Reverie (Hollow Hearts Book 1) (18 page)

“I love her, Elias,” Isaac whispered.

“I know, brother. We just need to figure out what to do about it.” Elias patted him on the back as a gesture of solidarity. They’d fix this.

“I hope so. She seemed so sad when I saw her yesterday. Tired. Working at the orphanage must be grueling. Everyone knows that Catherine runs a pretty tight ship over there. Who knows if Hetty even gets a break?”

“Should we offer her the position back here? Maybe she’ll come back.” Elias tried to sound hopeful.

“Doubt it. Plus, I don’t want her here as an employee. I want her here as my wife. I don’t want to court her in between doing our laundry and cooking our meals. I want to court her simply as one man loving one woman—just us.”

Elias nodded his head. “You could just show up at the orphanage, beg for her forgiveness, ask her to marry you, and march right over to the preacher after that. You’d get what you want and you’d save yourself all that courting trouble.” He laughed.

“Not exactly what I had in mind, but I appreciate the enthusiasm,” Isaac said as they walked out of the barn and headed toward the house to carry on their holiday traditions. Traditions he prayed Hetty would be a part of next year.

Hetty worked late into the night again trying to prepare the orphanage to host several community members. Catherine had proposed hosting a dinner in honor of those folks in town who regularly gave their time and money to the needs of the orphanage. There would be a small party for the children, including the gifts purchased from Mrs. Calhoun’s final donation and a large feast for the adults. It was a nice gesture, but had caused hours of extra work for Hetty. Catherine had been very specific about the entire inside being scrubbed from top to bottom. She wanted all the linens washed and ironed, the glass to be shining, and the orphanage to sparkle. “I want it to look like new,” she’d told Hetty, and she was working like mad to make that happen. Catherine had asked Sol to help with preparing the meal, since it was expected to be a bit more lavish than the meals the orphanage regularly served. He’d agreed to lend a hand and had taken over the kitchen days ago to begin preparations. Hetty knew whatever he served to their guests would be delicious—a meal worth remembering.

Hetty still needed to get the tree decorated. She had most of the younger children working on paper ornaments they’d secure with ribbon and string, but she hadn’t had time to begin hanging them. Most of the presents for the children were wrapped and waiting to be put under the tree for the party, but she still needed to finish wrapping the gifts for the Wheeler family. After much time and prayer she’d finally decided on the perfect gift for Isaac. It had taken a bit of work, but she hoped he’d be pleased with the gesture.

As Hetty finished beating the last rug in the yard she noticed a strange smell.
What is that
? she thought. It smelled like something was burning, and the smell was growing stronger. She set down her broom and turned toward the kitchen where she noticed smoke pouring from the back door.

“Oh, no!” Hetty screamed before rushing to the porch. “Catherine!” she yelled. “Sol, where are you?”

Sol ran through the back door, his face covered in soot. He coughed repeatedly, trying to catch his breath. “Get the children, Hetty!”

Hetty rushed to the front of the house and took the steps as fast as she could. She threw open the front door and screamed. “Everybody out! There’s a fire in the kitchen!”

Several children came running down the steps, their faces filled with terror. The little ones began to cry, overtaken by fear. Hetty looked at Jessica. “Get all of the children outside and take count. We need to be sure everyone is out of the house! Go!”

Hetty watched the girl usher the children out to the yard, their bodies shivering from the cold before entering the smoke-filled house. There hadn’t been any time to locate coats or hats. She prayed they would be warm enough.

Despite the noise inside the house she heard several folks from town arrive to see what they could do. She heard Jessica shout “All but two of the children are out. Hetty ran inside. I don’t see her.”

The men rushed to the porch calling Hetty’s name, but they could hear nothing over the chaos outside. The children huddled around Jessica, crying and shivering. “I don’t see her,” one of the men shouted. Several more men joined in and ran to the back of the house to take control of the flames.

Hetty made her way through the thick smoke, her eyes burning. It was near impossible to catch her breath. She could hear a whimper.
Where is it coming from
? she thought. She needed to call out. Whoever was making the noise was clearly scared and didn’t know she was here. “It’s Hetty. Please. Please, if you’re in here call out so I can find you. Don’t be scared.”

Hetty listened. There! In the corner of the front room! She rushed over near the tree and saw Tyler and Tommy, the twins, huddled in the corner. She reached down and scooped them both in her arms. “It’s okay, boys. I’ve got you. Close your eyes and just breathe into my shirt.” The weight of the boys nearly pulled her down, but she tried to push on. She couldn’t see anything. The smoke was so thick and heavy. They needed to get out of here fast. She tried to remember which direction to go. Just move forward. Keep moving. She felt the cold getting closer. She realized she must be near a door, the cold from outside providing relief from the heat and smoke. As she neared the door she felt someone reach up and take the children from her arms. Her body felt weak and she couldn’t breathe. Something touched her arm and a piercing pain brought her to her knees. Within seconds the world went black.

Isaac and Elias helped their mother and Lottie hang fresh garland across the porch rail. The smell alone could make the holidays magical. Isaac loved the fresh earthy scent it brought to the porch. They were laughing and beginning to hang the red bows strategically on the garland when they turned to see Roger racing up the drive in his wagon.

“There’s a fire at the orphanage. They need help!”

Isaac caught his breath. “Hetty...”

The family rushed from the porch and into Roger’s wagon. Within seconds they were on their way to town, anxious to help in any way they could. It was only a few miles to cover, but Isaac felt like it was taking way too long. Elizabeth could sense his worry and leaned over to whisper to him. “I’m sure she’s fine, Isaac.” He just shook his head and offered up a silent prayer.
Lord, please keep Hetty safe. Give me the chance to make things right. Please, Lord.

When they pulled up near the orphanage it seemed the entire town was there helping. They saw Doc Winters looking over a few of the children, making sure there was no damage. Several women were handing out blankets and water to the other children huddled near the large tree in the front yard.

They heard someone shout. “If you’re here to help we need all the men we can get in the back.” Elias and Roger rushed to see what they could do to help. Isaac continued to look around. He didn’t see Hetty anywhere. The disorder and chaos surrounded him. He ran over to his mother. “You and Lottie help with the children. See if you can get them to the church where it’s warm. Maybe you can find something to entertain them.”

“Go. We’ll be fine,” she said and rushed to help the other women.

Isaac headed to the back of the house, eager to find Hetty and assess the damage.
Where was she?
He saw quite a bit of smoke damage and singed wood on the one wall of the structure that made up the back of the kitchen. He couldn’t tell what other damage there was inside the house, but it was clear the kitchen wouldn’t be functional for a while. He saw Sol sitting off to the side, a blanket wrapped around him. He didn’t look injured, but Isaac wanted to be sure.

“Sol, are you okay?” Isaac said, crouching down in front of the old man.

“Old Sol is fine, boy. Don’t fret over me.” The old man tried to smile, but a coughing fit took over.

“Deep breaths, Sol. You must have breathed in a bit of smoke. Has the doctor taken a look at you?”

“He did. Pronounced me alive, too. Just a little bit of rest and I’ll be good as new.”

“Sol, what happened here?”

“That old stove is what happened. I told Catherine she needed to replace it years ago, but there was never money to do so. They’ve got a replacement coming thanks to Mrs. Alma’s kindness, but it won’t be here for a while. Mr. Davis didn’t have one in stock since his last shipment was delayed by the snow. I’ll say one good thing, though, this snow made it a bit easier for those fine young fellas to get that fire under control.”

“Sol, have you seen Hetty?” Isaac asked, worry threading through his words.

“Oh, sweet Hetty. She pulled the twins out, you know. Didn’t care nothing about herself, just went in and got them out safe. Good thing, too. I suppose the whole house could have gone up in flames thanks to that old stove. I told Catherine. I told her it needed to be replaced. Those men over there said the kitchen is the worst of it. There’s some smoke damage throughout the house and a bit of damage to the bedroom above the kitchen, but it’s the kitchen we’ve lost.”

Isaac didn’t want to be rude to the old man. Clearly he was in a bit of shock over the whole ordeal. He was cold and dirty, and his breath was a bit ragged. Isaac motioned to a few of the men to indicate they needed to get Sol out of the cold. “Can you help get Sol to the church? My mother and the other women are keeping everyone there while we sort this out. He needs to get out of the cold before he catches his death.”

They nodded and helped the old man to his feet. They made sure the blanket was secure around his shoulders and held his arms to help him through the snow and mess. “Oh, Isaac?” Sol turned around. “Hetty’s at Doc Winters place. Got her arm hurt pretty bad.”

Isaac turned and ran. Hetty was hurt. He needed to find her—make sure she was going to be okay. Maybe it wasn’t too bad since Doc Winters was still out front checking the children. Or maybe he’d had Hetty taken to his office because her injuries were severe enough that he didn’t want to frighten the children. Just as he was about to cross the street to enter the doctor’s office, he ran straight in to Catherine.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Catherine. I need to get to Doc’s office. Hetty is there.”

“I know. They took her over a while ago. Though I don’t know why they are making such a fuss. It’s just a little burn.”

“Are you a doctor?” Isaac asked, his voice full of anger.

‘Well, no. But, it didn’t look bad to me. And listen, I know we’ve had some damage to the kitchen that we need to get sorted out. But you should tell Hetty that I cannot pay her if she is not working.”

“What?”

“I feel bad about her arm, but she still needs to fulfill her obligation and that means getting back to work as soon as possible. I’ll deal with finding a kitchen for the time being.”

Isaac took a deep breath. How dare this woman! Hetty was injured, they’d lost their kitchen, and all she cared about was making sure the work would get done. “Catherine, I’m going to ignore the rudeness of your comments because I’m sure it’s been a trying day for you. But I will say this: if you don’t start treating Hetty like a person instead of someone whose work ethic you take advantage of, we are going to have serious problems.” Isaac turned to walk away, leaving Catherine in the street, her mouth agape from the harsh truth of his words.