Beauty for Ashes

by Grace Livingston Hill

  Vanna caught sight of them and began to laugh and then to cry. “Oh, to think I’ve kicked up such a fuss as this in the m–m– middle of the n–n–night!” she gurgled out. “I’m so a–sh–shamed!”

  Robert hurried to put the hot water bottle to her feet and tuck her up warmly.

  “Darling!” said Gloria rushing to her side and dropping down on her knees beside her sister. “We’re just so glad to have you here to make a fuss. It isn’t a fuss; it’s a celebration! We’ve been so worried!”

  “They also serve who only stand and wait!” said Murray in mock solemnity. Murray was happy, for he saw the utter peace and joy in his friend’s face. “Will you have your soup now, madam, or wait until it’s cold?”

  “What in thunder am I to do with this basin, Emily?” asked John sleepily, eyeing the group indulgently.

  It was Robert who seized the basin and the soft linen rag and soap, and quite capably washed Vanna’s muddy face and hands and dried them while the others stood around and laughed and seemed to think there was nothing strange about it.

  “You see, I fell down in a mud puddle!” exclaimed Vanna, giggling embarrassedly. But Robert went straight ahead with the business at hand as if it had always been his right to look after Vanna’s needs. Emily gave John a quick, significant look and caught a wink in his left eye, but the other two did not seem to notice, and Vanna subsided into the comfort that was gradually stealing over her tired body.

  Murray drew up a low stool for Gloria and held the tray while she fed her sister.

  “You know I’m really able to feed myself,” laughed Vanna, “but this is all so nice, and I’m perfectly starved!”

  “Lie still!” commanded Gloria, the spoon poised carefully. “Just lie still and rest, darling.”

  “By the way,” said John from the doorway, “you haven’t told us a thing yet. Was there an accident? There isn’t anybody else out on the roadside unconscious or anything that we ought to go out and search for, is there?”

  “No!” said Vanna sharply. “But he wouldn’t deserve searching for if there was!”

  “Darling, never mind,” said Gloria. “You needn’t tell us anything tonight! You’re here, that’s enough! Don’t think about anything else!”

  “But I must!” said Vanna. “I’ve got to explain. I wouldn’t want to wake up to that, untold, in the morning, you know. I want to get if off my mind.”

  “Don’t bother!” said Murray indulgently. “You needn’t ever explain if you don’t want to. We all trust you, don’t we, Bob?”

  Robert grinned, sitting down on his heels before the fire and holding one wet shirtsleeve out to dry.

  “But I must tell,” said Vanna determinedly.

  “Better let her get it off her mind,” said John lazily, leaning against the doorway and drawing his sleepy wife within his arm. “Besides, if there’s a duel ahead of us or anything, we’d better be prepared. Go ahead, Vanna!”

  “Don’t bother, darling!” whispered Glory. “I’ll tell them in the morning.”

  “No, Glory,” said her sister, “I feel better now, and I’m so ashamed about the whole thing I don’t know what to do! Holding up the evening’s program and making all this fuss in the middle of the night!”

  “It isn’t night any longer,” said John Hastings with a wink at the rest. “There’s a streak of dawn in the sky, and besides, we’re all enjoying the celebration, only I want to know what it’s a celebration of, please.”

  “Shut up, John!” said his wife, laughing. “You’re only pro-longing the agony!”

  “We got by with the singing all right,” said Murray soothingly. “Didn’t we, Gloria? And you’re not to think of that part again. If anything happened that was unpleasant and you want us to go out and lick somebody, Bob and I are ready anytime, and we’ll take John along to make sure. How about it, John?”

  “Sure thing!” said John.

  And then Vanna looked around on the oddly attired group— Gloria in her butterfly robe, Emily in a gray flannel wrapper, Robert in his shirtsleeves, Murray collarless with uncombed hair, and John in a bathrobe—and thought how dear they all were and nearly choked over the spoonful of soup that Gloria had just put in her mouth.

  “Hush! I’ve got to tell,” she said when she had recovered speech. “The whole thing was my fault. I shouldn’t have gone at all. I knew that man wasn’t considered an angel. I knew he drank heavily. But he had come all the way up from home to see me, wanting to take me back again, and I couldn’t seem to get rid of him easily. It was a compromise, this going out to ride with him for a couple of hours, and he promised he would get me back by five o’clock. I shouldn’t have trusted him, of course. I knew he wasn’t always trustworthy—at least people said so. It was just my pride, I guess. I thought I could make him do what I told him to. But when we got out on the highway an hour from here and I tried to make him turn back, he pleasantly but absolutely refused. He made me very angry, and I tried to show him I was offended, but that didn’t work at all. He told me he was going to take me to a place he knew for dinner, but he went on and on until it grew dark and late before we got there. I was frightened and angry, but I didn’t know what to do. He drove like mad, sixty and seventy-five miles an hour sometimes. I couldn’t jump out.”

  “Oh!” said Gloria, hiding her face in her hands and shuddering. “I’ve been envisioning some such thing all the evening!”

  Vanna put her hand out and rested it on Gloria’s golden head. “Poor kid!” she said softly. “You warned me! I ought to have listened to you!”

  “Was there an accident? Did you go over a cliff or anything?” asked Emily excitedly.

  “No,” said Vanna, “we stopped quietly and went into this roadhouse for dinner, but while he was ordering the table, I slipped away and found an outside door. There was a delivery truck just starting back to a town. I didn’t know what town; I don’t know the name yet; I didn’t ask. I begged the driver to take me back with him, told him I wanted to catch a train. I offered him five dollars, and he took me willingly enough.”

  “Oh, I’m so glad you had some money with you!” sighed Gloria. “I found your bag up in the drawer with money in it and I didn’t know whether you had more or not.”

  “Yes, fortunately I had enough, but not much left over after I paid my fare. But, Glory, when the train came—it was late, of course, and I sat on a strawberry crate to wait for it—but when it came, it was freight train, and I had to ride in the caboose! That was an experience! I’ll tell about it tomorrow.”

  “A caboose!” said Murray indignantly and cast a startled look at Robert. “I certainly would enjoy hunting up that fellow Zane and giving him his.”

  “The truck driver thought I was a village girl who had tried for a job at the roadhouse and got turned down,” went on Vanna. “He bought me a roll of Lifesavers and introduced me to the individual who ran the train. He looked like a tramp, but he turned out to be fairly polite. After we had bumped around for hours and shifted from one side track to another, he finally dumped me on a side hill of cinders from the considerable height of the bottom step and advised me to crawl back to the track and follow the train till I found the station. He said that would be Ripley, and I found after considerable labor and time that he was right!”

  They were all laughing now as she continued her humorous recital, but there was a mistiness in her eyes as they watched her tenderly.

  “Well, that’s about all except the rescue,” continued Vanna thoughtfully, her eyes turning toward Robert with a strange, sweet light. “I found after a time that it must be Ripley I was in, and I felt my way across the road, but the drugstore seemed to have retired from active business, and there were no lights anywhere. Remembering certain relatives of mine and their dislike for gossip, I naturally refrained from waking any honest citizens of Ripley and asking them to telephone my friends. I wasn’t sure I was on the right road, but I started out to find out, and then the storm came up and I lost the heel off one shoe, an
d then I lost the shoe itself and had to take off the other one to keep my balance in the dark. When I saw the lights of a car, I was afraid it was Emory Zane”—Vanna was serious now—“so I hid in the bushes and tried to pray. I thought that was what you all would do. Then, when the car stopped, I was terrified and I had to depend on God for myself then. I never had any use for people who came to God out of fear, but I guess He took me, so my pride doesn’t matter anymore.”

  There was a hush over the little party now till Murray spoke suddenly to Robert. “Boy! It’s a good thing you went home instead of staying with me!”

  “And I guess that’s about all there is to tell—tonight—isn’t it, Robert?” Vanna’s eyes sought Robert’s, and he gave her a rare smile.

  “All that’s going to be told tonight, lady,” said Robert, rising alertly, “for now I’m going to carry you up to your bed, and you’re going to get a much-needed sleep. Murray, you bring that hot water bag! Gloria, you and Emily get her tucked up as quick as you can, and see that she sleeps till noon at least, longer if you can manage it!”

  Stooping, the tall fellow gathered Vanna as if she were a child and, trailing a superfluous blanket in his wake, carried her lightly upstairs and laid her on her bed. Gloria and the rest were coming on behind, Murray bringing up the rear with the hot water bag and pillow.

  So in a few minutes, Vanna lay upon her own soft bed, with silence sweet around her, for the storm had slackened and she sensed forgiveness and well-being upon her soul such as she never remembered having felt before.

  Presently as the house sank away to a belated rest, she thought of Robert’s arms around her and his lips against hers. It was enough to give her peace and deep, deep joy.

  The future, like a door open into another day, was there inviting her thought, but she would not glance that way now. Her heart was at rest, such rest as she had not hoped ever to know. There might be perplexing questions, adjustments, and unpleasant discussions to pass through before her love could come to its consummation. There certainly would have to be changed standards, concessions, sacrifices, and perhaps a certain kind of suffering that she did not yet understand, but it was enough now that Robert Carroll loved her and she loved him.

  Perhaps, too, she vaguely saw in their love for one another, a seal, a shadow, a picture of another deeper, higher love that ran beneath and above it all. A something settled forever between her soul and Robert’s God, something that she did not yet understand, but a something that cast out fear and gave her soul a sense of being cleansed and made fit in spite of sins and mistakes and indifference of the past. Yet she sensed that she must walk softly all the rest of her days if she would hope to keep this deep, underlying delight in her heart.

  Chapter 16

  The storm had cleared away, and the sun shot up all golden next morning as if the night before had been a sweet, still time of rest.

  Of course they all slept later than usual, but habit is a funny thing, and the sunlight in a big, quiet room is a wonderful alarm clock.

  Gloria awoke first and lay quiet, thinking how happy she was that Vanna was safely back, wasting a few minutes of anger against the man who had made all the trouble for them. Yet, she reflected, it had been a good thing. Vanna had openly confessed herself in the wrong, her account last night had made it plain that she was pretty well disillusioned about Emory Zane, and best of all, it seemed that Vanna had entered on the new life along with herself.

  She lay awhile listening to the quiet morning sounds of creatures waking to the light, calling for their needs, unaccustomedly delayed by sleepy keepers. She heard Emily and John go downstairs and a bit later identified the flutter of wings and cackles of satisfaction as the poultry were being fed. Then her mind went back to Emory Zane again. What had become of him? Had he had to spend the night in hunting for Vanna?

  Surely he was gentleman enough to feel some anxiety about her. He would be responsible for her, even though she had willfully deserted him! It wasn’t conceivable that he would just go on and do nothing about it. Even though he might be very angry, no man in decency could just ignore it. How did he think she would have gotten home? How did he know that she had money with her? How did he know but that some terrible thing had happened to her? And he would be responsible!

  They would undoubtedly hear from him sometime during the morning. It was strange he hadn’t telephoned! She glanced at the little traveling clock on her bedside table and saw that it was not so early but that he might have ventured.

  Or perhaps he would drive back to find out if she were at home, hunting for her all along the way, hoping to overtake her before she reached her friends.

  And when he arrived, what should she do? Could she prevent his seeing Vanna? She decided that she would make it her business to do that. He seemed to have some strange baleful influence over Vanna, and she would protect her!

  She did not know that Vanna now was protected by a new love and utterly shut out such as Emory Zane forever from her life. So she lay and planned and worried and finally stole out of bed, dressing silently, and went downstairs. She was determined to get Murray, or perhaps both Murray and Robert Carroll, to hang around the house during the morning so that she need not meet Emory Zane single-handed. Not that she expected he would dare do anything high-handed. But just the idea of him was horrible to her. She wanted Emory Zane if he came at all to find that they were not two unprotected girls alone at his mercy. He would undoubtedly use smooth words. He was glib and had a rich vocabulary, a telling way with him, and eyes that could lure and deceive. As she thought of it more and more, Gloria boiled with wrath at the way he had treated her sister.

  So when the telephone finally did ring, Gloria was ready for it, and out on the front porch sat Murray MacRae ready to give her moral or physical support, of whichever kind she should stand in need.

  The voice that came over the wire was unmistakably Emory Zane, haughty, demanding, insolent. He wished to speak with Miss Vanna Sutherland. How sure he was that she had reached home!

  “Who is calling?” asked Gloria in a chilly voice.

  “Emory Zane speaking,” came the answer in a smug tone.

  “Wait a minute.” Gloria stepped back from the instrument and laid down the receiver. Should she let Vanna know, or should she carry it through herself?

  She went slowly, thoughtfully out on the porch where Murray sat. They had been talking the matter over in low tones, and she had told him what she knew of Zane.

  “He is on the phone,” she said when she reached him, “ought I let Vanna? What shall I say to him?”

  Murray looked at her and answered, after an instant’s thought, “I guess she will have to know, won’t she? After all, she will be the one who will have the ultimate word.”

  Gloria hurried upstairs and peeked quietly into the room and saw at once that her sister was awake.

  “Is that Emory Zane on the telephone?” she asked sharply.

  “Yes,” said Gloria, “he wants to talk with you. Shall I tell him you are not able?”

  “No,” said Vanna with a decisive lifting of her chin, “you can tell him I do not wish to speak with him now or at any other time.”

  Gloria drew a long breath of relief and sped downstairs. She did not wish to give her sister time to qualify that message. She did not know that Vanna would never qualify that message now.

  She hurried to the instrument. “This is Gloria Sutherland!” she announced crisply. “My sister does not wish to speak to you.”

  There was an instant’s silence, and then the man’s voice spoke in angry tones. “Is Vanna there? Is she in the room with you? Tell her to come to the phone at once! I have something important to tell her.”

  “My sister does not wish to speak with you, Mr. Zane!” repeated Gloria calmly.

  “Look here, Gloria—” said the man irritably.

  “Miss Sutherland, please,” said Gloria freezingly. “I am not Gloria to you.”

  “Well, Miss Sutherland, then, if you mus
t have it,” said the impatient voice, “will you kindly tell your sister that I must speak with her at once? There is an explanation due her of course, and I can give it, a message from your mother she does not understand yet—”

  “My sister does not wish to speak to you either now or at any other time!” said Gloria decisively.

  “How unfair to refuse a man the opportunity to explain!”

  “There is no possible explanation for what you have done, Mr. Zane.” Gloria’s voice was final.

  “You are to be the judge, of course,” sneered the angry man. “Have I got to drive over there to get my rights?”

  “It would not do you any good to drive over,” said Gloria sweetly. “My sister will not see you if you come!” and she hung up the receiver.

  “That’s fine,” said Murray eagerly as she turned back to the porch. “I couldn’t help hearing what you said of course, and now I think the best thing we can do is take Vanna away somewhere so if he comes he won’t find anybody at home. We’ll just give the tip to the Hastings, and they needn’t go to the door unless they choose. I’d rather horsewhip him,” he added with a grin, “but perhaps silence and absence will do just as well and save trouble for everybody, for if I once—if we—for I know Bob would want to be in on it—if we once began on him, there wouldn’t be much left to tell the tale. But I suppose it would be better to clear out and leave him to a higher Judge. Suppose you ask Vanna if it will suit her to go, and I’ll call up Bob. We ought to get away from here in ten minutes to make sure we don’t run into him. Can you make it?”

  Gloria hurried upstairs and found her sister nearly dressed. She listened to the plan eagerly.

  “That will be grand!” she said. “I don’t ever want to see that man again. Oh, you don’t know. Sometime I’ll tell you all he said! Not now. I don’t want to spoil the day!” and there was such a light in Vanna’s eyes as she spoke that Gloria eyed her with surprised delight and hurried down to tell Murray they would be ready.