Dawn of the Golden Promise by BJ Hoff Page B

than where she was.
    She had come to him, reluctantly, as his ward, an arrangement accomplished by their fathers years before. When Kerry’s father passed away she was still in her teens. Andrew Dalton—Jess’s father, was also gone, leaving Jess to assume the responsibilities of Kerry’s guardianship.
    Already in his early thirties at the time, Jess was serving as chaplain at the U.S. Military Academy. For the most part, he had resigned himself to bachelorhood. But a lightning bolt struck him the day Kerry O’Neill stepped off the steamboat, and from that moment on his life was changed.
    Smiling, he traced the memories as they unfolded through his mind: their courtship, after Kerry finally managed to convince him that the years between them didn’t matter…their marriage in the academy chapel…their honeymoon in the Adirondacks….
    But his smile faded at the thought of their subsequent move to Washington, where Kerry had almost lost her life—along with that of their stillborn son—and where Jess himself had been shot by a fanatical politician with a virulent hatred for all abolitionists. The incident had left Kerry barren and bereft, and for a long time, Jess had questioned the Lord’s call on his life.
    Yet out of the ashes of their anguish had come the unexpected, shining gift of an adopted son: Casey-Fitz. Then a small seven-year-old Irish orphan with ears too big for his face and eyes too old for his years, the boy had helped rescue Kerry from a fire. Eventually he also rescued her from the grief of her childlessness.
    And now…Amanda.
    Jess looked at the tiny girl snuggled close to Kerry’s heart. She was little more than a baby. He had brought her home after promising her dying mother that he would look after the child. His original intention had simply been to give Amanda a temporary place to live until her grandfather in England sent someone to claim her. But a few weeks after the death of the child’s mother, word arrived that her grandfather had also passed on—without ever seeing Amanda.
    By then, Jess and Kerry had taken the little girl to their hearts and could no longer imagine giving her up. Even Casey-Fitz had quickly “adopted” Amanda as his little sister.
    So Amanda had stayed, and now they were in the process of adopting her. Although Jess feared the process might not be without complications, he had been careful to hide his concern from Kerry. Ever since they had begun the legal proceedings, she could scarcely contain her excitement. She was like a child herself. She and Molly, the housekeeper who had been in Jess’s family for years, had already made elaborate plans to redecorate the nursery. In the meantime, they spent hours each day sewing all sorts of dainty little-girl things, while Molly’s husband, Mack, set his hand to building a rocking horse and a toy chest.
    Resolved that Casey-Fitz should not feel left out of all the excitement going on around him, Kerry made a practice of telling him stories about his own adoption. “Why, it was even more of a rush with you,” she would say, eyes sparkling. “We brought you home at practically a moment’s notice! But Grandma Molly and Grandpa Mack had a fine new suit waiting for you when we arrived—and shiny black shoes as well! And weren’t you proud of those new clothes! I suppose your father’s told you that we didn’t sleep for nights afterward—he says I talked his ear off with all my plans for you.”
    She had done exactly that, Jess remembered with a fond smile, and he had loved every minute of it. Nothing made him any happier than seeing Kerry happy. For that reason alone—aside from his own affection for Amanda—he would do whatever it took to make the child their own.

    Later, in their bedroom, Jess sat down behind his wife at the vanity. Smiling at her reflection, he took the hairbrush from her hand and began to brush the