Page 1 of Ewing

Chapter 1

Ewing was keeping an eye on the kids while he changed Billy’s diaper. He’d been getting really good at changing the boy’s diaper since he and the other children came to him. But with six kids, he knew that something could change in a heartbeat, and he’d be right back to square one in learning an entirely new set of rules and standards for them all. He thought that this was the hardest job he’d ever held. And the one with the most benefits.

Two weeks ago—he couldn’t believe that it had only been a couple of weeks now. He’d been out taking a walk on his property checking on things and came upon a man stealing his grape starters for the new wine he was planning. At first his plan had been to scare him off, call the police perhaps. But in the end, he’d done so much more than that.

The man, Ben Kinsley, a bastard of a man had two little girls with him that looked like not only could they use a good bath but a good meal too. As soon as he’d spoken to the man, one of the children, Beth, came running to him and hid behind his legs. He and his bear both could feel her terror. It was all he could do not to kill the man where he stood when the other child, another six-year-old, Rachel, came toward him only to be knocked down and stomped on by the bastard. By the time his brothers showed up, he had them both with him and was ready to become their knight in shining armor for anything that they needed.

“What do you ‘pose they’re going to do with us today?” He asked Lily, the most worldly seven-year-old he knew what she meant and what reason. “You said this man is going to decide if we can live with you and your family or not until they find the other kids’ parents. What happens if they don’t?”

“You’ll stay with me, I hope.” She asked him if he was nuts. “Sometimes I think that I am, but we’re doing all right, aren’t we? I mean, nothing bad has happened, and so far, I’ve been able to keep you all alive and fed.”

“Yeah, you’re doing good about that, but I heard that lady in the bathroom telling her friend that you needed a wife and shouldn’t be taking little girls to the bathroom. I don’t know how she expects us to get all our bits and pieces covered up without you there. All she did was lift her nose at us.” He didn’t comment even though he’d heard the woman talking, too. “You think that you’ll get you a wife, and she’ll be all right with all of us?”

“She will.” She eyed him like he was a spot on her new dress. “She will. I know it. And if I do have a mate out there, I’m not going to drop you like a hot potato because some woman has a burr up her bottom about me having six kids.”

“Uncle Mark said that you were a good man. I didn’t want to believe him, but I think you’re the best.” He kissed her on the cheek and told he that he loved her as well. “Don’t get all sappy on me. You know how I hate that crap.”

It was their turn to go in and see the judge. All five of the little girls, each one of them a stair step down from the first child, Patty, who was also the oldest. At eight, she’d been hurt more than most people had their entire lives. Both mentally and physically. Once they were seated, the new rule he’d given them, they sat on their hands and didn’t touch each other. They meant no harm when doing that, not that they were teasing one another either, but some of the children were still healing, and touching one of the many wounds would cause a meltdown. He sat little Billy in his car seat on the seat next to him while he slept through his first nap of the day.

After making sure that the first two children he’d gotten that night were taken care of then little Billy came to him. The infant, only a couple of weeks old then, wouldn’t have made it had it not been for the magic of the women that were in the family nor the bits of blood that he gave the baby too. Billy had been too long without anyone ever caring for him. At four weeks old, he weighed less than thenormal nine to nine and a half pounds a one-month-old should weigh. However, he was getting bigger daily.

The next three children, little girls, all of them with blond curly hair and varying shades of blue eyes, were brought to the hospital after finding them in an abandoned home with nothing for them to eat, much less drink, when they too were brought to him. They’d been together since, and he wondered daily what he was going to do without them if the judge told him he wasn’t fit to be a father—a single father to them any longer. The door behind him opened, and he saw his family coming in. He asked Mark, his older brother, what he was doing here.

“You didn’t think we’d let you have all the fun, did you? He hugged them all and was happy when his five sisters-in-law hugged him as well. Ewing was much too busy keeping the kids quiet when the door behind them opened once again, and a group of others came into the room. He told Mark how worried he was. “You’ve got this little brother. Don’t worry. I promise you, you’ve got this.”

Ewing certainly hoped so. There were days that he wasn’t sure he was doing the right thing with these kids. Then one of them would come up to him and hug him, and he’d be all right until the next near catastrophe came along to have him worrying once again.

There really had been some near misses, too. Once, when he’d decided that he needed to just pop into the shower and get ready for the day, one of the kids decided that they’d simply make breakfast for the rest of the kids that were up. It was a mess, and he was still finding batter on walls when she’d burnt her little finger on the stove. No one had ended up in the hospital, nor had anyone had him arrested so he wasn’t sure what kind of disaster he was waiting on to befall them all.

After standing up and then having a seat when the judge entered, he realized that they weren’t the only ones in the courthouse today to get things cleared away. Making sure that the girls were all right, he thought about the work that was getting more behind every day at home. Ewing wondered if he’d been smart or not in asking the faeries to help him with his grapes. These were the faeries that his family took care of and they would be able to get all the grapes tied up to the wires that held the vines up. He usually did all the work himself in a day or two, but there just hadn’t been any time for much more than the kids in a while. When one of the kids poked him, he turned to look where she pointed.

“Do you know that man?” He grinned and told Harper that he was the president. “Of what? He sure does dress fancy.”

“The United States, honey. Pay attention. This might be good for whoever he’s here for.” She rolled her eyes at him, something that he was getting fairly familiar with, having little girls in his home. It could mean one of several things, but he thought that the one being used right now as that he was in over his head. Again. He didn’t particularly care for that look but since he felt like that most of the time, he didn’t disagree with her. Ewing was asked to stand, and he was barely able to get up before his beautiful little girls stood up as well in their seats.

“You’re not gonna hurt him.” He told Beth that he had this. “I don’t care who he is. He’s not gonna hurt you. You’re all I gots.”

“You have all those children surrounding you as well as the family here behind you, isn’t that right?” The Judge, Fred Hartman, asked Beth to sit down, but she was on a roll. “What’s your name, little girl? I should have it here, but I don’t…can you please tell me your name, honey?”

“Beth Carter Cross, but I don’t like the Carter part.” The judge told her that he could understand that. “No, you can’t. No body that wasn’t with us can understand the stuff that we’ve had to do because our parents weren’t fit to have a puppy.” Then Patty started talking.

“I was going to do this my own way after we voted on it last night—” Patty glared at Beth. “Anyway, we voted and we don’t want to ever leave here without Mr. Ewing. He’s been so good to us that I’m about to pop a button or two. And you know what? I have buttons to pop. We didn’t have not a single sock when we were trapped up inside that nasty house. None of us even had an idea that we’d be around the next day the way those people kept bringing us in and out cages.” She leaned down when Lily spoke to her then Patty looked at the judge. “I’m supposed to tell you that we want to adopt Mr. Ewing as our daddy. I know he’s not but he sure did take us into his house that day. He even saysthat he loves us. Nobody ever said that to us before him. We get to have baths and food and he even took us all out to a restaurant. I don’t know that he’s going to do that again, but up until that lady yelled at us for hogging up the bathroom, it was going right well.”

Ewing laughed, and so did the judge and the president. But it was Shippley, Mr. President, that started speaking.

“I don’t know that I could have said it better myself, young lady. And I heard about the woman yelling at the lot of you. I think I might have been more upset with her than Ewing was.” Patty asked if they could stay. “That’s not up to me, but this judge right here. And if it matters at all, I couldn’t recommend anyone better for the job than Ewing here. He not only has the patience of a saint with them but also the backing of his family to do right by these children. If my opinion matters, that is.”

He didn’t know who was more impressed with the vote of confidence, the judge or himself. But Patty apparently wasn’t satisfied with that answer and told him to tell her what she had to do to get to stay with him. The judge cleared his throat, amused that things were going in this direction, Ewing thought.

“We’ve had very little luck in finding your parents, Miss Patty. I also have it here that Miss Beth and Miss Rachel’s parents are all no longer with us. Young Billy…well, it looks like his parents have no desire to raise him either. The only ones that I do have a bead on are Miss Harper and Miss Lily.” He looked at Patty before going on. “I’m going to talk to you as you’ve been talking with me, young lady, and tell you that all you children will continue to live with the Cross family, Ewing as the main person that will answer for you until such time as we can get to the bottom of the mess that is the families in this thing. Does that mean that he can adopt you today? No, I’m sorry, it does not. But I do know that as soon as I know something, you will as well.”

“Can we call him daddy?” The judge looked at him just as he was wiping the tears off his cheeks. He told her that would be up to Ewing but he’d bet he’d not mind. “He’s the best, Mr. Judge. The other night…well, I had me an accident. I was having a bad dream, and he was right there for me. Didn’t cuff me upside the head like my parents would have, and didn’t take away none of my food. He just helped me to clean up and while I was taking a shower, he made sure my bed was clean and dried off so I could go back to sleep. He never one time said anything to anyone. I won’t go back to that other kind of house, Mr. Judge. I’ve…we all love him so much and want to stay with him forever.”

He held Patty while she sobbed to him about how it wasn’t fair. That people shouldn’t have children if they were going to be mean to them. For five minutes, there wasn’t a dry eye in the room. He himself was hurting so badly for the children that were in his care that he might well have run off with them if anyone was coming for them.

By the time the adoption paperwork for the other four children was completed, they were all exhausted. Billy was doing the best, he supposed, since he seemed to be able to sleep through just about anything but the girls. His girls were so tired even the prospect of having lunch with their favorite uncles and aunts wasn’t enough to pull them out of their funk.

He hoped that tomorrow would be better. However if anyone asked, he wasn’t counting on it. Ewing had to leave the kids with a sitter for a few hours later this evening to go to the vineyard and check on things. It was a test of sorts to see how much work he could get done without them there to distract him.

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