Redeeming-Love-By-Francine-Rivers

F R A N C I N E R I V E R S
gotten she had a child. From her life with harlots, Angel was used to women
who worried incessantly about the shape of their bodies and whether they
were beginning to age. She was used to women who fussed with their hair
and clothing and talked about sex as easily as the weather.
Elizabeth and Miriam were new and fascinating to her. They adored one
another. They spoke no harsh words, were clean and neat without being
preoccupied about their appearance, and talked about everything but sex.
Though Elizabeth was too weak to do any work, she organized and orchestrated
Miriam’s and the children’s days. At her urging, Andrew made a fish
trap to set up in the creek. Leah fetched water. Jacob weeded the vegetable
garden. Even little Ruth helped, setting out the dishes and utensils and picking
wild flowers for the table. Miriam washed, ironed, and mended clothes
while overseeing her siblings. Angel felt useless.
Once Elizabeth was up, she assumed full command. Unpacking her
Dutch oven and pans, she took over the cooking. The Altmans had replenished
their own supplies in Sacramento, and she made delicious meals of
fried salt pork with gravy, baked beans sweetened with molasses, cornbread,
and stewed jackrabbit with dumplings. When the fish trap worked, she fried
the trout in seasonings. She skillet-baked johnnycakes while she spit-roasted
two ducks. Most days, she made sourdough biscuits for breakfast. As a special
treat, she soaked dried apples and made a pie.
She sighed one evening as she set the food on the table. “Someday we’ll
have another cow and have milk and butter again.”
“We had one when we left home,” Miriam said to Angel, “but the Indians
took a liking to her near Fort Laramie.”
“I’d give Papa’s watch for a spoonful of plum jam,” Jacob said, making his
mother laugh and cuff him lightly.
Following supper, it was the Altman family custom to have devotions.
John frequently asked Michael to read the Bible. The children were bright
and full of questions. If God created Adam and Eve, why did he let them
sin? Did God really want them running around Eden naked? Even in winter?
If there was only Adam and Eve, who’d their children marry?
Eyes twinkling, John settled back to smoke his pipe while Elizabeth tried
to answer the endless questions. Michael shared his own opinions and
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