“And this is my fiancé, Joseph Graber.” She stared at the woman’s face. She was young, probably not too much older than the lot of them. Bits of curly red hair peeked out from under the edges of the rag that covered her head and Rebekah could just make out a smattering of freckles across her dirt-streaked face. In another circumstance, she would be considered quite lovely by English standards.
“I’m very sorry for bothering you, but we are new to New York City.” Rebekah turned up her hand. “And of course, it started to rain the moment we arrived. Might you and your precious child be able to lead us to a nearby restaurant or diner?”
The woman’s face, a mess of distrusting lines, had almost melted into something akin to welcoming. But at Rebekah’s words, she drew back into herself. Her dark, red eyebrows knitted together over her pale eyes. “Kindness around here doesn’t come without a price. What ye be wantin’ from me in return?”
Rebekah didn’t miss a beat. “Actually, we would like to buy you two a meal at a diner. It would be our honor to take care of you.” Rebekah reached out both hands toward the woman. “Sometimes, doing a kindness is its own reward. But I understand. In the English world, there is always some sort of trickery involved, isn’t there?”
Moisture welled in the woman’s eyes. With jerky movements, she extended her arms and rested her hands in Rebekah’s. Both women shared a smile. “What is your name?”
“Patty. Patty O’Shaughnessy.”
“Patty, rest assured that we are not of this English place. We believe that we are here on God’s earth only for a short time. And in that time, we are supposed to take care of each other. To give without wanting to receive.”
Patty’s lower lip trembled. “I see. I am not of this place either.”
“Let’s find a place to sit down and share a meal.” Rebekah drew Patty closer to her, as young friends do. “Come, show us where to find good food.”
Joseph tipped his hat to Patty when she looked at him. “I told Rebekah she ought to have brought a bag full of cinnamon cakes with her, then we could sit down and share a meal with you right here!”
Patty’s voice and its strange accent dropped lower. “I thought you were starin’ at me to rob me.” She closed her eyes. A single tear tracked down each cheek, leaving a white streak in its wake. “Been robbed so many times. Of money and even more.”
“Come on then.” Rebekah’s voice was chipper. “Let’s take a meal together.”
Patty nodded. “This here is Noah. Me son.”
Rebekah smiled brightly at the boy who clung to his mother’s rags. His face was round, and his hair more brown than red. He, too, had freckles, but they and his complexion were a darker hue. Olive, under all the dirt, perhaps, unlike his mother’s porcelain. “Let me guess. Noah, you are named after the great Noah of the Old Testament. Who built the ark to save the animals from the flood. Am I right?”
His little face, moments before stoic and cold, shifted into one of a true toddler boy, all dimples and grins. He nodded.
“And,” Rebekah continued, “I am going to also guess that you are about three years old. Wait, three and a half.”
The boy’s wide eyes opened wider still. He didn’t answer, but gave another tiny nod.
“How’d ye be knowin’ that?” Patty’s voice was incredulous as Peter and Joseph, obviously hungry and ready to get out of the weather, started walking and, in doing so, began herding them down the street.
“I have a mess of younger brothers,” Rebekah laughed. “I actually had the honor of delivering my last sibling when my mother had complications.”
“And it was no wonder,” Joseph piped up. “He was only, what, thirteen, fourteen pounds?”
Peter looked over his shoulder and spoke for the first time since meeting Patty and Noah. “That’s how he earned the nickname Bull. Because no baby could be that big, only a hookin’ bull could.”
“What a grand soft story!” Patty still held one of Rebekah’s hands, as though she would do anything to hold on to her new friend. “Turn left at the bottom of this street. We will find a diner by the name of Joe’s All Night Diner. They serve people like Noah and me, if we have the money to pay that is. Other places, they won’t allow us in their doors.”
Chapter Ten
New York City
“I can’t help but notice your accent, Patty.” Rebekah sat across a little table from Patty and Noah. Joseph sat beside her and Peter, with his newspaper, sat on a stool in front of a long bar. “If I may say so, you sound as far away from home as we are.”
“We are,” Patty began. She was interrupted as the server appeared with their orders. Thick toast, scrambled eggs, bacon, chicken soup, and the promise of apple pie for dessert. Without waiting, Patty tucked into her meal, as did Noah, no sooner than the plates left the server’s hand.
Rebekah and Joseph exchanged a look. They joined hands and bowed over their shared plate. “Heavenly Father,” Joseph started. “Thank you for the blessing of this food, for this journey, but mostly, thank you for our company, Patty and Noah. May we all continue to walk in Your light. In Jesus’s most holy name...”
Everyone at the table answered. “Amen.”
Patty and Noah, with a few bites missing from their food, had joined in as Joseph said grace. When it was over, Patty did a funny thing with her hand, Noah did too.
Rebekah smiled. “You were saying?”
Patty nodded. “Aye, yes. Forgive me rudeness. An empty stomach will make you forget lots of things, I’m afraid.”
Rebekah nodded.
Patty picked up a piece of toast and nibbled at the crust. “I’m from Ireland. County Down.”
Peter sat up straighter and shifted in his seat. “I thought your name sounded familiar. Some folks with the last name of O’Shaughnessy traveled with our parents, our late parents, on a wagon train in the late 1860s.”
He stood up and plucked a chair from another table. “I’ll squeeze in if you don’t mind.”
Noah looked up at him and grinned. His little lips glistened with broth from his steaming mug of soup. Peter reached over and tousled his hair. “Our given name is O’Leary. No doubt we come from the same country, but I’m not sure rightly where in Ireland we hailed from.”
Rebekah clapped her hands and did a little bounce. “We may even be family!”
“Perhaps.” Patty’s sad eyes gleamed. “I was from a Catholic family. I married a man named Shadrach, who was Protestant.”
Rebekah glanced from Patty to Joseph to Peter. “I don’t understand, forgive me. What is this Catholic and Protestant?”
“The way we worship God.” Patty took a bite of the buttery toast, and spoke over the mouthful. “Our families, of course, didn’t approve. So Shadrach came to America where he said nobody would care about our religious differences.” She forced a swallow, then followed it with a drink of coffee. “He came over first and worked his job on the docks, then sent for me. It was a happy time; then he took sick right before Noah came along.”
