Chapter 17 - Ten Children at the Courthouse Door
Margaret Bell read the Massachusetts petition and laughed.
Clara stared.
“You find this amusing?”
“Very.”
“Why?”
“Because it's nonsense.”
Clara exhaled.
“Completely?”
“Almost.”
“Almost is not completely.”
“No law in Massachusetts allows Henry's family to interfere with guardianship of unrelated children in Kansas.”
“Then why file?”
“Money.”
Of course.
Henry's brother believed Clara had received too much from the estate settlement.
If he could argue her legal obligations had materially changed before final distribution, he hoped to reopen the case.
“Can he?”
“No.”
“Absolutely no?”
Margaret sighed.
“No lawyer says absolutely.”
“I hate lawyers.”
“So does everyone.”
The petition was dismissed within weeks.
Still, it accomplished something unexpected.
Clara decided temporary language had followed the Bennett family long enough.
Guardian.
Trustee.
Custodian.
All words that described responsibility.
None described belonging.
She asked Margaret about adoption.
“All ten?”
“Yes.”
The attorney stared.
“Do you collect impossible paperwork recreationally?”
“Apparently.”
Older children would need to consent.
Edward would need to support it.
The estate structure would need revision.
Daniel's upcoming marriage complicated but did not prevent the process.
“Why now?” Margaret asked.
Clara looked toward the yard.
“Because I want them to have my name if they want it.”
“They already have Bennett.”
“I don't want them to lose it.”
Margaret smiled.
“You want both.”
“Yes.”
Bennett-Whitmore.
Or simply retain Bennett while legally becoming Clara's children.
Each child could choose.
Clara told them after supper.
Silence.
Then Tommy asked, “What's adopt?”
Ruth explained.
“It means legally Clara becomes our mother.”
May looked confused.
“She isn't already?”
Clara cried instantly.
So did Ruth.
Eli looked at the table.
“Would we have to call you Mom?”
“No.”
“Could we?”
Clara stopped.
“If you wanted.”
He nodded.
No answer.
That night, she lay awake thinking about the word.
Mother.
She had been pregnant once.
With Henry.
Four months.
Then loss.
No children after.
Doctors had told her nothing definitive.
Only that perhaps pregnancy would happen again.
Perhaps not.
Clara had believed motherhood had passed her by.
Now ten children were deciding whether to give her the name.
The adoption hearing occurred in spring.
One year and two months after Clara first arrived.
Judge Hollis sat behind the same bench.
“Are all ten necessary?” he asked Margaret.
“They came as a set.”
The judge looked at Clara.
“I see your sense of humor has worsened.”
“I spend time with lawyers.”
Margaret objected.
The judge smiled.
Each child was questioned individually.
Ruth chose to remain Ruth Bennett legally but accepted Clara as adoptive mother.
The twins chose Bennett-Whitmore because they liked how long it looked.
Nora said whichever spelling required fewer school exercises.
Caleb asked whether adoption guaranteed dessert.
Josie cried because everyone else was crying.
Tommy said yes without understanding.
Annie sat on Clara's lap.
May climbed into the witness chair again.
Judge Hollis sighed.
“We meet too often, Miss Bennett.”
“I like your hammer.”
“Gavel.”
“Can I have it?”
“No.”
“After?”
“No.”
“Okay.”
“Do you want Clara Whitmore to become your legal mother?”
May frowned.
“You asked wrong.”
The judge blinked.
“How should I ask?”
“She's already my mother. You're asking if the paper knows.”
The courtroom went silent.
Judge Hollis removed his glasses.
“You may be the finest lawyer in this room.”
Margaret whispered, “Objection.”
Everyone laughed.
Finally, Eli stepped forward.
At fifteen he had grown two inches.
Health had changed him.
So had relief.
Judge Hollis asked the same question.
Eli looked at Clara.
Then said, “Yes.”
“Would you like to change your name?”
“No.”
Clara nodded.
“Why?”
“Because Bennett is Pa.”
His voice softened.
“And Clara never asked us to stop being his.”
Clara cried.
“So I'm staying Eli Bennett.”
The judge nodded.
“And your relationship to Clara?”
Eli swallowed.
“My mother.”
One word.
Clara covered her face.
Daniel squeezed her hand.
Judge Hollis signed the order.
Ten children.
One mother.
Edward remained uncle.
Daniel would become stepfather after the wedding.
No replacement.
Only addition.
Outside the courthouse, the entire town waited.
Someone had decorated wagons.
Mrs. Harper baked cakes.
Railroad workers hung a banner:
WELCOME HOME, BENNETT FAMILY.
May complained it should include Whitmore.
Then Harlan Voss appeared.
He had been released after serving part of his sentence and agreeing to restitution.
He stood at the edge of the crowd.
Eli saw him.
For a moment neither moved.
Then Eli walked over.
Clara's heart tightened.
Voss removed his hat.
“Congratulations.”
“Thanks.”
“I heard you're studying engineering.”
“Yeah.”
“Your father would've liked that.”
Eli nodded.
Then said, “I forgive you.”
Voss closed his eyes.
When he opened them, tears were visible.
“You don't have to.”
“I know.”
That was why it mattered.
Eli walked back.
Clara put an arm around him.
“You okay?”
“Yeah.”
“You sure?”
“No.”
She smiled.
“Best answer.”
That summer, wedding preparations began.
Clara wanted small.
The children disagreed.
Mercy Ridge disagreed.
Apparently marrying the town doctor after surviving a land conspiracy obligated one to feed half the county.
Clara surrendered.
One evening Daniel stood with her beside the station.
“Do you ever think about the first day?”
“Frequently.”
“What if you boarded?”
She watched a train disappear.
“I would have survived.”
“Yes.”
“I would have returned to Boston.”
“Yes.”
“Sewed dresses.”
“Yes.”
“Grown old.”
“Possibly.”
Clara smiled.
“I think that is what frightens me.”
“What?”
“I would never have known what I missed.”
Daniel took her hand.
A family did not always announce itself.
Sometimes it waited quietly inside a wagon beneath old quilts.
Sometimes destiny did not look like destiny.
It looked like cracked lips.
Oversized boots.
Ten empty stomachs.
And a five-year-old girl holding two fingers of a stranger's glove.
The wedding was three weeks away.
Then Mercy Ridge stationmaster arrived at Bennett Farm with a telegram.
It came from Chicago.
A man claiming to be related to Mary Bennett was traveling west.
He said he had something belonging to Jacob's children.
Something Jacob's first wife had hidden before she died.
May you like
And he would arrive on the morning of Clara's wedding.
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