“The preacher is a good man, Lily.” Her father paused for a moment, as if turning over in his mind the novelty of the man who had led him to the brink of repentance. “I’m thankful that Reverend Book wants to further his education,” Richardson went on. “Though he is a bit rough around the edges now, I can envision him in a large church one day. He’s good with people. He has intelligence. And he has a way with words.”
“Yes,” she said softly. The fact that her father admired Elijah pleased Lily. For three days she had pondered her last conversation with the preacher under the cottonwood tree. I love you, he had said. But what did those words mean to him? Was his affection that of a pastor for one of his flock, or had Lily come to mean something more to Elijah?
“He cares for the townspeople here,” her father was saying. “And perhaps he should stay on in Hope for a time. Practical experience is never a bad thing.”
“Hope would be poorer for losing him.”
“Indeed.” He rocked for a moment. “As for you, Lily, I know your mother will be heartbroken should I return to Philadelphia without you. I cannot describe the depths of her agony at your disappearance.”“
I’m sorry. Truly I am.”
“Then you’ll come with me? I’ve kept the coachman waiting as long as I can. I’m afraid I must leave tomorrow.”
Lily lifted her focus to the church. She could see Elijah hammering board-and-batten siding with some of the other men. The deputy, who had stayed on to help with the rebuilding, was handing him nails.
“I can’t leave Samuel,” Lily said. “Elijah and I … we almost lost him once before, Father. He was bitten by a spider. And you know he was terribly weak when Elijah brought him to—”
“The baby will be going to an orphanage tomorrow, Lily.” Her father laid his hand on hers. “The deputy has confided in me that he intends to take the child. Without legal grounds for adoption, with no information on the baby’s parentage, with no wife or home, the preacher cannot hope to obtain permission to keep an orphan. Everyone knows that you and Reverend Book have become attached to the child, but, Lily, you must think in a reasonable manner. This baby needs a stable situation.”
“But I—”
“The longer you remain in the picture, Lily, the easier you make it for the preacher to keep the boy around. But for how long? And to what end? This child in your lap is a human being, Lily. Samuel shouldn’t be shuffled from one adult to another—neither of whom is truly his guardian. And look at these living conditions! You live with the Hanks family, while Reverend Book resides on a cot in the back of the church. Neither place is suitable for the rearing of a child.”
“Father, I’m sure Elijah plans to—”
“Even should there be a proper home one day, Lily, you know that this town has no school, no physician, none of the amenities of polite society.… My dear, please set your emotions aside and allow the child to have a chance at security. Come with me to Philadelphia, to your mother. Allow the deputy to take the baby to Topeka. And permit God to have full use of his instrument in this town. Elijah Book must be set free to grow into the man God intends. Only you can see that such a thing happens.”
Lily ran her fingertip over the baby’s tiny knuckles. Soft, velvety bumps. But this baby didn’t belong to her. Sam was not Abby’s replacement. He was a child of God, rescued by Elijah, and deserving of a good future. Maybe her father was right. But, oh, how could she part with this child she loved so much?
And how could she leave Hope?
No, it wasn’t the town so much as it was the preacher. Elijah Book. She loved him. She couldn’t walk away from him. Her heart would break in two.
But what if she and Samuel truly were hindrances to God’s plan for Elijah? What if they kept him from doing the work he was intended to do? What if Elijah would be better off without them?
“Lily,” her father said, patting her hand gently, “will you come home with me? Will you restore joy to your mother’s face? Most important, will you allow me to become to you the father I never was? It would be a gift greater than anything I have ever received.”
Lily gathered Sam into her arms and held him close, fighting the cry that rose up inside her. No, no! she wanted to shout. I want to stay here. I want Elijah. I want this baby. I want my way—my way!
“Oh, Lily,” her father murmured. “Say you’ll come home.”
“Nevertheless not my will, but thine…”
Blinking back the tears that misted her vision, Lily nodded. “Yes, Father. I will.”
“This area back here is the cemetery,” Elijah explained, nodding toward the expanse of untouched prairie he had just refenced. For three days, Dr. Richardson had been good enough to stay on in town, spending his nights at the Hunters’ house and his days helping shingle the church’s new roof. A few minutes ago, he had wandered across the street to visit with the preacher.
“I don’t see no headstones,” the deputy observed. He, too, had elected to remain. He’d been meeting with town leaders to discuss legal problems the citizens of Hope were up against. He had promised to look into helping the town hire a lawman, but so far, he hadn’t mentioned carting Sam off to the orphanage in Topeka. Elijah was praying the subject was closed. “How can you call this a cemetery if there’s nobody buried in it?”
“I reckon we’ll lose one of our people one of these days,” Eli said. “In the past couple of years we’ve had a plague of grasshoppers, a prairie fire, and now a cyclone. There’s another winter coming up, and who can tell what that might bring?”
“You’re right about that.”
“I’m learning that prairie life is hard, real hard. Without a doctor in town, folks don’t have any place to turn for healing. I know from experience that sometimes homemade doctoring doesn’t work too well. Fact is, I believe a pastor’s job is to take care of his flock—and that includes providing a resting place when they go on to be with the Lord. A cemetery kind of helps comfort the family, too, you know, and that’s what a church ought to do.”
“I’d say you’re cut out for the job, Brother Elijah,” the deputy commented. “Nobody in town has a bad word to say about you.”
“Well, I don’t have much training.”
“Reverend Book,” Richardson said, “would you like to study theology here in Hope?”
The man hadn’t said too much to Elijah since that day on the road. In fact, he really didn’t talk to anyone. In the evenings, Eli had observed Lily and her father sitting on the front porch of the Hankses’ house, but they didn’t seem to be speaking to each other. They just sat and rocked. Eli thought that was okay.
“Hope doesn’t even have a grade school, Dr. Richardson,” he said. “And I don’t know where I’d find the nearest seminary.”
“You have a post office, I assume. If you wish, I shall correspond with one of my acquaintances in the East. He’s a professor of biblical studies. I believe he would be willing to post a series of his lessons to you.”
Eli’s heart swelled. “I’d like that very much, sir. Thank you. Thanks a lot.”
“You’ll be staying in town, then?” the deputy asked him.
“Yes, sir, I will. I promised the Lord I’d go wherever he sent me. And he sent me here.”
The deputy grinned. “You preachers are quite a bunch. I wish the Lord would talk to me the way he talks to you.”
“He might be. Are you listening?” Eli asked, giving the man a slap on the back. “Listen, has anyone invited you two gentlemen to the all-day singing and fellowship we’re going to have? You’re both welcome to join us while we dedicate the new church building. Let me tell you, the ladies in this town can bake pies like you wouldn’t believe.”
The deputy took off his hat. “Thank you kindly, Brother Elijah, but I’d better head on back to Topeka. Which brings me to the matter I came here for in the first place. We need to talk about that baby you found.”
“That baby is my son,” Eli replied.
“No, he ain’t. Not legal,
anyhow.”
Eli could hear Lily singing to Samuel across the way, and his innards knotted up just thinking about losing either one. “What do I have to do, Deputy?” he asked. “I’ll do anything you say. Just don’t take my boy away.”
The lawman plucked a stem of grass and stuck it in his mouth. “What’s a man like you aiming to do with a baby, Preacher? You don’t have a wife or a house or even a good-paying job. I’m the father of six, and I’ve got news for you. Before long here, that little fellow is going to be up on his feet, running everywhere and climbing on everything. I’ve watched you work this town— visiting with folks day and night, sitting up with the sick, tending to quarrels, building fences and graveyards, reading that Bible of yours at dawn. You don’t have time to chase around some snot-nosed kid. Why don’t you let me take him to the orphanage in Topeka? I’ll admit it’s not the best life a child could ask for, but the war brought in a lot of homeless young’uns. He’d have company, food in his belly, maybe even a little schooling. You did your part, Preacher. Now let the state of Kansas do the rest.”
Elijah stuck his hands into his pockets and drifted for a minute with Lily’s singing. He knew the tune well; it was one of her favorites. Maybe this evening he could carve out a few minutes alone with her.
“I’m going to tell you something else,” the deputy added. “That boy’s going to have a tough row to hoe, being a half-breed and all. Don’t take that on, Preacher. Let him go.”
“I know it’s going to be rough,” Eli began, “but Lily and I—”
“My daughter is going home to Philadelphia with me,” Richardson said. “She won’t be able to look after the child.”
Eli felt the bottom drop out of his stomach. “Lily’s leaving Hope?”
“Our reconciliation has opened new doors. My daughter would like to see her mother. We all hope to make a new beginning, thanks to your intervention, Reverend Book.”
“Well, I—”
“There’s a fine young gentleman, a doctor, whom I have in mind as a husband for my daughter. He’s a stable and very honorable man, and he lives and practices medicine not three houses from ours in the city. He comes from a prominent family, his reputation is excellent, and he earns a more than satisfactory income from his profession. Despite my daughter’s brief period of indiscretion, I am certain this young man will welcome her into his heart.”
Elijah tried to scrape his stomach up off the ground. “So Lily is really leaving town?”
“Indeed. We depart tomorrow morning.”
“All the more reason to send that baby on with me, Brother Elijah,” the deputy said. “Ain’t gonna be nobody to look after him when she goes. You’d better let the orphanage take over.”
“I need to do some thinking.” Eli paused. “I need to pray.”
“I hope it won’t take too long, Preacher. The longer I dawdle here, the less my wife is going to like it. Like I said, we’ve got six young’uns….”
As the man rambled on, Elijah felt his heart stand still in his chest. He had to see Lily. Had to talk to her. Under the cottonwood tree, she had told him she loved him. But loved him how? Like a preacher? Like a brother?
He wanted more from Lily than that. “Excuse me, gentlemen,” he said. Then he nodded to the two men and sprinted out of the cemetery toward the Hanks house.
Chapter 17
AS LILY carried Samuel down the road toward the opera house, she watched a peregrine falcon soar high above in the bright blue sky. Drifting on a current of warm summer air that swirled upward from the prairie, the majestic bird surveyed its territory with an eye that missed nothing. Alone, regal, ever vigilant, the falcon hovered, almost unmoving.
“They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.” The words of Isaiah whispered through Lily like a soft breeze. “They shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”
Wait upon the Lord. In her awkward, stumbling life, God had revealed himself as the master of time. He had led her, matured her, nurtured her, and finally knocked at a moment when she was willing to open the door of her heart. She had to trust that even now, in the midst of her utter sorrow, God would work his will. In his time.
If she could only be patient, Lily thought as she stepped onto the porch of the gaudy building, he would give her strength. Though right now she felt as worn and ragged as an old dishcloth, she believed that one day God would help her to mount up with wings just like that peregine falcon. She would be able to run and not grow weary, to walk and not faint. Some distant future moment, even without Elijah and Samuel, she would learn to soar.
Oh, Father, guard me now. Please permit me to give Elijah this one gift, something to help him in his work, something from my heart.
She had barely lifted her hand to knock when the door swung open. Beatrice emerged, her purple velvet dress blending with the shadows in the room behind her. A smirk lifted one corner of her red-painted mouth.
“I saw you walking down the road, Lil.” She stepped aside and gestured toward the dusky foyer. “Won’t you come in?”
Lily tightened her grip on Samuel. “Thanks, Bea. I was hoping you and I could speak for a moment.”
“Sure. Old friends, after all.”
Entering the room with its red wallpaper and gilt chandeliers, Lily nestled the baby’s head against her neck. The sound of laughter and poorly played music drifted through the room from the saloon down the hall. She had hoped to leave Sam with Eva. But the woman’s “short trip” to the mercantile had lasted more than an hour when Lily decided to go ahead and finish the matter. Evening approached, and she didn’t want to be out after dark.
“How do you like the place?” Bea asked, giving a twirl that sent her velvet gown billowing above her ankles. “The saloon’s that way. The girls’ rooms are up the stairs. The opera stage is through those doors. Can you believe this is all mine? It’s just like the cards foretold, Lil. Grand things are happening to me. And this is the grandest of them all. What more could a woman want?”
True love, Lily thought. A family. A home. An abiding faith in a saving God.
“Our girls came in yesterday,” Beatrice confided. “We’ve got five of them, and every one is just gorgeous. We have a singer, too. She’s not as good as you, but she’ll do. The saloon is fully stocked, and business is good already. George has been counting the wagons and stagecoaches passing this place ever since we started building. He thinks we’ve got ourselves a regular gold mine.”
“Are you happy, Bea?” Lily asked softly.
“Of course I’m happy. I’m ecstatic. Who wouldn’t be? This is everything I’ve ever wanted.” With a frown that belied her words, she crossed her arms. “So, what brings you out here? I see the deputy wasn’t able to pry you loose from that baby yet. You know, your daddy was fit to be tied when he found out what his little girl had been up to. I guess you two have worked things out. At least, I don’t see any bruises.”
As she laughed, Lily lifted her chin. “I’m going back to Philadelphia with my father tomorrow morning, Beatrice,” she said. “I’ve come for my melodeon.”
The woman’s face froze. “You’ve come for what?”
“I want my melodeon.”
“What for?”
“Because it’s mine. I bought it. Please give it to me.”
Bea’s face, harsh in the light of the chandelier’s oil lamps, twisted into a sneer. “The blasted thing is here, isn’t it?” she said. “That means it belongs to me.”
Lily shook her head. “You know it’s mine, Bea.”
“I know who’s got it, and that’s me.” She gave a sniff. “You robbed me once already of my biggest asset. You refused to stay with me, even though I’d taken care of you and given you everything I had to give. You left me penniless and hopeless, with nothing to my name but that old show wagon, while you went prancing off after that preacher and his baby. Now you think I’m going to give you the melodeon? Think again, Lily Nolan.”
Lily had expected this. She knew Beatrice still wanted to punish her, and she sensed that honor and fairness would never rule in the heart of her false friend. To move Beatrice Waldowski to action, it took money.
“You know the melodeon is mine by rights,” Lily said. “If you won’t give it to me, I’ll buy it from you. Here’s everything I’ve earned working for Elijah Book. You can have all the money in my purse, if you’ll let me take my melodeon.”
Shifting Sam to her other arm, Lily tugged a cloth pouch from her pocket. The weight of the coins pulled on her arm. Elijah had earned this money by tending to his flock, faithfully ministering to their needs, and laboring day and night on the church. But he had given it willingly to Lily to pay for Samuel’s care.
In the beginning, she had felt she deserved every penny. Up most of the night, worn-out from washing diapers and helping Eva keep the house, her body depleted by the baby’s constant need for nourishment, Lily had taken Elijah’s money gladly. Now it meant nothing to her. Nothing but a way to get the melodeon.
“How much is it?” Beatrice asked, giving the pouch a look of disdain. “Five or six dollars?”
“More than that. You’re welcome to count it.” Lily handed her the pouch. “It’s enough to help pay for a piano. That would suit your needs better anyway.”
“What are you planning to do with the melodeon? Start your own opera house in Philadelphia?”
“I want the church of Hope to have it.”
“A church? You want to put that organ in a church?” She smiled. “Well, too bad, Lil. I’m keeping the melodeon. I like the way it sounds.”
She tossed the pouch at Lily before whirling away. Lily strode after her. “You have to give it to me, Bea. It’s mine. You have no right to keep it. I need it.”
“You can’t have it!” Beatrice stormed into the saloon. “Go on back to Philadelphia, little girl. Let your daddy beat on you. You don’t need a melodeon for that.”
“Where’s Mr. Gibbons?” Lily demanded, following on her heels. “I’ll speak to him about it. He’ll take the money.”
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