The Baby Compromise

Heidi brushed her palm to his without lifting her head and Colton helped the man back to his chair. He sat in a way that signaled pain.

Colton waited until he was settled, then indicated his mother. “Mrs. Estelle Hayes.”

The woman didn’t stand, didn’t offer her hand, extended no welcome.

Rebecca smiled. “Pleased to meet you and thank you for your hospitality.”

Mrs. Hayes’s expression didn’t soften. “You’re the woman who brought the orphans to town.” She shifted her gaze to Colton. “Think you’d better explain about the baby.”

Rebecca clung to Heidi as hard as the child clung to her, wondering if Mrs. Hayes disapproved of her on principle or because she was an agent for the Orphan Salvation Society.

Colton told them about finding the baby at the orphanage. “Look at this quilt.” He showed it to his parents.

“It’s grandmother’s design. How did this baby end up with one of her quilts? They aren’t given outside the family.” Mrs. Hayes sounded more concerned with the quilt than the baby.

But Colton seemed unaware of it. “Which leads me to think this baby is somehow related to us. So I decided to bring him home and look after him.”

Mrs. Hayes shook her head. “I don’t see how he can be related. I’m unaware of any female relatives in the family way. Besides, no Hayes would abandon her baby. No, I’m certain you’re wrong.”

Mrs. Hayes turned toward Rebecca. Her gaze burned a path up and down Rebecca’s length, but Rebecca would not flinch. She would not allow the woman to intimidate her. She had been taught not to react to such slights. Hold your head high and never reveal a hint of dismay. She thanked her mother’s voice for enabling her to stand straight and tall.

Colton followed the direction of his mother’s stare. “Miss Sterling insisted that, as the supervisor of the orphanage project, she be in charge of the baby, since the basket was left on the orphanage’s grounds. Rather than fight about it, we struck an agreement. We’ll share responsibility. A hotel is no place for a tiny baby, so I brought them here.”

His father nodded. “Rightly so.”

“Who is going to look after him?” Mrs. Hayes pointed to her feet. She wore slippers—men’s slippers—and Rebecca saw why. Her swollen ankles made any other kind of footwear impossible.

“I intend to care for him,” Rebecca said. “I would have preferred to keep him in town so I could tend to my other responsibilities as well, but Colton insisted.”

Mr. Hayes chuckled. “He can be quite persuasive. Maybe even argumentative.”

“Pa, don’t you be spreading gossip about me.” The men smiled at each other.

“Babies are a lot of work.” Mrs. Hayes’s words seemed to warn them all that they would regret this decision.

Rebecca’s spine stiffened at the suggestion. “I can handle it.”

Again, the older woman studied Rebecca from head to toe. “No doubt you’ve had a fine education, but I don’t suppose it’s included learning to care for a baby.” Before Rebecca could defend herself, the woman addressed Heidi. “Why are you hiding? Step out so I can see you.”

Heidi obeyed with much fear and trembling.

Mrs. Hayes studied her openly. To her credit she did not flinch. “How old are you, child?”

“I’m ten.”

“Is that a scar on your face?”

Heidi hung her head and squeezed Rebecca’s hand so tightly Rebecca’s fingers grew numb.

“Yes,” Heidi mumbled.

“What happened?”

Rebecca answered for her. “She was burned in a fire that killed her parents.”

“Come here, child,” Mr. Hayes said.

Heidi shuddered.

Rebecca glanced at the door. For half a copper coin, she would take Heidi and walk back to town. She slid her gaze toward Colton. He smiled and nodded.

Rebecca took courage from his look and drew Heidi forward.

Mr. Hayes sat on eye level with the child. He flipped her hair away from her face, paying no attention to the way she flinched from his touch. He looked at the scars, revealing no disgust in his expression.

“Heidi, tell me one thing. Does it hurt?”

Heidi jerked her head up and faced him full-on. “No, sir. Not anymore.”

Mr. Hayes nodded and smiled. “Then it’s of no consequence, is it?”

Heidi studied him a full moment. Then a sigh the size of the great outdoors escaped her lungs. “No, sir.” Her voice rang with more confidence than Rebecca had ever heard.

Heidi touched the older man’s gnarled hand. “Does it hurt?”

“Only when I think about it, and I try not to.”

“I wish it didn’t hurt at all.”

He rested his hand on Heidi’s shoulder. “Me, too.”

Tears stung Rebecca’s eyes. She dare not look toward Colton, afraid her emotion would spill down her cheeks, but right then and there she vowed she would tolerate Mrs. Hayes for the sole purpose of allowing Heidi to enjoy a place where she found acceptance.

“I can’t look after anyone,” Mrs. Hayes said. “I certainly hope you can look after yourselves.”

“Of course we can.” Rebecca didn’t feel nearly as certain of that as she sounded. Exactly what did looking after oneself in this environment include?

“She’ll do better’n that,” Colton added. “She’s going to run the house while I take care of supervising building the orphanage.”

Rebecca thanked her upbringing for enabling her to smile as if she had every confidence that she could handle the challenge.

But this was beyond anything she had imagined and inside she was screaming, I don’t even know where to start.