“Yes, we still have time. I was just wondering…”
Robert continued chewing. Then he looked up. “Was there something else you wanted? Did you find the cradles? Would you mind using cradles that have been used before?”
“No, Robert. I would love to use the children’s cradles. Did you make those? They are lovely.”
“I made the swinging cradle. The one on rockers my father made for me when I was a baby. But Anita used it for our children, too.”
“Oh, how wonderful! When it is closer to my time, we can move them down, and I will clean and polish them. They have been cared for beautifully already.”
Again Bess hesitated. She took a bite and chewed slowly, trying to think how to ask her other questions.
While she looked at her plate, Robert said gently, “What else did you find there, Bess? I can tell there is still something on your mind. What is it?”
Bess looked up, startled as always when he spoke her thoughts. She swallowed. “There was a pile of baby quilts in the cradle. There was one with each of the children’s names on it.”
“Yes, Anita made one for each child while she recuperated from each birth. I think she was hoping they would be a keepsake for each child, but if you want to use them, you could.”
“No, I think we should keep them for the children.” Again she paused, studying her plate. Her fork was pushing the food in circles, so she laid it down. Glancing up, she saw that Robert was still waiting. So she pressed on.
“Robert, there are four children, and there are four completed quilts. But there is a fifth quilt that is not quite finished. It has most of the word Lily stitched in the center, but the thread and needle are still in it as though it had been interrupted. I know that Anita wanted to name the baby Lily if it was a girl. But when did she make the quilt? I was with her the whole time, and she never once sewed on a quilt. Do you know about it?”
Robert sighed heavily before laying his fork on his plate, folding his arms on his chest, and leaning back in his chair. “Bess, I’ve thought to tell you about this several times since we’ve been married, but there never really seemed to be a right time. At first I just wanted to help you get over your guilt. Then when we knew you were in the family way, I was afraid to tell you, for fear of causing unnecessary worry. I would have told you at some time. But I guess now’s as good a time as any.”
Bess could only sit and stare at him questioningly.
Robert took another deep breath. “The year before you came to be with us, before Anita came down with polio, we had a baby girl. We named her Lily Joy. She died suddenly while Anita was still making her quilt, and Anita didn’t have the heart to finish it. After she got sick herself, I folded it away with the other quilts in the cradle upstairs. I don’t think she thought too much about it until she knew there was another little one on the way. One night she asked me if I thought it would be all right to name the new baby after her older sister who was already in heaven. Instead of Lily Joy, she wanted to name her Lily Bess because of her great love for you. She remembered the quilt and decided God had stopped her just in time. Now she could finish the blanket with the new baby’s name if the baby were a girl.” Robert paused and looked down at his plate briefly. “Only the new baby never came.” Tears filled Robert’s eyes and splashed untouched onto his plate.
Bess moved to the seat beside him and reached for his hand. “Robert, I had no idea you have been through so very much sorrow. I hurt for you, but I don’t even know what to say to you. You have lost three. And I didn’t know. Oh, my dear Robert, I am so very sorry.”
“There is really nothing to say. I won’t lie and tell you I am over it all. I may never be over it all. But God gives grace as we need it, and He fills empty hearts with more love than we even know to ask for. I feel like Job sometimes, Bess. He was obedient to God, as I have tried to be, yet God allowed testing. In the end, God gave Job more than he ever dreamed and more than he had had before his trials. I feel so very blessed to have you, Bess. And to have one more little one is more than I could have ever hoped or dreamed for. I will not look at what I have lost, but will focus instead on the blessings God has given to me. I am truly a very blessed man.” He laid his hand on Bess’s cheek.
Bess pressed his hand gently. “And I am truly a very blessed woman. Do you have any idea how very much I love you, Robert Paul Sheldon?”
She shook her head in disbelief. Who would ever have imagined such a man? Or that he would belong to her?
Chapter 25
There were only two weeks of school left before the children would be able to stay home for the summer. Bess looked forward to having them around more. It was Monday morning, and she could hear the birds singing loudly outside the open window. Robert was stirring. She had meant to be up before now, but her back was hurting terribly, and she had lain still for too long.
Groaning softly to herself, she sat up on the edge of the bed. Why was her back hurting so badly? All she could think was that she had slept in an unusual posture. She rose and pressed on to get breakfast ready and pack lunches for the children. As she worked, hard pains would clamp in her back with force and then ease after a few minutes.
After sending the children off to school, Bess started cleaning the dishes off the table when the pain moved to her abdomen. And then she knew what was happening. She sat down hard in the chair by the table. After a few minutes the pain eased once again, so she continued her work. Everyone says this could take hours.
The morning seemed to move more slowly than usual. When Robert came in for lunch, she had not even started preparing the food. He called her name, but she could only groan. Rushing into the bedroom, he saw Bess curled on her side on the bed.
“Please, Robert,” she panted, “please get the doctor. Hurry!”
“Are you all right here alone?” His tone was frantic.
“I have to be! Please, just go quickly.” Suddenly she blanched white and groaned again, clenching her teeth as beads of sweat stood out on her forehead.
“I’ll hurry!”
Robert hadn’t been gone more than fifteen minutes when Bess heard Marita’s cheerful voice calling in the back door, “Anyone home? Bess? Robert? May Edwin and I come in?”
Bess mustered all the strength she could to call out, “Here, Marita…come here!”
As soon as Marita stuck her cheerful head around the doorframe, she became all business, barking orders to her husband.
Within an hour of Marita and Edwin’s arrival, Bess held a tiny girl in her arms. By the time Robert returned with the doctor, Marita had the coffee brewing on the stove and Bess was sleeping soundly with the downy little head resting in the crook of her arm.
Robert stood at the foot of the bed with tears streaming unashamedly down his face.
Doc Walker stayed in the kitchen drinking a cup of the strong brew while Marita told what she had done and explained what had happened. Doc Walker chuckled. “Have you ever considered going into midwifery? Sounds like you did a right good job of it. Don’t know as I could have done better.”
Marita blushed at the compliment.
Edwin chuckled and then commented to the doctor, “You might not have been so bossy.”
Again Marita blushed, but the men laughed heartily. “Well, I will go on in and check on the mother and baby as long as I’m here. Give my horse a bit of a rest before I head her home.”
While the doctor was with Bess, Robert asked Pastor Lewis to help him move the things from the attic. “We knew we needed to get them out, but we hadn’t told the children yet because we thought we still had a couple of weeks. Guess this wee one decided to show up a bit early and catch us off guard.”
The house was bustling with activity when the children arrived from school. To answer the unspoken questions, Robert put his finger over his lips and motioned silently for them to follow him. Tiptoeing quietly, they followed him into the bedroom.
There, lying on the bed, was Bess with a baby in her arms. She beamed a
t the children and said softly, “Would you like to meet your sister? She has been eager to meet you all. I told her all about you, but she wants to see for herself.”
All the children stood quietly staring. Finally Anna said, “Is she really our sister? Will she stay with us forever?”
“Yes, Anna, she is really your sister. And we will pray that God will let her stay with us forever and ever.”
Suddenly everyone was talking at once. Even the boys were touching the baby and wanting to hold her. Bess welcomed them all onto the bed, and the little family hovered lovingly, examining every finger and toe. The baby’s hair curled in swirls over her head, and as she sucked her hand, a tiny dimple appeared in one cheek. Conner discovered the dimple and felt quite proud of himself for finding it first. Her eyes were bright as she looked from one doting face to another.
Finally Paul asked the question. “What’s her name?”
All eyes turned to Bess. “Well, I’ve been thinking for some time that it seems her name should be Lily Grace Sheldon. Because I can smell the lilies outside my window and because I believe a little girl named Lily is supposed to be in this family. Are there other opinions?” She looked questioningly at each child and at Robert.
All was quiet.
Anna was the first to speak. “Mother would like that, Mama. And her little mouth looks just like a lily, don’t you think?” Still the room was quiet while Bess awaited other comments. And then Anna added, “We had a sister named Lily once, but she went to be with Jesus like Mother did. I think our other sister Lily would like to share such a beautiful name, don’t you?”
It seemed Anna always spoke for her brothers. As though it had been previously decided, they all spoke at once, calling her “little Lily.” Over their heads, Bess raised a brow at Robert. The tender look he gave her assured her of his approval.
The gentle May breeze stirred the curtain in the early morning. Bess had finished nursing Lily and laid her back in the cradle, covering her with the now-completed quilt stitched with Lily Grace Sheldon.
The birds were singing, and Bess walked to the open window to listen. On the breeze came the fragrance of the lilies of the valley that grew beneath the window. As she inhaled the beloved scent, Bess felt Anita there with her somehow in the fragrance she had so loved. And then she was gone—almost as though Anita had stopped in for a brief hug. In that quiet moment Bess knew she was not taking Anita’s place at all, but continuing it. She was right where she was supposed to be, as though she and Anita had shared one spirit.
She could never have explained it, but in her heart she felt peace. She knew Anita was pleased. And so was Bess. Only God could have shown such grace to a poor prostitute and carried out such a perfect plan. As His love enveloped her in the fragrance of the lilies, Bess knew her smile had finally reached her eyes.
WHERE TWO AGREE
The Hand of God,
Book Three
by Judi Ann Ehresman
Dedication
Girlfriends are a special gift from God as we bear with one another and also help “bear one another up” through the trials as well as joys of life.
In honor of my fictional girlfriends, Mandy and Deidre, I would like to dedicate this book to two very special friends that God has brought into my life: Kay Stouse and DeeDee Hart.
I’d also like to thank God for my many other dear women friends who make my life special every day, of whom I cannot begin to make an exhaustive list. Please know that I thank God for you and hold you dear to my heart!
Chapter 1
Deidre walked slowly up the worn path to the cabin from the vegetable gardens. The wooden bucket was nearly full from the first picking of the tender peas. She had gone to the gardens to do some early weeding and discovered the bountiful crop ready for picking already. Mandy and Ethan would be surprised. She smiled as she thought of how much the boys would enjoy the harvest.
Stopping to rest for a few minutes, she set the bucket down and straightened her back, breathing deeply of the earth and sun-warmed grasses. She tipped her ebony face up to the heavens and once again felt close to Jeremiah, knowing that somewhere this same sun was warming her husband’s rich black skin. Silently she uttered the same prayer she prayed regularly: That God would protect and guide him and somehow bring them back together again.
It seemed unlikely they could ever find one another, with him being sold to another plantation and her a runaway slave, but Deidre clung to the promise that with God all things are possible. She believed with her whole heart it would happen. She had no idea how it could, but she would not stop praying and believing.
She leaned against a tree trunk, listening to the happy sounds that were part of her life now. She could hear her young son, Jedediah, encouraging and instructing Ethan and Mandy’s son, Daniel, as they played together. Such love between those two boys. It was a wonder indeed. As she often did, she prayed the boys would never be separated by the hatred of this world that saw the color of the skin instead of the condition of the heart.
As she listened, she could hear the ax chopping and the tall straight trees as they fell. Ethan had offered to build her a cabin of her own, but he also told her he would be glad to build a wing onto their cabin for her if she preferred. Then she and Jedediah would be able to have a little more space of their own while still sharing the main house with Ethan and Mandy. Both Deidre and Mandy preferred having him add the wing to the main house, and they planned to start the building of it tomorrow.
The day was warm, and Deidre enjoyed the shade of the aged maple tree. She sighed. She knew she should soon be going up to the house to help Mandy put the boys down for naps, but she rested yet a bit. A bee lazily droned over the wild daisies across the path, and the gentle breeze that moved too slowly to cool her skin much still brought the fragrance of summer to her. If only Jeremiah could be here with her, life would be as near heaven as it could be on this earth. Indeed, she had never dreamed her life could be so good.
She recalled the many ways God had answered her prayers these past couple of years. She still could never think of it all without tears running down her face and a prayer of gratitude rising from her heart. And, as always, she shuddered as she remembered her life before coming to live in Indiana with Mandy and her family.
Life was hard for all the slaves who worked the Wickner Plantation. Mr. Wickner considered his slaves to be part of his livestock, and Mrs. Wickner acted as though the slaves would contaminate her if she was not careful. The slaves could not please her, no matter how hard they tried. If something was done well, it still was never good enough. And if something was done poorly, she felt it was to be expected (but soundly corrected) because the slaves were so stupid in her eyes.
The Wickners had two sons and a daughter. The sons were becoming as illtempered and mean as their father, and the daughter acted as though the world revolved around her and the slaves should know her thoughts before she spoke them. She was becoming even more difficult to please than her mother, if that was possible.
The slave colony on the Wickner Plantation was a community of its own. In spite of the fact that many of the sturdier young ones were taken from their mothers and sold off while still young enough to be trained to serve a new owner properly, their own slave population increased at a steady rate.
Deidre had been with the Wickners since she was young. She was skinny and tall, and Mrs. Wickner particularly took a liking to her cooking, so she had requested her husband to give her Deidre to work in the house. Because Deidre looked somewhat frail, Mr. Wickner agreed to the request, thinking she would more than likely not be much good in the fields anyway.
Deidre guessed she was somewhere around eighteen or twenty years old when Jeremiah was purchased at auction and brought to the plantation. He was handsome, strong, and probably somewhere near the same age as Deidre.
Deidre watched the new slave named Jeremiah as he moved around the slave camp in the evenings. He had a strong back and muscled arms, and Mr. Wickner
worked him particularly hard, yet Jeremiah never complained. Around the slave camp, he seemed to always know who needed a hand and who needed encouragement. Even though he worked harder than most of the others all day long, in the evenings he still helped the others wherever he could.
Jeremiah smiled at everyone in the camp. He dared not smile at the white folks, but in the slave camp his smile was constant. His eyes were large and a deep chocolate brown…the kindest eyes Deidre had ever seen. Soon she found herself watching for him, and her own smile came more readily when he was around. And more and more he seemed to be around. Then one evening as she was returning to the camp from her day’s labors in the big house, he stopped her, placed his finger under her chin, tipped her face up, and searched her eyes. He didn’t say anything for a long time, but just looked into her very soul. She could not tear her eyes away.
Finally he spoke softly. “Deidre, none of us knows what the future holds, or how long we’ll be here or if we’ll get sold off. All I know is that I believe God brought me here to find ya.” He paused briefly, but Deidre remained silent. Then he continued. “Will ya be my wife? If ‘n you’ll say yes, all I can promise is I’ll do my very best to buy our freedom so we can be together always. But if ’n I cannot buy our freedom, you’ll be the only wife I will ever know. That’s the best I can promise.”
A million thoughts had raced through Deidre’s mind, but all were subdued by the thought of being Jeremiah’s wife. “Yes, Jeremiah, I will be yer wife and yers only. I believe God will help us. He knows our hearts.” And so with the blessing and witness of the other slaves, she and Jeremiah “jumped the broom” quietly one evening, becoming man and wife.
A little more than a year later Deidre could no longer hide that she was expecting a child. Mrs. Wickner was furious. She demanded to know how it had happened, so Deidre told her of the marriage. She tried to reassure her mistress that it would not keep her from her kitchen duties, but the woman was still angry. Mr. Wickner was only able to calm his wife with the news that she could have the money from the sale of Deidre’s baby when it was born. And to further please his wife, Mr. Wickner promised to soon sell Jeremiah.
The Long Road Home Romance Collection Page 26
