Unexpected Hope (Book 2 in the Red Valley series)

Chapter 29

The ride home was nothing but a blur. Levi brought his horse up to the porch, vaulting off before the poor winded beast could come to a complete stop. Never had he ever ridden a horse so hard. His booted feet had barely hit the ground before he bounded up the steps. He pushed the front door so hard it banged into the wall, threatening to shatter the glass.

Without stopping, he took the stairs two and three at a time, then flew down the hall to their closed bedroom door. As he paused to take a breath, the memory of the day Ellie was born came flooding back to him. That was the day that he changed forever. Alicia had gone into labor during the night; he'd sent for the doctor, then gone back to bed in his room.

Dawn came and he got ready for a full day of work, not once during the day did Alicia or his child cross his mind. The sun was low on the horizon when he'd come home exhausted from a full day of hard work. As he walked from the barn to the house, he realized that Doc was gone and there was a faint cry of an infant coming from somewhere in the house.

His steps quickened as the squalls of an angry baby increased in volume as he entered the house. As Levi reached out and opened the door, dim light of a lone candle showed his wife lying on her side in the bed facing away from the door with a pillow over her head. Looking over to his right, he saw a tiny red faced baby in the cradle he'd bought.

His feet propelled him forward to the side of the cradle where his hands reached out to pick up the child. Instantly the baby quieted and began to root against his chest. He pulled the baby away from him and noticed the front of his shirt was wet. Fury instantly filled his body as he realized that Alicia had not changed or fed the baby at all. Levi laid the baby down on the bed and pulled the soaked blanket and diaper off.

Looking down, he realized that he had a daughter, a little girl. His heart melted. As quickly as he could, he changed her diaper. Thankfully, Alicia had them laid out on the dresser. Levi himself, had never changed a diaper before, but he'd watched their nanny change all of his siblings countless times. "Alicia, have you fed her at all? Alicia? Alicia?"

"What, for God sakes what!"

"Have you fed her?" He asked, trying to keep his voice gentle. The baby wasn't crying at the moment, but was still fussing.

"No! Are you kidding me? That's disgusting! Besides, I'm tired and want to sleep but all she's done is cry since I had her."

"Sit up and feed this baby now."

"No." She said as she pulled the covers over her head.

Levi walked over and sat down on the bed with his wife. It was the first time he'd been in the same bed with his wife since that night in the hotel room. "I'm only going to say this one time. Sit your sorry ass up and feed this baby or you'll wish you had. I'll get a goat as soon as I can, but until then you – will- feed – her. Do I make myself clear?"

Without saying anything, she sat up almost snatching the baby from his arms. "Alicia, I've never hit a woman before but so help me God, if you hurt that baby in any way, if anything at all happens to her, I'll kill you." She simply looked at him as the baby greedily began to suckle. "I think I'll name her Ellie Sinclair Matthews. Sinclair was my mother's maiden name."

"Fine, whatever."

The sound of a muffled cry of pain brought him back from his thoughts. Levi, opened the door to see his wife laying in the bed, her body covered in perspiration and wracked with pain, and still she smiled at him. Instantly, he was by her side, holding her hand. "What can I do for you?"

Hope simply shook her head as another pain gripped her body. "She's doing good and, Ellie is at my house with Sally." Levi looked up to see Grace Weston sitting in the rocking chair beside the fireplace.