A Time to Love (7 page)

“Hmm?”

“What’s the fella’s name who gave you the locket?”

“Ah … George Kendall.”

Nolan laughed. “He must be a pretty good boyfriend. A locket like that doesn’t come cheap.”

“Yes,” said Janet. “He’s pretty stuck on me.”

There was a knock at the front door.

“That’ll be Lewis!” Linda said, rushing to open it.

Lewis came into the parlor beside Linda, smiled at her parents, then said, “Happy birthday, Janet.”

“Thank you,” she said warmly. “And how have you been, Lewis?”

“Just fine.”

Linda touched shoulders with Lewis to get his attention and said, “Did you notice Janet’s locket, Lewis?”

“What’s that?”

“Janet’s locket.”

Lewis’s line of sight went to the locket. “Oh. Mm-hmm. It’s really nice. Birthday present, Janet?”

“Yes. From one of my boyfriends.”

“Look closer at it, Lewis,” Linda said.

He gave her a quizzical look but did as she said.

“Do you recognize it?” Linda asked.

It took him a few seconds to say, “Oh, sure! It’s like that one you showed me at Laster’s when we were downtown a couple weeks ago. It really is pretty, isn’t it?”

“It was the prettiest one in the window.”

Lewis chuckled. “Well, I guess when your birthday comes, I’ll have to get you another kind, so you and Janet don’t have identical lockets.”

The memory of the incident burned in Linda’s mind as she lay in the darkness. “You bought that very necklace for Janet, Lewis!” she said aloud. “But you covered your underhanded deed quite cleverly, didn’t you?”

Her mind went to her wedding rehearsal and the drive to the harbor afterwards. Lewis had seemed so preoccupied, and when she’d asked him if anything was wrong, all he’d said was that he was nervous about tomorrow.

Linda sat up in the bed and gasped with a sudden intake of breath, then pounded the covers and said loudly, “Nervous! You were nervous, all right, you snake-in-the-grass hypocrite! Not because you were marrying me but because you and Janet were scheming to run away together
on the very day of our wedding! I hate you, Lewis Carter! I hate you! I hate you! I h—”

The door burst open, and Nolan plunged into the room, carrying a lighted candle. Adrienne was right behind him.

“Honey, what is it?”

Linda was on her knees in the middle of the bed, the breath sawing in and out of her throat. “I hate him, Daddy!” she said through her teeth. “I hate him!”

Adrienne moved to the bed and laid a hand on her daughter’s arm. When Linda turned her face toward her, hot tears fell swiftly and silently down her cheeks and off her chin. “Mom,” she squeaked, “why didn’t I see what was happening? Lewis and Janet were carrying on behind my back and I didn’t have a clue. Now I’ve been remembering things that should have told me something was wrong. Why didn’t I see it?”

“Sweetheart, they say love is blind. You loved Lewis so deeply that it blinded you to what was going on.”

“Well, I don’t love him anymore! I hate him, Mom! I hate him!”

Nolan kept his voice level as he said, “Linda, you can certainly hate what Lewis did to you, but you mustn’t hate him.”

Her eyes grew wild. “I
do
hate that vile beast of a man, Daddy! I hate him as much as I used to love him! And I hate my wicked sister, too!”

Nolan started to speak again, but Adrienne laid a hand on his shoulder. “Nolan, she’s too upset for us to reason with her. We must understand how deeply she’s been hurt. It’s best that we save the admonitions for later.”

Linda set her jaw. “I feel so ashamed and mortified by the predicament those two have put me in. Oh, how could I have been so blind?”

“Honey,” Adrienne said, “get back in bed now. You need to rest.”

Linda looked at her with pain-filled eyes. “All right, Mom. I’m sorry I woke you two up.” As she spoke, she slipped back under the covers.

“It’s all right,” Nolan said, bending over to caress her cheek. “Mom and I love you, Linda. You’re our daughter, and when you hurt, we hurt. You try to get some sleep.”

Both parents kissed her, told her they loved her, and quietly left the room.

Once again Linda said in a bitter tone, “Never again will I love with such total trust. Never. That’s a promise to
you,
Linda Lee Forrest.”

Hot tears spilled down her cheeks, soaking her pillow.

“And here’s another promise, Linda Lee Forrest. I will never again face those people at church, nor anyone else in Boston who knows me. Never. I couldn’t stand the awful embarrassment.”

She lay in the dismal gloom around her, trying to harden her heart against the pain within.

L
INDA TOSSED AND TURNED
through the long night hours, but sleep refused to come. Her emotions were like the maelstrom of a storm-tossed sea, and her nerves were strung tight. She kept picturing Lewis and Janet together, having a good laugh on her.

Sometime in the night, she left her bed and walked to the window and looked at the shimmering white stars in the black sky above. They were cold, brilliant, aloof.

Under those same stars,
she thought,
the two traitors are about to arrive in New York City.
What then? Were they going to stay there, or would they come back to Boston after they had their fling?

Linda stood quivering with wrath.
They wouldn’t dare show their faces around here again!

Slowly she turned and went back to the bed. Soon there was a slight hint of gray on the eastern horizon, and it touched the window of her room. Little by little, a drowsiness began to come over her, and when the fan of dawns orange light filled the eastern sky, Linda fell asleep.

Nolan paused behind Adrienne at Linda’s door and peeked over her shoulder as she turned the knob and inched the door open. They could see that their daughter was sleeping.

Adrienne closed the door and motioned for Nolan to come back with her to their room. Once inside, she said, “I’ll stay home with her, Nolan. You go on to church.”

“You sure? Maybe its best I stay here, too. One or both of you might need me.”

“We’ll be fine. People at church will want to know how Linda’s doing. The way word gets around, I’m sure by now that many of them know every detail of the wedding that didn’t happen.”

“All right. I guess one of us needs to be there.”

As the morning passed, Adrienne looked in on Linda every half hour and was pleased that she was still sleeping.

It was almost 11:30 when Adrienne tiptoed to Linda’s bedroom door and quietly turned the knob. As she pushed it open to get a glimpse of the bed, she saw her daughter sitting on the room’s padded chair, fully dressed, groomed, and looking out the window.

Linda turned and set bleary eyes on her mother. Her features were pallid and drawn.

“Good morning!” Adrienne said brightly. “I’m glad you got some sleep.”

Linda released a faint smile. “Mm-hmm. Me, too. I was awake most of the night.”

“I was afraid you would be.”

“Daddy go to church?”

“Yes.”

“You didn’t have to stay here with me, Mom.”

Moving close to her, Adrienne said, “I couldn’t leave you alone. I wanted to be here if you needed me.”

Linda’s second smile of the day was a little wider. She rose from the chair, opened her arms to embrace her mother, and said, “You’re the best mom in the whole world.”

Adrienne kissed her cheek. “I don’t know about that, but you’re the best daughter in the whole world.”

Linda turned and looked out the window. “Sure. The best daughter. You mean the one who couldn’t keep her fiancé and make him her groom?”

“Honey, don’t blame yourself. It wasn’t your fault.”

“How did my sister do it, Mom? What does Lewis see in her? Why did he dump me for her?”

“Linda, all I can say is that if Lewis was the Christian he led us to
believe he was, he would never have chosen your sister over you. Now, how about some breakfast, honey? Or, I guess maybe it would be lunch now.”

“Maybe I’m a little hungry. How about just some toast and tea like last night?”

Adrienne sat across the table from her haggard-looking daughter and watched her eat all of her toast. When she had finished her first cup of tea, Adrienne quickly said, “How about a second cup?”

“All right.”

Just as she rose from the table to pick up the teakettle from the stove, the family carriage passed by the window. Nolan was at the reins, and Aunt Beth was beside him.

Linda jumped up. “I don’t want to see anybody today except you and Daddy,” she said, hurrying from the kitchen.

“Honey, it’s only Aunt Beth!” Adrienne called after her.

There was no reply. Seconds later, the sound of Linda’s bedroom door slamming echoed through the house.

Nolan and Beth entered the kitchen from the back porch, and as Beth preceded her brother-in-law, she said, “Hello, Adrienne. How’s our girl doing?”

“She got up about eleven. When I checked on her at eleven-thirty, she was dressed, had her hair brushed, and was sitting in her chair. I was able to get some tea and toast down her. She’s in her room now.”

“May I see her?”

Adrienne’s brow furrowed. “I’m not sure she wants to see anyone right now, but let me go ask her.”

Beth and Nolan waited in the kitchen.

In less than three minutes, Adrienne returned and said, “Beth, Linda’s in a low state of mind, as you know.”

“Of course.”

“She said to thank you for coming, and to tell you she loves you, but she really needs some privacy right now.”

“Is she in a lower state of mind than last night?”

“I think so. When she was having the tea and toast, she kept talking
about Lewis and Janet, saying she hates them because they’ve destroyed her life and taken away her reason to want to go on.”

Beth’s features paled. “Adrienne, Linda said yesterday that she wants to die. You don’t think—”

“No. She isn’t going to take her own life. She’s still in a state of shock, and hurting miserably, but she’s not suicidal.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course. I know my own daughter.” To her husband Adrienne said, “Nolan, you don’t have any concern along that line, do you?”

“No, honey. Linda is suffering like she’s never suffered in her life, but she’s not going to do anything like that. It would be totally out of character.”

“But that is the very thing that shocks people when someone commits suicide,” Beth said. “Most of the time it’s done by a person nobody thought would do it. I wouldn’t worry so much, except that she’s stated that she wants to die.”

“That’s just the hurt talking, Beth,” Nolan said. “Like Adrienne said, she knows her daughter. And so do I. Linda’s not going to do a drastic thing like that.”

Beth’s face puckered with sympathy. “Bless her precious little heart. I wish I could take the hurt for her.”

“We’d do that, too, if we could,” Adrienne said.

“Well, I’d better get on home. Maybe my sweet niece will let me see her tomorrow.”

Linda could smell Sunday dinner cooking as she sat in her chair, looking out the window. She thought about the honeymoon she and Lewis had planned. Ten days in Vermont.

Never to happen.

She thought about the apartment they had rented on the second floor of Carl Higgins’s house. They couldn’t move anything into the apartment until they returned from their honeymoon. The previous renters had to go out of town to attend a funeral, and this had delayed
their moving plans by some five days. Once they were out, Mr. Higgins wanted to do some painting in the apartment before his new renters moved in. He’d promised to have it all done so they could move in immediately upon arriving home from Vermont.

It had upset her that they would have to wait to take their clothes and other belongings to the apartment until after they returned from their honeymoon, but as Linda pondered it now, she felt a strange sense of relief. She couldn’t imagine having to go there now and bring her things back home.

“Thank You, Lord,” she whispered softly. “I can see Your guiding hand in the timing of that. You knew all of this was going to happen and at least spared me that heartache. I … I just don’t know why You ever let me fall in love with that despicable man in the first place.”

She broke down and wept once more, saying, “Lord, I don’t want to go on. I can’t ever face anyone who knows me here. Why don’t You just let me die? Take me to Your home, where I won’t hurt like I’m hurting now.”

There was a tap on the door, accompanied by her father’s voice. “Sweetheart, can I come in?”

“Yes, Daddy.”

Nolan stepped inside, smiled, and said, “Mom wants to know if you’d like to eat with us.”

“I’m not hungry, Daddy.”

“I was glad to hear that you ate some toast and drank some tea,” he said, moving toward her. “Mom thought maybe you’d feel like eating something more substantial now.” He bent down and kissed her forehead. “You won’t forget that I love you, will you?”

She looked up through weary eyes. “No, Daddy. I won’t forget.”

“Aunt Beth said she’d come back tomorrow.”

Linda nodded.

“Well, I’ll see you a little later. Mom’s about got dinner ready.”

“Daddy …”

Nolan stopped and turned. “Mm-hmm?”

“I suppose everybody at church knows that Lewis dumped me for Janet.”

He scratched his head. “Well, some of them do. There were several who said to give you their love and to tell you they’re praying for you. Joline was crying when she asked about you.”

This made tears well up in Linda’s eyes. “She’s the best friend I have in the world, Daddy.”

“She loves you a lot, I know that. See you later. Mom and I know you want some privacy, so we won’t bother you for a while. But you know we’re right here for you if you need us.”

“Yes. I know that.”

When her father was gone, Linda stared out the window for several minutes, then rose from the chair and went to the cedar chest at the foot of her bed. It had been her hope chest for nearly two years. She lifted the lid and took out a scrapbook, which lay on top of the linens and things that almost filled the chest.

She carried the scrapbook to the small desk in a corner of the room and sat down. Her fingers trembled as she touched the cover. She knew what she was about to look at was going to cause more pain, but somehow she felt compelled to do it.