Song of Her Heart by Irene Brand

was flooded with moonlight. From her bed, she saw the moon hovering above the Bar 8, signifying that the God of creation was very near.
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    Using the toll-free number Sheila gave her, Norah telephoned the H & H offices the next afternoon. She had a helpful conversation with Jim Hanson, the athletic director of the therapy program, who would be staying at the Bar 8 ranch throughout the summer.
    Jim told her there would be three four-week sessions, the first one to start the first week in June, the last one ending the last week in August, with a week-long break for the Fourth of July. There would be approximately six children each session, with an average of two or more volunteers for each rider.
    In addition to Jim, a nurse, Carolyn Turner, would be a full-time employee. The other workers would be unpaid volunteers, some for the whole summer, others a few weeks at a time. Each session would deal with three different types of disabilities—one for blind children, one for the physically impaired, the other for children with mental disabilities. Two children would be housed together in a room with one adult volunteer.
    â€œSince this is a pilot program,” Jim explained, “we’ll be learning as we go.”
    Norah would be expected to provide three meals each day for at least twenty people. Breakfast would be served at eight o’clock, lunch at noon and dinner at six o’clock in the evening. Norah’s wages were included in the fee H & H paid Mason for use of his ranch facilities and horses. But the organization would issue vouchers for the groceries, pay the utilities and hire Sheila to help in the kitchen and dining room. The children would go home on weekends, leaving Friday afternoon and returning on Monday morning.
    â€œBut as I mentioned,” Jim said, “this is a new undertaking for all of us, so I hope you can adapt your schedule as we find it necessary.”
    â€œI’ll do my best,” Norah said, “but I’ve never cooked for so many people over an extended period. The first weeks will be experimental for me, too.”
    â€œI’m sure we’ll get along fine,” Jim said. “Hopefully, the program will be so successful that the project will be funded for many years to come. Our long-range goal is to expand the program to include adults with disabilities, too.”
    â€œWhew!” Norah said aloud when she finished the conversation. It sounded like a busy summer, but she welcomed the tight schedule. Providing three meals each day, starting to cook before six o’clock and finishing only in time to go to bed and start the same schedule over again, would hopefully get her mind off Mason.
    Thoughts of Mason had a tendency to disrupt the work she’d come to Nebraska to do. When she tried to plan menus for the H & H children, she found herself staring into space thinking of Mason. His winning smile, his compassionate nature and his captivating presence had dominated her dreams and trespassed on her daytime hours. It had to stop!
    Determined to exert more self-control, Norah carried her box of recipe books into the kitchen and placed them on a convenient shelf near the stove. She needed to plan and buy supplies for at least two weeks. It wouldn’t be easy cooking meals to suit both children and adults. Jim had told her that, for this first session, they had chosen children without dietary limitations so she wouldn’t need to be concerned about providing special dishes. Although thefirst four weeks would tend to be trial and error, once she had those meals planned, she could use the same menus for the next two sessions.
    As she spent the afternoon planning, she tried to remember the foods her siblings liked when they were younger. Thinking about them saddened her. Not only had she lost her father and disabled brother, she’d lost the others, too.
    While her father lived, she’d gone overboard to maintain harmony in the family. Even when