Stranger's Gift (44 page)

“What was my brother doing here?” Zeke asked, coming up beside him.

“You were here all the time?” John asked.

Zeke shrugged. “Sometimes Malcolm can be a little much to take,” he said. “I like to keep a low profile until I know what's on his mind.”

“He just bought this place.”

Zeke's expression reflected disappointment, anger, and sadness in rapid order. “Sorry, man,” he said softly as he clutched John's shoulder. “I know it's what you need, but I always felt it wasn't what you wanted.”

“He's buying it for you, and the others. He's going to set up a foundation for Rainbow House. Hester talked him into it.”

“You mean, he's not going to shut us down and rip the place apart?” Zeke was incredulous.

“It's all staying just the way it is,” John told him. Almost before the last word was out of his mouth, Zeke had taken off, running toward the packinghouse. A moment later, John heard shouts of joy echoing across the yard.

He thought about going back up to the house to tell Rosalyn and the others the good news, but he knew that Zeke would take care of that. There was only one other person who deserved to know what had happened as soon as possible. John mounted his bike and headed for the hospital.

Hester had finally succeeded in persuading Agnes to leave her sister's bedside and go home to get some much-needed rest by promising that she would stay with Olive until Agnes returned. Since Olive was dozing, she busied herself searching the classifieds for possible alternate locations for Rainbow House. Malcolm Shepherd had finally agreed to drive out and look at John's place, but that was as much of a commitment as he was willing to make. And as her father had reminded her, he was an outsider and a businessman. What was in this for him?

She circled one property on the north end of the city, but then saw the asking price per square foot and knew that the rent alone would eat up any profits they might acquire. She sighed and refolded the paper to show the next column.

“What are you doing?” Olive demanded, although her voice was little more than a croak.

“We need to find a new space for the Rainbow House project, someplace we can sort and store the collected fruit at the very least.”

“I thought John Steiner was letting you use his place.”

“He is, but he's trying to sell his property, and, well, not everyone is as accepting of…some people as others are.”

Olive received this news with a snort. When she fell silent, Hester assumed she had dozed off again.

“You've been spending quite a bit of time with that young man,” Olive said after a moment.

“I—”

“Has he kissed you yet?”

Hester was so surprised at the question coming from this woman that she automatically gave the answer. “Yes.”

Another snort. “Thought as much. I saw the two of you out there in the garden the night I fell. So where is this going?”

“Going?”

A long, dramatic sigh. “Are you in love with the man or not?”

“Really, Olive …”

“I thought as much.” Her lips thinned into the familiar judgmental line Hester knew so well. “Do not let this opportunity pass you by, Hester Detlef. You are not a young woman anymore. Your prospects are limited. Trust me, I know. If you love the man and there's any possibility at all that he has feelings for you, then you must take the initiative.”

Okay. This has to be the anesthetic from the surgery talking
. “Olive, would you like a little water to—”

“Oh, don't patronize me, Hester. I promised Sarah that I would make sure that you didn't give your entire life over to caring for others to the detriment of your own happiness. Well, I have failed miserably at that vow until now. But seeing you with John the other night, I accepted that God had sent this young man to you and that it was my responsibility to see that you didn't miss the only opportunity you may have to marry and have a family of your own.”

“I'm not quite that desperate,” Hester said tightly. “I mean, I do have male friends, and I do go out now and again.”

“For work, always for some project you've dreamed up,” Olive said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “We are speaking of love here, and either you speak up now or forever hold your peace, as the saying goes.”

Hester had the sudden thought that they were not really talking about her but perhaps about Olive's unrequited love for Arlen. “Olive, once John sells his property, there's no telling what he will do. He might even decide to go back to Indiana.”

“Then it is up to you to see that he doesn't. If you love him, and he returns that love—”

“And that is the question, isn't it?” Hester said.

Olive's mouth worked to find a retort and came up empty. She closed her eyes and feigned sleep.

Hester smiled and got up to stretch her back. She walked out into the hallway and heard the ding of the elevator bell and then the whisper of the sliding doors and looked up to see John coming her way. Without hesitation she went to meet him, not caring whether he returned her feelings or not but wanting only to bask a moment in the warmth of his smile.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

“I came to find you. I have some news.”

“You sold the property,” she guessed. He nodded and her heart fell. “That's—”

“To Zeke's brother, Malcolm.”

“Malcolm Shepherd bought Tucker's Point.”

“Not to develop. He's going to fund Rainbow House.”

“But when I met with him, he seemed so underwhelmed with the whole idea. He asked me a lot of questions, and not once did he show the slightest enthusiasm for the project.”

“Well, you must have said something right. He's going to establish the Rainbow House Foundation and use the house as the headquarters. You can stay, Hester. Everything can go on just as it is now.”

She could hardly believe what he was telling her. She had prayed so hard for God to find a way for them to make the project a success, and now her prayers had been heard and answered. With no regard for the bustling throngs of medical personnel and patients and visitors moving up and down the corridor, she let out a squeal and leapt up to wrap her arms around John's neck. He spun her around.

“Stop that,” Olive ordered.

But as soon as John set her back on her feet, Hester grabbed his hand and pulled him into Olive's room. She just had to share the news. Then Agnes appeared at the door, so they had to repeat the story again. “And John's been asked to be the director of the foundation. You can have an office right there in the house and live upstairs,” she told him. “And maybe there would even be room for me to set up a free clinic,” she said. “And in time—”

“So that inappropriate display of affection just now was because of the sale of your land, John Steiner?” Olive demanded. “Not because you proposed to this young woman?”

Hester's face felt as if it might melt under the sudden heat of her embarrassment.

“I was getting to that, Miss Crowder,” John said. “Although I had thought to make the occasion something a little more inviting than a hospital room.”

Olive snorted derisively while Agnes clapped her hands together and beamed.

“On the other hand, there's no time like the present, right?” John dropped to one knee as he held both of Hester's hands in his own. “Marry me, Hester Detlef.”

“Oh, for goodness' sake,” Olive groaned.

John ignored her. “I love you, Hester,” he continued. “And with God's blessing, perhaps someday you will come to care for me in that way as well. But for now …”

Hester pulled one hand free and stroked his hair away from his forehead. “Get up, John,” she said softly.

“First answer the question. Will you marry me?” he asked again.

She felt tears leak down her cheeks. “No,” she whispered and fled the room.

Outside the hospital, Hester stopped, uncertain of where to go or what to do or how to think of the incredible string of events she'd just experienced. Her elation over the eleventh-hour rescue of the Rainbow House had been short-lived when John had suddenly announced his intention to propose marriage and then had actually done so. Was he making fun of her?

Of course, he had no idea what her feelings were—but still. Surely in his giddiness over the sale and the possibility that he might be offered a position that would support him, he had only thought to make Olive and Agnes laugh with his silly antics. His social skills had never been fine-tuned, especially after he'd spent over two years living as a near hermit. Maybe he'd thought she would join in the joke. But it was a cruel joke, and she had never thought him to be a cruel man. Stubborn, immovable on certain issues, but never intentionally cruel.

For she knew—had known but not admitted—that she loved him. She fled through the hospital lobby and out to the street. In minutes she found herself at the corner of Highway 41 and Bahia Vista. To her right was Pinecraft. She considered going home and letting her father console her, but her unhappiness would only make him feel bad as well. So she turned left and walked to Orange Avenue and then past the parking entrance to the botanical gardens and around the corner to the little beach that led into the bay.

Without bothering to remove her shoes, she waded into the calm shallow waters, uncaring of the way her skirt was getting soaked with salt water and would show the stains once it dried. Far more important was the fact that it was low tide and the exposed mud flats stretched out all around her. She could walk all the way out to the clam beds in water that never rose higher than her ankles. And she had the place to herself. There were a few boats anchored offshore, but the only sounds she heard once she moved downshore from the beach were the clinking of metal riggings against masts and the call of shorebirds as they strutted about collecting their afternoon meal.

“How can you possibly love him, Hester Detlef? You have known this man for a matter of maybe three months, and for much of that time you thought he was the most …”

And yet, presented with even the suggestion that they might make a life together, she had begun to think that it might actually become a reality. When she had seen him coming down the hospital corridor, his smile meant only for her, how her heart had sung with joy at the sight of him. She had practically run to him.

“Fool.” She bit off the word and splashed on toward the clam beds, hoping that at least one of her favorite horse conches would be feeding there. Their sunset-colored bodies always made her smile, and right now she needed anything that might take away the bitterness she was feeling toward men in general and John Steiner in particular. At least here she didn't have to encounter the man, didn't have to think about what she might say to him the next time they—

“Hester!”

She turned long enough to see John leaning the bicycle that Zeke had brought him against a stretch of wire fencing and kicking off his shoes before he splashed into the bay and tried to cover the distance between them.

“Go away,” she shouted and pressed on toward the clam beds.

“We need to talk,” he replied and then grunted as he almost lost his balance and then righted himself and kept coming.

“You're going to cut your feet, and I am not in the mood to patch you up. Just go away, please.” “No.”

“You are without a doubt the single most obstinate human being I have ever known,” she grumbled.

“Well, at last we have something in common, Hester, because that goes double for you.” He had come even with her now and dogged her steps as she moved on. “Why won't you marry me?”

“Because you don't really want to marry me. It was sweet of you to want to entertain Olive and Agnes, but I get it that you proposed on a whim. Olive embarrassed you into it, and I certainly won't hold you to it.”

“And maybe—just maybe—I meant it when I told you I love you.” His tone was gentle so that the words came at her not as another jab of their argument but as more of a caress.