by Diane Noble
She chuckled, and the women laughed with her. “Surprise, surprise.” She looked down for a moment, then over to her mother, who was sitting beside her.
“For instance, I thought I knew everything about my mother that there was to know. After all, I’d grown up with her. What’s there to know other than she was...is...a great mother. I knew all about how proud she’s always been of her Civil War heritage, I’ve known that she doesn’t particularly like Kisses...”
As if on cue, the little Chihuahua, tucked in his designer carrier under the table, let out a little growl.
“Always was a smart little critter,” Caroline snapped, then she winked. “It’s obvious he doesn’t like me either.”
Light laughter carried across the room, and Kate, leaning against the doorway between the kitchen and living room, chuckled.
“Well, what I’m here to say is that I recently found out some things about my mother that I’d never known before. I realized I’d known her as a parent, but I’d never known her as a person...what she was like as a young woman, as a bride whose husband was away fighting for our country during World War I. I never knew what she had to deal with in the aftermath....” She looked down at Caroline and touched her shoulder. “I never knew that my father came back injured—body, soul, and spirit. And that she spent countless hours nursing him back to health.
“I also never knew that during the war, she began taking care of ill community members. In those days we didn’t have our own doctor, but a circuit-rider, horse-and-buggy doctor who came around once a week or so. He taught her the basics of emergency care and counted on her availability day and night to help those in need. And she made herself available, tirelessly nursing the sick, especially during the epidemic of 1949.
“Many of you already know the story that recently unfolded at our museum, the scam that was attempted and thwarted thanks to Kate and Paul Hanlon, Pastor Nehemiah, James Jenner, and”— she put her hand over her heart—“moi.”
“I never knew any of this about Mama...” Renee stopped, sniffling.
Her mother handed an embroidered hanky to her and said, “Blow, dear, but don’t soil the edging.”
“Most of all,” Renee continued, “I didn’t know anyone who could keep a secret for longer than a day. Least of all my mother, who loves to hear what’s going on around town as well as any of us. Maybe even more.
“But I found out two weeks ago that my mother and her friend, Brother John, kept a secret about a child, about his inheritance, about the story he believed about the happy times he’d had here when he was just eight years old.”
Murmurs and whispers filled the room as the women speculated about the secret.
“Because we’ve all been struggling with this issue since our beloved Pastor Nehemiah preached on the Beatitudes, I’ve asked Mama to speak to you about how she did it and why.” She nodded to Caroline, who stood up and thanked Renee, who then seated herself.
“Ladies, I’m not a public speaker, can’t pretend to be. If at all possible, I would shy away from this kind of attention. Oh, I love certain kinds of admiration—what woman doesn’t? Talk about my hat and my great-grandfather, but about my accomplishments other than raising a daughter I’m so proud of that most mornings I could burst my buttons...” She stopped and looked down at Renee. “Not always, remember, just most mornings.” She laughed, and the audience laughed with her.
“I have asked a special guest to join us, because it really was the two of us together that decided we needed to keep Davy Carr’s background—and his future—our business.
“My daughter asked me the other day what kept us from telling something that was decades old if it was a day, and something that would cause quite a stir, perhaps bring us into the limelight, if that’s what we’d been looking for...”
There was a knock at the front door, and Kate hurried toward the entrance. When she opened the door, Brother John stood there. She blinked once, then again, almost not recognizing him. He’d gotten a haircut, and he was wearing slacks and a sports jacket.
“Brother John,” she said in wonder, “please come in.”
“Please, come right on over here,” Caroline said with a wide smile. “I was just talking about you.”
He nodded to the ladies as he passed, then walked to the head table, bent, and kissed Caroline’s hand. “It’s good to see you, my friend,” he murmured.
“My daughter asked me the other night how we could keep something this important to ourselves. I told her it was all about loving God and loving others.” She nodded to Brother John, indicating that it was his turn. “I thought for sure you’d have something else to say.”
He smiled gently. “I’m a man of simple tastes and simple words,” he said. “Living simply has taught me that there’s no greater treasure than trust. I would add that to your list.
“Loving God...Yes, Caroline’s right. Loving others as ourselves, extremely important. It’s God’s command to us. But I think that trust is a huge factor as well. It’s tied into loyalty and friendship—with God and with others.”
Kate was surprised when another knock sounded at the door. She opened it again, and there stood Davis Carr holding a basket filled with little velvet pouches.
This time, Kate couldn’t mask her surprise. “Davis, come in, please. It’s good to see you.”
He looked at her shyly. “I realize I wasn’t expected—not even by Caroline or Brother John, but I just wanted to say a few words...then I’ll be on my way.”
He wound his way around the tables until he reached the one where Caroline and Brother John were standing. First he looked over to Kate. “Would you mind giving one of these to each of the ladies?”
There were murmurs of curiosity as Kate took the basket out of his hands and then began handing out the pouches.
“Please, don’t open them yet,” he said. “Wait until I give the word, and then you can open them at once.” He paused a moment, then went on. “The diamonds that my family inherited came to us uncut. Through the years, Brother John, who’s been like a father to me, had been gathering the bags he knew belonged to my family, one bag a year, and recently more, because he thought some were about to disappear.
“He learned a new hobby. In fact he perfected it. He started learning to cut diamonds, experimenting until even the roughest, rawest piece could be made to look like this.” He reached into his pocket, pulled out a large diamond, and held it to the light.
“Some say Arkansas diamonds have no great value.” He smiled down at Brother John, who was now seated. “But when you see something like this, made with loving hands into a perfect, brilliant form, you then understand its true value. It’s what it means to you, not a price the marketplace might put on it. And it means more than anything in the world to me.
“Isn’t that what God does to us?” He looked down, and when he looked up again, tears had filled his eyes. “We’re all like this uncut diamond...” He held up another stone, this one dull and uninteresting. He grinned. “We start out like this, but through the work of his loving hands, he turns us into a stone like this...” He held up the radiant finished diamond again.
He paused, looked down at Brother John, then lifted his eyes. “It’s the touch of the Master’s hand.” He smiled at the ladies, then said, “You may open your gifts now.”
Sighs of surprise filled the room as the women poured the contents of the little velvet bags into their palms: sparkling, faceted diamonds, perhaps a dozen or more for each guest.
What followed was even more stunning than the gift itself.
Grabbing a tissue, Kate dabbed at the tears that had formed in the corners of her eyes as she gazed across the living room, taking in the faces of the friends she’d come to love, taking delight in their expressions of joy.
She wished Nehemiah could have stayed to be part of the glorious outcome; she imagined the twinkle in his eyes would have matched the refracted lights of the diamonds. And she thought about dear James, who had so cou
rageously played a role in solving the mystery. He was truly one of the gems God was cutting and polishing. Good things lay ahead for this brave hearted young man. Livvy and Danny could be proud.
Then her gaze fell on Caroline. The dear woman had been right about everything...even the timing for the tea.
As the afternoon sun spilled through the sliding-glass doors, tiny pinpoints of lights spread throughout the room catching and reflecting light from each faceted diamond, dancing across each woman as she looked with awe at Davis Carr’s gift.
The touch of the Master’s hand...
Indeed!
Kate smiled again.
About the Author
DIANE NOBLE is the award-winning author of The Butterfly Farm and nearly two dozen other published works—mysteries, romantic suspense, historical fiction and nonfiction books for women, including three devotionals and an empty-nest survival guide. Diane is a three-time recipient of the Silver Angel Award for Media Excellence and a double finalist for Romance Writers of America’s prestigious RITA award for Best Inspirational Fiction. Diane makes her home in Southern California with husband Tom and their two cats. You can stop by Diane’s Web site at www.dianenoble.com to catch up on the latest about her books, favorite recipes, crochet patterns and much more.
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