The Baby Compromise

Heidi put a dry diaper on the baby, then swaddled him in the quilt. She pulled at Rebecca’s skirt, urging her closer so she blocked Colton’s view. Then she sat cross-legged on the board, took the bottle from Rebecca’s hand and began to feed the baby. She indicated that Rebecca should lean closer and she did. “You have to wait until he stops crying so he won’t choke.”

Rebecca filed that information alongside the steps on changing the baby and swaddling him in a blanket. Then her brain raced with all the things she needed to do. “He’s going to need fresh milk. I’ll speak to Mr. Gavin about it. At the same time I’ll ask where the building supplies are. I’ll arrange for a crib or cradle to be put into our room at the hotel.” Somehow she’d care for the baby and oversee the orphanage construction at the same time. How hard could it be? She turned back to Colton to assure him that she could manage.

But she did not see approval in his face. She saw resistance. He opened his mouth, but she wouldn’t let him voice his argument. She might be a city girl, but she could handle a lot more than people gave her credit for.

“The orphanage should have been finished by now. That’s obviously what the mother of this little boy expected.” She tipped her head toward the note he still held. “As the person responsible for the building project, it’s only reasonable for me to care for him until he can be safely sheltered under this roof.” She indicated the building under construction.

He shook his head. “Not this baby.”

She stared at him. What did he mean? Was he suggesting that she wasn’t up to the challenge?

She tipped her chin and rallied her defenses.

* * *

“This baby belongs with me.” Colton forced himself to ignore the shocked hurt in Rebecca’s eyes.

Her cheeks flared pink. “He’s your son?”

His face burned and he hoped he didn’t turn the color of a bonfire. “No.”

“Then I don’t understand what you mean.”

“You see the quilt?”

From the way she looked at him, he knew he wasn’t making any sense.

“It’s my grandmother’s. Or rather, my grandmother made it.” He stumbled over the words. When had he ever had such a hard time explaining a simple thing? Never. But with Rebecca’s wild-flax-flower blue eyes on him, he could hardly think straight. He felt clumsy and way too big before her daintiness. Though she was tall for a woman, she still had to tip her chin to meet his eyes. Which she did, her expression was patient, serene and yet downright challenging. No doubt she wasn’t used to having her decisions disputed.

She might be a rich, city girl and he only a nothing-special kind of cowboy, but this baby wasn’t going to an orphanage if he had anything to say about it. “The quilt proves he’s connected to the Hayes family, and I aim to take care of him.” He let out a sigh of relief when she didn’t point out that the quilt might have been passed on to someone outside the family, though he detected a flicker in her eyes that might indicate she wondered at the possibility.

“I’m sorry, but I have to ask how you intend to care for a baby. You’re a—”

“A cowboy. I know.”

“When I got here a few minutes ago, you didn’t know what to do with him. You appealed to me to help make him stop crying.”

“True. But I’m sure I can manage. My ma will help.” At least, she’d be able to give advice. “He’s family. I have an obligation.” Caring for a baby would stretch his time to the limit. Already he struggled to keep up, always torn between the demands of the ranch and the care of his parents. But he’d find a way to make it work. He wouldn’t accept any other possibility. He had a duty to this child, and he was determined never to fail in his family duties again.

She smiled, making it even more difficult for him to figure out his thoughts.

A tiny thread of suspicion made its way up to his brain. Was her smile meant to disarm him?

“I admire your sentiment.” Her tone didn’t quite match her words. “But it’s clear as glass that the mother intended the baby to be cared for in the orphanage. That means I am the one who should care for this baby until the building is finished.”

“Then what?” Surely there was more in the baby’s future than being raised in an institution. There were already too many children who didn’t have loving homes. A fact that tore at his insides. He wouldn’t leave an abandoned kitten to fend for itself, and the thought of abandoned, orphaned children seemed as wrong as a yellow sky. He couldn’t take in all the children who would eventually come to stay at the orphanage...but he could take in this one.

“He could be raised in the orphanage or maybe placed in a foster home or adopted,” Rebecca replied.

A moment ago he’d feared that his face was turning red. Now the blood rushed from it. “No. I’ll take him home. He’ll be safe with me.” He wouldn’t contemplate the baby going to strangers.

Little Heidi had fed the baby the milk and burped him. He now slept in her arms, the fingers of one hand curled around her index finger. Asleep he didn’t look like such a challenge.

Heidi saw him watching her—or, more correctly, the baby—and ducked behind Rebecca’s back. He understood Heidi’s shyness, having seen the scars on her face. They marred an otherwise beautiful child, but he didn’t find her appearance off-putting, especially given her sweet way with the baby. Since she hid behind the curtain of her saddle-brown hair and kept her face turned down, he guessed she thought otherwise. Someone should tell her to let people see her big brown eyes more often and they’d forget about her scars.

He returned his attention to Rebecca. The pretty blue eyes had become brittle granite. He took a step backward and tried to sort out his thoughts. He didn’t know the rules of arguing with a pretty city girl. All he knew was that he intended to personally see to the care of this infant and he’d brook no argument.

She turned to the little girl. “Come along, Heidi. We’ll go to the store first.”

Before she could take a step, he planted himself in her path. “Now, wait just a minute.” He tried to form a plan, mount a convincing defense, but her steady consideration of him and the way she held her head high left him scrambling for reason. “Look, maybe we can work something out.”

She quirked an eyebrow. “What do you have in mind?”

He didn’t have anything concrete planned, but perhaps they could share the responsibility. The idea immediately appealed to him. “There’s plenty of room at the ranch. You and Heidi and the baby could live there. I could help care for the baby and make sure he’s okay.” As he spoke, the idea took shape in his mind. “You wouldn’t have to stay at the hotel any longer.”

Rebecca smiled, though the brittleness remained in her eyes. “That’s a lovely idea.”

He heard the but before her smile faded.

“But I have to stay in town to see why the materials haven’t been delivered. I have to make sure this building is complete before the orphans come to live here. Wyatt will return any day with children.” Wyatt Reed was the newly appointed U.S. marshal charged with tracking down the orphans Baxter had hired out. The marshal had recently married Charlotte Miller and they’d adopted Sasha, one of Rebecca’s young charges. If Wyatt hadn’t discovered how Felix Baxter was getting rich by hiring out orphans from earlier trains, those poor children would still be suffering. “It makes me angry to think how the children have been mistreated.” Felix had robbed those children of any chance at a normal life.

Colton jerked his attention to the frame of the building beyond her shoulder. The only thing he could offer was his help. “I came here this morning to pitch in on the construction.” An idea took root and blossomed. “If you take care of the baby at the ranch, I could do more work on the orphanage.”

The doubt that clouded her eyes did not clear.

He had to convince her. It was the only way he could think to get her to give up or at least share the care of the baby. “I’ll take over supervision of the construction work. Personally see that this building gets completed in a timely fashion.” Surely a few words in the right ear and an occasional trip to town would be sufficient. The task wouldn’t require much time away from the ranch. It was the ideal solution.

But she shook her head. “I am not prepared to abdicate my task to someone else.”

He got the clear feeling that that was her final word on the subject. Was there anything that could be said to change her mind?

Chapter Three

“Miss Sterling.”

Rebecca barely managed to bury a sigh at the imperious tone of the woman approaching her. She’d avoided her at the hotel dining room, but it didn’t look as if she could escape her now. Miss Beatrice Ward was not a woman to be ignored. From the beginning, she’d opposed the presence of the orphan children in Evans Grove. Every time Rebecca encountered Miss Ward, with her helmet of silver hair and steely-gray eyes, she had to endure yet another lecture about the folly of keeping the orphans in the community.

“Riffraff,” she’d said in a public meeting. “Mark my words, we’ll suffer a rise in crime rate with these hooligans around.” And every time something went awry, she blamed the orphaned children. The idea of constructing an orphanage to provide for even more orphaned children had sent her into a frenzy. But this time, she’d changed her strategy. Instead of speaking out against the children directly, she sought to block the building instead, saying there needed to be ordinances and building codes in place first. She insisted that Evans Grove should aim higher than basic wooden structures. Delay after delay ensued, thanks to Miss Ward.

Now her plan of attack had shifted to questioning God’s approval. Honestly, if Rebecca once again heard the woman warning, “The lack of success is surely a sign from God that the plan should be abandoned,” she would forget her polite upbringing and tell the woman exactly what she thought of her constant interference.

As Miss Ward neared, Heidi clutched the baby to her chest, bolted to her feet and pressed herself to Rebecca’s side, as if hoping she could disappear into the folds of Rebecca’s skirt.

The poor little girl was certain everyone stared at her scarred face. Over and over again, Rebecca had assured her that people would love her despite the burn scars. But they’d seen plenty of evidence to the contrary on this trip. At each train stop, the children had been examined and several chosen. Heidi had started the journey with her brother, Jakob. The sturdy fourteen-year-old boy had been an ideal candidate for placement, but he had stuck stubbornly to his sister’s side, wanting them to be placed together. Each time couples would approach the pair, the sight of Heidi’s disfigurement drove them away. It had reached the point where Heidi tricked her brother into getting placed on his own so that she wouldn’t hold him back from finding a family. Now she was all alone and still without a family willing to give her a chance.

Rebecca shot a glance toward Colton. What did he think of Heidi’s scars? She couldn’t bear to see this child rejected time and again because of something she had no control over.

Colton watched Heidi as she shivered at Rebecca’s side. Was it her imagination or did his expression reveal tenderness? Tenderness that made her heart tug at its moorings.