“Good thinking!” Roy bit into the warm, buttery cookie and promised, “I won’t tell!”
“Here you go, Bekkah.” Valerie handed her little sister a tiny shovel.
“I make holes.” Rebekkah gleefully stuck her new toy in the dirt and made a shallow opening. “See?”
“Good job!” Valerie clapped. “Now do it again and make it deeper, like mine.”
“ ’Kay.” Rebekkah rolled up her little sleeves, emulating Rosemary’s habit for outdoor work, then dug in. The largest seeds, peas, sat in a bucket beside her. When Rosemary agreed the hole was deep enough, the little girl dropped in a seed and covered the hole with dirt.
“Done.” Rebekkah clapped her hands and dirt powdered her little snub nose.
“One more thing. Now we have to make sure it’s good and packed in there.” Valerie walked over and pressed the dirt down.
“I can do it!” When Valerie stepped back, Rebekkah began stomping on the dirt.
“That’s enough.” Rosemary laughed. “If you keep it up, we’ll never finish! Why don’t you get going on the next one?”
More quickly than they would have thought possible, they filled the garden with hardy veggies like radishes, spinach, and peas. Later, when the weather warmed up even more, they’d make room for sweet corn, cucumbers, and beans.
Rebekkah hopped all around the garden for good measure as Rosemary helped Valerie rinse off their tools.
“Come on, Bekkah,” Valerie called when they headed for the house.
“Comin’, sissy!” She made a beeline for the house, practically zooming through the door before Valerie caught her.
“Oh, no you don’t! Wipe your feet really good before you go in.” Clumps of dirt dotted the mat before they all finished and trooped through the door.
“Why don’t you go play with Teddy while Val and I heat up some lunch?” Rosemary watched her scamper up the stairs before fixing Valerie with a penetrating stare.
“What? I thought the garden went well.” Valerie’s stomach grumbled as it always did when her mother gave her that look.
“It did. I just thought it was time for a talk. Woman to woman.” Rosemary sat down at the kitchen and patted the chair beside her. “While Paul and Roy are still at the doctor’s.”
Valerie’s heart pounded in alarm. “I thought the doctor seemed impressed with Roy’s progress. He’s even starting to walk now! What’s wrong?”
“Oh, it’s nothing like that. Actually, I wanted to talk with you because he’s healing so well.” Rosemary reached over and clasped her hand. “He won’t stay forever, you know.”
“I know.” Valerie didn’t meet her mother’s eyes.
“But he wants to.”
“How do you know that? All his focus is on getting well so he can go back to the navy and risk his life.” Valerie angrily swiped a tear off her cheek.
“Oh, honey, that’s not true. Look at the way he’s settled into this family—how wonderful he is with Rebekkah.” She paused for a beat. “He’d make a good father.”
“Don’t say that.” Valerie pulled her hand away.
“It’s true.”
“I didn’t say you were wrong. He has other plans—he’s never said one word to me about …” Her voice trailed off.
“About what? How deeply he cares for you? How much he appreciates this family? Honey, he’s said plenty.”
“Not to me. When did he tell you any of that?”
“Whenever he reads to Rebekkah or sews another doll, he shows his softness for children.” Rosemary tipped her face up and smiled tenderly. “And every time he looks at you, it speaks volumes. You can’t say you’ve never noticed it, Valerie.”
“I know, Mom. I care for him, too.”
“There was never any question in my mind about that. Show him.”
Chapter 6
I’ll drive.” Roy snagged the keys from the peg in the hallway.
“I don’t think so.” Valerie made a grab for them, but he moved too quickly.
“I like that zippy red Pierce-Arrow.” He folded his arms across his chest, making his shoulders seem even broader than usual.
“You’ve only been walking for a week, and we’re going to be walking all day.” Valerie tapped her foot impatiently. She looked so adorable with that concerned expression that he conceded.
“Okay, but I’m driving home.” He tossed the keys to her, and she snatched them in midair.
“So long as you feel up to it after a long day, that’s fine with me.” Her disgruntled look vanished as her eyes softened. “I just want you to be careful.”
“I will be. Besides, I have a feeling today’s going to be filled with fun. Bring on the fresh air!” He opened the door for her, and they walked out to the car.
“I must say it’ll be nice not to have to carry a step stool around with me. You’re so tall, you can tack the tops of the posters.”
Roy looked at the stack of war bond advertisements piled on the backseat. “Sure are a lot of them.”
“Mmm-hmm.” Valerie nodded. “It’s a good thing, too. The last ones I put up didn’t fare too well through the February storms. We’ll take them all down and put the new ones up.”
“Anything for the war effort.”
“After all you’ve done, I believe it!” She pulled into a parking space. “This is a good block to start.”
“Which ones do you want to hang first?” Roy flipped through the glossy ads. “The Statue of Liberty, Uncle Sam, battleships, or …” He stopped as he came across a poster of uniformed soldiers parachuting onto a battlefield with the words “BACK THE ATTACK—BUY WAR BONDS” emblazoned across the bottom.
“A bit of everything. It’s best to have a variety on each block so the people don’t see the same thing on every corner. We don’t want to be boring!”
“As if you ever could be,” Roy scoffed, grabbing an assortment so they could get down to work.
“All of these need to come down.” Valerie gestured to sadly faded Christmas pictures reminding that war bonds were “the present with a future.”
Together, they tore down the old and tacked up the new, keeping a companionable conversation going all the while as they looked at other posters.
“I like this one.” Roy gestured to a red ad for stamps with caricatures of Nazis. It asked the public to help “lick the Axis.”
“Pretty clever, aren’t they? Catchy, even.” Valerie shoved the ratty old posters into a convenient garbage bin and strolled a bit farther with Roy at her side.
“Some of these are slogans we’ll never forget.” Roy stopped in front of a rendering of a battle cruiser with the reminder that “loose lips sink ships.”
“I know. When you hear on the news how many ships have been attacked by U-boats and gone down, it reminds you how important it is to find the funds to replace them.” Valerie tacked up another poster on a nearby fence.
“It’s good to be out and doing something.” Roy swiped the hammer and reached up to anchor the top. The crown of her head scarcely reached his shoulder.
“Especially when the weather’s so nice.” The crisp breeze put a healthy glow in her cheeks as the sunlight danced in her golden curls.
“It’s beautiful.” Roy drank in the sight of her as she turned to face him.
“We’d best get back to the car and move on to the next block. We’re running out of posters.”
A few hours later, as she held up another one and Roy tacked the top, Valerie heard Roy’s stomach rumble. “Hungry?”
“I could go for a bite to eat. I’m running on empty.” He grinned. “Know anyplace around here with a good lunch special?”
“Hmm.” Valerie thought for a minute. “Ella’s makes the best chicken salad sandwich you’ve ever tasted. How does that sound?”
“Perfect. Let’s go.”
As they munched their sandwiches in companionable silence, Valerie caught sight of a newspaper. “Did you read the article about how the U.S. is moving native-born America
ns of Japanese ancestry into detention centers?” She shook her head sadly. “In the midst of war so many people already lose their homes. It doesn’t make sense to corral part of the population based on race.”
Roy furrowed his brow. “How can we expect to have the Lord sanction our cause when we allow fear and prejudice to make us betray our own citizens?”
“I don’t know.” Valerie couldn’t say anything to comfort him. The truth of the matter was that the discrimination against any person based on their heritage couldn’t end well.
Every time she saw that determined glint in Roy’s eyes, she knew she was that much closer to losing him. Lord, he can do so much from right here. Please don’t take him from me.
After lunch they slid into the car. Valerie smiled at him. “Thank you for your help.”
“I’m just glad I could do something to help.” Roy grinned. “And the company’s not bad, either.”
“Why, I didn’t peg you for such a sweet talker, Mr. Benson,” Valerie drawled and batted her long lashes.
Roy laughed at her antics as she’d intended him to, then gazed at her intensely. “You know what I meant, Val.”
Her breath caught when he stroked her cheek with the tip of his finger.
“You’re an amazing woman.”
“Roy, I—” An angry honk from an impatient driver shattered the tender moment, and Roy pulled out of the parking lot.
“I’m glad FDR asked the commissioner to continue baseball. All sorts of interesting things are happening with the game.” Paul tapped the sports section the next morning.
“Sure was good of the Yankees to let five thousand uniformed soldiers in free to each of their home games,” Roy agreed.
“Did you know that the Chicago White Sox just let two Negro players work out with them?”
“About time. It’s not as though white men are the only ones who can play the game. Just look at the Negro American League! I hope they make the team.”
“Time will tell. Remember the name Jackie Robinson—apparently he’s pretty good.” Paul folded the paper. “Not that we don’t have other things to discuss, you and I.”
“Like what?” Roy eased into a chair and kicked up his feet on the ottoman.
“Like Valerie. What happened between the two of you yesterday?”
Roy straightened and looked the older man in the eye. “Why would you think anything happened?”
“Because of the way you two were acting—skittish as newborn colts. Besides …” Paul frowned. “Valerie hardly spoke ten words last night.”
Roy laughed. “So that’s a dead giveaway, is it? We had a nice day together. She’s a special woman.”
Paul chuckled. “You know it!” He sobered a bit. “Remember what we talked about your first day here.”
“I will.” Roy took the pledge seriously. He had no intentions of toying around with Valerie’s affections. She meant too much to him.
Two nights later, Valerie shoved the last bit of stuffing into another doll and handed it back to her mother. “We’re out of filling.”
“Already? But we just bought more!” Rosemary looked at the empty container in dismay.
“I think we have Roy to blame for that.” Paul jerked a thumb at Roy, who busily affixed the finishing touches on a specialty Cinderella doll for Captain von Rundstedt’s niece.
“Hey!” Roy took exception to being blamed.
“That’s just because he’s increased our productivity so much.” Valerie patted his shoulder. “It’s really a good thing, when you think about it.”
“Not that good.” Rosemary pulled out the list of stores where they’d purchased supplies. “I’m out of ideas on where to go. People are going to get suspicious if we keep buying cotton batting. With the war on, no one’s sparing a dime for anything not absolutely necessary. We’re starting to stick out like a red polka dot on a blue-striped shirt.” She shook her head.
“I suppose we could travel farther,” Valerie offered.
“We’ve already been anyplace we can reach in a day and be back before dark. It’s not safe.” Rosemary put a stop to that idea at once.
“I’ll go with her,” Roy jumped in.
“Absolutely not.” Rosemary glared at them. “If you two disappear for a night, you’ll both be ruined. The gossips will have a heyday, and how would you explain where you’d been?”
“We’ll just have to figure something else out,” Paul soothed. “What can we buy that we can use instead?” Silence fell as everyone pondered the question.
“You know,” Roy mused, “mattresses are filled with stuffing to make them soft.”
“That’s a good idea!” Valerie perked up.
“It’s too expensive,” Rosemary sighed. “We can’t buy a whole mattress just for the stuffing.”
“Who said anything about buying?”
Blank looks met Roy’s question. “We’re not going to make off with mattresses, Roy.” Paul glowered.
“No, of course not. We’re not hoodlums. I meant going down to the junkyard and taking the stuffing out of old mattresses. Some of it will be in pretty bad shape, but the part in the very middle will work just fine.”
“You can’t beat free.” Paul slapped his knee.
“Tomorrow’s Saturday, so you and Valerie can go check it out. Just try and be as discreet as possible,” Rosemary ordered.
“Sounds like we’ve got a plan.” Roy winked at Valerie, and she couldn’t help but think tomorrow would be a good day.
Chapter 7
Roy gaped as Valerie walked down the stairs early the next morning. “You’re wearing slacks!” The getup made her slim legs look longer than usual. How could wearing a man’s clothes make her seem even more feminine than when she wore a skirt?
“I couldn’t very well go crawling around a scrap heap in a dress, now, could I?” She pulled on a pair of gloves.
“I suppose not,” he grumbled. “What if someone sees you?”
“Now that women are working, slacks are far more standard. Besides, it’s early and we’re going to a junkyard, so I doubt I’ll be running into many people anyway.” With a gamine grin, she headed for the door, and Roy noticed she’d tied her curls into a shiny, bouncy ponytail. One thing was for sure—Valerie would never be predictable.
Half an hour later, they pulled into a deserted lot outside of town and opened the creaky gate to the junkyard. Piles of popped tires towered over smaller heaps of everything imaginable.
“This will be an adventure!” Valerie gawked around. “Let’s get started.”
“Let’s walk the perimeter. Maybe there will be a pile of them somewhere.” He set about surveying the site in an orderly fashion. Valerie quirked a brow and headed toward the middle of the yard, then turned left.
“Over here!” In two minutes, she’d tracked down a stack of old mattresses.
“How did you know where they were?” Roy pulled out his pocketknife and slashed the first mattress.
“I don’t know. I think the Lord just led me where we needed to go.” Valerie pressed down on the edge of the mattress, and dirty rainwater oozed out. “Ugh. Maybe we should try the next one. This one bore the brunt of our storms.”
Together, they hefted the monstrosity over to unearth a slightly smaller mattress already boasting a hole in the middle.
“That’s more like it!” Valerie opened a laundry bag and held it out as he grabbed handfuls of the well-preserved stuffing and shoved it into the bag.
They’d already filled every bag they’d brought by the time they hit the last two mattresses. “Here, let’s heft a few of the other ones on top so they’ll still be all right when we need to come back.” Roy and Valerie tossed the already gutted mattresses back on top, then carried their bounty back to the car.
“That worked well. You’re very resourceful, Roy.” Valerie smiled at him as they stood by the trunk.
“Oh, it was nothing.” He shrugged it off.
“Roy.” She placed a hand on his arm so he’
d look at her. “I mean it. You need to hear what a great help you’ve been. Every doll you’ve made is another child saved. You know that. It’s the reason you’ve been working on them practically nonstop and gone through all our stuffing. You could’ve just sat around complaining about your physical therapy, how you were taken away from your job, how much you wanted to leave, but instead you did something much better. Thanks to you, we’ve been able to help so many more of God’s children.” She took a deep breath. “Earlier you told me I was amazing, but you’re nothing short of incredible.”
With a low groan, he kissed her. She rested perfectly in his arms, her lips soft as she twined her arms around his neck. When the kiss ended, he held her close for a moment longer. “I love you, Valerie Fulton.”
“I love you, too, Roy.” She blushed sweetly. “Let’s go home.”
“The Gallup poll has officially named this World War II.” Roy gave Valerie an update as she hung up her scarf after work on Tuesday.
“That took longer than I’d expected. Anything else I should know?”
“Just that Paul’s still at the docks overseeing another shipment of dolls, and your mother and Rebekkah took some fish to Grandma Ainsley for her cat.”
“It’s so sweet that you call her Grandma Ainsley now, too.” Valerie gave him a peck on the cheek. “Any mail today?”
“It came late, actually. There’s a letter from your cousins in Denmark.” He handed it to her.
“Thanks.” She slid her finger beneath the flap and cracked open the envelope before reading the message aloud:
Dear Rosemary, Valerie, Paul, and Roy,
We are glad to hear that you are all doing well—we keep you in our prayers and hope by the time you get this, Roy is completely off his crutches. Please write and tell us how your latest addition to the family is doing! The merchandise is quite successful, and Captain von Rundstedt requests a Cinderella package for his niece.
All our love,
Annelise and Axel
P.S. Our friend Mr. Wright wrote and said he is in poor health. He’s to see the doctor on April 30. Please keep him in your prayers.
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