Page 53 of A Secret Heart
“Brought.” Rebekah corrected Tillie in unison with Kaitlyn. Rebekah fumbled through the drawers, finally finding a knife and chopping the vegetables.
Kaitlyn added spices to the pot of venison while Tillie skipped around the kitchen. The girl narrowly missed bumping Rebekah’s elbow, which could’ve sent the knife she held slicing into the fingers of her other hand.
“Can you take these to Kaitlyn?” Rebekah handed Tillie a bowl of chopped carrots.
Rebekah let her eyes wander out the window. No sign of Ed. How like the day she stood by the window, waiting to see if Isaac would be the one to drive her aunt and uncle to town. Only this time, she was hoping to see Ed. Her feelings had changed so much in the course of a few short weeks.
A humming, spinning Tillie bumped into her. The knife clunked to the countertop. Both of them daydreaming seemed a recipe for disaster.
“Can I help?” Tillie asked.
“Not right now.” Rebekah skirted around her with the celery. She needed to focus.
“I can do it.” Tillie hurried to place her hands under the bowl, walking with Rebekah as if carrying it herself. “Let me pour it.”
“You might pour the pieces in too fast. I’ll do it.” Rebekah was aware of Kaitlyn watching from the stove. Tillie had Rebekah ready to snap with her constant chatter. How did her friend manage?
A pout spread on Tillie’s face but faded as Kaitlyn offered to let her stir. The quick motion of Tillie’s stirring splashed a bit of stew onto Rebekah’s apron.
“Tillie, be careful.”
Kaitlyn placed a hand on Tillie’s shoulder, then bent to whisper in her ear. Tillie grinned and skipped into the front room before Kaitlyn turned to focus on Rebekah.
“She’s only a little girl. She won’t be doing everything exactly like you do.”
“I want it done right.” She probably deserved Kaitlyn’s reprimand, but Rebekah’s hand trembled as she stirred the stew. Her own distraction had caused her to lose her temper.
“Seems you want it done to suit you.” Kaitlyn’s brow quirked up even as kindness filled her eyes. “But you can’t control everything. You’ll end up miserable and it won’t work. You need to give God control of your life.”
Rebekah kept stirring. Was Kaitlyn right? That last letter Rebekah had sent with the proposal to Isaac had only made things worse.
“I guess I’ve been trying to arrange things to suit myself for so long that it’s hard not to.” She watched the vegetables bob and swirl in the stew as she stirred. “It’s how I got here. Writing a letter to Aunt Opal to come get me. My mother didn’t know until Opal arrived to take me out west.”
“Why did you want to go west?” Kaitlyn asked.
“Things were hard after my father died.” Rebekah dropped her voice low, aware of Tillie’s listening ears nearby. She hadn’t talked about this in a long time. Hadn’t thought about it either.
“My mother met someone. But I just wanted my father back.”
A gentle hand landed on her arm. It helped soothe the emotions that threatened to choke Rebekah. Mama had had stars in her eyes from the first moment she’d met Claud Browning.
The face of her mother, worn and weary with trying to run things, flashed before her. Rebekah had wanted her mother happy. Wanted to see her smiling again. But not with Claud, the man who’d become her stepfather.
Kaitlyn listened, seeming to understand that Rebekah wouldn’t be able to go on if she was interrupted.
“My stepfather didn’t want me around. Wanted to send me to boarding school. And Mama didn’t want to anger her new husband. So I fixed it. I wrote a letter to Aunt Opal. And I came here.” Rebekah remembered those first days in Calvin. Missing her father and mother so much that it made her ache inside. She hadn’t been sure she’d made the right choice. Not until later. Now, she loved the wide-open spaces of Wyoming and her home with the Boutwells—even if Rebekah hadn’t seen her mother since, and even though they only corresponded by letter occasionally.
Kaitlyn touched Rebekah’s shoulder. “I’m glad you did.”
Rebekah lifted her eyes to the window again. She’d frozen in fear when the shooting had started yesterday. If Ed hadn’t protected her, she might be dead. A shiver ran through her.
“Hoping to see Isaac?” Kaitlyn interrupted Rebekah’s thoughts. “Or Ed?”
A flush of heat blasted her face. She hadn’t meant for Kaitlyn to catch on.
“Ed couldn’t keep his eyes off you last night.”
Rebekah concentrated on wiping off the counters. It was easier than meeting Kaitlyn’s knowing gaze.
