A voice from the darkness interrupted their musings. “Here, let me hold my son.” Samuel’s gentle voice was misty and melodic.
“Oh, ja.” Samuel took the child from Joseph. “You weigh more than a ten-pound sack of taters!” His face glowed in the way only a father’s could. “I will weigh you in the morning. But you are probably hungry now.” He nuzzled the baby, who promptly screeched.
“Thank you, Rebekah,” he said as he turned toward his bedroom. “Your Ma is all right, and the baby is all right. All because of you.”
She flushed at her father’s direct compliment.
“You were an instrument of God’s healing tonight, daughter.”
Joseph’s soft voice deepened her blush. “A true angel.”
“Tell Ma I love her,” Rebekah whispered. “And I love you, Pa.”
Samuel sniffed. “I am a blessed man. Goodnight, Rebekah. Goodnight, Joseph.”
When he reached the doorway, he turned again.
“Joseph, do tell the others I won’t be back down tonight, but I appreciate their help and I thank God for them. I trust you’ll go down to join them soon.” Samuel smiled.
Joseph ducked his head. “Yes, sir.”
After Samuel retreated to his bedroom, Joseph helped Rebekah back to bed.
“You did a pretty special thing tonight,” he whispered as he tucked the cornflower blue quilt in around her.
“Beanie is a pretty special baby.” Sleep pulled mercilessly at her eyelids despite his enchanting presence. The cool breeze that fluttered her curtains blew away the tense emotions and excitement. Relaxation consumed her.
“He sure was red,” he remembered. “But he wasn’t no baby.”
She struggled to make sense of his sleep-garbled words. “Huh?”
“At that size, he was a hookin’ bull!”
A smile formed on her lips as she gave in to the temptation of sleep. “Beanie Bull,” she whispered as her mind danced with the idea of Joseph singing their children to sleep someday.
Chapter Seven
Beanie Bull’s shrill squall met Rebekah’s sleepy ears. When she was finally able to force her eyelids open, her room was fuzzy and bright. Pushing herself up in the bed, her heart pounded in time with the baby’s urgent cries. As quickly as he began, he quieted.
As the surge of adrenaline ebbed within her, slowing her heartbeat in the sudden quiet, her muscles relaxed.
She rubbed her eyes. “Ma must be feeding him.”
A smell that wafted upstairs, though not entirely pleasant, made her lick her lips. Her stomach rumbled.
Rebekah flung the covers back and pushed herself to the side of the bed. She looked at her bruised foot and eased it down onto sunshine-warmed floor.
“It’s actually bearable,” she said aloud to an absent audience.
She lifted her gown and looked closer. The purple mottling had faded overnight and revealed her own skin color where yesterday, it had been only a mess of green and black. A dark outline was all that remained.
Although her tiny toe wasn’t swollen, the nail was solid black. It seemed a little loose, like it might fall off if touched. She wrinkled her nose.
Rebekah grasped the bed frame for support and stood. After a brief rush of tingles from her bad foot, she let go.
“I might not fall.” She shifted her weight from foot to foot. Uncomfortable, but not painful.
She gave her doorframe a wide berth and shuffled to her parent’s room.
Elnora’s chipper voice surprised her. “Well, there’s my best girl.”
Beanie lay in the cradle next to the bed, curled like a newborn pup.
“Ma, you look so well.” Rebekah couldn’t hide her astonishment. Her mother’s color had returned and, well, she simply beamed. She eased herself down at the foot of the bed. “You had me quite scared last night.”
Despite her forty years, Elnora looked girlish when she smiled. “It’s a miracle that you were able to turn your brother.”
Her mother shifted her gaze to the sleeping baby. He sighed in his sleep.
Rebekah peered into to the cradle. With one finger, she traced his velvety cheek. He suckled without waking. “Ma, does he look a little yellow?”
“All the boys were yellow, each one a little more than the last. Remember?”
She searched back through her memory. There were very few that didn’t contain Joseph in some aspect. Finally, her mind grabbed on to a memory. “Yes, I do remember. We sit them in the window, right?”
Elnora nodded. “In the winter, we put them in the window. Now, we can take him outside. As long as put him into the sunlight often.”
“Yes, ma’am. It has been warm for some time now, so I guess we will go outside.”
