The Preacher's Daughter Read Online Free PDF Page B

runner?”
    “A fast one,” Ellie replied. “Wins all the local competitions. He won footraces at the university, too.”
    “I’ll remember not to try to beat him to the dinner table.”
    Ellie laughed, then called, “Patricia! Denzil, come meet Lorabeth.”
    The couple strolled arm-in-arm across the lawn and stood in the grass below the porch rail.
    “This is Lorabeth,” Ellie told them. “For the last couple of years she’s helped with the children during the week, but now she’s moving in with us.” To Lorabeth, she explained, “Patricia is Caleb’s sister, and this is her husband, Denzil. Their daughter, Lucy, is out there by Flynn.”
    “It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Lorabeth said. “The girls have told me you play the piano when you’re all together at Mrs. Chaney’s home.”
    The fair-haired woman offered her a kind smile. “I’ve heard all about you, too.”
    Anna bounded up the stairs as fast as her short little legs allowed. “Nana! Nana! It’th time for the girlth to beat the boyth. Weddy to pway?”
    Mrs. Chaney lifted the child onto her lap and kissed her pink cheek. “Nana’s going to sit here and visit with your mama today, darling.”
    “You’re not gonna pway?”
    “Not today. Next time.”
    Anna scooted from her lap and ran to take Lorabeth’s hand. “You’re gonna help uth win, right, Mith Lorrie?”
    Lorabeth glanced from Anna’s hopeful expression to the yard where the family was gathered. “I’ve never played croquet before, Anna. You’ll have to teach me.”
    Anna’s eyes widened big as saucers, and she turned to her mother. “Mama! I’m gonna teach Mith Lorrie!”
    Ellie laughed at her daughter’s delighted expression.
    Anna grasped Lorabeth’s hand and led her down the stairs where they followed Patricia and Denzil into the side yard. “We’re the black-and-blue team!”
    “Goodness! Is the game dangerous?”
    “Only if you stand too close to another player who’s swinging his mallet,” Benjamin replied, walking forward with a crooked grin. “Or you hit your own foot, of course.”
    “That’s where the black-and-blue part comes in?” she asked.
    Lorabeth liked the sound of his laughter, though she wasn’t entirely comfortable that it was at her expense. He explained, “The girls will be hitting the black and blue balls, the boys the red and yellow.”
    She took note of the curved wires protruding from the ground in two diamond shapes with double wires and stakes at each end.
    “Do you know the point of the game?” he asked.
    She shook her head. “But I want to learn.”
    “Okay, well, there’s a pattern here,” he told her. “The object is to get your ball through all the wickets in this double-diamond pattern. You want to try to hit the other team’s balls. If you do, you get an extra turn, and you get to hit their ball in the wrong direction.”
    “You get an extra strike for scoring a wicket or hitting the turning stake, too,” Flynn added. “Watch out for Ben, ’cause he likes to send another person’s ball flying.”
    “It sounds rather complicated,” Lorabeth said, voicing her concern.
    “Nah, it’s easy,” Flynn replied.
    “You’ll get the hang of it as we go,” Benjamin assured her.
    “I’m apposed to be teaching Mith Lorrie,” Anna admonished her adopted siblings.
    “So you are,” Dr. Chaney agreed, setting a coin on the bent knuckle of his thumb. “Heads or tails?” he asked Anna.
    “Heads!” she answered immediately.
    With a flick of his thumb, Dr. Chaney sent the nickel soaring into the air and caught it. He slapped it onto the back of his hand with an impressive flourish, then raised his hand away. “Heads it is.”
    “Hurray! We getta go firtht!”
    Listening to garbled instruction from a three-year-old made learning a challenge, but every so often, Caleb or Benjamin would explain Anna’s meaning or supply a rule the toddler wasn’t aware of.
    Lorabeth’s heart pounded as she prepared to take her