Page 6 of On a Midnight Clear

By the first of November , the family had settled into a routine.

Angel was up before first light to prepare breakfast for the family.

Vincent generally wandered in around six to have breakfast and tell her what his plans were for the day.

Around seven , he would go wake up the children , and by eight they were dressed , fed , and ready to sit down with their books.

Angel enjoyed teaching them. This was a role that held little threat to them, even though their mother had been the one to start it.

Angel related stories about going to school and how she loved to read.

She even spent a little time each day reading to them from the Bible, using a style of story-telling rather than going Scripture by Scripture.

She did stress the importance of memorization, however, and gave them a Bible verse each week to memorize.

Church attendance wasn’t a regular event, since it took nearly three hours to ready the wagon and drive into Cheyenne.

Sunday school started at ten, and church at eleven, so that required being ready to leave the farm by seven.

It was a lot to manage, and Vincent told Angel they’d be lucky to go once a month.

However, he always set aside Sunday for the Lord.

After breakfast, Vincent would open the Bible and teach from it.

Benjamin seemed to hold only a passing interest. He still held a lot of anger toward God for taking his mother.

When teaching, Angel only managed to draw him in by asking questions that she thought might interest him. Often, she focused on stories that involved sheep, since such tales were readily available in God’s Word and also encompassed Benjamin’s world.

Since the day was surprisingly nice, Angel concluded school for the morning and sent the children out to play for a few minutes.

They would soon enough be cooped up inside.

Vincent had told her about the terrible winters they sometimes had.

Snow had been known to drift up to the windows, and blizzards could last for days.

Already she was thinking about projects they could do inside.

She knew of plenty of things she could keep Ava busy with, but not nearly as many ideas came to mind for Benjamin.

Of course, maybe she could leave him to help his father.

Making plans for the winter created its own problems. Angel now had a new list of things she wished she had purchased.

She would like to teach Ava to knit and crochet, maybe work with her to make some quilts for the family.

All those things would require another trip to town.

Angel figured to approach the subject with Vincent later that night.

Angel heard Ava crying before she even reached the back door. Hurrying to see what the problem was, Angel was alarmed to find the child bleeding. Her sleeve was torn, and blood seeped along the tear.

“Whatever happened, Ava?”

“I ... I caught my sleeve ... on a nail in the barn. It cut me,” she sobbed.

“Well, I know how painful that can be. Come on. Let’s clean it up and see how bad it is.”

“It’s real bad,” Ava said, holding her arm as if she were cradling a babe. “I can’t use it.”

Angel had turned away to get some supplies from the cupboard. She couldn’t help but smile at the child’s melodramatic tone.

“You know, once I broke my arm. I was not too much older than you. Hurt something terrible.”

“How did you break it?” Ava asked.

“Well, let me tell you about it. I was playing in the barn.” Angel came to her and lifted her up to sit on the table.

She brought a bowl of warm water from the stove, along with the soap.

Next, she retrieved her bandages, scissors, and a salve that Granny had taught her to make.

It never failed to heal even the nastiest wounds.

Ava watched as Angel went to work and continued explaining how she’d broken her arm. “I wasn’t supposed to go up into the loft, but I was hiding from my brothers.”

“You have brothers?”

Angel nodded as she began cleaning Ava’s wound. It wasn’t really much more than a scratch, but scratches could become a problem if not dealt with properly.

“I have three brothers. They’re all older than me.”

“How old are you?” Ava asked.

Angel couldn’t help but smile. “I’m twenty-eight.

Anyway, I wanted to hide from them so I could jump out and scare them.

They were always doing that to me, so I hid in the barn loft, and when they came into the barn, I jumped off and landed wrong.

My oldest brother, Mark, said that he heard my bone snap. I just know it hurt terribly.”

“Did you scare them?”

Laughter escaped Angel. “I did. They said they’d never been more frightened. Especially since I was hurt. They were kind to me, and so loving. Mark carried me to the house, and they waited on me after the doctor came and set my arm. I think they felt really bad about it.”

Angel finished washing out the wound and then applied the salve. Ava winced in expectation of pain but seemed surprised that it wasn’t all that bad. Angel wrapped a strip of cloth around the cut.

“Speaking of brothers, where was yours when this happened?”

“He went to find Papa and tell him I was hurt.”

Just then the back door opened, and Angel turned to see a worried-looking Vincent and Benjamin.

“Everything is fine. The cut wasn’t very deep, so she doesn’t need stitches.”

“I’m sure glad about that,” Vincent said, shaking his head. “I had to stitch up Benjamin’s foot once when he was little. I don’t relish the idea of needing to do that job again. It’s bad enough if an animal needs that kind of attention.”

Angel stood and began gathering her things. “You know what Granny Duran always said was most beneficial when healing from a wound?”

Vincent shook his head, and the children seemed more than a little interested to know what she might have to say.

“Making cookies.” She looked down at Ava. “You and I will make some cookies, and of course, you’ll get to eat the very first one. I think you’ll be surprised how quickly you forget about the pain.”

“I seem to remember that remedy as well,” Vincent said, smiling.

“Can we ... all ... have cookies?” Benjamin asked in a halting voice.

“Of course.” It was a small step of progress, but at least Benjamin was speaking to her. Angel noted the boy’s look of concern. “We’ll make enough for everyone to have their fill.”

A hint of a smile appeared on the boy’s face. He looked away quickly and muttered something before heading back out the door.

“I’ll get back to what I was doing,” Vincent said, the worry easing from his expression. He really was a handsome man. “You ladies let us know when the cookies are ready. I haven’t had a warm cookie in some time.”

Angel finished putting the medical supplies away and got down the flour and sugar. “What kind of cookies should we make?”

“I don’t know.” Ava’s brows knit together as if she were thinking quite hard of an answer.

“How about some carrot cookies?”

“Carrots? In cookies?” Ava looked confused. “I never had carrots in my cookies.”

“Well, Granny Duran gave me a wonderful recipe for them, and since we have some carrots in the cellar, I think it would be perfect.”

Ava shrugged. “I don’t know if Benjamin will like them.”

“They’ll have frosting on them, so I’m betting he will. Come on, let’s get the carrots and butter.”

Vincent had to admit Angel had taken charge of the house and children as if she were born for it. He’d been so freed up to get his own chores done that he’d actually worked ahead of what he’d hoped he might accomplish.

True to her word, Angel was capable and focused on the tasks at hand.

She rarely asked for help and yet constantly seemed to offer it.

She’d even managed to take the early morning milking off his hands.

Benjamin had been milking in the evening, and she’d offered to do that as well, but the boy wasn’t of a mind to be obligated to his stepmother.

He couldn’t help but think of his son and the sorrow he still carried. Vincent had tried to talk to him a time or two, but Benjamin refused to bare too much of his soul. He was hurting and missed his mother. What could Vincent possibly say or do to assuage the boy’s pain?

Angel seemed not to mind Benjamin’s anger toward her.

She didn’t tolerate bad behavior and had gotten after him more than once, but he wasn’t out of control.

When he was called out for his actions, the boy was civilized enough to obey.

Angel was quite smart in how she handled him, however, and that made a huge difference.

She didn’t demand love or adoration from Benjamin.

She didn’t even try to establish a friendship.

She simply included him in what he wished to be a part of and occasionally requested help from him in ways that Benjamin found difficult to refuse.

Once Vincent had come upon them splitting wood.

She stood to one side while Benjamin explained the best way to split the wood for kindling.

Vincent knew that Angel was fully aware of how to cut wood, but she listened, seeming quite appreciative of Benjamin’s lecture.

By the time he finished, he told her that when she needed more wood, he’d take care of it for her.

Vincent couldn’t help but smile. She did have a way about her.

Including when she’d lectured him two nights earlier. He still smarted from her observations that he had put up a wall between himself and the children.

“They need you , Vincent. They need their father’s hugs and comfort . Ava so often looks at you with longing that I can only surmise that you used to hug her and hold her but stopped after Elsa died. Ava needs that now on occasion.”