Just Above a Whisper

by Lori Wick

  Doyle now waited for the next question, but it didn’t come. He wondered what his expression had been when Cathy defended herself.

  “Maddie said I should ask questions.”

  “You should. I just wish I knew more.”

  “Doyle,” Cathy came close now, her eyes worried. “Are you really all right?”

  He put his hands on her shoulders and answered calmly, “Yes. It was a spiritual and emotional issue, not a physical one.”

  Her heart still worried, Cathy nodded, but she also still pondered her niece’s words. Doyle watched the expressions chase across her face and put his arms around her.

  “We’ll get it, Cathy,” he spoke reassuringly. “Don’t you worry. God won’t give up on us yet.”

  “How do you like big cities?” Dalton asked when he found Reese an hour after the last question.

  “I don’t know. I’ve never been to one.”

  Reese was familiar with the sounds of the house and heard the front door just then. Dalton didn’t seem to notice. Nor did he notice when Conner appeared in the kitchen doorway a short time later.

  “You’ll have to visit,” Dalton was saying. “I think you’d like it.”

  “I might,” Reese agreed.

  “And what about families visiting? Is that something that sounds fun to you?”

  “Well,” Reese said honestly, “I don’t have any family.”

  “But what if your husband had family?”

  Reese caught the astonished look on Conner’s face and had to smile.

  “I think it would fine,” Reese said.

  “Okay,” Dalton said with pleasure and turned to the door. The way he jerked to a halt was one of the funniest things Reese had ever seen. She bit her lip hard to keep from laughing, not wanting to miss this interchange.

  “Conner!” Dalton’s voice was evidence enough that he’d been caught in the act. “I didn’t see you.”

  “Clearly,” Conner said, somewhere between amusement and frustration.

  “I was just heading back to the study,” Dalton muttered, attempting to restore some of his dignity. “Reese will call me when dinner is ready.”

  Conner moved out of the way so his brother could pass and then walked very deliberately into the kitchen.

  “Do not tell me that he’s been like that all morning.”

  Remaining silent, Reese only looked at him.

  “Reese?”

  “You said not to tell you.”

  Conner shook his head.

  “What did he want to know?”

  “What didn’t he want to know?” Reese said with a smile, not willing to tell all.

  “Is tomorrow Friday?” Conner asked suddenly.

  “Yes.”

  Conner smiled a smile that was a bit wicked and headed toward the dining room.

  Reese knew that Alison would be working on tea preparations and that Mrs. Greenlowe was also expecting her home soon, but she had to talk to the pastor’s wife. Going around to the kitchen door, she knocked and slipped inside, happy to find only Alison and Martin.

  “Hi, Reese. Done at the big house for today?”

  “All done.”

  “What will you and Mrs. Greenlowe do tonight?”

  “Alison, should I cut off some of my hair?”

  Alison, who had been half attending while putting the kettle on, stopped and looked at her guest.

  “Your hair is beautiful. Why would you cut some off?”

  “Oh, just in case.”

  “In case of what?”

  “It might look better.”

  “Marty, run along upstairs for a moment, will you?” his mother asked.

  “Okay,” the little boy agreed, and Alison came to sit next to Reese. She wanted Reese to tell her what was going on but didn’t know quite how to find out.

  “Is there anything you want to tell me?” Alison tried.

  “About what?” Reese asked, not able to meet the older woman’s eyes.

  “About why you’re suddenly worried over your appearance.”

  “Did you never worry about your looks when you first met Douglas?”

  Alison nodded and admitted, “When he became interested, I did worry, yes.”

  Reese didn’t comment.

  “Is there someone whose opinion you’re worried about?”

  “Maybe,” Reese answered, not willing to tell all just yet. But in truth Alison didn’t need much more. Reese’s eyes were filled with longing and questions, and Alison’s heart melted a little at the sight. She also made a swift decision not to pry.

  “If you decide you want me to have more details, you know you can share with me.”

  “Thank you, Alison.” Reese stood. “I’d best get home.”

  “Tell Mrs. Greenlowe I said hello. And as for the hair, if I were you I’d think about it a bit longer.”

  “I’ll do that,” Reese replied and was gone a moment later.

  Alison meant what she said: She would be there if Reese wanted to talk, but waiting might be harder than she first imagined.

  Nineteen

  “Will you see if Doyle has any more of this fabric?” Reese asked Mrs. Greenlowe. She had run upstairs as soon as she got home and grabbed the other swatch she’d been eyeing. This one had a navy background with a coral design and tiny white flowers for accent.

  “Sure, I will,” the older woman agreed. “You want another dress?”

  Reese nodded.

  “It’s him, isn’t it?” Mrs. Greenlowe asked, her voice thoughtful. “He’s getting to your heart, isn’t he?”

  “Maybe a little,” Reese admitted, her face more vulnerable than she would have believed.

  “You’re a good girl, Reese,” Mrs. Greenlowe said, and Reese saw her opportunity. “And don’t deny it,” the landlady put in before she could speak.

  “I want to,” Reese said quietly.

  “There’s no reason,” Mrs. Greenlowe replied, looking a little agitated, and Reese knew it was not the time. Indeed she needed to face the fact that it might never be time.

  “What can I help with?” Reese offered instead, seeing that tea was almost ready.

  “Grab those plates and that teapot, and we’ll eat.”

  Reese did as she was told, taking heart in the fact that whenever they ate together, Mrs. Greenlowe never objected to her praying.

  “I’m leaving tomorrow,” Dalton told Douglas, sitting in that man’s study at the end of the workday.

  “It’s been great to see you,” Douglas said sincerely. “You must miss your family.”

  “I do miss them. I don’t travel much without them, and they’ve been on my mind almost constantly.”

  “And it seems that your daughter is going to be fine?”

  “Yes. The doctors never did figure out what gave her such a high fever and made her so tired, but she’s getting life back into her now, and I’m thankful.”

  “Well, you know I pray for you.”

  “And I you,” Dalton told him.

  The men said goodbye then, both having enjoyed the times of reliving memories and making new ones. After saying a swift goodbye to Alison and the Muldoon children, Dalton headed home for tea and a meeting with Troy and Conner about the future of the bank.

  “I made some sandwiches and cookies for your trip,” Reese told Dalton on Friday morning, rendering that man speechless.

  When he didn’t say anything, Reese looked to Troy.

  “He’s pleased, Reese. Just give him a moment.”

  “Thank you,” Dalton spoke quietly, sounding much like Conner. “May I say that if I had a son old enough, I would bring him to Tucker Mills to meet you.”

  Reese felt her face heat, something that didn’t happen often, but she still managed to smile and murmur a thank-you.

  “Why is Reese blushing?” Conner asked as soon as he walked into the room.

  “I embarrassed her,” his brother confessed.

  Conner’s eyes were on Reese. With a lift of his brows, he asked if
she was all right.

  Managing a small smile, Reese said her goodbyes and headed to the kitchen.

  The men left for the train station a short time later, both Troy and Conner going to see Dalton off.

  “Tell Susie I said hello, and kiss my nieces and hug my nephews,” Conner made a point of saying.

  “And tell my family I’ll visit when I can,” Troy added.

  “I’ll do it. And Conner, you do something about Reese.”

  “What exactly do you suggest I do?” Conner asked, brows raised in amusement.

  Always so full of words and advice, Dalton just looked at Conner for a moment.

  “This one isn’t easy, is it?” he said.

  “You noticed, did you?”

  “Yes. She’s hard to read, and since she’s in your employ, you don’t want her to feel that she can’t say no about seeing you. If you do start to see each other, what will that do to her reputation?”

  “Just up and marry her,” Troy suggested, bringing laughter from both brothers.

  The train was ready to leave. Dalton hugged Troy and then turned to his brother, once again searching for words.

  “I love you, Conner,” he finally managed. “And if God sees fit to bless you with a life spent with Reese Thackery, you’ll be the only man on earth happier about it than me.”

  The brothers hugged unashamedly on the train station platform before Dalton had to board. Conner and Troy waved to him once he appeared in the window and then started back toward the green, Conner with plans to go to the bank, and Troy back to the house.

  “Are you going to be all right?” Troy asked.

  “Why would you ask that?”

  “Oh, I’m just a little concerned that without Dalton here, you might not know how to proceed.”

  Conner stopped walking and looked at him.

  “He did give me more excuses to talk to Reese, didn’t he?”

  Troy only smiled.

  “I’ll see you at dinner.” Conner ended up saying less than he was thinking, but he did ponder the matter all the way to the bank.

  On his way back to the big house and knowing the morning would rush by, Troy also knew that if he wanted to say more, it would hold until dinnertime.

  “Vashti,” Conner tried at dinnertime, only to have Reese look at him in horror.

  “As in the first queen in the book of Esther?”

  “Yes,” Conner said, his look sheepish. “I’m running out of names.”

  “Well, it’s not Vashti,” Reese told him in no uncertain terms. “My mother wasn’t that eccentric.”

  “So this isn’t a normal name?”

  “No, it’s not. In fact, I’ve never heard anyone with this name.”

  “Is it something she made up?”

  “It might be,” Reese said with a shrug, not certain what her mother had been thinking.

  “You never asked her?” Conner questioned next.

  “She died when I was six,” Reese explained.

  “How did she die?”

  “Having my sister.”

  “You have a sister?”

  “No, she died with her.”

  Conner could only nod. He had come into a family with both parents hale and hearty, not to mention six older siblings. He couldn’t imagine being so alone in the world.

  “And when your father was alive, did the two of you get on well?”

  “Most of the time. He would fall into bouts of serious discouragement, and then I would feel left out because he wouldn’t want to talk or do anything.”

  “Was that before or after he indentured himself?”

  “In my memory it started right after my mother and sister died. But then he would remember he had me and snap out of it for a while. Sometimes he would even go months in a normal way, but then he might get down and sit around the house for as much as two weeks, not doing anything or talking.”

  “What would you do?”

  “I just kept going to school and cooking what I knew how to make. It was usually when we ran completely out of food that he would snap out of it because I would start crying and carrying on until he responded.”

  “Are there any good memories, Reese, or are they all overshadowed by the pain of the past?”

  “There are some good memories. I can actually see my mother reading her Bible by the fire. I have no memory of her talking to me about it, but it gives me hope that she might have believed.

  “And the same goes with my father. He didn’t do well with teaching me, but when he remembered, we prayed before meals. I’m not sure if it was some sort of tradition for him or he had a genuine belief in Christ.

  “And too, Mr. Zantow was never a threat to me before my father died, and I feel comforted knowing that if he’d been there to protect me, my father would never have let me be harmed.”

  I want to be here to protect her now, heavenly Father, Conner found his heart praying. I want to take care of her. Please help me know how to proceed. Please help me be wise, and put Your hand on my heart—Reese’s as well.

  “I’d better put dinner on,” Reese remembered when she heard Troy come out of his office. There was a particular board that always creaked.

  When the men sat down to eat a short time later, Reese sat in the kitchen and ate her own meal. Conner was under the impression that she liked to eat later, or he would have invited her to join them.

  Enjoying the food she made in the warmth of the kitchen, Reese realized she was beginning to care for Conner Kingsley in a very significant way. She had no idea that the feelings were being reciprocated no small amount.

  “I’m getting fat,” Maddie told her husband over dinner.

  “Is that right?” Jace smiled, rather enjoying her rounder curves.

  “Don’t you dare look so pleased, Jace Randall. I’ve got months to go.”

  “You work too hard to get fat” were Jace’s words of comfort, and Maddie took them. She did manage to get into town fairly often, but chores at the farm were nonstop, even with Clara’s help.

  “Well, you’ll have to tell me if I start to repulse you.”

  Jace’s brows rose. “Did I seem repulsed last night?” he asked.

  “Shh,” Maddie hushed him, just covering a laugh. “Clara’s in the kitchen.”

  Jace only smiled at her, his look warm. Had he shared them, his thoughts were not about physical intimacy, but about the way God had blessed him. He loved his wife, and she was going to have their baby. Jace now knew how sweet life could be. And not because he’d done anything, but because Christ had done it all.

  With the crops waiting, cool temperatures or not Jace could not dawdle at the dinner table. He gave Maddie a lingering kiss before going back to work, still thinking about the work God could do in a repentant heart.

  “I’m going to be in the side yard,” Reese popped her head into the office long enough to tell Conner, just as they agreed that she would. Conner had not insisted that she never venture outdoors but only that she tell whomever was at the house during the time when she did go.

  “All right,” he agreed, and tried to take his mind back to the papers in front of him. It didn’t work. Giving up just ten minutes later, Conner went all the way down to the buttery workroom and out the door to find her.

  To his surprise, she was eating her dinner on the bench. Conner didn’t wait to be invited but sat down, once again trapping her skirt.

  “It’s a little cold out here,” he said, taking in her coat. It was rather threadbare in places.

  “It is, but the fresh air is worth it.”

  Conner smiled as his head went back, and he looked across at the trees that changed a bit more every week. The colors were amazing, colors only God could have imagined.

  “Do you have a scar?” Reese asked, and Conner looked down to find her staring up at him.

  “I do, yes.”

  “Does it ever pain you?”

  “Not anymore. It itched and hurt for many years, but not now.”

  “D
o you get tried of wearing your cravat all the time? Or are you used to it?”

  “I’m used to it. It was more of a problem when I was a boy and none of the other boys wore them.”

  Reese smiled. “It’s nice that your family is in banking. It would make you awfully hot on a farm.”

  Conner smiled in return, more pleased than he revealed that she was relaxed with the subject.

  “Well, I’d better get back to work,” Reese commented, having finished the last of her food and coffee. She started to stand but found her skirt trapped. She looked to Conner, who was taking a long look at the sky, seeming not to notice her predicament. After some moments he looked down and pretended to be startled.

  “You’re still here.”

  “As you see,” Reese said, fighting a smile.

  “Problems?”

  “Just one large one.”

  Conner’s head went back as he laughed, and Reese found that she liked the quiet sound. He also shifted over and freed her skirt. Then with one fluid move he stood, reached for her plate and cup, and held the door to allow her back inside.

  Watching from the cover of a few nearby trees, Gerald felt cold, much colder than the weather would merit. Deep in his heart he’d known that Reese Thackery was not going to fall for him, but somehow he’d hoped. And even today—arriving just before Conner made an appearance and hiding in the trees—he hadn’t heard the conversation, but he could see what was happening.

  Just to be on the safe side, Gerald waited for them to go indoors before he slipped away. With every step that took him away from the big house, he asked himself what he was going to do.

  “How are you doing?” Maddie asked her aunt when they stopped in for dinner on Sunday afternoon.

  “We didn’t go to the meetinghouse today,” Cathy wasted no time in sharing quietly while the women finished putting the final touches on dinner. “Doyle’s not sure he wants to go to the meetinghouse on the green anymore, and I’m not sure I can go to the new one.”