by Irene Brand
“I accept your apology,” she said. In her heart she was happy that he’d come. She hadn’t been pleased with her unforgiving spirit toward Ray, and with his sincere apology, she was able to forgive him completely. After all, Ray didn’t have the grace of God to prevent him from taking what he wanted without regard for others.
“I hadn’t been raised in the type of home you’d had, and moral license was common among my people,” he explained. “I did love you, Connie, and I thought your Marriage First vow was foolish. I learned different when I lost you because I refused to recognize that pledge. I know it’s too late now, but I do wish things could have worked out for us.”
Connie stood, and her knees trembled slightly. She shook her head. “We wouldn’t have been happy together, Ray. I see that now, but I had many miserable days after I broke our engagement. I sincerely hope you’ll find someone else who will make you happier than I ever could.”
“Have you found someone else?” he asked pointedly.
“I don’t know. I do love Joseph, and he loves me, but until his name is cleared of suspicion over his wife’s death, there’s no future for us. Both of us realize that.”
“I hope you do find happiness with Caldwell. You’re a wonderful woman, Connie, and you deserve it. Tell him to check into his wife’s past. I’d known Virginia…” and when Ray saw the astonished look on Connie’s face, he hastened to add, “Oh, don’t get me wrong—there was nothing between us. We were in college together, and although she seemed to be a timid, quiet person, she dated some wild characters. If she was murdered, some of those guys could have done it.”
“Thank you, Ray.”
She held out her hand, and he took it, holding it longer than Connie liked, and she wondered if he had indeed loved her. Releasing her hand, she said, “Goodbye, Ray, and best wishes for the future. I mean that. You’re a great physical therapist.”
He spoke briefly to Kim as he left the office, and Connie knew that Ray at last had gone from her life. Whether or not she would tell Joseph what he’d said, she didn’t know. It seemed every place they turned, a different aspect of Virginia’s character emerged.
When Joseph telephoned at five o’clock, the pressure of the day was evident by the weariness of his voice.
“Well, it’s all over, Connie,” he said.
“Oh, Joseph, my dear, was it bad?”
“Dreadful for George and Stephanie, and I suffered for them. It will all be on the television news tonight.”
“Where are you?”
“At the ranch. I wanted to come and see you, tell you in person, but there was an emergency with some of the cattle, and I came home. We had to have a vet, and he’s just now finished. I want to see you, but I’m about drained.”
“I’ll come to you,” Connie said. “I can be there in a couple of hours, and I’ll see if Rose can provide some food for our dinner.”
“That’s a long drive if you go back tonight. Bring some overnight things, and I’ll ask Jean to spend the night here. She’s coming to the ranch later on, for she’s anxious to know what happened today, too.”
Connie stopped in the outer office long enough to tell Kim about Joseph’s call and that she was leaving for the night. Within a half hour, she was on her way to Joseph. Were they at the end of the long road?
The time passed more quickly than Connie anticipated, for her mind was busy with thoughts of the future. Was Joseph ready for another relationship? Would he ever be? Had Virginia’s death, and the traumatic events that followed, scarred him so deeply that he would be reluctant to ever give his love freely to another? And if they were to marry, would she have to give up her therapy work to live at the ranch? Joseph needed a wife in his home, not one who worked a hundred miles away. She couldn’t expect him to give up his ranch—his livelihood—to live near NLC, so Connie knew that she would have to make a choice—Joseph or the NLC. Since God had called her to minister in His name as a physical therapist, was it right to give up that ministry to marry Joseph? Throughout the drive, Connie pondered questions that had no easy answers. But it might soon be crunch time.
Joseph came to the car and took Connie in his arms when she stepped out of the van. He held her a long time without speaking. “It’s over, Connie. I couldn’t speak of this until I’d proven my innocence in Virginia’s death, but I’ve loved you for months. I agree with you that the test of love is a wedding ring, and I want to put one on your finger as soon as possible. Will you marry me?”
Kissing him, she said lovingly, “Of course, I’ve been waiting for you to ask.”
With his arm still around her, they walked into the house. “You’ll never know how much I appreciate you coming here,” he said. “I couldn’t bear to spend the evening without seeing you, but I didn’t know if I could make the trip to NLC.”
She ran her fingers over the lines in his face, etched deeply by distress. “Let’s have our dinner,” she said, “and you’ll feel better. Help me carry in the food. We can warm it in the microwave.”
“Jean will be here in an hour or so. She had a meeting in Fort Collins this evening.”
After they’d eaten, they sat on the couch in the living room. Joseph drew Connie close, and she curled up in the circle of his arm. “Now, tell me everything,” she said.
“There really isn’t so much to tell. After the turmoil of the past months, today was anticlimactic.” He paused for a few moments, perhaps reflecting on the day’s activities. “I didn’t sleep any last night,” he continued, “and I don’t suppose George and Stephanie did either. We were all up early for breakfast, but none of us ate much.”
“I’m happy that you and George are friends again. I believe his disloyalty caused you more grief than anything else.”
“That’s true,” Joseph agreed. “But back to this morning. We met his lawyers at the police station near the Perry home. George made a clean breast of everything. He submitted the blackmail note, told them about his trip to the ranch, how he and Virginia had quarreled and about her fall. I gave them all the facts you and I have gathered about Stan and Debbie Jarvis, and that holdup. They weren’t happy that we’d been investigating privately.” He chuckled. “I told them that we wouldn’t have had to investigate if they’d believed me and had done their own detective work.”
“That must have given you a great deal of satisfaction,” Connie said.
“As a matter of fact, it did,” he said, laughing. “I resent being considered guilty without any proof.”
“So what happens now?”
“George won’t be charged with anything—they reluctantly accepted his story that her fall was accidental, and since she was alive when I found her, the official report will probably be death from an injury sustained in an accident.”
“What about Debbie Jarvis? Will she be implicated?”
Joseph nodded. “The local police are already in touch with the authorities in California about the holdup, and I feel sure that Debbie will also be arrested.”
“How are George and Stephanie? This must be terrible for them.”
“George seems more relieved than anything else. He’s been miserable for months—worrying that he may have been responsible for Virginia’s death and being sorry that he’d implicated me. We both did a lot of apologizing and forgiving today. He’s so happy he has a clear conscience now that he won’t mind all the publicity. The Perrys have been influential in this area for years, and Stephanie’s father has a lot of political clout, but the local media might go easy on them.” He sighed. “It’s over now, and I can go forward. That brings me to us. When can we be married?”
“Joseph, I’ve been wondering about that during my drive to the ranch, for I thought you might ask me, and I believe we should wait for a while. These past few months have wounded you, emotionally and physically, and you need time to heal. How would a six months’ engagement sound to you?”
“Too long!” he groaned. “But I know you’re right. We should carry on a normal courtship, when
we could talk about something else besides my physical and legal problems. Let’s be romantic and get married on the anniversary of the day we met at NLC—that would be on May 5.”
“Why, Joseph,” Connie said, with an impish grin. “You even remember the exact date! I hadn’t taken you for a romantic!”
“I haven’t had much of a chance,” he complained. “Just wait until I really turn on my charm, and you won’t be disappointed.” He stood and pulled Connie upward into his arms. “I hear Jean coming up the driveway, so let me give you a real kiss before she gets here.”
He did, and Connie wasn’t disappointed.
Epilogue
Connie’s heart—and her lips—sang as she left NLC’s administration building to prepare for her wedding. She locked the door with some regret. For not only was this her last day as a single woman, but she was closing the Center today. She and Joseph had delayed their marriage for a whole year after their engagement, while she built an elaborate health spa on a twenty-acre corner of his ranch. They had agreed that she must continue her therapy work, but in the vicinity of Fort Collins. She’d been fortunate to find a buyer for NLC, and the new owners would take over tomorrow and operate the property as a resort, which it had been intended for in the beginning.
Most of her staff was moving to Fort Collins, and Connie eventually intended to broaden the scope of her ministry to hold conferences on the relationship between physical health and spiritual growth.
Since Connie and Joseph had met at NLC, they wanted to have the ceremony there, and the lawn behind the administration building was decorated much as it had been when Kim and Eric had been married. Today, Eric would be performing the ceremony. They had only two attendants. Kim was the matron of honor, while George Perry served as Joseph’s best man. During the past year, Connie and Joseph had often visited the Perrys, and Connie and Stephanie had become good friends. George looked with favor upon Joseph’s marriage to Connie.
Wearing a sparkling white wedding gown to symbolize her belief in the Marriage First vow that she’d promoted, Connie took her father’s arm and started up the flower-bordered aisle toward Joseph. A worry-free year had erased the lines from his face, and it had been months since she’d noted any despair in his gray eyes. He looked happy! For a moment, Connie wondered if he was comparing this simple ceremony to the ostentatious wedding when he’d married Virginia, but she shoved the thought aside. The year had also erased the hold Virginia held in his thoughts, and she had no doubt that Joseph loved her as much or more than he had his first wife.
Bill Harmon delivered Connie to the makeshift altar and placed her hand in Joseph’s strong one. Eric followed the traditional wedding service, with one exception. Before the giving and receiving of rings, he added one additional vow. He read the Marriage First pledge and asked if they had obeyed the pledge. In unison, they said, “We did,” and repeated, “I believe my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. If I defile my body with immorality, I dishonor the Spirit of God living within me. Therefore, I pledge to maintain the purity of my body until my wedding day.”
As Peggy McCane sang, “With this Ring I Thee Wed,” Joseph placed a wide golden band on Connie’s finger.
“We did it!” he whispered. “We passed the test of love.”
Dear Reader,
The concept of the program at the New Life Center—that a healthy body and a pure soul complement each other—is one of my basic beliefs. I’ve been a Christian since I was eleven years old, so I learned as a child that my body was the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. Several years ago my husband and I committed to a lifestyle of exercise, a healthy diet and self-discipline to keep our bodies the kind of place where the Holy Spirit can live and work through us. Now that we’re healthy senior citizens, we recognize the wisdom of that decision. I like to cook and bake, so we don’t live on a starvation diet, but we eat most foods in moderation.
And since I mentioned a chocolate pecan pie several times in this book, you might enjoy my recipe for this calorie-filled, delicious dessert that we enjoy on rare occasions.
3 eggs, slightly beaten
1 cup dark corn syrup
4 (4-oz) squares of semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled
cup sugar
2 tbsp butter or margarine, melted
1 tsp pure vanilla
1½ cups chopped pecans
1 unbaked 9-inch pastry shell
Heat oven to 350°F. In a large bowl stir together eggs, corn syrup, chocolate, sugar, butter and vanilla until well blended. Stir in pecans and pour into pastry shell. Bake 50-60 minutes.
A few days ago I received a two-page letter from a reader who began, “I know you’re too busy to answer my letter, but…” Authors thrive on fan mail—either positive or negative—so when anyone takes the time to write, I find the time to answer. If you’d like to write and receive my semiannual newsletter, my mailing address is P.O. Box 2770, Southside, WV 25187.
May God bless you.
ISBN: 978-1-4592-2436-0
THE TEST OF LOVE
Copyright © 2000 by Irene B. Brand
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