by Irene Brand
He patted her on the shoulder. “You did the right thing. I’ll find her. Take Bobby to Granny’s and stay until I get back.”
David broke into a run, but when he was halfway up the mountain, he slowed to a fast walk. He’d always sensed that something from Julia’s past bothered her, but surely nothing so bad that she would take her own life—right?
When he reached the crest of the mountain, he stopped to get his breath. “God,” he whispered, “You’re in charge—I don’t know what to do.”
Sustained by the sense of God’s presence, he quickened his steps until he came to a crossroads. Halting briefly, he turned to the right. “Julia,” he called, “where are you?”
Every few feet, he stopped and called Julia’s name. After his third call, he thought he heard an answer. He ran forward, still calling to her. He finally saw her leaning against an oak tree, looking down into a deep hollow. His breath caught in his throat.
“Julia,” he called again. “Come to me.”
She hesitated briefly before she started running in his direction. He hurried to meet her, arms outstretched. She flung herself into his embrace. “Are you all right?” he whispered.
She didn’t answer but shook her head. He felt her body trembling against his chest, and he looked around for a place to sit down. He remembered a small cave nearby where he often rested when he was in the woods.
“Come with me,” he said. “Then you can tell me all about it.”
“How did you find me?” she asked in a choked voice.
“Nellie knew you were upset and came to tell me.” He kept one arm around her as she stumbled along with her eyes closed. Her facial muscles were tight with strain, and he talked normally, trying to ease the tension he sensed in her rigid body.
“There’s a cool breeze today, but we’ll be comfortable in this little cave. Legend has it that Daniel Boone camped here.”
Not receiving a comment from her, David said brightly, “Here we are. Look at the little bench nature carved out for us.”
She lifted her head and looked around. Her eyes were filled with misery, and David knew this wasn’t the time for small talk. He sat on the bench and gently pulled her down beside him, still keeping his arm around her waist. With his other hand he smoothed her hair, marveling at the silky texture of the auburn tresses. They had grown several inches since she’d arrived in Mistletoe.
“Nellie said you received a letter that made you upset.” Recalling the messages he’d received from the man who was threatening his life, he thought Julia might be experiencing something similar. “Is somebody intimidating you?”
A bitter smile twisted her face. “No. The letter was from Mother.”
“Is your grandmother worse?”
Julia shook her head. Tears flooded her eyes and spread over her face like a waterfall. David stared, realizing that this was the first time he’d seen Julia shed a tear. He pulled her into a tight embrace. “Oh, my dear! What can I do to help?”
Julia shook her head against his shoulder and between sobs muttered, “Nothing! It’s a hurt I’ve carried since I was a child.”
“Tell me about it.”
As she talked, the trembling and tears gradually stopped until she spoke in a resigned monotone. “I was eleven months old when Margaret was born. Because of her frequent illnesses, she received special attention. I felt ignored. More than that, I was expected to do anything Margaret wanted me to do. I didn’t mind that she was favored, truly I didn’t, but I still don’t understand why my parents couldn’t love me too. I did everything I could to win their favor. I made good grades. I played on the basketball team because my father loved sports, but he never came to watch me play since the school games coincided with his bowling nights or lodge commitments.” She sighed. “When I was crowned Mistletoe Queen in a fourth-grade pageant, neither of them attended the program because Margaret was sick. It seemed to me that she was ‘conveniently’ sick whenever my parents should have given me some attention.”
After she gained control of her emotions, Julia continued to talk matter-of-factly about how her parents centered all their attention on Margaret. “I had clothing and food, and they sent me to college. We had a comfortable home, so I suppose I shouldn’t have expected love too.”
David ground his teeth in frustration. As she’d talked, he’d been able to look beyond her words and see an eager child always waiting for her parents’ affection and never receiving it. Recalling the love he’d received from his parents and Granny, he realized what a void that must have left in Julia’s heart.
“That’s the main reason I enlisted in the WAC. I was still trying to do something to make them proud of me, but when I notified them about my promotions, they didn’t seem impressed.”
“What was in the letter today that upset you so much?”
“Grandmother is better, so Mother and Dad are taking her on a trip to California. Mother said that she was sure I wouldn’t mind looking after Bobby for a few more weeks. She told me I could stay at Mistletoe or go back to Maryland. In other words, it still doesn’t make any difference to them what I do.”
Although sensitive to Julia’s problem, David wondered momentarily about Bobby’s future. If her parents didn’t want the responsibility of Bobby either, what would happen to the child? His paternal grandparents wouldn’t accept him, so he would grow up feeling the same way Julia did.
“You can stay here,” he assured her. “We’ll help you take care of Bobby.”
Julia moved out of his embrace, and he wiped her tears with his handkerchief.
“No, I won’t stay. Nellie has told me that the roads are sometimes impassable for weeks during the winter. It would drive me crazy to be penned up in this hollow. I’ve learned to love Bobby, and I won’t neglect him. Soon after Christmas I’ll take him back to Maryland and give him the kind of love I’ve always wanted.”
David’s heart swelled at her selflessness, her kindness. He took a deep breath. “I shouldn’t tell you this, but I want you to know that I love you, Julia. I’ve loved you from the first moment I took you in my arms in Buffalo Creek and carried you to safety. My love has only grown stronger the more I’ve gotten to know you. So whether you’re in Maryland or in Mistletoe, you can always know that someone loves you—even if it is a poor schoolteacher in the mountains of Kentucky. I can’t promise you anything more than that, but I do love you.”
David was amazed by the change in Julia. Joy spread across her face, and in one quick motion, she was in his arms again. His grip tightened around her.
“Oh, David!” Her voice was muffled against his shoulder. “Thank you.” She pulled back to look at him. “Thank you for telling me. It’s wonderful to know no matter where I am or what trouble I’m having, someone cares about me. I can’t change the past, but with God’s help—and your love—I can face the future.”
Softly she touched her lips to his. He knew instinctively that he shouldn’t respond to her, but David’s love overcame his common sense. His lips brushed her brow and her eyes, which had closed when he pulled her into a tight embrace. He kissed the tip of her nose, and then their lips met in a hungry kiss that lingered until Julia pulled away and buried her head on his chest. Although he knew he couldn’t have a future with Julia, David had sealed his love for time and eternity.
Leaving David’s arms was like moving from a warm fire into a frigid climate. His breath was warm against her face, causing her heart to race. She’d enjoyed a quick glimpse into Paradise, but she was as close as she would ever be. David’s life was in Mistletoe, a place where she could never live. Not even for David’s love? her heart questioned.
Julia reached out her right hand and laced his fingers with her own. “Please forgive me for acting like a baby,” she said.
“How long has it been since you’ve cried?”
Julia chuckled bitterly. “Not since the day I came home and told my parents I’d been chosen as valedictorian of my high school class and Mother said, ‘That’
s wonderful, dear, but don’t talk about it in front of Margaret. She would make good grades too if she wasn’t sickly.’ I knew then that they would always love my sister best and there wasn’t anything I could do to change it.”
David’s black eyes resembled turbulent thunderclouds. “How could they treat you that way?”
Julia felt comforted by his anger. “To be fair, they have no idea how they’ve hurt me. I should have talked it out with them, but instead I’ve kept my frustrations bottled up inside.” A sense of calm settled over her heart. “After I heard Pastor Brown’s first sermon, I rededicated my life to God. I knew I couldn’t be the kind of follower I should be with resentment in my heart. I’ve forgiven them, but God forgive me, when I received that letter today, the past swept back like the ocean tide and I lost control.”
He kept his arm around her as they stood and walked along the trail. When it narrowed to a steep, downhill path, he asked, “What are you going to do now?”
Julia shrugged her shoulders. “Do what they ask of me, as I’ve always done. I’ve paid my rent through December, so I’ll stay that long. I just hope I don’t get snowed in before then.”
A companionable silence settled over them. As they walked, Julia began to feel unnerved by her response to David’s caresses and admission of love. She’d been drawn to him from the very first, but she had chosen to believe that he was no more than a good friend. During her war years she had avoided emotional ties with every GI she met. Whenever a serviceman made an overture beyond friendliness, she had a pat answer ready.
“I enlisted in the WAC to help win the war, not to start a romance or find a husband. If you want to be friends, fine; otherwise, look for another girl.”
Considering the causalities of D-Day and the number of soldiers she’d known who were killed during the invasion and its aftermath, she knew she’d made the right decision.
Her reaction to David was different. When he indicated that he loved her but had no intentions beyond that, she wondered if she had foolishly fallen in love with someone who was destined to break her heart. Did she really love David, or was it gratitude she felt toward him—gratitude that someone loved her?
Chapter Fourteen
Julia learned the answer to that question the last week in November, a week that would be forever etched into her memory. She had finished her manuscript and mailed it to the publisher. She had no other reason to stay in Mistletoe, but still she delayed going home. She excused her postponed departure by saying that she needed to finish the comforter and lap robe she was making as Christmas gifts for the area’s elderly.
David had returned from his classes at the university the night before, but she hadn’t talked to him yet. Asking Nellie to keep Bobby in the front yard where she could see them, she went to David’s cabin. They sat, shoulders touching, on the front step while he talked about his studies and she enjoyed the scenery. The trees had turned varied shades of yellow, orange, and red in October, and the view that she’d always enjoyed had been more picturesque than ever. Now that many of the leaves had fallen, the forest floor resembled a multi-colored carpet. The evergreens were more visible, and the mistletoe plants made dark green patches on the limbs of numerous oak trees.
She saw a stranger striding purposefully up the hollow, and she felt David tense beside her.
“Do you know him?” Julia asked.
“I haven’t seen him before.”
Something in David’s voice startled her, and she glanced at him sharply. The man came closer. He was young, probably still in his teens, and Julia marveled at the antagonism and hatred mirrored in his dark brown eyes.
David stood slowly. There was no fear on his face; rather, his eyes held a resigned look as he leaned against the porch post.
“Julia, you’d better go home.”
She sensed danger and stood up quickly, but she didn’t consider leaving David. A chill, dark silence surrounded them. As the stranger crossed the creek and approached the house, he didn’t take his eyes off David. His expression was thunderous. Alarm rippled along Julia’s spine.
She glanced toward her cabin, thankful that Bobby and Nellie were still playing. Her heart pounded and she started praying, sensing that tragedy threatened.
The stranger stopped at the foot of the steps. “Are you David Armstrong?”
“I am.”
“Do you know me?”
“How could I? This is the first time I’ve seen you.”
“Does the name Tolliver mean anything to you?”
David shrugged his shoulders, and his lack of fear seemed to anger the stranger. Julia gasped when the boy pulled a pistol from his pocket and waved it menacingly.
Swearing, he yelled, “I’m Lance Tolliver, and I’m going to kill you—you yellow-bellied murderer.”
Julia gasped. David was an even-tempered man, but she didn’t think he would overlook such an insult. His face flushed, and although he spoke calmly, his tone became thin and hollow.
“I don’t know what you’ve been told—or who told you—but I’ve never murdered anyone. Deaths occur during a battle, but they aren’t murder. My squadron of paratroopers was advancing in early dawn when your brother came running toward us. We thought he was an enemy. He must have become disoriented and turned in the wrong direction.”
“He wasn’t running from the enemy, if that’s what you’re hinting,” the youth shouted. “He wasn’t afraid of anything.”
“Then he must have been the only paratrooper who wasn’t afraid.” David’s voice was calm. “I shot, as did several other soldiers, and my bullet may have been the one that killed him. I don’t know. We were trained to fire and ask questions afterward.”
“Oh, yeah? One of our neighbors was in the same outfit, and he told me that with his dying breath, Adrian named you as his killer. Now I’m going to kill you.”
“Tolliver, I knew your brother, and I liked him. I’m sorry about his death, but it’s over and done with.”
“Not for me! Our parents died before Adrian was drafted. He was all I had, and I don’t want to live anymore. I’m going to kill you and then shoot myself.”
Julia saw the desperate look in the boy’s eyes. “David,” she warned, and he waved her to silence. Then he turned his back and started inside the house. Tolliver lifted the gun.
“David, watch out!” Julia shouted. Tolliver’s trembling finger tightened on the trigger, and in the split instant before he fired, Julia thrust out her arms and jumped in front of David. She heard the gunshot and felt a sharp pain in her arm before blackness engulfed her.
David hadn’t thought the boy would shoot, but when Julia screamed, he turned quickly and caught her before she fell. Tolliver rushed up the steps and stared at Julia. With his left hand, David grabbed the gun out of the boy’s hand and threw it toward the woods. He lowered Julia gently to the floor. Her pulse rate seemed faster than it should be, and blood was streaking her arm. He inspected her wound closely and thanked God that it looked superficial.
Lance Tolliver dropped to his knees on Julia’s other side, and he was shaking like a willow tree in a hurricane. “I didn’t intend to shoot her,” he cried, tears streaking his face. “God forgive me. I didn’t mean to kill a woman.”
“Shut up, Tolliver,” David said. “You didn’t kill her. And it’s a good thing you didn’t.”
David saw Nellie running toward them with Bobby in her arms. “Go get Granny,” he shouted to her. “Julia is all right, but her arm needs to be bandaged. I’ll watch Bobby.” He took a clean handkerchief from his pocket and tried to stanch the blood running from her upper arm.
Nellie put Bobby on the porch, and he crawled toward Julia.
“Auntie sick?” he asked, his blue eyes puzzled.
“No,” David said gently. “She’s been hurt, just like you are when you fall down. Granny will fix her arm.”
Bobby moved closer and patted Julia’s arm. He lay beside her and cuddled against her body. She opened her eyes.
“What happened?”
“You got the bullet that was meant for me,” David said, his voice shaking. During that split second when he thought she might have been killed, he had wondered if anything that had happened in the past was important enough to keep him from asking Julia to be his wife.
“It’s just a flesh wound,” he assured her, “but it’s going to hurt, and you’ll have a scar. I feel like shaking you. Why did you do such a foolish thing?”
She shook her head and closed her eyes, but he knew she was still conscious.
Tolliver slumped against one of the posts, his head in his hands. “I didn’t know what it would be like to kill somebody. When she crumpled up, I almost turned the gun on myself.”
Knowing the boy was on the edge of collapse, David attempted to distract him. “Tolliver, go in the cabin and bring some towels from the kitchen cabinet. I’ll try to stop the bleeding until Granny gets here.” The boy stared at him. “Hurry.”
Tolliver stood and on shaky legs tottered toward the cabin door.
Julia felt as if her arm was on fire, and she bit her lips to keep from sobbing. She didn’t regret her action for a minute. She’d prevented terrible tragedy, and she thanked God that she’d moved as fast as she had. Her impulsive action had probably saved David’s life. But she had to ask herself—why would she risk her life for his?
Her thoughts shifted to Jesus and why He had willingly died on the cross. He loved lost mankind so much that He’d submitted to the agony of a shameful death. On a lesser scale, when she took the bullet meant for David, didn’t that prove beyond a doubt that she loved him? Why else would she have risked her life to save his? Was her love for David great enough that she would live in Mistletoe just to be near him?
Julia’s eyes shifted to Granny. Although Julia didn’t believe that her regard for Granny could increase, the compassionate heart of the woman was never more apparent than in her treatment of Lance Tolliver. After she’d doctored and bandaged Julia’s wounded arm and David had gently lifted Julia to the porch swing, Granny turned her attention to Lance. The boy was slumped against a porch post, his head on his knees.
