Page 25 of Montana Groom of Convenience
“In my room,” Carly answered. “There a small bed out in the barn. Used to be mine, but when I outgrew it, we didn’t give it away.” She sighed. “We don’t give away, throw away or burn old stuff.”
Jill pursed her lips. “What if I don’t want to sleep with you?”
Carly stopped at the door. “Then where will you sleep? With your brother?”
“No. I don’t want to sleep with him, either. Don’t want to be with anyone. I want to be by myself.”
Carly sent Sawyer a look that he thought meant she wanted him to deal with this, but he had nothing to offer. He’d learned a rebellious Jill was difficult to reason with. Perhaps Carly would have better success.
She turned her attention back to Jill. “There’s no other place. As you can see, it’s a small house.” After an expectant beat, she continued. “You have to sleep someplace.”
“Who says?”
Carly laughed. Stopped at the rebellion in Jill’s face. “Everyone sleeps.”
“Who says?” Jill wouldn’t look at either of them, trying to look disinterested.
Sawyer recognized the way she pulled her expression blank and tried to look as if nothing mattered to her. He did the same. This was why she needed a permanent home.
Carly grinned widely. “You’ll change your mind soon enough.”
“No, I won’t.”
“I’ll get the bed ready just in case.” She left.
“Stop being ridiculous,” Sawyer murmured to Jill as he followed Carly. He didn’t wait to see what his little sister would say. Or do.
Carly headed for the barn and went to the far corner where the pieces of a bed leaned against the wall. She reached for them.
“I’ll get it.” And before she could voice disagreement, he picked up the headboard, footboard, and springs, leaving the side rails for her. He glanced about for a mattress. Didn’t see one.
“I’ll stuff a tick,” Carly said.
They returned to the house and went to Carly’s room. He let her enter first, feeling somewhat awkward at being in her bedroom.
She stopped so suddenly he almost collided with her. She dropped the rails to the floor and rushed forward with a little cry.
He didn’t need to look to guess that Jill had done something wrong. But it did cross his mind to wonder if Carly might be having regrets about their agreement.
Chapter 6
Carly’s breath caught halfway up her throat as she looked at Jill. The child had opened the trunk and pulled out two little nightgowns Carly’s mother had lovingly stitched for one of the babies.
At Carly’s cry, Jill spun around and dropped the little china shepherdess that had belonged to Carly’s mother. The head snapped off and rolled in one direction, and the little lamb broke from the shepherdess’s arms.
Jill’s expression went from surprised to impassive.
Carly didn’t give it a thought as she fell on her knees and reached for the broken pieces. She was vaguely aware of Sawyer stepping into the room, taking Jill by the arm, and leading her away. With a distant part of her mind, she heard Sawyer speak, heard her father say something. She held the broken ornament in her palms and let her tears wash the pieces.
Through the haze of her silent weeping, she sawSawyer’s legs and boots. She didn’t look up. He squatted beside her. “I’m sorry.”
She rocked her head back and forth. No amount of regret would fix the broken ornament.
“Your father said it had belonged to your mother.”
She sniffed back the tears. “She called it her Twenty-third Psalm reminder. You know, ‘The Lord is my shepherd.’ She said all she had to do was look at the tenderness in this girl’s face—” She turned the broken head over to see the serene smile. Her throat choked closed. When she spoke again, the words edged past the tightness. “She said looking at this made her remember how much God loved her despite the pain of losing so many babies and her failing health.” Her heart slowly shattered as she recalled her sweet mother. “I promised her I would never forget that fact.” She filled her lungs and spoke firmly, confidently. “She used to quote Romans chapter eight, verses thirty-eight and thirty-nine. Nothing, she said, can separate us from the love of God.”
“Hmm.” The sound revealed nothing.
