Page 45 of The Preacher's Bride

Mia left the door ajar so she could hear the children when they wake and headed into the kitchen. After cleaning the house thoroughly, she collapsed on the rocking chair in the living room and looked around, pleased with her progress. The house was starting to look as if a family actually lived there.

“Dinner,” she said aloud.

She was exhausted, but she had to get dinner on the table. So, she headed into the kitchen and opened the pantry, making a mental note to try out her new biscuit-making skills to go along with dinner. Then, she thought that country ham would go wellwith it, so she decided to go down into the cellar and look to see what was there.

Before she went down, she checked on the children again, and they were still sleeping. She suspected that they would be asleep for a while, so she took a knife and a plate with her down the stairs with the intentions of only staying a few minutes.

In the root cellar, she found several smoked hams, and saw the one that had been cut. She cut several slices and was ready to go back upstairs when she heard a loud crash and then crying.

“Hailey?” Mia yelled as she ran up the stairs as quickly as was humanly possible.

In the kitchen, sitting on the floor with glass all around her, was Hailey.

“What’s going on in here?” Caleb asked. Before she could respond, he walked over the glass and it crunched under his boots, ringing out in her ears as she looked on, stunned. He scooped his daughter into his arms and quickly looked her over. When he saw that she was all right, he turned to Mia. “Where were you?”

“I… I was down in the root cellar—”

“What in the world possessed you to go down there instead of up here watching my children?” he demanded, and then walked over to the kitchen table and sat down with Hailey on his lap.

“I was only down there for a few seconds,” she said as tears came to her eyes. “I checked on the children, and they were still sleeping—”

“At this hour?” He looked Hailey over, and she appeared to be fine except for a few very minor cuts. “What time did you put them down for their nap?”

Anger began to replace the fear that she was feeling. “Three o’clock.”

“Three o’clock? You should have put them down after lunch!”

“Well, I didn’t know that!” she yelled back. “Mrs. Jenkins came over, and she showed me how to make biscuits. We lost track of time—”

“Well, see that you don’t,” he cut her off. “From here on out, you will stay up here during the day with the children. That is your primary job. If you need anything from the root cellar, you will tell me, and I will retrieve it for you when I get home.”

“I’m not a child, and you will not talk to me that way.” Mia calmly walked into the kitchen and began sweeping up the floor. “I don’t care if Iamyour wife, you will respect me at all times.”

He scoffed. “You expect me to be calm when I come in here and my daughter is sitting in a pile of glass?”

Hailey whimpered softly.

“Heavens no! And lower your voice!” She dumped the glass into the trash. “You’re scaring her.”

“Oh?I’mscaring her?” he demanded as he stood with Hailey on his hip. “I think the only thing that scared her was ending up in a pile of glass!”

“I only went downstairs for a moment.” Mia put away the broom and dustpan and turned to face him, her hands on her hips. “I had no intention of the child getting hurt.”

He looked at her with cold eyes. “Well, the way to hell is paved with good intentions.” With that, he marched into the bedroom and slammed the door.

Tears welled up in her eyes as she stomped to her bedroom and slammed the door, too. Two could play at that game. She paced in her room, wringing her hands.Let him fix dinner! Let him see how easy it is to care for a house and children when you’ve never done it before!

“Oh, that man is so infuriating!” she said aloud as she paced.

The more she paced, the madder she got. Then her thoughts went to Hailey, sitting on the kitchen floor with shards of glass all around her. Tremors rocked her body as tears filled her eyes. What if something had happened to Hailey? Mia forced the thought from her mind, knowing that she would never be able to live with herself if the child had gotten hurt.

For a split second, she thought of going back to New York, but she quickly pushed the thought from her mind, determined to see this through. Tears streamed down her face as she sat on the edge of the bed. She knew she couldn’t walk away. Not now. Even though she had just met them, she had become attached to the children. She loved them, in fact. And she couldn’t leave them. Not now. Not ever.

Chapter 10

Caleb

It was dark when Caleb opened his eyes the next morning. After seeing his child in the pile of glass and then yelling at Mia, he was up half the night. Guilt ran through him again, knowing he shouldn’t have spoken to her that way. Deep down, he knew it had been an accident and that she would never intentionally hurt the children. But seeing Hailey sitting in a pile of glass was just too much for him.

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