The McRae Series 01 - Twelve Days Sam and Rachel

have to tell anybody why I'm looking for her or where you and Zach and Grace are. I'll just go see if I can find her."
    "My dad..." she began. "He gets really mad sometimes."
    "I'm not going to let him find you."
    "But, he might... hurt you."
    Sam would like to see him try. "I think I can take care of myself, Emma. It's different when a man's trying something like that with another man. It's not as easy to push a man around as it is a child or a woman. "
    "Okay."
    "So tomorrow, I'll go see what I can find out about your mother."
    "Do you want me to tell you her name? It's not the same as my dad's. Not anymore," she said. "We changed it. We changed 'em all. So if anybody asked, you still wouldn't know my dad's name. You still couldn't tell. Nobody could send us back to him."
    Sam hesitated. They were splitting hairs here. He didn't want to know her father's name before because he didn't intend to ever say anything about her father to anyone. But if that's where Emma's mother went and something happened to her... The situation had changed. He wasn't sure he could explain that to Emma without scaring her. Shepherdsville was a fairly small town. He didn't think it would be that hard to find out about her mother.
    "You don't have to tell me her name," he said. "But she was going to Shepherdsville, in Indiana, wasn't she?"
    "You know?" she asked breathlessly.
    "I just figured it out. But I haven't told anyone."
    "Okay."
    "Okay. Let me see what I can find out. If I need her name, I'll call from there. We'll let this be our secret, okay? I don't think we should tell anyone about it until we know something, okay?"
    "I can keep a secret," she said.
    "I know. I'm going to do my best to bring her back to you, Emma."
    "She's going to be in trouble, isn't she? For leaving us like that. I heard that lady—Miriam—talking about it. Mothers get in trouble for things like this."
    "They can. It depends on why she left you, why she didn't come back."
    "Something must have happened to her," Emma cried. "She's a good mother. Something must have happened."
    "I'll find out," he promised. "Do you trust me to do that, Emma?"
    "Yes," she cried.
    "Okay."
    He looked down at the snow globe, still clutched in her hand like a talisman to ward off evil, and thought about the chances of Emma having this with her when she ended up here. He thought about signs and faith and hope and what little he had left that he truly believed in, that he'd ever believed in in his entire life.
    Of course, Emma was here, and she was safe. She and her brother and sister had arrived here just in time to save his wife from what he feared now would have been a serious depression and they'd gotten him and Rachel to talk about things they hadn't dared mention in years. What were the chances of that? Of anything saving them at this late date?
    "You don't believe, do you?" Emma asked solemnly, holding her prize possession out to him.
    Sam took it and gave it a little shake. The snow started tumbling down on the little house, and it did indeed look like something out of a fairy tale. He'd thought that the first Christmas after he and Rachel had finished restoring the house and then spent money they didn't have to deck it out for Christmas. It had looked like a fairy-tale place.
    Of course, they'd already lost their baby by then and Rachel's grandfather had been sinking fast. Her mother was soon to follow. A pretty place didn't make a pretty life for the people inside of it.
    "Rachel said she used to believe this was a magical house," Emma said.
    He wondered if that was before or after they'd come to live here and thought it must have been before. And there was no sense thinking of things like that. They couldn't go back, and he wasn't sure if they could go forward. He wasn't sure of anything anymore except that he was going to do all he could to help these lost, scared kids.
    "I don't know what I believe in anymore, Emma. But I'll go tomorrow to look for your mother," he said gently. "Can we go inside now?"
    "I guess so."
    He left his arm around her shoulders and kept her close. "You have to promise me something else."
    "What?"
    "You will never sneak out of this house again."
    "Okay. I'm sorry."
    "It's all right. I just worry about you. I don't want anything to happen to you."
    "Okay."
    He walked inside and up the stairs with her, waited out in the hall while she changed into a dry nightgown, and then tucked her into bed and kissed her cheek.
    "Sam?" she whispered when he