Rebekah's Quilt Read Online Free PDF Page A

at its new world.
    “Oh Pa, Cream’s had her calf!”
    The tiny animal answered with a weak bleat.
    Rebekah and her father shared a quiet chuckle.
    Samuel knelt by the animal, holding the lantern so they could get a better look. “He’s a she,” he observed. “And she needs a name. Would you like to name her?”
    Rebekah felt her insides turn to mush as she watched in awe as Cream cleaned her baby. Oh, what it must feel like to be a mother!
    She didn’t have to ponder long. “We have Butter, and Cream,” Rebekah reasoned. “Let’s call this one Buttermilk!”
     

     
    “I hear there’s a new member of the Stoll family.” Joseph’s voice was a welcome distraction as she sat in the warmth of the barn, quilt and needle in hand. “Isn’t she a little young to learn quilting though?”
    Rebekah held up a crooked cornflower blue square. “I need to practice my stitching, but my mind kept wandering to Buttermilk.” She plucked a stalk of hay from her quilting bag. “So I moved out here.”
    Joseph eyed her work. “I like the color you’ve chosen. It reminds me of my first quilt.”
    Rebekah nodded. “It was a gift from my Ma when you were born, right?”
    Joseph squatted next to Buttermilk and nodded. Cream, who had been munching her breakfast, rolled her big brown eyes back to see what he was doing. She let out a low moo.
    “What a pretty girl,” he murmured.
    Obviously sensing no threat, Cream turned her attention back to her pile of hay as Joseph examined the calf. “Looks like she’s going to have a star.”
    Happy to delay her project, Rebekah stuffed the needle and inconsistent pattern into her bag. “All I see is black hair.”
    Joseph gestured to a little swirl on the calf’s forehead. Buttermilk kept her velvet eyes trained on him. She exuded innocence.
    “Well that hair pattern right there,” he rubbed the swirl with his thumb. The baby bovine closed her eyes.
    “Oh Joseph, it looks like she’s smiling!”
    “She is.” His half-grin revealed one dimple. “What a good girl.”
    He is in his own little world when he is around animals.
    A rash of the tingles swept up Rebekah’s arms as she watched Joseph in his element. It seemed that he and the calf were communicating in their own wordless language, both supremely comfortable in the company of the other. Even Cream, who had been more than a little crabby since giving birth, stood idly by as Joseph fawned over her baby.
    Joseph is special. For so many reasons. Before the thought could go on, Rebekah stopped it. “What were you saying about the mark?” Her voice cracked.
    “Oh, yes, well you see here, this swirl?”
    Rebekah nodded, fumbling with the knot on the end of one of her covering strings. She resisted the urge to stick it in her mouth like she did as a child.
    “I’ve seen it once or twice before. Always on cows, never bulls.”
    Rebekah smiled down at the calf. “So she is special then.”
    “Very much. The swirl turned white all the times I’ve seen it, looking like a star. Or a cross.”
    “Maybe I should have named her Angel,” Rebekah whispered into the sudden serenity of the church-like atmosphere.
    “ Hallo Rebekah. Hallo Joseph.” Samuel strode in the barn, planks of newly shaved wood tucked under his arm. He carried the wood as easily as if he were merely toting a loaf of bread.
    “ Hallo Pa.”
    Joseph waved. “Mr. Stoll.”
    “You’ve been cutting wood?” Rebekah asked.
    “ Ja , an Englishman is here, needing a wheel for his wagen .”
    With the mention of the English, a sea of uneasiness rolled in Rebekah’s stomach. Even Joseph stiffened. She rose, her eyes trained on her Pa.
    “Pa, an Englishman is here? Now?” She kept her already meek voice at a whisper.
    “ Ja , the man from Montgomery sent him.”
    A long shadow appeared on the ground outside the barn, concealing the identity of the owner. “Lester at the livery claimed the only place to get quality wood work done was by a feller out here by