Bonnie Navarro - Instant Prairie Family

He can’t let her stay

Will Hopkins’s new housekeeper is the prettiest young woman he’s ever seen—and that’s the problem. Will thought Abigail Stewart would be a middle-aged matron well suited to hardscrabble prairie life. Even if his young sons are entranced by her wholesome kindness, his only option is to send Abby back east. For the sake of propriety...and his guarded heart.

Answering the newspaper advertisement was Abby’s chance of escape from her unhappy home. But now her employer has turned out to be a rugged widower instead of a widow. A marriage in name only will allow her to remain long enough to find another job. Or until a misunderstanding becomes the means to a second-chance family....

“I... What did you say your surname was?” she asked in a choked voice.

“Hopkins,” Will replied. The girl’s face went deathly white.

She pulled her satchel up onto her lap and started sorting through her things. Finally she pulled out a paper and handed it to him. It was the ad his mother had created to find him a housekeeper. The ad Miss Stewart had answered. But did that mean... No, it couldn’t be. The woman in front of him, who looked as if she might give in to tears at any moment, couldn’t be Abigail Stewart.

“You’re...you’re Miss Stewart?” Will said incredulously.

Tommy poked his brother. “She’s our new house?”

“Housekeeper,” Willy hissed.

She straightened her back and tilted her chin up to look the boys’ father straight in the eye. “Yes.”

Any answer Will might have given was interrupted by Tommy’s response. Throwing his arms around the woman’s waist, he squeezed tight while yelling out, “You’re our Auntie House!”

BONNIE NAVARRO

and her husband of nineteen years reside in Warrenville, Illinois. Their four children range in age from seventeen to eleven. She works as a medical interpreter at a hospital and a teacher’s aide in a middle school. She and her family attend a Spanish-speaking church, and everyone in the household is at least bilingual—including the dog! Bonnie attended Moody Bible Institute. While attempting to earn a degree in Bible theology, she successfully earned her MRS. degree, followed a year later by her MOM degree, thus ending her formal studies. She is a member of Voices, part of MyBookTherapy. Bonnie’s hobbies include reading, writing, knitting and hanging out with her family.

Instant Prairie Family

Bonnie Navarro

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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“For I know the plans I have for you,”

declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you

and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you.”

—Jeremiah 29:11, 12

My deepest thanks are due to my Savior and Lord. May He receive all the glory for any thing

I might ever accomplish.

I would be remiss if I didn’t give thanks

and honorable mention to:

Joanne, I blame you for empowering me

to believe that I could write a story someone else would actually want to read. You said someday you’d see me in print. Thanks for believing in me even when I wasn’t so convinced.

Betty, Dad, Martha and Terry.

You all took your time to read

and suggest corrections on different manuscripts.

I learned something from each one of you.

Cesar, Liz, CJ, Gaby and David—

thank you for letting Mom work on her book even when you wanted dinner/to talk/clean clothes....

I love you guys!

There are so many more who have helped me

on my journey to write—to each of you,

thank you and God bless.

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Epilogue

Dear Reader

Questions For Discussion

Excerpt

Chapter One

Harlan County, Nebraska, 1881

Will scooped up six-year-old Tommy and called to Willy over his shoulder, “It’s time to go, son. The wagon is hitched and we need to leave so that we can get to the river before nightfall.” Will had left detailed instructions with Jake, his nephew, about the care of the livestock and what Jake should be doing in the next three days. Now everything was ready for them to leave—everything except his oldest son. Willy had dragged his feet all morning, and Will was quickly losing his patience with his namesake.

“Are we going to go get the new Auntie Shelia?” Tommy asked, his little face full of excitement. His eyes were the same color as Caroline’s had been—an expressive hazel that changed hues with her mood. Did the boy actually remember Auntie Shelia? No, that was impossible. Tommy was only three when Auntie Shelia had come to stay with them after her niece Caroline’s death. She stayed six months before she declared the West “too dangerous and uncivilized for anyone to hope to raise a respectable family.”

“No, Tommy, not another aunt. She’s our new housekeeper,” Will corrected gently, trying to find the right words to explain. “Miss Stewart is coming to do the cooking and cleaning and help you and your brother with your studies. She will be like a grandmother to you but isn’t related to you. She’ll be our housekeeper. Do you understand?”

Will glanced out of the window impatiently, aware of the sun rising high in the horizon. It must be close to nine and they had a full day’s ride to get to the river before dark. From the river it was only a little more than a two-hour ride and they would be in Twin Oaks with time to get cleaned up well before the train arrived tomorrow at noon.

Miss Stewart was due in on that train and he needed to be there. It wouldn’t do to have his new housekeeper step off into the small prairie town and not have the family there to extend their welcome.

Will hadn’t been all that set on the idea of bringing in a housekeeper when his mother had suggested it, but after several letters back and forth, he’d become convinced Miss Stewart was the perfect woman for the job. She was only one of a few dozen women who had replied to the ad his mother had placed in the Christian Ladies’ Journal who seemed to want the job for the right reasons. Most of the others were only thinly veiled attempts to trap a husband. Miss Stewart wrote that she was ready to move on from her sister’s home where she had lived for years, and that she wanted to settle in with a family who loved the Lord and where she could put her education and her gifts of cooking and cleaning to use.

Instead of answering his father, the boy yelled to his brother, leaving Will nearly deaf, “Hurry, we’re going to go get our new house.”

“Not house, Tommy,” Willy snickered, finally sauntering down the stairs. At age nine he felt he knew all there was to know about life and delighted in informing his little brother. “Our new housekeeper. She’ll probably take one look at this mess and make Pa take her right back to the train station.” He sounded almost hopeful. Willy was right about one thing—their house wasn’t likely to make a good impression. He and the boys would have to do their best to make up for that.