Sleigh of Hope Read Free

wiped their feet on the thick rug beside the door.
    “Give me a minute to put some milk on to heat.” She started toward a small kitchen in the back that the Grayson men had added when renovating the place for her and the work she was committed to.
    “Thank you, but we can’t stay,” Adam said, wishing he could accept her offer and visit with her for a while. He had a soft spot for Anna. A year ago her husband had tracked her down and brutally beaten her. Her bruised, grotesquely swollen face made him sick inside... and angrier than he’d ever been in his life. No person should ever be treated so badly, especially someone as sweet as Anna. She was kind and pretty and could marry again if she wanted to. Lots of men would be interested. But she didn’t allow any man to court her. She spent all her time helping other women who were running from their heavy-handed husbands. She had nothing for herself, not even her own home. She lived in one small room upstairs and opened the rest of the house to strangers in need.
    And now he was bringing her two more people who desperately needed her help.
    “Are you in some sort of trouble?” she asked.
    Adam shook his head, dislodging droplets of melting snow from his woolen cap. “No, ma’am,” he said. “But we know someone who is.”
    Her eyebrow arched and she sank slowly onto a worn davenport. “Sit and tell me what’s going on.”
    He waited for Rebecca to sit before he took a chair opposite Anna. “There are two boys hiding out in our greenhouse. Leo, the older boy, is taking care of his little brother Benny. I think Leo is older than me. I don’t know how old Benny is, but he can’t talk yet. They’re alone and are cold and hungry. I think they need a place to live.”
    There. He’d blurted the whole story and now it was up to the adults to take care of the boys. With that, he exhaled and leaned back in his chair. Now all he had to do was keep Rebecca away from the greenhouse until Leo and his brother were long gone.
    “Oh, my...” Anna pressed her fingers to her chest. “Are they truly alone? Are you certain they are without a parent or guardian of some sort?”
    He nodded. “I’m pretty sure. I thought maybe they could stay here.”
    Her hand sank to her lap. “I take in women who need a safe place to stay until they can get a home of their own. It’s not for boys who need a family to take care of them.”
    “But you’ve had children here,” he said. “I’ve seen them.”
    “Yes, Adam, but those children came with their mother and they left with their mother.”
    “But I thought you might like having a baby. Benny seems sweet, and Leo could help out around here.”
    Her eyes grew dark and her shoulders seemed to melt. “I’d love to have children, but this isn’t a place for them. It’s always possible that one of my guest’s husbands could track them here and... well, that situation could become terribly dangerous.”
    He knew how dangerous it could become. He’d seen the results of Anna’s husband’s brutal hands. Just thinking about Leo and little Benny in that situation made his stomach sick. He couldn’t do that to them no matter how much he didn’t want them in his home.
    “You need to tell your father about this,” Anna said. “He and Faith will be able to help those boys better than I.”
    He nodded, knowing that he should have done that from the start. The longer he sat here being selfish the longer Benny and Leo were going hungry. “Thank you,” he said, standing. “We’ll head home so we can get the boys some food.”
    Anna stood and pulled him into a hug and drew Rebecca in with her other arm. “You two are such beautiful children.”
    In that moment Adam understood that the word love encompassed very different feelings. He loved Anna Levens as deeply as he loved his aunts. He loved Rebecca Grayson, his cousin by marriage but not by blood, like he loved no other.
    Heat scorched his face as he slipped from Anna’s arms.