The Royal Handmaid (22 page)

The men all wore full beards now, having long ago agreed that there was no reason to bother trying to keep a razor sharp. Rena looked at Dalton, and a frown creased her brow. He was not the same man she had known back in San Francisco. The months on the island had not improved his character. He had grown quarrelsome and surly, and no matter how Rena tried, she could not get through to the man she had thought she had known. She felt herself frown as the question formed in her mind,
Was I really in love with him—or am I now? He’s not the same as he was.

Quickly she put this question behind her, for it was not something she cared to think about. She looked at Professor Dekker and felt a tinge of worry. Dekker had become withdrawn. He was not suited for a rough life. He had known only the ease of civilization in its highest form, and now he would speak only when spoken to. He missed his books, his libraries, his scholarly friends. Rena knew he was miserable.

Karl Benson was speaking quietly with Jimmy Townsend. The two men were quite a contrast. Jimmy was a cheerful, smiling, good-natured man with very little self-confidence. He was, of course, worried sick about his wife, who was now approaching the time that the baby would have to be brought into the world. Rena could not hear their conversation, but she guessed that Jimmy was trying to pry some answers loose from Karl about the medical side of pregnancy and childbirth. Karl was listening, but there was something in his face that resisted Jimmy’s earnest pleas. He was a man of science like the professor, and he had never yet revealed himself fully to any of the group. Something set him off from the others—some sort of secret, Rena thought, but she did not know what it was.

Rena’s mind went to the next category: Women. She looked at Abby, who was sitting next to Jimmy and eating slowly. She
had changed greatly, of course, her body now swollen with the child that was soon to come. She was a pretty woman, but fear had drawn lines in her face that had not been there before. She was the most vulnerable of all the women, Rena thought.

Meredith Wynne was speaking to Travis. The two of them spent a great deal of time together, and for an instant Rena felt a tug of jealousy.
They look like man and wife sitting there smiling and talking.

The thought disturbed her, but she didn’t know if anything would come of their relationship.

Rena surveyed the other three women. Maggie Smith was no longer the overweight young woman who had staggered ashore. She was now very shapely, and there was a liveliness about her.
A hard way to lose weight,
Rena thought. She saw that Maggie’s eyes often went to Shep Riggs, and she wondered if there was an attraction there.

Lanie MacKay was sitting close to Pete Alford. These two made quite an impressive pair, both of them being so tall. Lanie seemed to have found a peace with herself.

Next Rena looked at the crew. Captain Barkley, as always, was a tower of strength. When he caught her gaze, he winked at her and grinned, his frosty blue eyes twinkling. He was a good man, and he had done a good job of keeping things together.

Cerny Novak and Charlie Day, as usual, were sitting together. The big bulk of Novak seemed to dwarf Day, and the two of them whispered, having little to say to anyone else. Lars Olsen, Shep Riggs, and Oscar Blevins sat together, laughing as Blevins told them a story of his early days. Chip was also in this group, and he glanced around often as he watched the others carefully.

After she finished eating, Rena got up and went over to sit beside Abigail. She touched the young woman’s arm and said, “How do you feel, Abby?”

“Not very well.” Abby turned, her eyes filled with misery.
When she could no longer fit into the dress she had come onto the island with, Maggie had offered to trade with her. Since Maggie had lost so much weight, her own dress made a suitable maternity outfit for Abby. But even that was getting tight now. “Even this dress doesn’t stretch around me anymore,” Abby said sadly.

Rena looked down at the thin, worn dress, which could no longer be buttoned over Abby’s belly. Jimmy had fashioned an apron of sorts out of palm leaves to tie around her middle for the sake of modesty, but it wasn’t very comfortable. She shook her head. “I wish I could find something better to wear.”

“We’re all in the same boat,” Lanie said as she joined them. She looked down at her own dress, washed thin by many washings and from being dried in the hot sun. “Maybe we could learn to weave clothes out of leaves or something,” she suggested. “Maybe we could make ourselves skirts out of those palm leaves like the hula dancers!”

Suddenly Rena had an idea. “I know! Ladies, we’re all going to have new dresses.”

Her voice carried enough so that everyone turned to look at her.

“Are you going to go down to the store and buy them?” Dalton said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “If you do, buy me some more clothes too, would you? I could use ’em.”

“Be quiet, Dalton. I’m not talking to you.” Then turning her back to Dalton, she spoke to the women. “I know what we can do. I don’t know why we didn’t think of it before.” As she began to explain, an excitement ran through the women. “Why, of course,” Meredith exclaimed. “We’ve got plenty of material!”

“Material? What are you talking about?” Abby wailed. “We don’t have
any
material.”

“Yes, we do. We’ve got plenty of canvas.”

“You can’t make dresses out of sails,” Abby said with a sour expression on her face.

“Some of the sails we kept are made from very thin canvas,” Meredith said.

“But we don’t have any needles or thread,” Abby objected.

“We’ve got plenty of twine, though,” Rena put in, “and Shep knows how to patch sails. So we’ll just
make
us some new outfits.”

The women perked up at once, and Rena was glad to see it. “I guess you’ll be in charge, Meredith. You know how to sew, but I’ve never made anything in my life.”

“All right,” Meredith said, excited. “Let’s start now.” Meredith was usually a calm woman, but there was a Welsh strain in her background and a passion that lay deep. She ran over to Shep Riggs. “Shep,” she said, “we’re going to make some new clothes out of that thin sail canvas. Will you help?”

Shep just laughed, amused by it all. “Well, I never thought I’d be a ladies’ dressmaker, but I’ll do what I can.”

****

The dressmaking proved to be an exciting affair, providing some diversion from their everyday activities. With Shep’s assistance, Meredith chose the lightest-weight sail, some of it very worn, but it would do for their purposes. “We’re going to make a maternity dress first, Shep.”

Shep laughed. “All right. Let’s get at it.”

The small group gathered around Abigail, who stood with her arms straight out while Meredith took her rough measurements. Shep was there with a pair of scissors, and soon he had cut out the pattern indicated by Meredith. He left and came back with an awl and some twine and showed them how to piece the various parts together.

It was an amazingly short process, and when it was done, Meredith took Abigail off to her tent. When the two women returned, Abby was actually smiling. “It feels so good,” she said. “I can actually move around.”

The dress was rough, but it was loose fitting, and Abigail found it a great relief over what she’d had before. She actually
got interested in helping with the others, and for the next two days the women made dresses, all the while ignoring the men.

Finally all of the women had new attire.

Meredith had made her own dress, and now she came to show it to Travis. She had nipped it in at the waist, and despite the stiff cloth, it still revealed her trim figure. She spun around, saying, “How do you like it?”

“Fine. It was a great idea. I hope the canvas holds out.”

“If we had sheep, we could gather wool and make a spinning wheel.”

“Do you know how to spin wool?” Travis asked, surprised.

“I used to help my grandmother back in Wales.”

“Maybe we could use goat hair instead.”

As the two stood there talking, Travis found himself liking this woman a great deal.

“Next, you men are going to have some new shorts.”

“It wouldn’t hurt,” Travis said, smiling.

“C’mon. I’ll take your measurements. I’ve never made a pair of shorts before, but I believe I can do it.”

Ten minutes later the two were laughing as Meredith measured Travis as best she could.

The two were unaware that Rena was scrutinizing them as she boiled water over the fire. She was shocked when a voice beside her said, “They make a good-looking couple, don’t they?”

She turned to see Captain Barkley standing beside her, a slight grin on his face. “She’s quite a woman, that Meredith,” the captain said.

Rena could not answer for a moment. Finally she said, “Captain, what would happen if a man and a woman fell in love in this place?”

“I expect they’d get married,” he said, looking at her curiously. A grin broke across his lips. “And live happily ever after, just like in the stories.”

“But how could they get married?”

“Easy enough. We have a whole island full of preachers
here and one ship captain. Why? Are you and Dalton ready to get married?”

“I wasn’t thinking of myself,” she said quickly. “But sooner or later it’s going to come up.”

“Well, I wouldn’t be surprised. It’s natural enough for you young people to be drawn to one another.”

Rena took one more glance at Travis and Meredith and then turned away, saying, “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Despair Sets In

The excitement over their new clothes lasted only until a week of heavy rain and strong winds devastated their camp and their spirits. It took days to clean up the mess and rebuild their shelters. Their new canvas clothes did not dry quickly, so when they gathered for their regular Sunday morning service after the week of bad weather, it was with sodden clothes and heavy hearts. They had thought their fortunes on the island were improving, but this seemed like a titanic setback, and it was hard to be thankful to God.

The service proved to be a grim affair. The missionaries were all there, but the only crew members attending were Shep and Chip. The group sang a few songs, and when Rena stood up to preach, she realized she had absolutely nothing to say. Every word felt as though it had to be dredged out of her. In desperation she finally asked, “Does anyone have a testimony to share?”

No one said a word, and Rena saw weariness and fatigue on every face.

Finally Maggie spoke up. “I think sometimes we give up on God too soon.” When everyone looked at her, she seemed embarrassed.

“What do you mean by that?” asked Travis, who was sitting beside Shep.

“Well, I mean . . .” She hesitated. “Well, with all of our problems, you might think it strange that I should think of this. But, you know, I spent most of my life ashamed of being
overweight. I don’t know how many times I prayed and how many diets I tried, but nothing ever worked.”

“I don’t think being overweight is an earthshaking problem,” Dalton said. “We’re stuck out on this island, and apparently God has forgotten about us. Being overweight is not a big thing compared to that.”

“Well, it was for me,” Maggie said. She gave Dalton a long, level look, then she glanced at Shep, who was grinning at her. They had talked about this many times, but she had never spoken of it to the group.

“I don’t think anything’s too small for God to pay attention to. It never ceases to amaze me that God knows all of my thoughts. And He knows the thoughts of everyone here—and everyone all over the world at the same time. And He knows every problem and He cares.”

“If He cared about us, He’d get us off this island. I hardly think He cares that you’ve lost weight here!” Dalton said stubbornly. He picked up a stick and began to dig in the ground with it aimlessly. “I’ve come to the point where I don’t think God cares about little things.”

“Well, I disagree,” Maggie said quietly. “I’ve asked God so many times to let me lose weight, and now He’s done it.”

“It’s hardly worth the hardship the rest of us have had to endure!” Dalton said in a biting tone. “I can’t believe you’re saying this.”

The group fell silent. Finally Travis, who usually sat quietly at their meetings, spoke up. “I’ve got a word I’d like to share.” Everyone turned his attention to him. “We’re going to get off of this island. I believe that with all my heart.” He looked at Dalton, whose face revealed utter disbelief. “I know it doesn’t look very good, but I was reading just this morning in the book of Acts, and it seemed like God put that story in there just for us.” He opened his Bible. “You remember the story where Paul was a prisoner on his way to Rome with some Roman soldiers? When they got on the ship, they ran into a storm, and it even had a name. Here in Acts twenty-seven,
verse fourteen, it says the storm’s name was
Euroclydon.
It’s a funny thing for a storm to have a name, so it must have been a dandy. Anyway, when everybody had given up hope, Paul stood up and spoke. I’d like to read for you what Paul said.” He began to read in a steady tone.

He closed the Bible and said softly, “You know, sometimes God puts us in a place where our only hope is in Him, and that’s a good place to be.” He smiled and lifted the Bible high. “When we’re flat on our back, there’s no way to look but up, and when we look up, there’s the Lord Jesus.”

As Travis continued to speak words of encouragement, Rena felt a weight descend upon her. She felt totally helpless; all that she had valued in life seemed to have turned to dust and ashes. She was astonished to find tears filling her eyes, and she bowed her head and brushed them away before the others could see. She kept her head bowed and listened. Travis spoke with such hope and confidence that she felt ashamed at her lack of faith. Finally Travis closed the service with a prayer full of such hope and cheer that Rena could only feel astonishment that he could keep up his spirits after so many months of such misery.