Chapter 5 #2
By the time they strode into the dining room, Nathaniel was already seated.
He quickly stood as she and his sister entered.
The dining table was large enough to seat six, with two chairs at both narrow ends and bench seats beneath the longer sides, but since they currently had no boarders, it was just the four of them.
The entrance was apparently perfectly timed, as Dalia emerged from the kitchen with a tray bearing four bowls and a plate piled with golden brown sourdough biscuits.
She quickly set a bowl of chicken chili before her daughter and Chloe, then her son, and then took her place at one end of the table, Nathaniel at the opposite.
Immediately, they all folded their hands and bowed their heads. Chloe followed suit.
“Come Lord Jesus, be our guest, and let Thy gifts to us be blessed, Amen,” Dalia murmured.
A chorus of amens followed, including one from Chloe.
She glanced down at the bowl of chili set before her as three hands reached for the plate of biscuits.
Nathaniel’s large hand grasped two and she felt a moment of surprise when he placed one of them on the table beside her bowl before dunking his immediately into the thickened broth of his chili and took a bite.
Everything smelled wonderful and heaven knew that she was hungry, but she wasn’t sure what to think about the chili. It seemed to be a combination of ingredients, including several different types of beans, some corn, a reddish brown sauce, and shreds of chicken scattered throughout.
“You’ve never had chili before?”
Chloe glanced up, her cheeks burning hot when she glanced at Dalia. She shook her head.
“She’s won first prize with her chili three years in a row at the county fair,” Lillian informed her, spoon in hand. “Go on, dig in, Chloe. I’m sure you’ll like it.”
For several moments, spoons clinking against the sides of the porcelain bowls was the only sound around the table.
Chloe took a tentative spoonful of the chili, found she liked it, and then followed Nathaniel’s example of dipping her biscuit into the sauce.
Dalia’s biscuits nearly melted in her mouth and she glanced at the woman with a raised eyebrow.
To her surprise she found Dalia looking back at her, a smile and a twinkle in her eye.
“Yeah, she’s won first prize for the biscuits too,” Nathaniel commented. “Three years in a row. They won’t let her enter them anymore.” He winked at his mother. “Gives others a fighting chance.”
Dalia laughed. “Fine with me. Let someone else win for a change.”
She glanced at Nathaniel, who’d already consumed half his bowl of chili. He grinned at her and Chloe wondered if her body would explode with heat. Her cheeks felt hot and it wasn’t the chili. She quickly looked away. “This is delicious,” she murmured.
After the first few bites, conversation started up around the table.
The camaraderie between the three surprised her, although she couldn’t quite understand why.
Maybe it was because she’d spent so many years of her life eating by herself.
Or it could be that when she did eat with others, it was around large tables filled with quiet children eating somberly, no talking allowed during meal time. She wondered—
“Chloe?”
She blinked and glanced at Lillian, who gestured with her chin toward her brother.
Chloe turned to Nathaniel and found him watching her with a lifted eyebrow.
She blinked. Had he spoken to her? She didn’t know.
“Pardon me?” she asked, hoping she wasn’t making a complete fool of herself.
“I’m sorry, I was wool-gathering. Were you speaking to me? ”
He nodded. “I was.” His bowl was empty but he reached for another biscuit. “I asked if you remembered where your stagecoach originated.”
“Now Nathaniel,” Dalia gently scolded. “You’re not the sheriff sitting at the table right this moment.”
“Natty,” Lillian chimed in. “Let her eat in peace.”
“Lillian!” Nathaniel grumbled, casting a quick glance at Chloe. “I told you not to call me that.”
Chloe turned to Lillian with a lifted eyebrow. “Natty?”
Lillian grinned. “His nickname. I couldn’t say his whole name when I was little. Sometimes it just slips out.” She glanced at her brother. “Sorry.”
Chloe could tell by the grin on Lillian’s face that she wasn’t sorry.
She glanced at Nathaniel, who didn’t meet her gaze until he quit frowning at his sister.
She suddenly lost her appetite. She didn’t want to answer his question.
She didn’t want to think about the attack, nor the fact that the two drivers had been killed as a result.
Even so, she didn’t think he would let the question go unanswered.
“Nathaniel,” Dalia said softly. “Can this wait?”
“It’s all right, Dalia,” Chloe murmured. She glanced from the woman to the sheriff. “I got on the stage in Lawton, Oklahoma. The stage was heading for Amarillo I believe.”
She declined to inform him that she had made a point to stop at every larger frontier town that she could along the way to inquire about orphanages in the areas they traveled through. While she logically knew the chance of her finding the orphanage that had taken Eliza were slim, she had to do it.
He stared at her for several moments, then glanced at his sister and then his mother. “I have a few more questions for you tomorrow, if you don’t mind.”
Chloe did mind but she certainly couldn’t say so. “Of course.”
She turned her attention once more toward her half-eaten chili.
Even so, she felt his eyes on her and tried to pretend that his suspicious demeanor didn’t bother her.
For some reason she realized that he was just doing his job.
He wasn’t interested in her personally. Which was just as well, because she had no interest in anything but finding her daughter.
He was a lawman and she needed to stay as far away from him as she could.
At the same time, she couldn’t help her reluctant interest in him.
He was the law. She needed to stay at arm’s length away from him and yet here she was, sitting at the supper table with him and his family, staying at the boarding house with his mother and sister, and—
“Chloe, would you like to volunteer with me tomorrow morning?”
“Don’t you already have a job?” She’d been surprised when Lillian had told her where she worked and she’d been impressed. Women rarely had jobs outside of home environments.
“Well, I help out there when I can, and that’s payment enough for me.”
Chloe glanced at Dalia, who gave her a nod. “You should go with her, Chloe. It would give you a good chance to see the town a little and meet some people.”
“Where is this place where you volunteer?” Chloe asked. “Is it a hospital or an old soldier’s home or something?”
“No, nothing like that,” Lillian replied. “It’s an orphanage.”
Chloe stared at Lillian, her heart pounding so hard she felt sure that everyone at the table would notice her reaction. “A … an orphanage?”
“Yes, it’s an orphanage that was built about ten years ago, east of town. The Cedar Bluff orphanage, although it’s official name is Saint Luke’s Home for Foundlings. There’s roughly twenty children there now, aged between infants and about fifteen years old. A couple of them are disabled.”
“Twenty?” Chloe asked disbelief. Twenty unwanted or unclaimed children in this region alone?
“Yes, unfortunately,” Dalia explained. “A few years ago an epidemic swept through here and a lot of children were left without parents.” She paused. “Then there’s accidents, and in some cases, abandonment.”
Chloe’s heart froze. Wasn’t that what she had done to Eliza? Abandoned her? Certainly not because she didn’t want her, God knew that. She had left her in the capable hands of the orphanage matron to keep her safe, to give her shelter and food, companionship, and a sense of belonging.
Yet at the same time, she knew what her own upbringing had been like in an orphanage.
Yes, she’d been given shelter and food, she’d slept in a clean bed and had food to eat, most of the time, but as for companionship and a sense of belonging, well, she’d never really felt that until she’d met Silas. Then everything had turned upside down.
Lillian glanced at her mother and then her brother.
“Our family has long been patrons of the orphanage, doing what we can to provide clothing, food, books, and such. We hold a raffle and a couple other fundraising events every year.” She placed a hand on Chloe’s arm. “Please say you’ll come with me.”
“Go on with her, Chloe,” Dalia said. “There’s not much cleaning or anything to do tomorrow. I’ll just be baking a couple of pies, and then I’m going to visit with a couple of my friends from the church women’s league.”
Chloe found it difficult to hide her excitement, at the same time mixed with burgeoning hope and yet trying to caution herself that this orphanage might be the one Reverend Dunby had told her about back in Lincoln.
Texas was a large state, and certainly there were more than a few orphanages in the panhandle, weren’t there?
“I … I would like that,” she managed. She cast a quick glance at Nathaniel, who appeared to be watching her carefully. Her heart skipped a beat and she quickly turned away from him and back to Dalia. She inwardly winced at the tremble in her voice. “What do you do there?”
“Oh, sometimes I read to the children, or we have a sing-along. If the headmistress needs help with something else, I’ll do whatever.
” She paused. “We won’t stay too long. I know you’re still recuperating, but it should do you good to get out and get some fresh air, see something of Cedar Bluff and … well, other faces besides ours.”