The Prodigal's Welcome by Billerbeck Kristin; Darty Peggy;

Author:Billerbeck, Kristin; Darty, Peggy; [Billerbeck, Kristin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 4901526
Publisher: Barbour Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2002-09-17T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 2

When Grace, her mother, and Jonathan were seated at the dining table, Grace watched with satisfaction as Jonathan ate heartily and exercised the table manners she had been taught to appreciate.

“This is a wonderful meal,” he said, looking across the table at her.

“Thank you.” Grace shifted in her chair, suddenly aware of how stiff the overalls felt against her skin. She imagined she must look quite unladylike to this man, who had obviously been well reared and was probably accustomed to dining with ladies in fine gowns.

“I enjoy cooking,” she said, trying to forget her silly idea of ladies in gowns. “I’m just grateful Ardella left behind her recipes. She was the best cook in all of the world,” she added, her eyes clouding over as she spoke of Ardella. “Ardella and William lived here with us all of their lives, but they were never slaves,” she added quickly. “Father paid them well and told them they were free to go whenever they wanted.” She shook her head. “Fortunately for us, they never wanted to leave.”

“I can hear the affection in your voice when you mention their names,” Jonathan said.

Elizabeth pressed her lace handkerchief to her eyes and dropped her head. Jonathan was quick to notice, and he quickly lifted his cup and began to inspect it. “This is a beautiful cup,” he said. “It looks as though it may have been handcrafted in England.”

“Fred ordered the set for my fortieth birthday,” Elizabeth announced, looking up with shining eyes.

“He was a very thoughtful man,” Jonathan acknowledged.

Grace cleared her throat. “Where is your home, Mr. Parker?”

“Please call me Jonathan,” he said and smiled at her. Then he looked back at her mother, as though reminding himself to include her in the conversation as well. “I was born and raised in Kentucky. Our farm was 480 acres on the edge of Louisville. We used three small fields to grow all the vegetables to eat; one large field was for growing corn for our feed for hogs, chickens, cattle, and of course for corn meal. The farm was primarily used for raising cattle. My father furnished beef for the riverboats up and down the Ohio and for passenger trains traveling through Louisville.”

“That sounds like a good life,” Elizabeth said thoughtfully.

Jonathan nodded. “It was until ′60 when my father came down with a lung disease and required a lot of medical care. To pay medical expenses, I sold most of the cattle we owned. He died a month before the war broke out.…” His voice trailed for a moment, and Grace watched him closely as she listened. She wanted to know everything about him, and she was very curious about the family he had mentioned.

“Do you have brothers and sisters?” she asked.

“I have two sisters. An older sister, Louise, is married to a furniture merchant in Louisville. They have five children. Katherine, my younger sister, was only twelve when I left for war. In my last letter from Mother, she wrote that she and Katherine had moved to Louisville to live with Louise and her husband.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.