Read Online Love Inspired November 2013 #2 by Emma Miller, Virginia Carmichael, Renee Andrews - Free Book Online Page A

difference.”
    â€œYou shouldn’t be saying such things. You’ll puff her up with false pride,” Aunt Martha warned. Fannie shrugged. “Truth is truth, Martha. Mary and Lilly together couldn’t do what Rebecca has done for Caleb’s family.”
    Rebecca felt her cheeks grow warm. It was good to hear that Fannie approved of what she’d done with Amelia, but Mary and Lilly were her friends. It wasn’t right to make light of their efforts. “ Ya, Caleb’s house did need readying up,” she admitted. “But he’d just moved in when Mary and Lilly helped out. Just coming from Idaho to Delaware had to be upsetting to Amelia.” Feeling uncomfortable, Rebecca glanced across to where the men stood and was surprised to find Caleb watching her.
    â€œIf Rebecca has such a touch with that girl, she’d better see to her,” Martha retorted, pointing. “Looks to me as though the pot has just boiled over.”
    Rebecca turned in time to see Amelia, on the porch, give Mae a hard shove that sent her tumbling off the back step. Susanna protested and Amelia answered back. Then Mae began to wail and Amelia burst into tears.
    Rebecca grimaced.
    â€œGo on,” Mam said. “Straighten it out.”
    By the time Rebecca reached the porch, Amelia had worked herself up into a full-blown fuss.
    Susanna was attempting to quiet her, to no avail. “She hit Mae and pushed her off the step,” Susanna said. “And...and Mae hurt her knee.”
    Mae’s black cotton stocking was torn, and Rebecca saw a small scrape and a few drops of blood. Mae, naturally, was making the most of the incident, howling like a hound dog on the trail of a rabbit. “She hurt me,” Mae blubbered.
    â€œI hate her!” Amelia shouted between outbursts of angry tears.
    Rebecca gathered her charge—kicking and screaming—and whisked her into the house. As she carried the child through the back doorway and into the kitchen crowded with women and babies, she ignored unrequested advice sent in her direction and hurried through the kitchen and the rows of benches set up in the living room for church services. She turned into a wide hallway and found the spacious downstairs bathroom. Rebecca closed and locked the door behind them, and deposited the still-hysterical Amelia on the floor.
    The girl stomped her foot and swung a fist at her. “I hate you, too!”
    â€œShh, shh, sweetie, you don’t hate anyone,” Rebecca soothed. She knelt on the floor so that she was eye to eye with the frustrated child. “Now, tell me what’s wrong.”
    Amelia’s features crumpled and she began to cry in earnest. Rebecca held out her arms and the little girl first hesitated, then ran into them. “Mae said...said...I don’t have a mother,” she sobbed. “An...and I do so.” Her thin shoulders trembled. “I do.”
    â€œOf course you do,” Rebecca answered. “She’s still your mother, even if she can’t be here with you.”
    Amelia drew in a long, ragged sob. “Mae said...said she has a mother and I don’t.”
    â€œShh, shh,” Rebecca soothed, cradling the child against her. “That wasn’t very nice of Mae.”
    â€œShe said...” Amelia pulled away and rubbed her eyes with her fists. “She said my Mam went to heaven because I was bad.”
    â€œNe.” Rebecca shook her head. “It was an accident. If you ask your dat, he’ll explain it to you.”
    â€œMae is mean. She wouldn’t let me look at the book with the giraffe. She said she can read and I can’t.”
    â€œI’ll tell you a secret, Amelia. Mae was pretending. She can’t read yet, either. But when you are a little older, you’ll go to school and then you’ll both learn.”
    â€œI hate her.”
    Rebecca sighed. “You don’t hate her. Mae is your friend. She let you play