“The usual, of course. He’s busy at the hospital and clinic, and he still makes some house calls. With these telephones beginning to reach even up into the mountains, he’s more in demand than ever.”
“That’s good, I guess. And I guess you’re cooking the breakfasts for the guests.”
“Yes, and Danny helps since Hedda and Bart have officially retired. We have occasional, temporary help, but by the time a girl or woman gets trained, she leaves, like always. Neil is looking for help. There should be an ad in all the Sunday papers.”
“What kind of help? A manager?”
“Oh dear. It’s Bible study time, and here come the ladies. I’ll talk to you later, dear. I love you.”
“I love you, too,” Olivia said almost absently. She did, of course, but she kept thinking how blessed Stella was to be at Sunrise Inn. Sometimes Olivia thought she was being punished because she had been deceptive to Mama McCory, all the people of Sunrise, and even Neil.
But Stella had been deceptive, too. She’d apparently been forgiven, for she surely was blessed now. She was living at the inn and had someone who wanted to marry her.
Olivia lectured herself often. She’d asked God to lead her into the kind of life that would be a blessing to others and would serve Him. Evelyn told her just to be patient and continue her Bible studies. God would let her know what He had for her when He was ready.
Olivia didn’t find a lot of comfort in that. God might decide He wanted her to go somewhere far away from Sunrise Inn. . . and Neil.
After church on Sunday, she waited impatiently until her dad had finished with the newspaper, laid his head back in his chair, and closed his eyes while Evelyn sat before the fire with her needlepoint.
Olivia picked up the paper and whispered to Evelyn that she would be upstairs in her sitting room. Evelyn nodded sweetly and smiled. Although the thought made her even lonelier, Olivia was glad her dad had found a woman like Evelyn who complemented and perhaps even tamed him with her gentle nature.
As soon as she sat in the chair next to the window, Olivia turned to the classifieds and searched the columns. Her mouth opened and she gasped. There it was, in much larger print than the other ads:
WANTED: A beautiful young woman with the initials J. K. or O. E. to marry an established man and live in a house large enough for a big family. Several months’ experience necessary. Payment is love for a lifetime. If interested, please respond to DNMC, General Delivery, Post Office, Sunrise, West Virginia.
❧
On Monday, after making rounds at the hospital, Neil went to the post office, although he knew it was too soon for a response. He’d hoped Olivia would read the ad, think it clever, and respond.
By Tuesday, he felt like an idiot. On Wednesday, since Stella had errands to run in town, he asked her to check for a response. Stella stopped in and said there was no mail. “I could call her.”
“No,” Neil said. For the rest of the day he forced himself to concentrate on his patients. On the way home, he shivered in the cold and prayed for God to help him regain his joy. He’d accomplished what he’d set out to do, and that was to make his grandmother’s last weeks and months happy ones. The Lord had allowed that. Not only had that made her happy, it had apparently given her an extended life, with no end in sight. Olivia had given his grandmother a new heart to live, but when she had left, she had taken his heart with her.
Danny came out to tend Sally when Neil arrived at the stable. Scrunching into his jacket and with head ducked to shield his face from the blustery cold wind, he made his way to the back door of the house, took off his gloves, and rubbed his hands together. He went into the kitchen where Stella was fixing supper. The aroma of baked bread and cake filled the room.
“Mama McCory and I thought we’d eat in the dining room tonight,” she said. “Maybe that will cheer you up. Danny’s having supper with us, and we want to talk to you about our business venture we’ve mentioned before. It should be ready by the time you’re washed up.”
Although he felt washed up already, Neil nodded. Winters and cold weather could be hard. Stella was lively and inter-esting, but it just wasn’t the same without his “wife.”
Having no secrets now, they’d shown his grandmother his “wanted” ad. She had said and kept saying, “The Lord will work out what’s His will.”
“The Lord can be awfully slow sometimes,” Stella had quipped.
When he returned to the dining room, he thought the table looked especially nice, as if they were having company. The flickering candles emitted a comforting glow. He walked over to the fire and held out his hands, still feeling chilled.
“Um, Neil,” he heard.
Without turning, he said, “Yes, Stella?”
“You didn’t get a letter at the post office, but a young woman did come in by train. Her initials are J. O.”
Neil felt his hands shake and told himself not to hope.
“Her name is Jenelle Owings.”
Neil closed his eyes for a moment. No, he mustn’t hope. That would be no stranger than some of the letters he’d gotten when he first put an ad in the paper. He took a deep breath, and slowly his head turned and he looked over his shoulder.
He felt like his eyes might pop out and he couldn’t close his mouth. He couldn’t even breathe. Standing between his grandmother and Stella was a pitiful-looking creature dressed in the most awful brown dress he’d ever seen—except once. Her hair was back in a tight bun, and she wore the most grotesque spectacles on her eyes that almost covered her entire face.
Stella’s hand was over her mouth. Danny and Grandmother were chuckling. Neil took a few steps closer, and that’s when he saw her crossed eyes behind those spectacles. He could only shake his head and try his best to give her a threatening look.
Before he could say anything, she whined, “Am I. . .beautiful enough?”
“To me, you’re the most beautiful person in the world.”
“Fine,” Olivia said. “I’ll stay this way.”
“Will you now?” Neil spoke threateningly and walked closer. Her eyes uncrossed and widened. He reached up, took off the spectacles, and handed them to Stella.
Stella turned to Danny and Neil’s grandmother. “I think we’d better get out of here.”
They did, and Neil took Olivia in his arms, afraid to do more than brush his lips against her warm, soft ones. He then held her head close to his chest, feeling as if his heart might beat out of him. “I love you, Olivia.”
“I love you, too, Dr. McCory,” she said softly, and this time she looked very serious.
“I’ll be back,” he said.
Soon he returned with the others following. They all sat at the table and waited.
Neil came to her and fell to his knees. “Olivia,” he said. “I have a proposal for you. I love you and I want you to be my wife.”
“I accept.” She looked as happy as he felt.
He took her hand and slipped his mother’s engagement ring on her finger.
“Aren’t you going to kiss her?” Danny said.
Neil rose. “I prefer to do that in private.” He remembered the fake wedding in Stella’s cabin. This time, however, he wouldn’t just stand there and look over Olivia’s head.
twenty-five
As if no one wanted any secrets anymore, they openly dis-cussed wedding plans over the supper table.
“Do you want a big church wedding in Davidson?” Neil asked.
“I don’t,” Olivia said. “I would like a small ceremony at Sunrise Church, performed by Pastor Whitfield.”
They all agreed that would be ideal. During the following days, Stella and Mama McCory would not tell Olivia or Neil what they were doing at church.
Olivia’s dad and Evelyn came the day before the wedding to help. John and Sarah were unable to attend, as her baby was due in only a few weeks.
Finally, the big day arrived. The week before Christmas, Olivia stood in the doorway of the church. Neil walked to the front. Olivia�
��s dad removed her coat from around her shoulders and laid it across a back pew.
The sanctuary was stunning. Red poinsettias were set all across the front. An arbor was set up in the center of the stage, decorated with greenery and white ribbons. A white rug lay on the floor in front of it.
Olivia felt breathless. All the people she loved so much were there, except for John and Sarah. The pastor, Neil, and Danny wore black suits, white shirts, and bow ties. Stella, standing as her matron of honor, looked beautiful in a green satin dress. Mama McCory wore a fur coat over her lace dress. She had returned the locket to Olivia as “something old.” Evelyn, Bart, and Hedda sat next to Mama McCory on the front row.
Edith began to play “The Wedding March,” and Olivia was in her white satin dress adorned with lace and seed pearls. She did not put the veil over her face but wanted to see her fiancée as she walked down the aisle, escorted by her dad.
She and Stella exchanged a sly glance when she handed her the bridal bouquet—a far cry from stinky marigolds. Evelyn said Herman had ordered the roses, and they’d come just in time. They looked beautiful against a background of green leaves and white baby’s breath and tied with a white satin ribbon.
Olivia and Neil said their vows, the wedding band was slipped on her finger, and the preacher said, “I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss the bride.”
Finally, the congratulations, hugs, and kisses ended. Her dad had rented a suite of rooms at the hotel for him, Evelyn, Stella, and Mama McCory. “I expect Stella and Mama here to show us what Sunrise is all about,” her dad said. “I’d like to see the hospital and your clinic, Neil.”
“We’ll show him,” Stella said.
“Expect us when you see us,” Mama McCory said, waving at them as she left the church, seeming to be having the time of her life.
“I’m riding ahead of you two, and I’ll take care of the horse and carriage,” Danny said. “I’m staying with a buddy tonight. Your father’s invited me to go with them tomorrow.”
On the way to the inn, snow began to fall, as if showering a blanket of blessing on their wedding day. When the carriage pulled up in front of the inn, Olivia and Neil laughed. On a post, large as life, was a sign: No Room at the Inn.
They alighted from the carriage, and Danny appeared to take it out back. Olivia linked her arm through Neil’s as they stood for a moment while the snow softly fell, turning the scenery into a winter wonderland.
Neil unlocked the door, then turned and brushed, not rice, but snow from her hair. His lips met hers for a moment. Cold as they were, they warmed her heart.
He swooped her up and set her inside the foyer, lighted only by the lamp on the desk. Laughing, they removed their coats, hung them in the entry closet, and headed for the parlor to get warm.
The fire only needed to be stoked. He did that. She lit the candles on the Christmas tree, and the room danced with the firelight and glow from the tree.
She walked to the middle of the room, not quite certain what to do next. He came to her and looked up. She then looked. Overhead, hanging from the chandelier, was a ball of mistletoe.
With him standing so near and looking at her with eyes of love, she didn’t need that as a cue to kiss her husband. Her arms encircled his neck as his hands came around her waist. She lifted her face to his. The musky fragrance was there as his head bent and his lips were a breath away.
She wanted no more pretenses. She preferred the reality of being in love and basking in the arms of her beloved who once had a bride idea.
About the Author
YVONNE LEHMAN is an award-winning, bestselling author of forty-two books, including mainstream, mystery, romance, young adult, and women’s fiction. Her recent books are Carolina, South Carolina, Coffee Rings, Moving the Mountain, and By Love Acquitted. Recent novellas are in the collections Schoolhouse Brides and Carolina Carpenter Brides. Founder and director of her own writers’ conference for seventeen years, she now directs the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference held annually at the Ridgecrest/LifeWay Conference Center near Asheville, North Carolina.
Dedication
Dedicated to the members of my writers’ group who patiently allow me to brainstorm with them and who offer their valuable opinions: Lori, Lisa, Michelle, Debbie, Phoebe, Ann, Aileen, Gloria, David, and Steven
A note from the Author:
I love to hear from my readers! You may correspond with me by writing:
Yvonne Lehman
Author Relations
PO Box 721
Uhrichsville, OH 44683
A Bride Idea Page 16
