Katie's Redemption by Patricia Davids Page A

her or Rachel. In time, when she found a job, she would make sure she repaid them herself as soon as possible.
    The following days passed in much the same fashion. Katie took care of Rachel and tried to regain her strength. Nettie fussed over the both of them.
    Whatever Elam thought of Nettie’s pampering, he kept it to himself, but Katie could tell he was ready for her to be on her way. Elam had done his Christian duty by taking her in, but he wanted her out of his home. He avoided looking at her when he was in the same room. A faint scowl creased his brows whenever his gaze did fall on her.
    Nearly a week after her arrival, Katie was helping clear the lunch dishes when Nettie announced that she and Elam were driving her out to her daughter Mary’s farm some five miles away. That explained why Nettie had been baking all morning.
    “Mary is pregnant and expecting in a few months. She’s been feeling low. I’ve several baskets of baked goods and preserves I want to take her and her family. Nothing makes a person feel more chipper than a good shoofly pie they didn’t have to bake themselves.”
    Grateful as Katie was for Nettie’s care and mothering, she was excited to hear she would finally have some time alone. “When will you be back?”
    “I think about four o’clock. Will you be okay without us? I could have Elam stay with you.”
    “No, I’ll be fine.”
    “I’m sure you will. You should rest. You still look washed-out.”
    “Oh, thank you very much.” Katie rolled her eyes, and Nettie chuckled.
    Thirty minutes later, with Rachel asleep and the quietness of the house pressing in, Katie put down the book she couldn’t get into and began looking for something to do. Memories of her life in this same house crept out without Nettie’s happy chatter to keep them at bay.
    It wasn’t so much that her brother had been cruel. It was that he had been cold and devoid of the love she saw so freely given by Nettie to her son. The Sutters were the kind of family Katie longed to be a part of. Malachi and his wife hadn’t given her that. Neither had Matt.
    With sudden clarity, Katie realized she would have to see that Rachel grew up knowing she was loved, knowing happiness and hearing laughter. A new determination pushed aside the pity she had been wallowing in. She would raise her child on her own. She would get a job and make a life for the two of them. They would have to live with Malachi for a while, but it wouldn’t be any longer than absolutely necessary.
    Katie walked into the kitchen with a new sense of purpose. In her rush to leave, Nettie had left a few pots and pans soaking in the sink. Smiling, Katie pushed up the sleeves of her sweater and carried a kettle to the sink. She filled it with water and put it on the stove to heat. It was time to stop feeling sorry for herself and do something for someone else.
    It wasn’t long until she was putting the last clean pot in the cupboard and closing the door. Looking around thespotless kitchen, she bit the corner of her lower lip. Would Nettie think it was clean enough? Would Elam?
    That was a silly thought. Why should she want to impress Elam with how well she could manage a home? He wouldn’t care. He wasn’t at all like Malachi.
    Many was the time she’d scrubbed this same kitchen until her hands were raw only to have her brother come in, look around and begin shouting that she couldn’t do anything right, that if she wanted to live in filth she could live in the barn.
    How many nights had she spent locked inside the feed room listening to the sounds of scurrying mice in the darkness? Too many to count.
    She pressed a hand to her lips to hide the tiny smile that crept out of hiding. Malachi would have been furious to know she hadn’t really minded sleeping there. The old sheet she had been given was much softer stuffed with hay than the thin mattress in her room upstairs. The mice had been quieter than her brother’s heavy snoring in the room next to