Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Madeline woke up all of a sudden with a knowing feeling as if there was someone in the room with her. She sat straight up and stared at the form standing by her bedside. A hand flew to her chest and she was ready to let a scream fly out of her mouth when she realized it was Violet. There had been just enough light coming in from the moon’s rays to see her outline.

“I didn’t mean to scare you, Miss Emmett.”

“Violet. You may call me Madeline, just like Elijah does. What are you doing here in my room so early? It’s not even daylight out yet?”

She shrugged. “I woke up and now I’m not tired. Some mornings I like to take a walk down the street but my brother gets a little upset when I do that. I’ve been trying hard not to upset him so much.”

“So you thought you’d come visit me instead?”

She nodded her head and somehow through the fading darkness, Madeline saw her head moving. “I’m glad you stopped here first instead of leaving the house. You probably should let someone walk with you next time. Would you like to sit on the porch and watch the sun come up with me this morning?”

“Yes! I’d love to,” she told Madeline, then sat on the edge of the bed and gave it a bounce or two. “Do you want me to wake up Elijah so he can see too?”

She shook her head. “Heavens to Betsy, no! We’ll let him sleep until breakfast.”

“Okay, but who is Betsy?”

Madeline’s mind was still a bit muddy waking up like she had. She didn’t understand at first what Violet meant until she remembered she used the word in a sentence. “It’s just a saying, dear Violet. I suggest you go to your room and get dressed before we go outside on the porch. We’ll go to the kitchen and make coffee when you’re dressed, okay?”

“Okay.” Violet got up and hurried out the door to get dressed. Her bare feet padded quietly down the hall. Madeline made a mental note to buy her new charge a pair of slippers. Violet didn’t really have much clothing at all and what she had was faded and torn in some places. Madeline had noticed her dress right away when they met yesterday. She was going to change that starting today.

Madeline hopped from her bed and got dressed quickly, washing up in the bowl of water she had brought along upstairs from the kitchen last night. She had noticed right away there was a pump in the kitchen near the sink. It was nice that she didn’t have to go outside for water. Whoever built Mr. Adam’s home had modernized it quite nicely. She was glad since they had running water at the orphanage, but then most cities in the east did.

Madeline hurried down the stairs and added some wood to the cook stove. It caught on quickly since the embers were still fire-red. Was someone already up? The only other person to start a fire was Mr. Adams. Had he gotten up and left for work already? It was barely dawn. How in the world did he manage to work with a wandering Violet?

She was starting to understand his concern now that she witnessed how Violet could wander in the night and wind up in Madeline’s bedroom. It truly startled her for a moment but it wasn’t the first time a child came into her room looking for her. Several of the children at the home had been like that too. At least she had experience with wandering children.

It didn’t take long for the water to boil, so she made coffee for herself and a cup of tea for Violet, adding lots of sugar and a bit of cream. Mr. Adam’s had left a small cup of creamer on the kitchen table, along with a filled sugar bowl. She thought that was kind of him.

It didn’t take long for Violet to come down the stairs, then skip up the hall towards the kitchen. She stopped when she saw Madeline.

“Don’t you look nice,” Madeline told her. “Why don’t you put on a sweater and we’ll go outside.”

“Can I help?” Violet asked. Before Madeline had a chance to answer, two hands grabbed the tray and pulled it from her. Violet had jerked it out of her hands unintentionally, but it tipped over and fell to the ground.

The creamer broke when it hit the floor and splattered all over Violet’s skirt. She jumped back, covered her cheeks with her hands and began to scream.

Madeline tried to go to her but she jumped back, turned and ran down the hall, forcing the front door open. Madeline caught her just as she got to the porch steps.

Violet, please. It’s not your fault. Things like this happen all the time.”

Her words stopped the young girl in her tracks. She looked at Madeline with tears dripping from her eyes. “It does? It always happens to me. I get so excited and want to help.”

Madeline took her arm and nodded towards the steps. “Let’s sit down and talk while we wait for the sun to come up. We don’t need tea or coffee, okay?”

Her little nod worked on Madeline as she sat down beside the teen. She took Violet’s hand and held it, knowing that Violet had been frightened of her own emotions.

She waited for a few moments and spoke up. “Violet, sometimes things happen that we can’t help. You are no different than anyone else, okay? I dropped many trays. Sometime I’ll tell you all about my work at the children’s orphanage where Elijah came from.”

“Can you tell me a story now?”

Madeline smiled. “Of course. But, first look at the sun. It’s starting to peek out from its hiding place. Do you see it rising in the sky?”

“It’s so orange and yellow and bright!”

“It’s the start of a new day. Nothing that happened to you before this moment matters. Every day when the sun comes up you get to start over.”

“My dress is soaked. I think my dress got to drink tea today but I didn’t.”

Madeline looked at Violet to see her eyes sparkling with laughter. This talk had been good for her. At first the girl had behaved like someone was going to yell at her for her actions. It was a normal trait of a child. Madeline vowed that while she was working here in this home, she would make sure Violet felt as normal as she possibly could. It was a cruel world and she was going to protect her as best as she could.

“I think the stove is piping hot now, so why don’t you wake up Elijah and tell him that breakfast will be ready soon. I’ll go start it and you can help me set the table. Okay?” She didn’t mention anything about the broken dishes still on the floor. Madeline planned to clean it up while Violet was upstairs.

Violet nodded, then clapped her hands and stood. She ran inside, leaving the door hanging open. Madeline stood, then watched the sun for a moment or two, reflecting on this morning’s events so far.

She had a strange feeling that she was being watched. Again. Swinging around, she saw that Mr. Adams had been sitting on the porch this whole time. She gasped then marched over to face him. “This is the second time today that someone scared me and the sun hasn’t completely risen yet.”

“I apologize. Everything happened so fast. I made my coffee then decided to sit on the porch in case Violet tried to leave without telling me again.”

Her hands flew to her hips. “You might have wanted to tell me that she is an escape artist before now,” she scolded. “I woke up with those beautiful blue eyes staring at me while I slept.”

“I’m sorry. I thought maybe it wouldn’t happen with you here, but I was wrong. It’s why I can’t keep any help. They all get tired of running all over town looking for her.”

“Did you ever think maybe she is going outside for a reason? That maybe she is searching for someone or looking for something?”

He shrugged. “I never thought of why she was doing it. Does there have to be a reason that she wanders?”

“I truly don’t know, but I imagine we’ll have to work on getting to the bottom of things, Mr. Adams. Perhaps a visit to the local physician’s office may be necessary. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have breakfast to cook. It will be ready in twenty minutes.”

“I have to get to my shop. There’s a lot of work to catch up with.”

She shook her finger at him. “Didn’t your mother ever tell you that if you don’t eat a hearty breakfast, you’ll drain yourself by mid-morning. If I have to march over there with the children with your breakfast, it isn’t going to look good on your part.”

He shook his head then grinned. “You drive a hard bargain. I’ll be in shortly.”

“Good.” She didn’t know what else to say after that speech that just rolled from her so she turned and marched inside, closing the door with a bang. Then she giggled.

The power she felt at being able to run this home on her terms made her feel ten feet tall. She’d never had that kind of leave-way before. Usually, she had to follow the rules at the orphanage and since she hadn’t ever held a job outside of it, she didn’t know what to expect in the outside world.

Now she was getting an idea of how wonderful it was. Madeline hummed one of the church tunes she remembered while cooking a pan of eggs and left over pork slices. She wished she had fresh bread and decided to go to the mercantile today to get the ingredients she’d need to make some.

Unless the store had some already made bread, she’d just buy that instead. She wanted to concentrate on dresses for Violet and more clothes for Elijah rather than bake bread. Madeline wiggled her toe to remind herself to take out some money for her purchases today. She wasn’t going to rely on Mr. Adams to buy everything. Especially not for the material she was going to get for Violet.

A sleepy Elijah came into the room, followed by Violet. Madeline gave them both a smile. While Elijah sat down, Violet came to get plates to set out for breakfast. She was careful to slow down and not get so excited without being told. “Look at you already, Violet. That’s good work. Would you like to place the silverware as well?”

After they had the table set, she heard the front door open and close.

Mr. Adams came down the hall, his heavy footsteps lighting up Violet’s face. When she saw her brother, she forgot about everything else and flung herself into his arms.

Mr. Adams wrapped his arms around his sister. “Good morning, Violet. I hear you are going to be going shopping today.”

“I am?” she said, then her eyes lit up and she cried out. “I am! I am! We better hurry and eat breakfast. Look, I set the table.”

After they said prayers and ate, Madeline and Violet cleared the table while Mr. Adams said he had to go to his shop. He told Madeline that he’d be late this evening since he wanted to get as much work done as he was able to.

“There will be a warm plate of food for you when you return. We have a busy day planned and I don’t want you to worry at all.”

He hesitated before he left, then turned back to her and nodded. “Thank you,” he told her, those swoony blue eyes warming her heart.

She stood in the middle of the room for a moment, confused, then realized he had caused her to forget what she was doing. Those blue eyes had made her feel like she was the most important and possibly most beautiful woman in the world.

You are just the housekeeper, caregiver and cook! It’s best to remember that!

Madeline knew he was more than appreciative of her skills and after all, he was going to be paying her to provide those skills. So she had better stop dallying and thinking about how sweet the man was. How he gazed at her with interest. It was time to get down to business.

“Children? Are you ready to go shopping? We have a ton of things to buy and a lot of work to get done.”

“Can I stay here in my room? I promise I’ll stay there and not bother anyone.”

Madeline frowned. She looked around the kitchen. “The only people I see are Violet and myself, so who could you possibly be bothering, Elijah?”

He thought about that, then grinned. For an eight year old, Elijah was pretty sharp. “I guess nobody. I just want to stay in my room.”

My room!

Oh dear! She had been so caught up in learning about Violet and then Mr. Adams and his dreamy blue eyes causing her heart to pump like mad that she hadn’t been focusing on her charge. Madeline was worried now that he would become too comfortable here and not want to go with a family when they found one. She wasn’t sure when or how she’d approach this, but it was sad that she had to make him aware of the situation when everything was going so well for them both.

Madeline let out a huge sigh. “Elijah, you will have to go along and help at the mercantile since I need you with me when I make purchases. I’ll need your strong muscles to help carry everything.”

“Yes, ma’am. Then can I come back and go to my room?”

Madeline gave his hair a tousle. “Yes, of course.” She would address the issue later. All she knew was she had to keep this job and all it entailed, along with finding Elijah a wonderful family. In the meantime, Elijah was doing just fine with her. Her adrenaline was pumping and she was ready to get to work.

Madeline sat down, untied her kid boot and pulled it off. She counted out some money, then tucked the rest back into the boot. She placed the bills in her pocket, threw on her shawl and gathered the two children before leaving the house.

Walking down the street, she noticed Violet stayed close by her side. Elijah was the one who kept wandering off, especially if he noticed someone with a gunbelt and vest. “Maybe my father is here,” he whispered to her at one point.

“Why do you say that, Elijah?” But she knew why. It was her fault. She had led him to believe his father was an outlaw and he may find him here in the west.

How was she going to redeem herself and make Elijah understand his father was nowhere to be found? Madeline was afraid she had backed herself into a corner where Elijah was concerned. How did she tell an eight year old she had made up the story?

And how did she explain to him that his room was only temporary?