The Beresfords (47 page)

“Dad?” Jonathan laughed. He pulled back my hood to kiss me again. “He’s the one who
sicked
me on you. Said he’d done all he could, but if I couldn’t close the deal, I was no Beresford. I’d told him I was in love with you almost as soon as I came back—we kids had been making such unsuccessful matches that I thought maybe he should be consulted for once. It turned out he beat me to the idea. Dad said ever since you came home from Loveland and settled everyone down and took such good care of Tom, he had plans to nail you down permanently. If I wouldn’t marry you, he’d make Tom do it, Marcy or no Marcy.”

“Poor Marcy!”

“Yep. Lucky for Marcy I was willing to step into the breach.” He shook me playfully. “This would’ve been settled weeks ago, if you hadn’t suddenly started acting like you couldn’t stand the sight of me.”

“How managing Uncle Paul is! If I wasn’t so happy, I’d have an evil desire to thwart him, but as it is, it’s even funnier that he played matchmaker. Godfather matchmaker. You don’t think he paid Todd to break up with me, do you?”

“Todd should be grateful he’s alive.”

Hand in hand and trading jokes, like the old, old friends we were, we went inside to rejoin our family.

•
             
•
             
•

What more is there to say? Tom and Marcy were married in May, and Jonathan and I in August. Because Pastor Donald spent every August in Lake Tahoe, he married us at the cabin, on the lawn stretching down to the water, not far from where Julie knocked out Aunt Terri with the car. Funny that, in such a small ceremony, the faces gathered to celebrate with us were much the same as that fateful weekend—right down to Steve and Dave, but with the addition of Uncle Roger and little Jimmy. And the absence of the Grants, of course.

In later years, after he retired, Uncle Paul was obligated to remodel the cabin and add on to accommodate his grandchildren, much as he once remodeled the house to accommodate me. There were eight in all: Rachel’s Jimmy; Tom and Marcy’s two girls Ashley and Megan; Julie
and Steve’s twins Zach and Emily; and then our three, Nora Marie, Jensen Paul and Ellen Beverly. When all of us were together it was pandemonium, and Tom got his father to admit that the grandkids did far more property damage than Tom ever had with Steve and Dave.

My dear Uncle Paul continued his secret generosity. By laundering money through my hands, he arranged for Robbie to have tutoring in Colorado and sponsored both Robbie and Jamie at Christian camps every summer. He also flew Jonathan and me out to Loveland once a year, when we were juggling finances and later infants and just scraping by on a youth pastor’s salary. My children never believed our stories that their grandfather had once been strict and frightening, so thoroughly did they have him wrapped around their little fingers. And when Jonathan accepted a call as a senior pastor far away in Washington State, Uncle Paul could only give his reluctant blessing after purchasing another “vacation” condo for himself and Aunt Marie not a quarter mile from the church.

Having a sibling in full-time ministry tempted Tom, Rachel, Julie, and their families to darken the door of a church once more. At first we would see them the few times a year that Jonathan preached in the main service, but by the time their own children came along we caught hints that they went rather more often. They were still never much for talking about it, but it was enough to know something was there—again, or for the very first time.

As for Caroline Grant, she was not entirely off in her prophecies. Rob Newman rose to be a congressman and then political talking head, making frequent appearances on news shows where people shouted at and over each other. The two of them appeared once in a news magazine, in the background of a presidential candidate’s photo. They might have been blurry, but there was no mistaking her dark eyes and tiny figure and those black curls.

And her brother? Of Eric Grant we heard not a whisper. But one time, when I was picking up Nora from her first
sleepaway
camp at
Woodleaf
, another parent raised a hand to me across the bobbing heads of two dozen fifth-graders. Nora was shouting and waving her hand-whittled cross and eighteen Jesus bracelets in leather, hemp, beads, and embroidery floss at me, so that when I finally got clear of it all to look again, the man was gone, leaving only a vague impression of dark hair and trim build.

But after Nora finished hugging her five new best friends and vowing to call and write, and after we hauled her sleeping bag and duffel and craft collection to the van, I found a note on the windshield.

“
One thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus
.”

“What is it?” asked my oldest.

“Philippians,” I said. Folding the note, I tucked it in my pocket. I would show it to Jonathan later. “And a message. Hop in.”

“Who’s the message from?” Her blue eyes—her father’s eyes—met mine in the rear view mirror.

I waited for her seatbelt to click before starting the engine. “Just someone your father and I used to know. Did you happen to meet a girl with the last name Grant this week?”

“Uh-huh. Sophie Grant. She was really good at volleyball. But what’s the note
say
?”

“Oh—the person wanted to answer a question we had about him years ago. About whether our hope was justified.”

As a knowing ten-year-old, Nora was not going to ask me to explain difficult words. She would look them up later on her own and fake it in the meantime. “And was it, Mom? Was your hope justified?”

I pulled onto
LaPorte
Road, flipping down the visor against the bright sunlight. “You know, Nora, it looks like—when all was said and done—the answer is Yes.”

A
cknowledgements
:

H
eartfelt thanks to all who encourage me in the writing life: my critique group, the folks at Gorham Printing, the University Book Store Bellevue and Mill Creek staff, gracious book party and book club hosts, and my dear readers.

Carol Miller, I appreciate you letting me borrow one anecdote from your childhood. No harm done, to Frannie or to you, right? Ha
ha
.

As ever, my family has supported and encouraged me, and my husband Scott makes these fictional forays possible. I’m so spoiled.

And finally…

I bet Jane Austen never imagined the truckloads of spin-offs and fan fiction her six novels would
spawn
. In its small way, I put
The Beresfords
in the latter category. Austen described Emma Woodhouse as a “heroine whom no-one but myself will much li
ke,” yet, as the centuries pass
, far more
abuse
has act
ually been heaped on poor Fanny
Price of
Mansfield
Park
. No one has patience for retiring young ladies who nevertheless live according to their convictions,
I suppose. Fanny
—this one’s for you.

A
lso
by
C
hristina
D
udley

Mourning Becomes Cassandra

The Littlest Doubts

Everliving

Mia and the Magic Cupcakes

Praise for Christina Dudley’s Works

Mourning Becomes Cassandra

“A fun and highly recommended read that should not be overlooked.”

—
Midwest Book Review

“Heartbreaking...and at times hilarious.”

—
LoveWebRadio.com

J
uly
2009 B
ook of the
M
onth

“
Mourning Becomes Cassandra
has some of the most well
-
developed

characters of any contemporary novel.”

—
DailyCheapReads.com
T
op
F
our of
2010

Everliving

“Spooky and romantic...an absorbing tale of lost love, mystery,

and paranormal longing.”

—
University Book Store Bellevue
S
taff
F
avorite

“An exciting work of fiction, highly recommended.”

—
Midwest Book Review

“This one will knock you over...Christina Dudley is

a masterful writer.” —
The Bookcast.com

Mia and the Magic Cupcakes

2010 PNWA Z
ola
A
ward
-W
inner
–

B
est
C
hildren
’
s
B
ook

R
eading
G
roup
G
uide

1. If you were making a movie of
   The Beresfords
   , whom would you cast?
    
   
2. At the opening of the book, in what ways are
   Frannie’s
   feelings and trials typical of adolescence, and how are they different? Why do you think she is so very attached to Jonathan?
    
   
3. What draws each of the Beresfords to Eric and Caroline Grant, initially? What do the Grants represent to the Beresfords and to Frannie?
    
   
4. Frannie says of her uncle, “He maintained strict order, leaning too far in the direction of rules and the outward appearance of obedience and respect” (Chapter 2). How responsible do you think Paul Beresford is for his children’s choices and behavior? Do you believe he changes, over the course of the story?
    
   
5. Frannie begins by referring to God as “the friend of a friend,” someone she would talk to “like you would include a stranger in your conversation from politeness, rather than a desire to get acquainted” (Chapter 3). Later she pictures him “a gruff senior statesman” to whom she submits “prayers like progress reports” (Chapter 18). How do you think she views him by the end? What shapes her views of God?
    
   
6. Speaking of views of God, how sincere did you find Eric Grant’s journey? Do you believe it’s possible to be a faith-filled person
   and
   to suffer moral collapse? Does one negate the other?
    
   
7. What was Uncle Paul’s purpose in sending Frannie to Colorado? How do you think her mother felt about it? What did Frannie and the Beresfords learn during her exile?
    
   
8. What do you think forms the best basis for marriage? On what is Jonathan and
   Frannie’s
   relationship built? Do you agree with Jonathan saying, “We are who we are because our stories are our stories, complete with mysteries and mistakes and detours. Without those, we would not become who we become” (Chapter 4)? Will Jonathan be a better match for having loved Caroline Grant?
    
   
9. What do you think would have happened to Frannie, had Jonathan not had a change of heart? Why?
    
   
10. The Beresfords
    is described as “more than a nod to Jane Austen’s
    Mansfield Park
    .” If you’re familiar with
    Mansfield Park
    , what similarities do you find? What differences? Did it make a difference to you that
    The Beresfords
    is told in
    Frannie’s
    own voice, rather than third person?
    

Christina Dudley's previous novel
Everliving
was called "spooky and romantic" and chosen as a Staff Favorite by the University of Washington Bookstore. Her debut novel
Mourning Becomes Cassandra
was a
LoveWebRadio
Book-of-the-Month and chosen Top Four of 2010 by DailyCheapReads.com. At the urging of her readers, she penned
Mourning
’s sequel
The Littlest Doubts
. For a younger audience, her
Mia and the Magic Cupcakes
garnered a 2010 Zola Award for Best Children's Picture Book.

When not writing, Dudley can be found crashing local book clubs and blogging for the Bellevue (WA) Farmers Market as the
UrbanFarmJunkie
. More than you ever wanted to know about her can be found at www.christinadudley.com. She and her family live in Bellevue, Washington.