When the boat reached the dock, Dathan took the mooring line and tied it to the pier.
Dathan’s father looked up from the place where he sat and Adrella could see where Dathan’s good looks had come from. This would be what Dathan would look like in another twenty years. Eyes the same color of gray as her husband’s studied her curiously before turning to Dathan.
“Hello, Father.” Dathan reached out a hand to help his father onto the dock.
He took the proffered hand. “Dathan.”
They studied each other several seconds before Mr. Adams turned to her.
“So this is my daughter.” He acknowledged her presence in one all-encompassing glance. Although she might be lacking in beauty, there could be no faulting the beautiful gown she wore. Having overcome her aversion to green, she knew the dress set off her flaming hair and emerald-green eyes in a way no other could. It had been Dathan’s choice, and it was her favorite.
“It’s good to finally meet you,” Mr. Adams told her.
Adrella was surprised that there was no censure in the look her gave her. Instead his eyes held only friendly interest.
He took her hand, lifted it to his lips and placed a soft kiss there. The courteous gesture sent the color to her cheeks and Dathan’s brows flying to his hairline.
He held on to her hand as he turned to his son. “Your mother wanted to come, but she has been ill. I left her on the ship.” He smiled at Adrella. “She’s impatient to meet you.”
This kind of greeting was not at all what Adrella had expected. From everything Dathan had told her, she had expected to be treated to cool disdain, not this warm cordiality. She beamed a smile at her father-in-law. “As I am, her.”
He finally released her hand and turned to his son. “It’s good to see you, son.”
Adrella could see the tension ease from Dathan’s shoulders. “And you, Dad.”
Mr. Adams glanced at the suitcases on the dock, along with the few crates. His eyebrows lifted at the cat carrier, but he said nothing about it.
“Is this all you have?” he questioned in surprise.
Dathan nodded. “We decided to leave most of our things for the new lighthouse keeper.”
Adrella couldn’t quite read the expression on Mr. Adams’s face. He was very much like his son in that respect.
“Well then. Let’s get you loaded up and the men can come back for your things.”
He helped Adrella into the rowboat, settling himself onto the seat beside her. Dathan climbed into the boat and seated himself across from them, throwing Adrella a reassuring smile.
Dathan glanced at his father. “What’s wrong with Mother?”
“Nothing, now. But she had a bad case of influenza.”
There was something in the way he delivered the words that said there was more to the story than that. Infinitely more. Dathan must have sensed it, too.
Leaning forward, his face creased with concern, Dathan asked, “How bad?”
Mr. Adams focused his look on his hands twisting in his lap. “She almost died, Dathan.”
His soft voice sent goose bumps racing along Adrella’s arms. She caught her breath at the same time Dathan did.
“And you never told me?” Dathan asked angrily.
“She asked me not to.”
The hurt look that flashed across Dathan’s face brought a lump to Adrella’s throat.
Mr. Adams looked up at his son, his lips set in a grim line. “And it’s not for the reasons you are thinking.”
Before he could comment, they reached the ship and one of the sailors stood and threw the bowline to a man waiting on deck. Two sailors began lowering a wooden seat by a pulley system. Adrella swallowed hard, knowing it was to bring her onto the ship so that she wouldn’t have to climb the rope ladder that the men used. Dathan carefully helped her onto it, his warm hands closing reassuringly over hers where they tightly clenched the rope.
His eyes met hers encouragingly. “You’ll be fine.”
She gave him a lame smile, nodding.
Dathan looked up. “Bring her aboard,” he shouted and the chair began its jerking ascent.
* * *
Dathan watched with his heart in his mouth as Adrella was lifted aboard his father’s ship. He stood tense, ready to intervene in case anything happened. He didn’t release his breath until she was pulled over the side and gave him a little wave from the deck. He was thankful that she hadn’t seen Grace’s cat carrier being thrown to a sailor aboard the clipper.
His father had already ascended the rope ladder and Dathan quickly scaled it behind him.
Adrella met him at the top, her face only now beginning to regain some color. Placing his hands on her shoulders, he studied her carefully.
“Are you all right?”
“Fine. It was rather fun, really.”
Dathan smiled. His indomitable Adrella. He took her hand when his father motioned them to follow him below.
Mr. Adams knocked softly on the door to his quarters before opening it. He stepped back to allow them passage into the room.
Sunlight from several portholes brightened the room, exposing its contents. Lushly appointed with the finest furniture money could buy, this was the life he remembered so well.
His mother was sitting up in bed, a pale shadow of the woman he remembered. She was thin to the point of emaciation, her bed jacket doing nothing to hide the bones protruding from her shoulders. He had only seen such emaciation during the war. It made plain to him just how ill his mother had been. He would never have forgiven himself if she had died with the breach between them still unresolved. He swallowed hard, trying to dislodge the knot that had formed in his throat.
“Mother.” He quickly crossed to the bed and knelt at her side. He took her thin hand into his own and brought it to his lips. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t want your bride to see me like I was. I’m much better now.”
If this was better, he could only imagine what her illness had done to her.
“How long have you been ill?”
“Several weeks,” his father answered for her, the timbre of his voice telling Dathan more than anything just how close his mother had come to leaving this earth.
“We received your letter just before I became ill,” she explained. “We knew that you would have much to do to get ready to come home. We thought it best.”
She looked past his shoulder. “But enough of that. Introduce me to your lovely bride.”
Adrella came forward and took Dathan’s outstretched hand. He could feel her trembling, yet her face held a genuine smile.
“Adrella, this is my mother. Mother, this is the love of my life.”
“Adrella. What an unusual name.”
Dathan was surprised at the genuine warmth that filled his mother’s pale face. She reached forward and took Adrella’s other hand.
“My dear, I am so pleased to meet you. Dathan has spoken of you so much in his letters that I feel like I know you.” She patted the side of the bed. “Won’t you sit down and let us get to know you?”
This meeting hadn’t gone anything like what Dathan had been expecting. He stared from one parent to the other, perplexed. Something had changed. There was a gentleness about them both that hadn’t been there before.
They all spent a few minutes chatting and then Dathan’s father cleared his throat.
“Dathan, we want to apologize to you.”
A worried frown creased Dathan’s forehead. What on earth was going on here? He had never heard his father apologize to anyone in his life.
His father continued. “We forced you to decide between your faith and us. That was wrong of us.”
His father moved to the other side of the bed and took the hand Dathan’s mother held ou
t to him. “We have a story to tell you. Please be patient and allow us to finish it before you say anything,” he said.
Dathan nodded his assent, feeling as though the world had just turned topsy-turvy.
“Your mother had influenza so bad that her life hung by a thread for many days.” He swallowed hard and Dathan knew it was difficult for him to continue. He had never doubted the love his parents had for each other, although he had doubted their love for him.
“The nurse who tended her was a godly woman. Irish, as a matter of fact.” His father smiled at Adrella and Dathan saw the color rush to her face.
“She spent a lot of time reading to your mother, mainly from the Bible. I could see that the words brought your mother comfort, and then, they began to bring me comfort as well.” He sighed heavily. “I began to pray. I have never prayed for anything so hard in my life, not even for your and your brother’s safety. In my arrogance I didn’t think I needed to.”
His mother squeezed his father’s hand and they looked at each other the way Dathan and Adrella looked at each other. It was a merging of the hearts.
“Anyway,” he continued, “the Lord showed us that we were not as self-sufficient as we thought we were.”
Adrella’s voice chimed in softly. “You found the Lord.”
His father glanced at her. “That, and a whole lot more.”
That would explain the difference that Dathan had sensed. The gentleness that had always been missing from their home was now clear to see. What would his life had been like if their home had always had this kind of peace? He could only imagine. But then he might not have ever met Adrella. That thought brought him up short. He only now realized that he would not give up a single minute of the life he had lived if it meant he would not have her.
“Can you forgive us?” his mother asked.
The feelings he had struggled with all his life melted away under the questioning gazes of both of his parents. Reaching down, he wrapped his mother in a gentle hug, fearful that he might harm her.
“I love you,” he told them, including both of them in his look.
He caught Adrella’s liquid look as he struggled to hold back his own tears. It was time for the healing to begin for all of them.
* * *
Adrella watched the shores of Cape St. George Island receding in the distance.
Dathan wrapped her in his arms and they silently watched that part of their life recede forever.
“I’m going to miss it,” he told her softly.
Adrella swallowed hard. As would she. Apalachicola was the only life she could remember.
“Are you sorry, Drell? Should we have stayed?”
Adrella turned fully in his arms so that she could look him in the eye. It had never occurred to her that he might be feeling uncertain as well.
“Whither thou goest.” Laying a palm against his cheek, she answered back, “As long as we are together, Dathan, anywhere is home.”
“I feel the same way about you,” he told her quietly.
She stood silently taking in all that had transpired in the past several hours. The genuine warmth of his parents had banished the last traces of her fears. They had made her feel like a part of their family. It was amazing how the Lord had worked in their lives to show them His love, and to bring reconciliation.
“I like your parents,” she stated quietly.
He smiled, tightening his hold. “I think the feeling is mutual.” His look became thoughtful. “I never gave up praying for them, hoping they would come to see what the Lord truly means in a person’s life.”
“‘For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers,’” she quoted. “And you are a righteous man, my love,” she finished huskily.
His kiss expressed more than words ever could have. They turned back to watch the setting of the sun, the glorious shades of red and orange bursting over the water. As the band of twilight deepened, a bright beam of light from Cape St. George Light shot out across the darkening sea.
* * * * *
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ISBN: 9781460310793
Copyright © 2013 by Darlene Mindrup
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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There's Always Tomorrow Page 16
