Chapter Four
“All right,” Callie said as she breezed through the door to the patient room a week later. “I don’t have any appointments this afternoon. Jacob’s set on washing the linens out back, and Louisa brought enough snacks to feed an army. Unless there’s an emergency, I think we’ll be fine for tea.”
Louisa squealed, her excitement contagious to Ellie’s heart.
She’d been discharged the week before with the Suttons offering for her to room with Louisa in the cottage for as long as she needed.
“Cecily is thrilled there’s another woman around on the ranch.
I think she was keeping the house running for so long before I came, she missed out on some of the finer points of young womanhood.
” Louisa placed a hand on Ellie’s arm and squeezed.
“We’re so glad you’re home, even if we are back at the clinic for tea a week later. ”
Home. It was a slip of the tongue for Louisa, but a concept Ellie wasn’t sure she’d ever really felt, save for the presence of Mama.
“I can’t wait to try the cookie recipe Cecily and Liza have been working on.
” Ellie had so enjoyed spending time with Louisa and the children since she’d been discharged, and they’d had a ball discussing the Christmas menu and decorating the ranch house for the season.
Even the boys had gotten involved, although there had been more than a few popcorn fights and string lassos along the way. “Well, you’re in luck. She sent some with me today, along with more Christmas goodies than we’ll ever be able to eat.”
“Thank you two for coming to the clinic,” Callie said as she settled into a chair. “I really can’t get away during the day, at least not until Jacob can stand on his own in the clinic.”
“Speaking of which,” Louisa said with a raised brow.
“How are things going there?” Callie had initially been a little hesitant, and Ellie couldn’t blame her.
She didn’t know the ins and outs of Jacob and Callie’s story, but it was a hard one.
Louisa cared about them both, and she was protective of those she loved. “Is he behaving himself?”
Callie sighed, taking a cookie from the tray.
“He’s an excellent trainee, but I’ve always known he would be.
We’re finding our footing personally again, and some days I think it’s two steps forward, one and a half steps back.
” Her brown eyes told Ellie exactly how she felt about the matter, as did the slight droop of her normally confident posture.
It turned out Callie Thorn did have a weakness after all in the form of a cowboy named Jacob Sutton.
It was interesting, Ellie realized. Having friends wasn’t something she’d ever been allowed.
She’d always taken people at face value, but learning the depths of Louisa and Callie, the pieces they didn’t let everyone see, it felt like an honor.
Callie let her guard down when speaking about Jacob, even if her words didn’t reflect it yet.
“It’s still forward progress,” Louisa said gently. “I’m praying the Lord leads you two where He wants you to be, and He heals your hearts in the process.”
Smiling sadly, Callie nodded. “Thank you. It’s really all we can do, I suppose. Now, enough about me. Do you think Isaac will propose this Christmas?”
Louisa giggled, her genuine joy like a windchime on a summer day.
“Oh, I hope so. I have a suspicion he’ll propose while my family’s here, but I’m trying not to think too much about it.
” She sighed happily. “I would’ve never imagined I’d end up on a ranch in Texas in love with a cowboy and his eight children, but I don’t think I could write a better story for myself if I tried. ”
Those children, Cecily being the oldest at thirteen, followed by Liza at ten and William at seven, were Isaac’s adopted children.
Micah told her their mother Martha had shown up on the Sutton Ranch doorstep years before when William was only months old, begging Isaac to marry her and adopt her children.
Micah hadn’t known it at the time, but she was suffering the effects of an illness contracted in the work she felt she had to turn to to feed her children after Brent had abandoned his family to try his hand in Grandfather’s mine.
The judge had granted them a divorce on grounds of abandonment, and Martha lived as a Sutton for the last months of her life.
Then, as word spread about the Sutton Ranch being a haven for those who needed a home, other children began to arrive.
Some were brought by well meaning folks in the community, like ten year old Toby and six year old Sophia, both younger at the time.
Benjamin and Austin, the twins, had come West on the orphan train and not managed to find a home until Isaac took them in.
Ellie couldn’t remember how almost five-year-old Reuben came to live with them, but she knew he’d been silent for most of the first year until recently.
The children were all Isaac’s now, with some of them calling him ‘Papa’ while others called him by his name.
Micah had told her he didn’t mind, and it all tended to hinge on what kind of parents their own had been.
What might her life have been like if she’d found her way to somewhere like the Sutton Ranch after Mama died?
The seeming palace she’d grown up in had always been a gilded prison, and she’d have relished the idea of siblings and a family who loved her.
But at least, as she refocused on the two women before her, she had the hope of such a life now.
In opposition to Callie’s slightly more guarded nature, Louisa seemed to wear her heart on her sleeve.
She’d once told Ellie she was an open book, and she had no skeletons in her closet because she put them all on her front porch.
It was encouraging to see, but Ellie didn’t think she’d ever manage to be quite so open as her loquacious friend.
“Seems like you’ve got someone looking out for you,” Ellie said with a wink as she took a sip of her tea.
Micah had driven them into town this morning, but something had been distracting him.
Normally, he talked freely and joked with her, though she’d noticed he was much quieter with everyone else. “Someone who writes a good story.”
“Amen,” Louisa agreed. “Jim said he really enjoyed getting to chat with you about things of faith while you were here at the clinic.”
Pastor Jim’s words echoed in her mind about strong plants growing from rocky soil.
He’d gone on later to talk about how the little plant would eventually need to find a firm foundation, but faith wasn’t determined by the knowledge one began with or the legacy of family.
“He’s been so generous to spend so much time with me. ”
“Oh,” Callie said with a chuckle. “I think it was the highlight of his year. Nothing brings Papa more joy than getting to share Bible stories typically reserved for children and teach on the deeper faith themes present within them. He was like a child on Christmas morning every time.”
“It meant so much to me, and I enjoyed them so much. I only managed to learn a few of them growing up with my tutor, Miss Lutken, and she’d not been able to go too far into the application due to Grandfather’s ever present spies all over the place.”
Louisa’s eyes brightened. “You should join me in teaching a Sunday School class for all the children in town. We plan to start in January, and it’ll give you a chance to hear more of them. It’s like they say, there’s nothing quite like teaching to master a subject.”
“Oh, I couldn’t teach them,” Ellie said quickly.
“I’m happy to help you with the class, but I don’t know the first thing about teaching children.
” She’d had so little experience with them, even as a child herself.
Watching other children in town play out the window of her gilded prison would be burned into her memory forever, as she wished for a time before they’d moved there when her belly was empty but her heart was full.
Being at the ranch, it had reminded her of all the beautiful pieces of childhood. The Sutton children had brought her so much joy in the time she’d been there, but it was still so foreign to her.
“You’re far better with children than you think,” Louisa replied.
“Don’t you worry about teaching for a good while.
I can handle it. You come and help me wrangle the hooligans.
” She winked. “They’ll need a good bit of wrangling over the next few months since Florence Day is in charge of the Founder’s Day Festival in late March and wants them to perform a song or two for the town. ”
Callie’s eyes widened, and she burst into laughter.
“Oh, goodness, that brings back memories. Please ask one of the Sutton men to tell you about the time the schoolchildren were asked to perform a play about the founding of Cloverdale, and how Jacob ended up punching Benny Watkins in the nose during the play because he kept pulling my hair and trying to trip me.” Her eyes went a little glassy, and Ellie knew she was letting the memories wash over her. “I can’t wait to see this.”
Over the next hour, the women talked, laughed, and even giggled over stories from Callie’s childhood and tales from Louisa’s own adventures with so many siblings.
Even though she had so little to add, Ellie didn’t feel like an outsider.
For the first time in her life, the women around her made her feel welcome and loved simply for who she was rather than the circumstances surrounding her existence.
She was so new to things of faith, though she’d prayed often growing up as Miss Lutken told her to, and it seemed as though one of her longest running prayers was finally being answered.
Mama had never had friends either, especially not once they’d moved back in with Grandfather.
Initially, they’d both tried to befriend some of the house staff, but he’d squashed that as soon as he noticed.