Prairie Storm (33 page)
“Lily?” He placed the crook of his finger under her chin and tilted her head. “Lily, I know you're supposed to go to Philadelphia tomorrow morning. I also have a feeling that in some ways you're still scared of your father. Did you come here to get work from Beatrice?”
She couldn't keep the tears from rolling down her cheeks. “No, I came to get my melodeon,” she wept. “I wanted you to have it for the church. I wanted to leave the town something. Bea wouldn't give it to me, not even when I offered all the money I've earned working for you. She's keeping the melodeon, and I left the pouch on the table in the saloon, and now the money's all gone, and I don't have anything to give youâ¦.”
His arms slipped around her, encompassing both the woman and the baby. “Lily, you already gave me the greatest gift you could give. You gave my son his life. You gave me your music, the sound of your voice, your smile, your words of wisdom, your laughter. You gave yourself to me and to this whole town, Lily. We don't need â¦
I
don't need anything but you.”
“No. I've interfered with your work for the Lord. Samuel and I keep you from doingâ”
“Keep me from it? You give my ministry meaning, Lily. When I think of you and Sam, I realize why I've got to help folks. I understand how I'd feel if anything ever happened to either of you. I think about what I'd need in a pastor, and that gives me the strength to keep on working for God. It's the thought of seeing you and Sam on the porch every evening that fills my heart with joy and keeps my feet on the servant path. It's you who comes into my mind when I'm praying and planning sermons. What do I want to say to Lily to help her grow? How can I encourage Lily? What words can I offer to make Lily stronger in her walk with God? It's you ⦠you and Sam ⦠who make this pastor work worth all the hours I spend at it.”
He stopped, his breath shallow. “I know you want to go home with your father,” he went on. “I know you need to see your mother. And I would never want to put a barrier in the path God has laid out for you. But I meant what I said under the cottonwood tree the other day, Lily Nolan. I love you. I love you the way a man loves a woman. I love you so much, I'm willing to ask you to leave your mother and your father and cleave to me. Which, if I understand S Scripture right, means I want you to marry me, Lily. I want you to marry me and live with me every day of my life from here on out. No matter what.”
Lily covered her mouth with her hand, unable to believe the words that had tumbled from this man's overflowing heart. “Oh, Elijah, I love you so much!” she cried out. “But I don't want to be a stumbling blockâ”
“You're my wings, darlin'.”
“Wings!” Lily lifted her gaze from the prairie and focused on the falcon still tracing lazy circles in the twilight. “I want you to soar, Elijah. I want God to use you. I'll do all I can to lift you up.”
“Then you're saying yes?” He set her away from him, his hands on her shoulders. “Because your father told meâ”
“My father can go home to his wife,” she said firmly, “and I'll stay here with ⦠with my husband. I'll visit my parents soon enough. But then I'll come back here, where I belong.”
“Mercy!” Elijah laughed. “Mercy, mercy, mercy.”
“Amen,” she murmured, slipping into his arms again.
“Brother Elijah!” Seth Hunter dashed out onto the porch. “Brother Elijah, you've got toâoh, I didn't mean toâ”
“That's all right,” Elijah said. “At least it's you cutting in on us again.”
The tall man gave a chuckle. “You two need to make this thing official.”
“We are. Just give us a week or two.”
“A week!” Lily said, giving Sam a squeeze. “You hear that, Sammy? Your daddy and Iâ”
Elijah was staring at her. “Lily, do you think Sam would be better off in an orphanage?” he asked in a low voice. “I don't have a house yet. I don't get paid much. And there's no school here in Hope.”
“I think you're his God-given father,” she said. “He couldn't be better off than that.”
“I don't know about that baby of yours,” Seth Hunter cut in, “but there's a ruckus going on inside the opera house, Brother Elijah. We could do with a man of God to help sort things out.”
“A ruckus?”
“Those ladies came out of their rooms wearing next to nothing, and the deputy was rounding them all up when Jack Cornwall's mother fainted. Then Beatrice Waldowski went to screaming, and all of a sudden she bit the deputy on the arm, and Jack knocked out two of the saloon customers, and George Gibbons fired a bullet into the ceiling, and ⦠and, well, I'm just rambling on to beat the band,” he said. “I've been living with Rosie too long. You'd better come in and help us, Preacher. It's a mess.”
Elijah reluctantly stepped away from Lily. “Go on back to the Hankses' house,” he told her, “and start planning our wedding. I want to marry you before anybody gets it in mind to come between us again. You hear?”
“Yes, sir,” she said, giving him a mock salute. “And you get in there and round up your sheep, Reverend Book. Don't you know a pastor's work is never done?”
With a laugh, he caught her and gave her a warm kiss right on the lips. As he turned to go back into the opera house, Lily fairly skipped down the porch steps.
“They shall run, and not be weary,”
she thought as she scampered onto the road, her spirits soaring on eagles' wings.
T
HAT ought to do it for you, Mrs. Nolan,” Jack Cornwall said, stepping back from the small stone cross he had set into the ground. “Is it all right?”
Lily held Samuel close as she knelt beside the marker lit with golden sunlight on this bright Sunday morning. “Abigail Nolan,” it read. “1866. Rest in peace.” She reached out and ran her fingertips over the coarse stone that Elijah had asked the town blacksmith to carve as a memorial to her lost baby.
“Thank you, Mr. Cornwall,” Lily said softly. “Elijah was right about the cemetery. It does help.”
“Sure, the man himself will be back soon enough,” Caitrin Cornwall said. She laid her hand on Lily's shoulder. “Perhaps he'll arrive this afternoon before the all-day singing is finished. I know he planned to be here to dedicate the church, but Topeka is a long way.”
Lily nodded. “I know.”
“If you're sure you'll be all right, then, we'll just pop round the front to help set up tables.”
“That would be fine, Caitrin.” Lily smiled at the Irishwoman, whose concern was plainly written in her green eyes. “I'll join you soon.”
As the young couple left her alone, Lily sank farther into the lush green grass at the foot of the stone cross. Elijah Book had left town along with the deputy and Dr. Richardson a full ten days before, and no one had heard a word from them since. The three men had planned to escort the entire troupe of opera-house employees to Topeka, where they would have to speak to the authorities about their activities. At the same time, Elijah was hoping to begin the paperwork that would give him the right to call Samuel his son. The deputy had predicted success, but Lily couldn't make herself relax.
What if Beatrice had pulled some kind of trick? What if George Gibbons had gone off half-cocked? What if Elijah had run into legal problems over the adoption? What if ⦠what if ⦠what if �
“It's hard to put your whole faith in the Lord, Samuel,” she told the baby in her arms. Spreading a small quilt, she laid the child in the grass beside her. “I've always tried to manage things on my own, even though I never did a very good job of it. Sometimes, I'm afraid to trust.”
She studied the small stone cross and thought of the wrenching grief she had suffered. “This marker is in memory of Abigail,” she told Samuel as the baby took one of his own bare toes in his tiny fist. “Abigail was my daughter. Your sister, in a way. I loved her very much.”
Watching the baby through misted eyes, Lily pondered her loss. What if Elijah couldn't get permission to adopt Samuel? What if the baby were taken from them? What if something terrible had happened to Elijah while he was in Topeka? What if ⦠what if ⦠what if ⦠?
“Here I am worrying again,” Lily whispered, giving Sam's nose a gentle pat. “You'll have to learn from your papa rather than me on this matter of letting God take control. I do miss Abby, Samuel. She was my precious daughter. But I'm so grateful to God for putting you into my arms. I want to be your mama, sweet boy. Is that all right?”
“It's all right with me.”
Elijah's voice took Lily's breath away.
She swung around to find the man himself standing beside the church's back door. “Elijah!” she cried, getting to her feet. “You came home! You're safe!”
With a laugh, he caught her in his arms. “Where's your faith, darlin'? We tried to make it back last night, but we were just too tired. Spent the night down the river a way, and then got up at dawn to make it here in time for the singing.”
“Oh, Elijah, what happened in Topeka? You have to tell me everything.”
“The judge shut down the opera house and threw George Gibbons in jail for operating an illegal business. Beatrice hightailed it off someplace before she could even get to court, and nobody could find her. She's long gone. Seems the deed she and Gibbons were so proud of was nothing but a fake. So the judge gave the building to the town of Hope to start up a county school. How about that?”
“But what about Samuel? Can you adopt him? Is it going to be legal?”
“We
can adopt him,” he said. “I found out that Reverend and Mrs. Elijah Book will have an easy time of itâeasier than Brother Elijah all by himself, anyhow. So what would you say to taking care of first things first?”
“What do you mean?” Lily asked. She watched in confusion as Elijah took two strides across the grass, scooped up the baby, and headed back to the church. “Where are you going?”
“To get married. Care to join me?”
With a laugh of disbelief, Lily followed the preacher into the church. As they stepped into the crowded room, the round rich notes of Lily's melodeon suddenly filled the air. Everyone rose from the newly built benches and began to clap. Lily covered her mouth with her hand and stared in shock.
“Welcome home, Brother Elijah!” Rolf Rustemeyer called from his accustomed position beside Violet on the Hudson family's pew. “We are waiting for you long time!”
“I had to round up another preacher,” Elijah said as everyone laughed and clapped again. “And I needed to find just the right person to play the music for our wedding.”
Lily glanced in the direction he pointed. There sat her melodeon. And playing the wedding march was ⦠her mother! But how?
“Your father wanted her to come,” Elijah explained, “so he sent a wire to Philadelphia. She came on the first train.”
With a cry of joy, Lily dashed across the room and threw her arms around her mother. Tears streaming, the older woman lifted her hands from the organ and gathered her daughter close.
“Oh, Lily,” she whispered. “Your father told me everything.⦠I'm so sorry. So very sorry.”
“Mama, you came. You're here. That's all that matters.”
The older woman's moist blue eyes crinkled at the corners. “Well, you'd better not interrupt the music any longer, my dear. You know how your father feels about that sort of thing.”
Lily lifted her head to see the grand gentleman himself step into the small building along with Dr. Hardcastle, the pastor from the huge stone church in Philadelphia. As the music swelled, the two men marched to the front and took their places near the podium. Lily sat dumbfounded as her father began to sing “Ode to Joy.” His magnificent baritone filled the church, rattled the windows, and silenced the birds in the trees.
With a smile as broad as all outdoors, Elijah walked across the room and took Lily's hand. “Will you marry me,” he asked, “this morning?”
Unable to speak, Lily nodded. Cradling Samuel in one arm, Elijah encircled Lily with the other as they walked to the altar. Dr. Hardcastle smiled and held out both his hands to her.
“Welcome, Lily,” he said gently. “Welcome to the family of Christ.”
Lily tried her best to listen to the service, truly she did. But all she really managed was to soar through the heavens on eagles' wings. Her mother had come all the way from Philadelphia. Her father was singing for her wedding. And beside her stood a man more handsome, more kind, more loving than any she could have dreamed possible. In spite of her rebelliousness, her weak faith, her many failings, God had blessed her beyond all imagining.
As she listened to Elijah express his deep love for her, Lily heard herself speak words of the vow she meant with all her heart. For richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, till death do us part.
“I do,” she said as the minister set her hands inside the warm grasp of her new husband. “Oh yes, I do.”
“Mercy, mercy, mercy!” The joyous voice at the door to the church drew everyone's attention. Mother Margaret, hands lifted in praise, stepped into the building. As the melodeon began to play, the old woman trundled down the aisle.
“She told me she was ready to come home to Hope,” Elijah whispered, leaning close to Lily. “And she didn't want to miss this moment.”
As the organ music swelled through the room, Mother Margaret took her place at the front of the church and raised her voice in blessing.
“My faith looks up to Thee,
Thou Lamb of Calvary,
Savior divine!
Now hear me while I pray,
Take all my guilt away,
O let me from this day
Be wholly Thine!”
Discussion Questions
1. Lily Nolan has more Bible verses memorized than most Christians, more than Elijah himself. She also knows hymns. What effect does this knowledge have on her spiritually?
