Stranger's Gift (36 page)

Instinctively, he knew that she would not have reacted that way to Hester. No, something told him that she would have loved Hester's independent streak and her can-do personality. Like his mother, Hester was a person who looked for ways to help others, whether they wanted her assistance or not, he thought wryly and smiled at the thought. Between Zeke and thoughts of Hester, his earlier bad mood had completely disappeared.

He leaned on his shovel after spreading the last load of dirt for the day and looked out toward the bay. The waters were calm and clear. They had long since receded to normal levels. Nothing like that day when she and her father and Samuel had come wading ashore. And certainly nothing like they must have been the night before the hurricane hit when she and Margery had come to get him to leave.

“She gave up pretty easy,” he muttered aloud. But he could not ignore the fact that she had come back the following day. And over the weeks that had passed since that day, she had stayed in touch in some way or another—or he had. In spite of his best efforts to annoy her into leaving him alone in those early days, not to mention that she clearly wanted nothing to do with him, the two of them had found themselves cast together time and again. He missed her, even her sometimes-irascible personality.

Was it possible that having some kind of relationship with Hester Detlef was part of God's plan for him? Perhaps he should take some time to examine that more closely. Why would God bring this feisty, my-way-or-the-highway woman into his life and keep bringing her back even when John was certain that they were on two very different paths and there was no reason for them to see each other again?

And yet, it was to Hester that he had spoken the single thing that he had carried with him all the way from Indiana to Florida. The guilt that he had buried so deep under long days of work and endless nights of loneliness and isolation that he had thought he finally had overcome it. It was to her that he had spoken the words he had never said aloud.
“I killed her.”

Hester could not seem to stop thinking about John. She was so sure that he was going to regret selling his place, and she couldn't see such a proud and independent man going back to Indiana and begging forgiveness from the very elders he had opposed. She itched to talk to him, but she had promised her father that she would not initiate contact, and she had never gone back on a promise. Still, it certainly seemed as if God was guiding her down a new path, given the way the silliest thing seemed to bring John to mind.

For instance, she was having ice cream with Emma one day, and it struck her that every time she had ice cream she thought about the time she and John had sat in that same spot. It occurred to her that sitting outside Big Olaf's that day, they had formed a kind of truce, fragile as it was. Of course, it hadn't been anything so formal as all that, but looking back on it now, she realized that on that day she and John had changed from being natural adversaries to…what?

“Okay, you are a thousand miles away,” Emma said.

“I was just thinking about another time I was here recently.”

“With Samuel?” Emma guessed and gave Hester a sympathetic smile.

The date she'd shared with Samuel had not even entered her mind. “Okay, stop looking at me as if you think I might burst into tears at any moment. I am fine, really. And so is Samuel.”

Emma raised a skeptical eyebrow. “Still …”

“It's the best for everyone. Samuel and Rosalyn were meant for each other, and Dad still gets a gifted partner for his furniture business.”

“Everyone just wants you to be happy,” Emma told her.

“I am happy. The Rainbow House project—”

“Not with work or projects, Hester.”

“My work and new projects give me a great deal of pleasure.”

“Not the same thing as having that special person to share it all with. You deserve that kind of happiness, Hester. Don't surrender yourself to a life of service to the exclusion of everything else.” Emma stood up. “I'm not finished with probing what this all means for you and your future, Hester, but I really have to go. Jeannie and her family are coming over for supper.”

“Tell Jeannie I have some more names for her, people who will have fruit ready beginning in October.” Emma waved and headed across the street. But as she watched her friend leave, Hester could not deny that Emma's words had rung true. Her decision to place all of her energies in the Rainbow House project had been made at least partly because she did not want to face the fact that she was unlikely ever to marry now that Samuel was out of the picture. Who was she kidding? If her father hadn't brought Samuel to Pinecraft, her chances of ever marrying had already been slim to none.

Hester and Rosalyn spent the rest of the afternoon sorting through donated goods, and all the while Hester kept trying to figure out the best way to break the tension between them. Ever since her breakup with Samuel, things with Rosalyn had been uncomfortable, despite her talk with the younger woman.

“Samuel told me that you've made good progress recruiting neighbors to donate fruit for the Rainbow House project,” Rosalyn ventured. As had become her habit, she did not look directly at Hester when she mentioned Samuel's name. But at the same time she couldn't seem to hide the shy smile that lit up her face. Hester recalled the day that Jeannie had talked about not seeing such a glow on her face, at least not when Samuel's name came up.

“Have you and Samuel decided on a wedding date yet?” Hester asked. At least Rosalyn wasn't trying to pretend there was no courtship going on.

“Oh no, it's much too soon,” Rosalyn protested.

“For what? You're in love. You're of age.”

“Past age,” Rosalyn murmured.

“Aren't we all? Which is exactly my point. Why wait?”

Rosalyn fingered a donated blouse that was embroidered with tiny blue flowers. Carefully she clipped a couple of loose threads before placing the blouse on a hanger. “I just have to be sure,” she said.

“About Samuel?”

Rosalyn turned and looked directly at Hester. “About you.” When Hester started to protest, Rosalyn held up her hands. “I know what you say, Hester, but are you sure?”

“Sure that I admire Samuel enormously? Yes. Sure that there are moments when I wish he might have been the one? Yes. Sure that I don't love him and that we would have bored each other to tears? Absolutely.”

Rosalyn's eyes flickered with hope but also caution. So Hester put her hands on Rosalyn's shoulders and leaned in close. “He loves you. You love him. Marry him already. I may not be ready to be a bride, but I am hoping to be a godmother before this time next year.”

“Hester!” Rosalyn's cheeks darkened with embarrassment.

“Oh, don't sound so shocked. You get married. You have kids—at least that's the way it's supposed to work.”

“So if your father were to include our names among the list of couples to be married next month…?”

“Let me put it this way: if he doesn't include your names on that list, the gossips of Pinecraft are going to be buzzing like you've never heard before. And knowing Olive Crowder, I will get the blame. Frankly, I don't have time for that. So do everyone a huge favor and get on that list, okay?”

Rosalyn hugged Hester hard. “You are the kindest person I know, Hester Detlef,” she exclaimed. “I am so glad that God sent you to care for me after the fire. I don't know what I would have done without you.”

Hester couldn't help but think that it was Rosalyn who had been
her
salvation. With her positive attitude and determination to go on with her life in spite of her injuries and the loss of her entire family, she had brought Hester through her own period of grief. Hester's mother could not recover, but Rosalyn could—and did. With Hester working beside her every day, she had grown physically stronger, not weaker, and in the process, Hester had found at least some peace with her mother's passing.

“Well, I'm glad that's settled,” Hester said as she returned Rosalyn's hug. “Now let's get this stuff put away and go shopping for fabric for your wedding dress.”

“Oh, I have that already,” Rosalyn said and then blushed again. “I mean …”

“I am shocked,” Hester announced, and then she grinned. “Pretty confident that I was going to give you my blessing, weren't you?”

“Hope is a powerful thing,” Rosalyn admitted.

The two of them went back to sorting through the boxes of clothing, working in easy silence for several minutes until Rosalyn said, “How are things going with John Steiner?”

Hester swallowed as she considered her answer. “Samuel would know more about that than I do.”

“And why is that?”

“Well, I haven't seen much of—”

“So Samuel has mentioned. And why is that?” she repeated. “It seemed for a time there that the two of you were getting closer. I mean, at least you weren't coming in here all irritated and such after being with him.”

“Are you trying to play matchmaker?” Hester said, keeping her tone light and teasing.

“I am trying to figure out why the woman I admire probably more than anyone I know and the man that Samuel thinks very highly of have suddenly gone their separate ways. Samuel thinks that John has come to some kind of spiritual crossroads. You could help him, you know. You
should
help him.”

Hester could hardly tell Rosalyn about her promise to her father, mostly because Rosalyn would want to know what had made her promise such a thing, and she certainly wasn't about to say,
Well, John told me that he killed his mother, and Dad thought …

“And how do you suggest I go about helping a man who has repeatedly made it crystal clear that he doesn't want or need help, from me or anyone else?”

“Well, what if you asked him to be part of the planning committee for Rainbow House?”

Hester opened her mouth to refute that ridiculous suggestion, but Rosalyn rushed in. “I mean, the man is a farmer. He knows stuff.”

“He has enough to do right now,” Hester said in a tone intended to end this thread of conversation once and for all. “Samuel tells me that he plans to sell and move back to Indiana.”

But Rosalyn was not on that particular wavelength. “That could take months. I mean, I know the two of you are like oil and water sometimes, but that's the very reason he would be good for the project. He looks at things from a different perspective.”

“He does at that.” Hester pictured John's expression whenever he was mulling over a new idea.

“So you'll think about asking him to help?”

“I'll think about it,” Hester agreed. It looked like agreeing with Rosalyn was going to be the only way to get her off the subject of John Steiner.

“Good. Now I have to run. I promised Samuel that I would meet him at the park. He's playing shuffleboard with your father. Come join us.”

“Maybe later,” Hester said. “I have some things to do first.”

“Why doesn't that surprise me?” Rosalyn asked with a wry smile as she hurried off.

John helping on the Rainbow House project. John serving with her—and Emma, Jeannie, Grady, and the others—on the planning committee. It might work on a number of different levels
, she thought.

But how to convince her father of that?

On Saturday evening as Hester and Arlen shared the task of washing and wiping the supper dishes, she decided the time had come to address the matter of John Steiner. “Dad?”

Obviously distracted, Arlen said, “Samuel brought me a letter from John today.”

“A letter?” She tried to contain her excitement at news that John had been in contact. Perhaps this was a good sign. She had certainly prayed long and hard for God to show them the way. And she couldn't deny that underlying every prayer was her hope that God's will would include the opportunity for her to see John again. The more she thought about the pain he must have suffered after his mother's tragic and sudden death, the more she felt that they shared something in common and could possibly provide the understanding and comfort that others could not. After all, each of them understood at least some of what the other had been through. She could help him.