Montana Cowboy's Baby. Linda Ford
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Stand-in Daddy
Conner Marshall knows the baby on the doorstep isn’t his—despite what the note says—but little Ellie needs a protector...and urgent medical care. Turning to the doctor’s daughter and capable assistant, Kate Baker, for help, he keeps the truth to himself. Why should he care if Kate believes the worst of him? The wary rancher can’t afford feelings for a woman who’ll soon be moving east for medical school.
A promise to her dying grandmother decided Kate’s future. She’ll become a doctor and forgo a family of her own. Now, tending to Ellie at the Marshall ranch, she sees just what she’s sacrificing, especially when Ellie’s mother returns. But the littlest matchmakers can sometimes make the biggest dreams come true...
“Did you see that? Ellie smiled,” Kate said.
Conner chuckled. “I told you, she likes you.”
“We’re going to do this.” Kate looked deep into Conner’s eyes. “We are going to save this baby, so help me, God.” She meant it as a prayer and a vow, and when Conner nodded, she felt as if they had joined hands in mutual agreement.
There welled up within her a sense of something sweet and powerful. She tried to tell herself it was the same sensation she got whenever she helped her father, saw a baby or a child or an adult improving and knowing she had a hand in it. Only the feeling was unlike any she’d ever before experienced, and she could not dismiss it so easily nor fit it into a tidy slot in her brain.
When she was satisfied the baby had taken all the milk she would, she hurried to the kitchen...in need of an escape from the intensity prevailing in her thoughts while sitting so close to Conner, hearing his deep voice murmur to the baby. And knowing all the while that baby Ellie’s mother belonged where Kate now sat.
As many of you know, my husband and I have adopted ten children. My goal and dream and wish for them has always been that they find healing and wholeness in the love and support of a large family. Psalm 68:6 says God sets the lonely in families. I believe strongly in the power of family. May this story help each one to see how important family is. If you don’t have a family unit like I am talking about, I pray you will find it either through the acceptance of a welcoming family such as the Marshalls or in the warmth of an accepting church.
You can learn more about my upcoming books and how to contact me at www.lindaford.org. I love to hear from my readers.
Blessings,
Linda Ford
LINDA FORD lives on a ranch in Alberta, Canada, near enough to the Rocky Mountains that she can enjoy them on a daily basis. She and her husband raised fourteen children—four homemade, ten adopted. She currently shares her home and life with her husband, a grown son, a live-in paraplegic client and a continual (and welcome) stream of kids, kids-in-law, grandkids and assorted friends and relatives.
Montana Cowboy’s Baby
Linda Ford
God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
—Psalms 46:1
To my editor, Tina, who guided me through the tangled threads of this story. Thank you.
Contents
Bella Creek, Montana, summer 1890
Twenty-two-year-old Kate Baker walked out of the big house on the Marshall Five Ranch. She’d completed her errand and was intent on returning to her home, four miles away, in Bella Creek. She’d taken two steps toward her buggy when a wagon rolled up