My Guardian Knight by Lynette Marie Page A

the bed, she cherished the happy feeling that still warmed her heart.  She didn’t remember a time when she had looked forward to the start of a new day, but she did today.  It would be a lovely warm summer day and she would enjoy it to the best of her ability.  Donning her favorite blue dress, she made her way into the dusty kitchen and took out the eggs she had brought from town. As she was putting the plates on the table two sleepy children sat down and Sebastian came in from outside, his hair wet and smelling clean as the outdoors.  She smiled at him, immediately noticing the absence of the badge that proclaimed him to be a U.S. Marshal.  His gun belt, however, was riding on his hip as always, gun intact.
    “Don’t be alarmed if you see some men ride up today, Amanda.  I’m expecting quite a few deliveries this week, so there will probably be a lot of people coming and going.  If they stop here at the house just send them to the barn.  I have so much to do to get it ready I’ll more than likely be spending my entire week there and in the stable.”
                  Amanda glanced up, fork poised halfway to her
    mouth.  “What stable?”
    Sebastian grinned.  “The stable I’ll be building at the end of the week.  Have I never told you what I plan to do with this old place?”
    “I thought you were going to farm it.  You said you were very good at it.”
    Shrugging, he said, “I don’t like farming.  Of course I’ll plant enough for us to eat and to bring in a bit of extra money, but it’s not where my heart is.  I want to raise horses.  I want to breed them and train them and maybe even race them.”  “What a wonderful idea!  Did you hear that, kids, we’re going to have horses!  Sometimes you really amaze me, Sebastian Knight!”
    “Well, I’d better get started if I want to have it finished by the end of the week.”
                  Matthew jumped up.  “’Bastian, can I help you?  I
    want to get ready for the horses, too.”
                  “You bet you can help me, Squirt!”
                  Amanda watched her two men strut out the door and
    laughed.  “Can you believe them, Marissa?”
    The little girl stared up at Amanda with wide blue eyes.  How hard it must be for the poor little girl to have lost her whole family and have a new one thrust upon her.  Holding her hand out, she said, “Why don’t we get you dressed, Marissa, and after I have everything cleaned up you can help me make a pie for dessert tonight.”
    Her eyes lit up and she shyly followed her new mother into the bedroom.  As Amanda slipped a little yellow dress over her head, she said, “Grandma used to let me help her make pies, too.  Papa says Grandma went to Heaven.”  She paused thoughtfully as Amanda brushed her hair and tied a yellow ribbon in it.  “Amanda, do you know where Heaven is? 
    I need to tell Grandma I love her.”
    Fighting tears, Amanda hauled the little girl close to her.  “I’m sure your grandma knows just how much you love her, honey.  We can only go to Heaven when God calls us there, way up in the beautiful sky.  But if you talk to your grandma, I’m sure she can hear you.”
    “Do you think she can?  I thought so, but at the orphanage Prissy said she couldn’t.  Prissy is the oldest and thinks she knows everything, and she told me I was being a baby for thinking grandma could hear me.”
                  “Now don’t you worry about Prissy.  You just do what you think is right, and if it helps you any, I believe she can hear you.”
    Smiling, Marissa took one of her little dolls out on the porch to play and Amanda got to work on the neglected cabin.  She took the rugs out and gave them a good shake before pinning them to the line to air out.  She swept and scrubbed the wood floors until they shone.  She cleaned all the soot from the fireplace and cookstove and washed the grime from the windows so that