Promise for Ellie (Daughters of Blessing Book #1) , livre ebook

© 2006 Lauraine Snelling
Published by Bethany House Publishers 11400 Hampshire Avenue South Bloomington, Minnesota 55438 www.bethanyhouse.com
Bethany House Publishers is a division of Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan. www.bakerpublishinggroup.com
Ebook edition created 2010
Ebook corrections 02.09.2016
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4412-0346-5
Unless otherwise identified, Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible.
Cover design by Dan Thornberg Cover image by William Albert Allard/National Geographic Image Collection
DEDICATION
T O ALL MY READERS who have been pleading for more about the Bjorklunds and Blessing, thank you for your love of Ingeborg and her family. A Promise for Ellie, book one in the DAUGHTERS OF BLESSING series, is dedicated to all of you.
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Bjorklund Family Tree
Prologue
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Books by Lauraine Snelling
Back Ad
Back Cover

PROLOGUE
Blessing, North Dakota May 1900
T HE CLANGING CHURCH BELL woke them all.
Andrew Bjorklund and his father, Haakan, met at the bottom of the stairs, pulling up their suspenders as they shoved their feet into their boots by the back door. Clanging bells in the night always meant fire.
Astrid pounded down the stairs, tying her hair back as she came. “Where is it?”
“No idea yet.” Haakan stepped out onto the front porch of their two-story white house and scanned the area for the red of flames and billowing smoke. “Looks like the Olsons’ place. Andrew, you get the horses. Astrid, help me get buckets and shovels in the wagon. Andrew can ride on ahead.” He raised his voice. “You bring the rugs, Ingeborg.”
“Ja, I will,” she called from the bedroom. “I’m almost dressed.”
“Was there heat lightning?” Andrew asked a few minutes later as they threw harnesses over the horses’ backs.
“Coulda been. I was sleeping too sound to hear any thunder. Besides, it’s clear now.” Haakan finished snapping the traces onto the doubletree. “You take Jack and get on over there.”
Within minutes Astrid and Ingeborg were in the wagon and they started down the lane, Haakan driving the team all out.
“Lord God, please protect our friends. Keep everyone safe,” Ingeborg prayed, her eyes open, hanging on for dear life as they took a sharp corner at only a slightly reduced speed. She kept praying the entire way.
Haakan pulled the team to a skidding stop, the second wagon to have arrived. Already a bucket brigade had formed, but they were dumping water on the barn roof and soaking the other buildings. The fire roared as it devoured the machine shed, which was too far gone to try to drown the flames.
“What happened?” Haakan hollered as he climbed a ladder to throw water on the house roof.
“Don’t know. Woke to the dog barking.” Ole Olson handed up a bucket of water and reached for another from below as the lines grew with more wagons and horses arriving by the minute. “Just got to keep it from spreading.”
As the flames died down, the firefighters gathered together. “Thank God there was no wind.” Ingeborg wiped the sweat off her face with her apron and glugged the cup of water someone handed her. She turned to the woman behind her. “Any idea what started it?”
“None.” Mrs. Olson wrung her hands. “But if it weren’t for all of you, the entire place might’ve gone up. Thank the good Lord for friends.”
Reverend Solberg nodded and drank deeply. “That church bell saved us again. And to think we almost didn’t put one up.”
“We’ve talked about a fire wagon. I think it’s time to stop talking about it and start doing something about it.” Haakan clapped Andrew on the shoulder. “You young men did a fine job with the barn roof. That would have gone up next. And if the ground had been drier, a prairie fire may have started.”
“Lots of maybes and might haves. Let’s pray and thank our God for what is.” Reverend Solberg waited for silence. “Father in heaven, we offer our heartfelt thanks for your providence, for keeping the fire within bounds, for all the willing hands who came so swiftly, and for keeping us all safe. To you, O Lord, we commend our work, our dreams, our lives. In Jesus precious name we pray.” Everyone joined him on the amen.
“Uff da, what a stench a fire can make.”
“Pa, you better come look. I think there’s a body in that shed.” Andrew’s face appeared green behind the smoke stains.
May 1900
B LESSING. I’m going home to Blessing. Home to Andrew .
“Ellie, you daydreaming again? I asked you to take this over to your pa.” Her mother, Goodie Wold, peeked around the doorframe, a handled water jug in her hand. “Uff da, look at you. One would think you’re pie-eyed or some such.”
“Pie-eyed?” Ellie turned from holding her graduation dress in front of her to see in the mirror. A lock of wavy golden hair lay over one shoulder. Concern wrinkled her wide forehead until she saw the teasing glint in her mother’s eyes. “Pie-eyed?”
“You know, mooning over that young man of yours. Here we’ve been gone from Blessing for two years, and you ignored every suitor who has come to call. Now take that handsome Mr.—”
“No, you take him and send him elsewhere. Andrew Bjorklund is the only man for me, and he always has been.” She swung back and drew the waistline of the baby blue lawn dress against her slim middle and, with the other hand, held the bodice to her chest. “This turned out well, don’t you think?”
“Of course it did, you silly child. Everything you sew turns out beautiful.” Goodie sat down on the edge of the four-poster, the lovingly turned posts a tribute to Ellie’s adoptive father, Olaf Wold, who made the most beautiful furniture west of the Mississippi. Right now he was working on a table and six chairs for Ellie and Andrew’s wedding present.
“Perhaps I should have made this in white and used the same dress for both graduation and my wedding. That would have been more practical.”
“Ah, Ellie, dear heart, you are always so practical. This is a good time for you to be at least a little bit impractical. Besides, I think we can afford a few extra yards of dress goods.”
Ellie finished studying the dress and glanced at the smiling face above it. Dreamy might be a good word to apply to her. Her father said she looked like an angel, but she knew too well the streak of stubbornness that ran like double-strength whalebone up her spine. While some might say she was persistent, she knew it went beyond that. Bullheaded, more likely, although she managed to cover it with sweet smiles and soft words. Andrew likened her hair to golden wheat flowing down her back, so for him she kept it long; although she’d been tempted to follow the new trends and cut it shorter when some of her friends did. Short hair on her forehead might cover the marks that remained from her bout of chicken pox as a small child.
One thing bothered her—her eyes. They were gray and slightly tipped up at the outer edges and always reflected the color she wore. Toby Valders had once called her Cat Eyes when she was wearing a green dress. She shuddered at the memory. Andrew had nearly beaten him into the ground for that and had later promised her he would never fight again.
Andrew, whom she hadn’t seen since Christmas, when the entire family took the train back to Blessing. Andrew, who’d been her protector since the day she was carried into the Bjorklund home, ill and half starved. Her whole family would have died had it not been for Hjelmer Bjorklund, who had stopped by their soddy on his way home all those years ago. Andrew, whom she’d had to leave behind when Olaf decided to move his family out of the flood plain of the Red River Valley and settle in Grafton. Not that far away from Blessing yet more than half a day’s journey by buggy or horse.
She’d be forever grateful that Reverend Solberg said she could come home to graduate with her class—the friends she’d grown up with.
“Tante Goodie?” her young cousin Rachel Anderson said from the doorway. “Onkel Olaf says he needs you.” Rachel had come to stay with them the year before, when her mother died. The little girl was the only member of the family to survive cholera.
“Tell him I’ll be right there.” Goodie stood with a bit of a groan.
“I will.” Rachel dashed off, never walking when she could run.
“Your knee still bothering you?” Ellie asked as she hung her dress on a padded hanger and then on the bar in the clothespress.
“Some, but mostly when I get up. Falling like I did. . .” Goodie shook her head. “Enough about me. When Rachel gets back, you two go get the mail, would you please?” She smiled at the delight bursting on Ellie’s face. “I know. Most likely there’s another letter from Andrew, but the rest of us get mail now and then too. Poor Rachel, she is already feeling sad that you’ll be leaving us.”
“Mor, I won’t be gone, just a ways away. Besides, the wedding isn’t until the end of June. We have to get our house built first.”
Soon after Rachel returned they headed out to pick up the mail. Ellie swung her cousin’s hand as they strolled the four blocks to the post office.
“I don’t want you to go away.” Rachel stared at Ellie from under the wide brim of her straw hat—the same hat Ellie had worn the year before.
Today Ellie wore a new straw hat, this one with a narrower brim and a more rigid crown. A pink rose centered the white ribbon with strings down the back.
“Who will listen to me in the middle of