For The Sake Of The Children. Danica Favorite

and all the other men they considered family there was always a man in the house holding his arms out to her boy.

      For Milly, a little girl who’d lost her mother, there were half a dozen women with warm laps and plenty of room to cuddle her.

      But somehow, Rose knew that these arguments were not likely to sway the Garretts. Rather, they would find fault in the generous hearts Rose was grateful to call family. Some were her blood, but others were friends they loved as such, and she knew she could count on them all, no matter what. She pressed a kiss to the top of Matthew’s head. After all, without them, there was no way she’d have been able to raise her son and walk through town with her head held high.

      Maddie entered the room, an expression of long-suffering firmly planted on her face. “Supper is ready.”

      * * *

      Silas held out his hand for Milly. “Come now, let’s eat.”

      At least the Garretts were prepared for this break in their tradition since Frank had already explained to them that they ate as a family.

      As they were seated at the table, Mrs. Garrett paused, looking pointedly at Maddie. “You let the help eat with you?”

      “Maddie is the housekeeper, yes, but we also consider her family,” Frank said calmly, taking his seat.

      “And the baby?” Mrs. Garrett looked over at Rose.

      “Of course.” Frank held out his arms for Rose to give him the baby. “We take turns holding him, so Rose has a chance to enjoy her food. As I mentioned this afternoon, this is important family time, and we take it very seriously. Now, let’s bless the meal so we can enjoy Maddie’s fine cooking.”

      Silas bit back a grin at the expression on Mrs. Garrett’s face. She looked like she’d just been told they were going to eat live toads. And for her, the struggle of sharing a table with people she considered beneath her was probably just as real.

      Frank gave the blessing, and it warmed Silas’s heart to hear Milly’s emphatic, “Amen!” at the end. She loved to “pway” as she called it, and the way she used the same word for praying and playing made Silas smile every time. In the few short weeks they’d been here, Milly had grown to love the Lord in a way he hadn’t experienced until adulthood.

      The Garretts, of course, did not look impressed at Milly’s cheerful ending to the prayer. They didn’t see what a gift it was for her to so joyfully live out her faith. All they cared about was her obedience. He’d asked Annie about it once, how she saw her faith, and her answer had made him wonder if she knew Jesus at all.

      He looked over at Rose, who was patiently cutting Milly’s chicken for her. It wasn’t fair to compare the two women, but he couldn’t help wonder if Milly would know the Lord as deeply without Rose’s influence. Rose’s daily reliance on the Lord inspired him in ways he hadn’t expected. He’d been crazy to think that they could so easily pick up where they’d left off in Ohio. Especially now that he knew there was so much more to Rose than he’d ever thought.

      “Now, tell us, Mr. and Mrs. Garrett, how are you enjoying our fine city? Have you had time to take in any of our exciting entertainments?” Frank smiled at them before stabbing a piece of meat.

      “I can’t imagine there’d be anything we’d find amusing in this lawless place,” Mrs. Garrett declared, frowning at her plate. “Gunshots at all hours, drunkards in the streets—why, even at your supposedly finest hotel, the Rafferty, do you know that there was a woman of the night right in the front lobby?”

      Mr. Garrett patted his wife’s hand. “There, now, it will be all right. We shan’t be here long, just long enough to convince Silas of his folly in bringing our precious girl to this horrible place.”

      And there it was. Another reminder that as reasonable as the Garretts tried to sound, underneath, the only thing that would satisfy them would be to get their own way. Which meant taking Milly back to Ohio with them.

      “I’m sorry to hear you have such a poor impression of our fine city,” Frank said, patting his lips with a napkin. “The Tabor Opera House is famous for its entertainments. I can’t say that I ever saw finer productions, even when we were living on the East Coast.”

      Then he turned to Rose. “And your involvement with the women’s charities. I understand you have a good number of teas, socials and even balls, do you not?”

      Rose smiled. “Indeed we do. Mrs. Garrett, I think you’d be pleasantly surprised at how similar our society is to what you’re used to back in Ohio. In fact, I daresay you’ll find things here to be even more advanced in some ways. Some of the homes are getting electricity, and you may have heard of Alexander Graham Bell’s fantastic invention, the telephone. The Jacksons, of whom you’ve heard us speak, recently installed one themselves.”

      Then she turned to Silas, shaking her head. “And don’t you go encouraging Joseph about getting one. I heard you and Jasper conspiring, but Emma Jane says it’s an awful nuisance, ringing at all hours.”

      Silas couldn’t help his grin. Jasper had told him that both his mother and Emma Jane objected to the device, but he could see where it would be quite useful communicating with the mine without having to go back and forth continually. The mine was nearly an hour’s ride away, and that was just for a man on horseback. With a wagon or buggy, it took even longer.

      “A telephone, you say.” Mr. Garrett’s eyes twinkled. “I was just reading about it on the train ride here. I noticed many homes have gaslights, and I will admit that the bathing rooms at the Rafferty are the finest I’ve ever seen.”

      “But the lawlessness!” Mrs. Garrett set her fork down. Not that she appeared to have taken a bite. She’d spent the entire conversation disdainfully pushing around her food with her fork.

      Frank gave a wry smile. “I will admit that there is still much work to be done in that area. But the numbers in our church are growing, and our Mary is married to the finest deputy I’ve ever had the privilege of knowing. I’m confident that soon, you won’t find a safer place to live than Leadville.”

      Mrs. Garrett gave a snort. Whether it was out of genuine disbelief at the state of the town, or a refusal to consider that Leadville wasn’t as bad as she wanted to believe, he didn’t know, but it was a good reminder that she would be ill-inclined to see anything positive when it meant not getting her own way.

      The conversation came to a lull, with the only sound the clinking of forks and knives on plates. Maddie had outdone herself, high praise considering her meals were always delicious. The tender chicken hardly needed a knife to cut it, and the flaky biscuits melted in Silas’s mouth.

      The front door opened, and Evelyn, Rose’s younger sister, entered, followed by the rest of the Stone children, Helen, Daniel, Bess and Nugget.

      Evelyn paused when she noticed the family at dinner. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you had company.”

      “It’s all right, Evelyn, come in.” Frank gave a welcoming smile. “What brings you all here?”

      “Could I speak with Maddie in the kitchen, please?” Evelyn said, twisting her hands as she spoke.

      Nugget pushed in front of her. “Mary’s baby is coming!”

      “Nugget!” Milly jumped out of her seat and ran toward the other girl, wrapping her arms around her. “You come to pway wif me?”

      Milly’s words seemed to be all the encouragement the rest of the Stone children needed to incite chaos in the otherwise calm dining room. Everyone began talking at once, and when Silas glanced over at Mrs. Garrett, her face was turning redder than the cherries in the pie Maddie had waiting on the sideboard.