by Delia Parr
In a matter of hours, the discord in the household would be intolerable. Emma did not want to consider what life would be like after a few weeks with the Burkes in residence, and she dared not entertain the notion that she might have her one and only chance to repurchase Hill House occur while the Burkes were in residence should the legal owner arrive.
As much as she tried, however, she could not quiet the echo of Reverend Glenn’s admonition that the right way to handle a problem was not usually the easy way, especially since he had been proven right when she had turned to him for advice in the past. In response to the tragedy that had struck the town, the right thing to do, of course, was to recognize that everyone who suffered directly from the explosion or the fires needed to be helped.
The easy way out of the problem facing her now would simply be to consider that she had done her Christian duty by volunteering to nurse the wounded by day and by taking in so many others at Hill House. She could let the sheriff worry about finding a temporary home for the Burkes. The fact that so many others had refused to take in the Burkes would be his problem, not hers.
The harder way, of course, would be to bring the Burkes to Hill House.
Unfortunately, no matter how much she tried to justify taking the easy way out of helping this pair, she could not stop guilt from tugging at her conscience. How could she refuse to give shelter to anyone in need, when she believed that if God had truly led her to Hill House, He would help her to keep it for that very reason?
The answer was as plain as it was simple: She could not refuse to take in the Burkes.
Regardless of how difficult it would be, she simply could not turn them away. She had to trust in God’s plan . . . for all concerned.
Before she lost her conviction and changed her mind, she gathered up her skirts. “No, wait,” she cried and ran after her lawyer. When she finally caught up with him, she was winded and her throat was raw from the cold. “I . . . I know it’ll be hard to take in the Burkes, but it’s the right thing to do. Tell them to come to Hill House,” she managed as she struggled to catch her breath. “Tell the sheriff to bring them by at one o’clock for dinner. He’s welcome to stay for dinner, too,” she added.
Half a smile lit his features. “Are you positive you want to take them? I don’t want Sheriff North to drag them all the way up to Hill House, only to discover you’ve had a change of heart.”
“Yes, I’m sure. I won’t change my mind,” she insisted, although she feared it would take a miracle to soften her heart against the two of them.
His smile broadened. “Thank you. I’m not sure if the sheriff will be able to stay for dinner, but I’ll tell him to have the Burkes there by one. You’re a good woman, Widow Garrett.”
“Good?” She shook her head. “Not yet,” she admitted and tugged her cape tighter around her shoulders. Traveling down this particular path to goodness would be troublesome indeed, and she was just as certain that Mother Garrett would be convinced Emma had lost her mind, adding yet another layer to the estrangement building between them.
“Perhaps in a few days, when everything is more settled, we might be able to meet to discuss other, more personal matters,” Mr. Breckenwith suggested but left to find the sheriff before Emma could answer.
Intrigued by the prospect of seeing Zachary Breckenwith again soon, Emma headed straight for the parsonage, as she had originally planned, to see Reverend Glenn before returning to Hill House.
As she walked, she carried her concerns about the Burkes with her and tried comparing this new challenge with one she had faced just this past fall. A family feud between James and Andrew Leonard had inspired their mother, eighty-one-year-old Widow Frances Leonard, to run away from home. She had come directly to Hill House.
Widow Leonard, now affectionately called Aunt Frances by her adoptive Hill House family, had been a blessing to all of them. Keeping peace within Hill House had been relatively easy while she had been living there, in part because she was so easy to love. The fact that her sons both lived some miles from town also helped to keep dissension at bay. In the end, however, faith in God and the power of prayer, along with a little ingenuity, had helped to restore the broken bonds of brotherhood, and Aunt Frances had returned home with them for the winter. Come spring, however, she would come back to Hill House as a beloved member of Emma’s family and staff for the tourist season.
Keeping peace at Hill House while the Burkes lived there would be a far greater challenge. Anxious to get out of the cold, she hastened her steps, but her mind kept pace, racing from one concern to another.
Neither Lester nor Orralynne Burke could ever be considered anything but miserable. The antagonism between the two of them would quickly spread and envelop everyone else.
Emma’s foremost responsibility would be to protect her staff and her guests. Contemplating the notion that by coming to Hill House, these two people could be reformed and transformed into lovable human beings was absurd. Only a miracle could do that, perhaps one far greater than turning water into wine.
“I don’t want to do this. I don’t like doing this. But I will,” she grumbled. “I will.”
She chanted the mantra under her breath, step by step. As the wind whipped at her back and pushed her down Main Street toward the parsonage, she hoped her faith would nudge her toward true acceptance, if not goodness.
Now, more than ever, she needed to speak with Reverend Glenn. He would know how to help her—he always did. He would give her the wherewithal to make sure that by the time she got back to Hill House, her heart would be filled with graciousness instead of resentment, and hope instead of fear. After all these months of praying the owner of Hill House would arrive soon, she found it completely disconcerting to now pray he would not come before spring.
With Reverend Glenn’s help, however, her faith in God would hold firm. Then and only then would she be able to focus all of her efforts on ending the open rebellion she would face when everyone else learned Lester and Orralynne Burke were moving into Hill House.
As she approached the parsonage, the commandment to love thy neighbor as thyself suddenly came to mind. When the neighbors just happened to be the Burkes, however, the commandment took on even greater meaning and offered an impossible challenge.
Learning to love them as neighbors had already proven to be a stretch of faith for almost everyone in town, including Emma.
Learning to love them while at the same time living with them at Hill House was just too much to expect of anyone.
Indeed.
3
DESPITE HER HOPES OTHERWISE, Emma did not have Reverend Glenn’s counsel to buoy her spirits as she trudged back up the hill to the boardinghouse. When she had stopped at the parsonage on the way home, she discovered he had gone along with Reverend Austin to visit some of the families touched directly by the tragedy. Although he was not expected back until very late this afternoon, she had been pleased to learn he planned to return to Hill House tomorrow.
Since she was arriving home much earlier than anyone expected, she thought the element of surprise might provide the very opening she needed to announce her news about the Burkes. By the time she got to the top of the hill, however, she had to stop to catch her breath and paused to gather her thoughts at the same time.
With the Burkes in residence, the boardinghouse was going to be very, very crowded. Between the permanent residents and staff and the fifteen townspeople who were already living temporarily at Hill House, the total number was already twenty. Some of her guests, like Judith Massey, who was expecting her first child in a matter of months, and Anson Kirk, a seventy-three-year-old widower, stayed close to Hill House during the day. They provided what help they could to Emma’s overburdened staff, although Mother Garrett still maintained tight rule over her kitchen, which she had proclaimed off limits to the townspeople in residence.
Other guests, namely Judith’s husband, Solomon, the Ammond brothers, John and Micah, and both the Wiley family and the rest of the
Kirk family, which included four adults and six children all told, only ate and slept at Hill House. They spent the better part of their day either salvaging their belongings or repairing their damaged homes so they could return there as quickly as possible.
In the scheme of things, adding two more guests should not make all that much difference, which is exactly how Emma intended to broach the subject with Mother Garrett first, before she informed anyone else. Hopefully the Burkes would not arrive early, so Emma would have the time to prepare her staff, as well as the other guests.
By the time she reached the front gate and let herself into the front yard, her hands and feet were numb and so were her cheeks. As much as she longed to get inside as quickly as possible, instead of using the front door and increasing the risk of encountering any of her guests, she skirted the wraparound porch, passed the outside entrance to her office, and proceeded around the back of the house to reach the kitchen.
She stopped along the way for a moment to peek inside the chicken coop built close to the house. Despite her frozen state, she was anxious to check on the flock of eight chickens that had adopted Hill House as a home after escaping from their crates in a bizarre accident on Main Street last fall. Inside the coop, Faith, the dominant chicken-turned-rooster, was roosting with several others on an old ladder that served as a perch while the rest nested together for warmth.
“If all else fails, I may have to recruit you and all of your friends to keep the Burkes under control,” she teased, ever mindful of the role Faith had played in chasing away Mr. Langhorne, a wealthy investor from back East. He now lived some miles from town after both failing to convince Emma to marry him or to buy the Leonard properties.
Satisfied that the chickens were faring well in the cold, she let herself into the kitchen and walked straight into a wall of blessed heat coming from both the fireplace and the cookstove. The room was also heavy with the delicious aroma of beef stew, and her stomach growled.
Gratefully, she found Mother Garrett in the kitchen alone, standing at the sink scrubbing pots and pans. Six loaves of freshly baked bread, three bowls of custard, and two apple pies cooled on the kitchen table. Emma noted the droop of her mother-in-law’s shoulders and frowned. The fact that Mother Garrett did not stop working to greet her indicated the older woman was in a bit of a mood, which was as rare for the seventy-six-year-old widow as it was out of character.
“If you’ve come home to tell me those people are going to move into Hill House, you’re too late,” Mother Garrett murmured without bothering to turn around.
Emma’s heart sank. She had suspected that gossip about the Burkes would spread quickly in a town as small as Candlewood, but she never thought the news would precede her home. “I’m sorry,” she murmured as she removed her bonnet and gloves and unbuttoned her cape. “I should have come home right after agreeing to have them move in with us. I stopped on the way home to see Reverend Glenn at the parsonage, but he wasn’t there. I only stayed long enough to have a cup of tea with Mrs. Austin. She told me Reverend Glenn would be coming back to Hill House tomorrow. Who told you about the Burkes?”
Mother Garrett’s ample body shook as she scrubbed hard on a bread pan. “John Ammond told me, not that it matters much one way or the other. This isn’t my boardinghouse. It’s yours. You’re free to invite anyone and everyone you like to stay here. But considering you decided to invite the Burkes, it might have been nicer if you had told me first, instead of letting me hear it from someone else.”
Alarmed by the hurt tone to her mother-in-law’s voice, Emma hung her outerwear on a peg by the back door, walked over to the sink, and stood beside the woman with whom she had shared the last thirty years of her life. When she saw the tears threatening to spill down Mother Garrett’s cheeks, she placed one hand on top of hers and held it still. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I should have come straight home to speak with you first. It’s so cold outside, I didn’t want to have to go all the way back to the parsonage to tell Reverend Glenn, and I didn’t have the heart to say no when Mrs. Austin asked me to visit with her.”
Mother Garrett sniffled, blinked back her tears, and tugged her hand free to resume her task. “What’s done is done. The Burkes are coming. Like everything else that’s happened in Candlewood for the past four or five days, there’s little I can do about it.”
Emma took a step back. “I knew you’d be concerned, but I never thought you’d be so upset with me.”
Her mother-in-law set the pan down. When she turned around and looked at Emma, tears were flowing freely and silently down the older woman’s cheeks. “I’m sorry. I’m not really upset with you. If anything, I suppose I should be proud of you for taking in those people, because I’m certain no one else will. But I’m just feeling so upset about anything and everything these days, I’m simply out of sorts, and I’m not sure what to do with myself. I even sent Liesel upstairs to help Ditty with the cleaning before I broke down and cried right in front of her.”
She paused and swiped at her tears with the hem of her apron. “It’s not just about the Burkes. It’s everything. I miss Frances. I miss Reverend Glenn. I’m afraid to say it out loud, but I think I even miss that mongrel of his, too. And I miss sitting in front of the fire at night with you and watching Liesel and Ditty do their stitches on their samplers. Not that you joined us very often. You seemed happier spending more and more time alone this winter, and I’ve missed you. Very much.”
She dropped her gaze and shook her head. “There are so many people staying here now, the only place for me to go at night is back to my room, all by myself. And on top of everything we’re already doing, we have to contend with the likes of those Burkes. It isn’t right and it isn’t fair.”
When Mother Garrett looked up, her eyes were wide and filled with fresh tears. “When I think about the accident and all the people who died or got hurt or lost their homes, I’m just ashamed of myself for feeling the way I do. I never thought of myself as being selfish, but that’s what I’ve become—a selfish old woman.”
Emma hugged her tightly and patted her back, even as guilt tightened a wide band around her heart. Avoiding Mother Garrett because of her legal problems with Hill House had been wrong and unfair. “You’re not selfish at all,” she insisted. “I’m sorry I haven’t spent as much time with you as I usually do, but I promise I will, as soon as there’s room,” she teased. “You’re just overworked and overtired. Ever since the explosion, you’ve been working in this kitchen day and night preparing food for up to twenty people at each meal. Even with Liesel helping, it’s too much for you, which is partly your fault and partly mine. Instead of leaving you here alone all day, every day, to volunteer in town, I should have spent more time at home helping you. Not that you didn’t contribute to being overworked in your own way.”
“Me?” Mother Garrett pulled back and locked her gaze with Emma’s. “It’s not my fault there are so many mouths to feed. Not that I’m complaining, mind you. It’s not their fault that they’ve lost more than I can even imagine, but I’ll be the first to admit I’m looking forward to everyone going home so we can have our quiet times together again, like we used to.” She paused and shook her head. “See what I mean? I’m just pure selfish.”
Emma chuckled. “No, you’re not. You’re just disappointed, and so am I. But you’re the one who keeps insisting you don’t need more help in the kitchen, even when the guests offer to lend a hand. That doesn’t make you selfish. It makes you stubborn.”
Her mother-in-law shrugged. “I suppose that’s better than being selfish, but that doesn’t change the fact that I like to keep my kitchen in a certain order. I’m not letting just anyone in here to help.”
Emma cocked a brow. “I don’t suppose Anson Kirk would be the specific ‘anyone’ you had in mind, would he?”
Mother Garrett’s cheeks turned pink. “You’d think he’d have more on his mind than paying attention to me. A man his age! And with his wife not yet in her grave half a year! T
he day you let that man set a foot in my kitchen to help me is the day I pack my bags. And that’s a promise.”
“I think he’s just lonely,” Emma countered.
“Lonely? Living with his son and daughter-in-law and four grandchildren? Ha! If I weren’t a churchgoing woman, I’d tell you what he’s lonely for is someone to warm his bed. But I am, so I’ll just say he’s lonely for something he won’t find in this kitchen!”
“Mother Garrett!” Emma clamped her hand to her mouth.
“Oh, don’t bother pretending to be shocked. Between us, we’ve fought off enough would-be suitors before getting married, and then fought them off again after becoming widowed. To my way of thinking, there are four kinds of suitors, one for each season, and he’s definitely a winter suitor. That’s the worst of them all.”
Emma chuckled. In truth, she only remembered one suitor who had shown an interest in Mother Garrett, but that was years ago, right after her mother-in-law had come to live in Candlewood. She did not remember much, only that Mother Garrett had sent him packing after a spat. “I don’t believe I’ve ever heard suitors described quite that way, as if a man’s intentions are linked to the time of year he decides to call on a woman.”
“That’s because it’s just something Frances and I talked about. She could tell you some tales, too,” she murmured, then turned back to the sink and started scrubbing again.
Emma grinned and picked up a drying cloth. “I don’t suppose you would care to share your collective wisdom with me and explain the differences between these seasonal suitors, would you?”
