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her gaze and prayed the sheriff didn’t notice her reddening cheeks.
    “I think the wind is stopping,” he said, his voice strangely hoarse. “I’ll take a look outside.” He grabbed his duster and left.

    Not only had the storm not let up, but it snowed harder than when Donovan had last checked. He pulled up his collar and dug his hands deep into his pockets.
    “God would never take away people we care about because He loves us.”
    Why did Miss Parker’s words keep running through his mind? He neverblamed God for what happened to his family. True, he’d stopped going to church, and he couldn’t remember the last time he’d prayed, but that didn’t mean he was angry at God. Or did it?
    “God would never take away people we care about….”
    Maybe he
had
been angry at God, but who could blame him?
    He stood in front of the cabin door with the wind and snow in his face and Jimmy’s and Sophie’s querulous voices at his back. He wanted to believe in a good and kind and loving God, but he was cold and hungry, and his body ached from sleeping on the hard wood floor. At that moment it was hard to believe in anything.

Chapter 4
    Miss Parker’s Class
    When God said there should be peas on earth, I don’t think He meant us to eat them.
George, age 6
    M addie woke on the morning of Christmas Eve to find the fire almost out. Stuffing her feet in her high button shoes and pulling her woolen cloak around her shoulders, she hurried to add wood to the fire, poking it until flames climbed up the chimney.
    It was then that she noticed Jimmy was missing. Thinking he was using the makeshift privy, she called to him. “Jimmy, are you there?”
    No answer. She peered behind the slanted pews.
    No sign of Jimmy. Alarmed, she swung around and checked the door—unbolted. Cold fear shot down her spine.
    “Sheriff, wake up,” she shouted. “Jimmy’s gone!”
    She yanked open the door, and the wind and snow swept in. The storm still raged, and she could barely see outside.
    “Jimmy!” she screamed on the top of her lungs, but the wind carried her voice away.
    She stumbled outside, blindly grabbing hold of the guide rope Donovan had stretched from the porch to the rear of the cabin. “Jimmy!” The wind hit her full force, but she kept going, the rope digging into her palms.
    The rope ended at the lean-to, but it was too dark to see anything. “Jimmy!”
    Letting go of the rope, she stepped away from the building and sank into what seemed like a bottomless pit. Her feet struck hard ice, and a pain shot up her shins.
    Frantic, she pushed away the chest-high snow, fingers stiff, hands numb with cold. She couldn’t move her legs, couldn’t see, couldn’t breathe. She flailed her arms, trying in vain to reach the guide rope, but it was no good. All she could do was scream at the top of her lungs.
    “Jimmy!”
    Fear gripped her even harder than the snow. The searing wind cut into her face like icy knives. She gasped for air, and a sob rose from her very depths.
Where is he, God? Help me!
    She felt herself move upward. Was it her imagination? Was this how it felt to go to heaven? She gradually grew conscious of hands beneath her arms, strong, firm, and capable hands. She collapsed into a circle of warmth, her body wracked with sobs.
    Clinging to Donovan, she cried, “I can’t find Jimmy.”
    “I’ll find him,” Donovan shouted in her ear. “Go back inside.”
    “He’ll die out here!”
    “I’ll find him.”
    She choked back a cry. No one could stand the cold for long, certainly no child. Donovan scooped her in his arms and held her close as he carried her back to the wooden porch, his boots crunching against the snow.
    He set her upright on the steps, but her knees threatened to give way.
If anything happens to Jimmy … Oh, God …
    Donovan opened the door and pushed her inside. Chilled to the bone, she was unable to fight him.
    “Miss Parker, look!” Sophie cried.
    Shivering so much her teeth chattered, it took