A Hope for Hannah Read Online Free Page B

looked radiant that day, and Sam was all shiny in his new black suit with his hair slicked down over his forehead. Sam had blushed as the bishop married them. He surely loved Annie, and for that she was glad.
    But she wasn’t going to think about that anymore. This was where she wanted to be and where she belonged—with Jake. And now a baby was growing inside her. For some reason she was already thinking of the baby as a boy. It seemed as natural to her as breathing. Jake needed a boy. Not that he had ever mentioned it before, but still she wanted to give him a boy. She wanted his firstborn to be the delight of his eye, the pleasure of his heart. This child would be a joy for both of them. Of that she was certain.
    Hannah took a break from her husking and went in to check the fire. Although it still burned steadily, the flames seemed low and so she added another piece of wood. She then returned to her husking, but this time she sat in a chair as she pulled off the husks and threw them in a pile. Jake would carry them to the garden for mulch when he came home. Jake was like that, always willing to help her with such things even when he came in from work exhausted.
    She must be careful, Hannah told herself, not to impose on Jake too much. This was especially true with the baby on the way and the extra work that needed to be done. Her mother had once mentioned something to that effect about her father, but Hannah couldn’t remember the exact reasons her mother had given. She just knew she didn’t want Jake to be overburdened. He already had enough to do.
    When she had finished husking the corn, she left the ears lying on the ground and returned to the kitchen. She pulled her pressure cooker off the bottom shelf of the cabinet and carefully added the correct amount of water. Trying to remember what her mother had done next, Hannah tapped the pressure gauge to check it. Sure enough, the little black needle bounced in response to her taps.
    She had purchased the cooker at a garage sale in Libby soon after she and Jake were married. Surprisingly, she had not received one among the wedding gifts. She remembered, with regret, receiving a cooker for her presumed wedding to Sam, but after the wedding was cancelled, Kathy had insisted they return the gifts.
    She tapped the round gauge again and got another little bounce out of the needle. Surely it was fine. It had given her no problems all summer. Still, the idea of a malfunctioning gauge on a pressure cooker was not a trifle. That would be one embarrassment she could do without.
    “You’ll be a good boy,” she told the cooker, “and do your job just right.” She then laughed at herself and said aloud, “I do need a baby. I’m talking to the kitchen pots!”
    Hannah left the control knob in the off position and pushed the cooker to the side of the stove. She then returned to the yard to slice the corn from the cobs. When she had enough for one sizeable batch, she went back to the kitchen and filled the jars, pleased to find there was still corn left over.
    She slipped the filled jars into the cooker and moved it back onto the stove. Hopefully she could cut enough corn for a second batch before the cooker whistled. Quickly she went back to the pile of corn in the yard and sliced away, glad this job would soon be done.
    When Hannah stepped back into the kitchen, she was disappointed to find that the fire was lower than it should be and the water wasn’t boiling yet. After searching for the cause, she saw that the ash pan was full. She would have to remove the sliding tray, carry the pile of ashes to the edge of the woods, and dump it.
    Jake, because of his fire spotting days, had frequently warned her of the danger of a fire starting from ashes. Back home in Indiana, there was no stove to make fires in and few woods to burn up. Here, though, there was great danger, and so Jake had cleared a little area by the side of the garden to dispose of ashes safely.
    Usually Hannah would