children Daniel had managed to father and wondered if Daniel had some advice that could make the coming night go more smoothly for Grant. Grant had no idea how to ask. “Uh…Daniel, did you hear Hannah and I got married today?”

The crying women had turned on Sadie and Libby and were chattering like a flock of chickens.

Hannah pulled Sadie close and introduced her as “my daughter.”

Grace began crying as if her heart was breaking.

“What is that infernal woman crying about now?” Daniel pretended to drop Matthew and the boy screamed and laughed. Daniel flipped him upside down, dangling him by one ankle for a couple of seconds while the boy shrieked and swung his fists at his pa’s knee. Then Daniel swooshed his son around by the leg, flipped him right side up, and tossed him head first over Daniel’s shoulder. The little boy clung like a burr and swung himself around and ended up riding piggyback on his pa.

“Too many menfolk.” Grant had seen it all before and accepted it. “Women like to talk to other women from time to time.”

Daniel nodded earnestly, soaking in every word Grant said, even though his son was strangling him and yelling for a horsie ride. “She’s expecting another young’un, too. Probably die from this one.” He looked over at Grace. “I am surely gonna miss that woman.”

“Ma’s gonna die!” Matthew shouted right into Daniel’s ear.

Grace whirled around and fairly screamed. “I
am not going to die
, Daniel Reeves. You quit saying that. If I hear you say that one more time, I swear this is going to be the first baby ever born where we lose a father.”

Hannah looked wide-eyed at Daniel. With a glance at Grant, Hannah pulled Grace back into the little circle of women.

Two of the medium-sized boys—they had to be triplets because there were three that were a matched set—rolled under the table wrestling and tipped it over.

Daniel shouted, “You boys get outside!”

Shouting with joy, his boys vanished, along with Benny, leaving the door wide open. Grant, his ears ringing, prayed for his son to survive this visit.

After a moment’s hesitation while he looked between the women and the open door, Charlie grabbed his coat and went out after the others. Grant hoped living most of his life on the mean streets made him tough enough to survive the Reeves boys.

The Reeves stayed the night. Grant had no choice but to spend his wedding night with the menfolk in the barn, and Grace slept with Hannah. Grant’s children skipped school the next day, and by nightfall, the Reeves family still showed no signs of leaving. Of course the train wouldn’t come through for a week, so there was no escaping the Reeves until then.

Grant was ready to start building on to his house, maybe a big playroom with no breakables. Something with a lock on it, so Grant could shoo them in there and pen them up.

By midweek, Grant worked up the nerve to ask Daniel, in carefully discreet terms, about being married. Near as Grant could tell, Daniel thought women were a dangerous temptation from the devil, died at the drop of a hat, and a man with any sense at all would move himself permanently into the barn.

Terrified by Daniel’s dire predictions, Grant didn’t ask questions after that.

Grant barely kept from tearing his hair out while he waited for the visit to end. The only thing that saved him from a bald head was the joy he saw on Hannah’s face—on the few occasions he saw her face since he was living full-time in the bachelor quarters in the barn now—as she talked nonstop with Grace.

Grant did his best not to shout for joy when Daniel declared it to be time to go home. Grace, relaxed and happy, went along with her family without protest.

After the Reeves tornado spun itself back toward west Texas, and Grant repaired the furniture, their home went back to normal.

P
eace and quiet at last.” Grant sank into his rocking chair, enjoying the relative silence of his household with only eight people in it.

“It just seems quiet without the Reeves.” Hannah glanced away from the room and smiled at Grant. “We’ve still got six children making noise.”

Libby looked up from where she sat at the table listening to Marilyn read.

“I think you and Ma had better only have babies one at a time, Pa.” Josh pulled his harmonica out of his pocket.

Laughing, Hannah shook her head. “Are you really going to call me Ma, Josh? I’m pretty sure you’re older than I am.”

Grant settled more firmly in his rocking chair. “I like the sound of Ma. I think you kids had oughta all call her that.”

“But she’s my sister, Pa.” Libby screwed up her face and pouted. “Do I have to call her Ma, too? That’s kind of confusing.”

Sadie and Joshua started to laugh.

“Well, you could call her Hannah for your sister”—Marilyn pushed the book aside—“Miss Cartwright for your teacher, Ma because she’s married to your pa…She’s right. It is confusing.”

“Well, we’ll keep it simple and you can call me Ma.” Hannah sat struggling over the knitting lesson Sadie and Marilyn had assigned her.

Grant did his best not to laugh at the mass of knots.

“But I declare if Will and Ian start calling me Ma, I don’t know if I’ll put up with it.”

“They can call you Grandma instead.” Libby nodded innocently. The whole room erupted into laughter.

Grant jumped to his feet and scooped his little daughter into his arms. Once she’d started talking, the little girl seemed to be catching up for years of silence. “I never get tired of hearing you talk.” He danced her around the room, whirling and hoisting her toward the ceiling.

“Say something else, honey,” Grant cajoled as he tossed her in the air. “C’mon, let me hear that pretty voice.”

Libby giggled. “I love you, Pa.”

Grant stopped in midstep. He pulled Libby into a bear hug. “Thank you, sweetheart. The day God brought you and Charlie and your meddling big sister into my life is one of the very best days of my life. And you did that without saying a word.”

“I’m not a meddler, Grant Cooper. You take that back.” Hannah came and stood in front of him, her hands on her hips, doing her very best to look fierce when the sparkle in her eye told him she was fighting not to laugh.

“I know a way to make Pa behave, Ma.” Libby giggled as if saying the word
Ma
was hilarious. “How’s that?”

“Pa’s ticklish.”

Hannah’s eyes zeroed in on him. Benny roared like a Comanche warrior, a six-year-old Comanche warrior. They ended up in a pile on the floor, tickling and laughing and being the biggest, happiest family ever sheltered by a Texas mountain.

And later, when the house was quiet and Grant finally had her alone, he found out Hannah was ticklish, too.

1.  Hannah has a passion for children to the point she’s willing to sacrifice anything to save them. When she rode out after Grant in the blizzard at the beginning of the book, did you root for her or think she was so unwise that it annoyed you?

2.  As Grant finds himself falling for Hannah, he goes to increasing silly lengths to keep her out of his head. He had an almost desperate calling to protect all the unwanted children in the world. Discuss the conflict in his heart between romantic love and a father’s love and why he couldn’t resolve the two.

3.  Why do you think God put people in the world who go hungry, who are cold and unwanted and abused?

4.  Could a seventeen year old boy emotionally “father” children? Is Grant’s feeling that he was better than nothing good enough? Discuss whether Grant is being a father out of an honorable calling or just plain loneliness.

5.  Hannah has no womanly skills. When Grant’s daughters start matchmaking, they start by teaching her to sew. Are their motives because she needs a prettier dress to attract Grant or to really teach her a skill?

6.  The part of the story about oil was a good look at how something once considered a nuisance became a source of power and wealth. Discuss the inventions and discoveries that have changed the world.

7.  The Orphan Trains ran from 1854 to 1929 relocating an estimated 200,000 orphaned, abandoned, and homeless children. Have you ever met someone who came west on an orphan train. Some are still living. Do you live in an area where Orphan Trains stopped to find adoptive families? Discuss whether Orphan Trains are a great idea or a terrible one.

8.  If you read
Calico Canyon
, you’ll know that Hannah was unable to turn her back on a child in need. She’d find homes for the orphans she protected then turn around and find herself with more children. Grant similarly had a special heart for children. Do you think children have been devalued in our modern society? Do parents today think, “What can a child give to me?” rather than, “What can I give to a child?” Are many children now viewed more as a goal fulfillment for parents with a ticking biological clock than a treasured gift entrusted to us by God for shaping and molding into godly adults? Explain your thoughts.

9.  Are Grace’s antics in
Gingham Mountain
a fair depiction for a pregnant woman with “cabin fever”? Have you ever been “trapped” or a tiny bit crazy while you were pregnant—or just housebound—especially with a house full of children?

Mary Connealy
is a Christie Award finalist. You can find out more about Mary’s upcoming books at
www.maryconnealy.com
and
www.mconnealy.blogspot.com
. Mary lives on a Nebraska ranch with her husband, Ivan, and has four grown daughters: Joslyn (married to Matt), Wendy, Shelly (married to Aaron), and Katy. And she is the grandmother of one beautiful granddaughter, Elle.

Mary loves to hear from her readers. You may visit her at these sites:
www.mconnealy.blogspot.com
,
www.seekerville.blogspot.com
, and
www.petticoatsandpistols
. Write to her at
[email protected]
.

Other books by Mary Connealy

M
ONTANA
M
ARRIAGES
S
ERIES
Montana Rose
The Husband Tree
Wildflower Bride

S
OPHIE’S
D
AUGHTERS
S
ERIES
Doctor in Petticoats
Wrangler in Petticoats
Sharpshooter in Petticoats

Nosy in Nebraska
Black Hills Blessing