Beauty From Ashes

by Lynnette Bonner

  “Neither would I.” Rose gave a firm nod of her head.

  Dixie looked sympathetic. “The poor dear. We’ll have to remember to send her home a plate.”

  “Yes. I promised her as much.”

  Flynn entered the kitchen just then. “Mmmm. Smells like heaven in here! Morning, Liora. Tess.” He nodded to them, and then gave his wife an unhurried, lingering kiss.

  Dixie finally pulled back with a giggle and swatted him with the apron in her hand. “You scoundrel. Can you please carry food over to the church? You can start with the cake, but then come back for the chicken.”

  Liora set her basket on the sideboard. “And Flynn? If you don’t mind, could you carry this basket over for me? I’m afraid Joe’s gone down to the livery and the basket is some heavier than I first thought.”

  Tess gave her a frown of curiosity, but held her silence.

  Flynn offered a little bow, apparently none-the-wiser to her little deception. “Happy to oblige.” He left with the cake in one hand and Liora’s basket gripped in the other.

  When Liora turned back to look at Dixie, she found her friend’s gaze on her. “You shouldn’t let them get to you.”

  Liora swallowed. She couldn’t talk about this right now or she would end up in a crumpled heap of tears on a day that should be nothing but celebration. She tugged her gloves from her fingers and tucked them into her reticule. “Is there anything I can carry over for you?”

  Dixie’s expression indicated the conversation was not over, but all she said was, “You could carry the stack of green tablecloths there. And Tess if you don’t mind, bring the bucket of greenery?” She nodded toward it by the back door.

  Dixie picked up a stack of lace linens and Rose lifted a crate full of crystal candle holders and candles. Together they headed across the street and past the empty lot to the church.

  At some point this week the men of the town had emptied the church of almost all the pews and set up a long row of tables near one wall. There would be room to have food served down both sides of the tables, and still leave plenty of area for people to visit and mingle.

  Mrs. King and Mrs. Hines were directing everyone to place their food on the few pews that lined the wall opposite from the tables. “There you are!” Mrs. Hines snipped at Dixie. “Goodness. Here we are with food arriving and no place to put it yet.”

  “I’m sorry, Pricilla. We’re here now and it should only take us a moment.”

  Liora didn’t meet Pricilla’s gaze when she hurried past with the tablecloths. It didn’t take her and the other ladies long to get the tablecloths smoothed, the lace squares laid out to form diamonds on the table tops, and the greenery woven down the middle of it all. Then they set to transferring the food dishes from the pews to the tables.

  “I saw Flynn carrying the basket. Sorry about that. I should have thought to carry it for you.”

  Liora, who had leaned across the table to place a basket of rolls on the other side, started at the sound of Joe’s voice beside her. She stood and found him so near that her shoulder bumped into his chest. His hand came to rest against the small of her back, and at the look of concern in his dark eyes, her conscience pricked her. She opened her mouth, but Tess, who was just setting a dish down across the table, beat her to it.

  “Basket got some heavier the moment we reached Miz Dixie’s kitchen. Ain’t that something?”

  Joe frowned. “What?”

  Liora shook her head. “It’s nothing.”

  “Wait a minute.” His focus flashed to the two women in feather hats still gabbing by the church doors, before it flitted back to her. “Those two again, huh?” There was compassion in his voice.

  Liora sighed. In as few words as possible, she explained what had happened the last time she’d brought a dish.

  Joe’s lips pinched into aggravation. “It’s certainly a good thing the light of Jesus shines so strongly from those two, isn’t it?” His wink urged her to good cheer.

  She couldn’t help but chuckle at his joke, even as she looked over at the two women. “You know… I think Ethel would actually be nice to me, but Pricilla influences her.”

  “You are some woman, Liora. Most women would meet them battle for battle. I admire your desire to seek peace. But you’ll forgive me if I go to battle for you, hmmm?” She felt the gentle squeeze Joe gave to her shoulder before he walked away to join Flynn and the parson near the front.

  Liora pondered as he walked away. Was it really her desire to bring peace? Or simply to avoid humiliation?

  And what did Joe plan to do? She knew better than to fight him about that this time, but… Lord, please don’t let him humiliate me.

  Her cheeks burned. There was the answer to her question. Most definitely her motives had selfishly been to avoid embarrassment.

  Lord, am I ever to be making decisions for the wrong reasons? Help me to be more like you.

  She determined that at some point today she would go out of her way to try to make a true and real peace with both Mrs. Hines and Mrs. King.

  And she was certainly going to need the Lord’s help to make that happen!

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  Joe could still feel the heat of his anger as he approached the parson and Doc. He needed to calm down. Giving Mrs. Hines too much space in his mind and thoughts could lead to no good. Indigestion. That was all he was likely to get. A burning case of indigestion.

  Doc was speaking to Preston in low tones.

  Joe hesitated. “Am I interrupting?”

  The parson shook his head. “No. No. Please join us. Flynn here was just giving me a last-moment jolt of gumption.”

  Joe laid a hand on his shoulder. But he’d already said his piece about the parson’s predicament, so he asked instead, “Where’s Kin? I haven’t seen him around today.”

  Preston scrubbed the back of his neck. “He hasn’t come home for a couple nights. I’m afraid to think where he might be.”

  Flynn chuckled. “Teenagers. What is he now? Seventeen?”

  Preston nodded. “Yeah. If only my sole concern for the lad was the normal insubordination common in that age. But I’m afraid… Well…” The parson’s face paled a little. “Truth is, I’m afraid he’s a lot like I was at his age. And he’s going to be in for some rough lessons.”

  Joe exchanged a look with Flynn. This was the first he’d heard of the parson being a ruffian. Now was not the time to give him a hard time about it, however. “Wash generally gets through to him fairly well. Have you asked him to talk to him?” Joe nodded toward Washington Nolan, who was openly flirting with Zoe Kastain in the corner.

  “No. Maybe I’ll try that today. He’s not in trouble with the law, is he? I half expected he might have been arrested again.”

  Joe shook his head. “Not as far as I know.”

  “Well that’s a relief, anyway. By the way, Joe, you’re handy with construction…any idea how the Kings’ cat might have gotten into the sanctuary?”

  “What?” Joe tried to catch up to the topic change.

  Preston nodded. “Yes. You heard right. When I came over early this morning, their cat was in here, curled up under the stove. I shooed it out.”

  Joe chuckled. “Well, with your policy of leaving the doors unlocked so people can come in anytime to pray, it’s likely that someone came in and the cat followed them, then got left inside. But we can check to see if there’s any other way it could have gotten in also.”

  “Joe?” Liora approached. “Could you get a fire going? With all the in and out we’ve been doing, we’ve had the door propped open. We can’t have the bride catching cold only a few weeks before her wedding. And they should be arriving soon.”

  Joe allowed a lazy smile. “Which bride are you talking about?” He was gratified to see a pretty blush sweep across her cheeks.

  “Joseph Robert!” She whispered his name fiercely.

  The parson and Doc both gave him congratulatory socks to his shoulders.

  Joe realized he may h
ave started something he shouldn’t have. He chuckled. “Now don’t go spreading rumors fellas. I’m still trying to convince her.”

  Doc leaned toward Liora. “How could a gal resist such a fine specimen of a man?”

  Liora’s face was even redder now. “Joe? The fire?”

  He tipped her an imaginary hat, since his was hanging in the church entry. “Yes, ma’am.”

  She giggled and hurried off, and my how that sound did his heart good.

  Tess sat on a chair by the stove. He gave her a nod as he approached. “You having a good time, Tess?”

  She smiled. “Yessuh. Miss Liora said she didn’t need no more help, and I’m just sittin’ here ponderin’ and enjoyin’ the hubbub.”

  Joe opened the stove door as he scanned the room behind them. “Hubbub sure about sums it up, doesn’t it?”

  The church was full of townsfolk now. And the tables, laden with food, didn’t look like they had a spare inch for another dish. David Hines dashed over to the desserts and snatched a cookie from one of the plates. In the blink of an eye, half of it disappeared into his mouth. Crumbs trailed down the boy’s freckled chin. Mrs. Hines hoisted her skirts and scurried toward him. “David! I do declare! We haven’t even had lunch yet. No more sweets! And I mean it.”

  David hung his red curly head, cookie dropping to his side, shoulders slumping. “Yes ma’am,” he mumbled.

  Joe was gratified to see Mrs. Hines give the boy an affectionate pat. “Very well then. Run along and play.”

  The moment her back was turned, David snagged another cookie off of the plate. Using his body as a shield, he kept the new cookie carefully hidden from his stepmother as he dashed past her to join his friends in the corner of the sanctuary.

  Tess giggled.

  And Joe couldn’t help but grin, himself. “Guess that boy’s bound to keep her on her toes.”

  Tess nodded. “Yessuh.”

  Joe’s focus shifted to Liora. Would she ever change her mind about his proposal? Give him children that would keep them both scurrying to catch up?

  She looked up then and met his eyes across the room, as though she’d been able to feel him watching her.

  He let all the love he was feeling shine through his eyes.

  Her face turned a pretty pink and she deliberately turned back to her conversation with Dixie and Rose.

  He grinned as he turned back to the stove and found Tess’s gaze fixed directly on him.

  Her eyes sparkled. “You ever gonna ask her to marry you?”

  He gave a roll of this shoulders. “Already did. She turned me down flat. Twice.”

  Tess hummed a thoughtful note. “She’ll come to her senses one o’ these days. My mama woulda said she looks at you like you done hung the moon.”

  “Does she?” Joe chuckled. “Could have fooled me. But if she asked me to hang it, I’d sure give it my best shot.”

  Tess gave a definitive nod. “She know that too.”

  Kin leaned over the neck of the horse he’d stolen from in front of the Timber Saloon. Pain punched him with each hoofbeat, but he was nearly to town now and wasn’t about to give into the need for rest when he was this close to victory.

  He searched the horizon, still half worried that at any moment he was going to see a huge black plume of smoke tower into the sky. But there was still nothing but the crystalline expanse of turquoise-blue.

  “Hah!” He slapped the ends of the reins against the horse’s rump, urging it to take the last hill into town at a gallop. The horse surged past the livery as a thin gray vapor wisped from the church stovepipe. “No!” He leaned so low he was practically flat against the horse’s foam-flecked neck. “Hah!”

  The horse flagged. Stumbled. He’d ridden it too hard. It stopped in front of McGinty’s, sides heaving, staggering a bit.

  Kin leaped from the saddle and surged toward the church, clutching at the pain in his side.

  Another puff of smoke billowed from the church’s chimney.

  Terror stung Kin’s eyes.

  God, please. He didn’t even have time to be surprised by his prayer. He just kept running.

  Why had the parsonage been built so far from the other buildings in town?

  Joe finally got the kindling in the woodstove to light. He’d almost had the fire going a couple times, but each time a gust of wind had blown down the chimney and extinguished the flames. This time, however, the blaze was going strong enough that it should catch. He shut the door of the stove almost all the way, leaving about an inch of gap so the stove could get a good draw of air. In a moment he would add the sticks of wood, he had waiting nearby.

  Tess rubbed her hands up and down her arms. “That warmth sure feels nice.”

  Joe smiled at her. “We’ll have this stove cranking out so much heat it will drive us all from the room in just a moment.”

  “All ’cept that one, I s’pect.” With a grin, she nodded her head to where a small freckled hand reached slowly out from beneath the long green tablecloth at the dessert table and fumbled to find the cookie plate.

  David Hines. Under the table. Attempting to sneak cookies.

  Joe chuckled.

  At the front of the room, Parson Clay cleared his throat loudly. “May I have everyone’s attention? Before Reagan and Charlotte get here and we begin the festivities, I have something I need to…say to everyone.”

  A hush fell over the room as everyone turned expectant attention toward the parson.

  He slipped one finger beneath the collar of his shirt, and it was almost more than Joe could do to keep a chuckle from escaping. He didn’t envy the man the task before him, but at the same time, he knew that everyone in the town was going to understand. Well—Joe’s gaze darted to Mrs. Hines—almost everyone.

  Preston’s volume was a bit thin when he continued. “Last week, many of you met a young man in my charge named Rory.”

  Murmurs of acknowledgment filled the room.

  “Well… it turns out that—”

  “Get out of the church!”

  Joe frowned and glanced toward the double doors at the back.

  “Everyone get out!”

  Was that Kin? What was the kid up to now? Footsteps pounded up the stairs.

  Everyone turned to see.

  The double doors at the back burst inward and Kin stood between them. His hair stood up at all angles. He was covered in dirt from the smudges on his face to the mud that clung to his boots. And blood covered one side of him from hip to knee. He heaved for breath.

  Joe felt his jaw drop open. What in—

  “Out!” Kin’s wild gaze found the parson’s. “Get everyone out now!”

  No one moved. Everyone was too stunned by the outburst and Kin’s appearance to follow his instructions.

  Kin stomped one foot, then hissed in pain and bent to clutch at his side. “John Hunt said he would blow up the church! Everyone out!”

  A pregnant moment of frozen shock burst into chaos. Women screamed. Men cried out. Children wailed, and everyone surged toward the doors at once.

  A veritable logjam of bodies crashed together in the exit, and Kin fought the current to wade deeper into the room. He was yelling something about the fire, but Joe’s one concern was to get Liora and Tess from the building. Where were they?

  He spun Kin around and nudged him back toward the doors, urging Parson Clay to move along with everyone else. He searched the room, almost everyone was out now, Liora and Tess must have already been swept outside.

  Joe was the last to leave the room. A glance behind him showed the sanctuary empty. Relief coursed through him.

  At the base of the steps, Joe grabbed Kin’s arm. He needed to ask him some questions, but first… He searched the lawn. Only when he saw Liora huddled under the oak tree with Dixie and Rose, and Tess on the lawn just a few paces away, did he relax. Doc was making his way purposefully across the lawn toward Kin, his doctor bag in his hand.

  Everyone faced the church and an expectant hush fell over the c
rowd. All eyes fixed on the sanctuary doors as if at any moment the building might ignite into a firebomb.

  Parson Clay raised his hands and his voice. “All right, everyone, we’re all safe now. Is everyone okay? Does everyone have all their loved ones? Back up. Let’s all back up.”

  Doc stopped by their side. “Kin, let me take a look at that.”

  Joe returned his focus to Kin and stopped Doc from escorting Kin away. “You can examine him right here.” He propped his hands on his hips and gave the kid a hard look. “Out with it. I need details.”

  Kin swallowed, lifting one arm so Doc could get a look at his side. “I was in Hunt’s saloon a couple nights back. He said I bought everyone drinks, though I don’t remember it. Anyhow, he said I owed him thirty dollars but that I could pay it off by bringing nitroglycerin to this gathering.” Kin trembled and winced when Doc probed his side. “I told him I would because I couldn’t see any other way out of there, but then I hid the nitro by a tree. They saw me and captured me. Locked me in a shed… The ground was near frozen, but I managed…” He waved a bloody hand as if how he’d escaped wasn’t important. “I knew I had to come and…” His gaze fixed on the church and his words trailed away in befuddlement as if even he was surprised the building was still standing.

  Joe narrowed his eyes on the boy. “So you left your nitro by some tree, but you figure he had someone else plant some?” Joe’s gaze also swung to the building. The cat. The cat could have gotten in if the door had been opened…

  “He’s John Hunt.” Kin let the words hang as though they should be sufficient explanation, but when Joe only gave him a hard look, the kid’s shoulders slumped. “He told me to hide the nitro behind the stove so that when a fire was lit…” Kin’s worried gaze turned to the smoke drifting up from the chimney. “I just figured… better safe than sorry. I didn’t want anyone getting hurt.”