The Third Grace (30 page)

“I propose a toast,” Byron said when Aglaia hung up. He lifted his coffee cup; Naomi and the kids followed suit with their glasses of juice, and Tina and Henry
could
have been drinking wine, they were so jovial. “To Mary Grace, traveler to Paris and beyond!” Everyone cheered and she raised her mug to them—the cup of communion—and slaked her own thirst.

“Speaking of Paris,” her mother said to her, “did you ever deliver that Bible?”

It was the question Aglaia dreaded from the moment she took on the challenge from her mother over a month ago, the question that marked the end of her roving down dusty, dark paths of daydreams.

The dry old bones of lost love and death were finally being put to rest. Now every morning, in the pool of light cast by her bedside lamp, like a parched wayfarer coming home to the well, Aglaia opened that Bible and soaked in its message.

Just yesterday she'd taped up the torn pages, carefully lining up the edges as she hummed in practice for her upcoming duet with Naomi:
He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock, where rivers of pleasure I see.

She'd clipped out and thrown away the message Lou had so imperiously penned:
SEE ME. LOU.
The three words had served their purpose; she'd seen Lou, all right—seen her for what she really was. And then Aglaia had kneaded her art eraser, warming up the grey putty and shaping it into a pointed tip so that she could lift all the penciled words off the paper and take François out of the book, leaving only the indelible ink behind.

“Deliver the Bible?” she asked. “No, Mom—at least not to François.”

Thank you, my dear family—
Gerrit,
for giving me the rural life and funding trips to France;
Tyler,
for your literacy;
Meghan,
for your confidence; and
Challis,
for your unflagging encouragement. You cheered me on
till
the cows came home.

I'd also like to thank
Elma Eidse Neufeld,
for passing on to me Mennonite taste buds and faith;
Lorenda Harder,
for exclaiming approvingly during long-distance readings;
Derrick Neufeld
and
Bruce Hindmarsh,
for in different ways introducing me to the world of academia;
Grant Richison,
for holding out to me the Word of life;
mes amies françaises
Christelle, Flo, Hélène,
and
Alix,
for linguistic and cultural guidance; countless friends (a handful of whom read an early draft), for nipping at my heels until the finished product was delivered; and of course
Ron and Janet Benrey
of Greenbrier Book Company, for affording this late-blooming novelist the joy of publication.

Deb Elkink
lived the life of a cattle-rancher's wife in the Great Sand Hills of Saskatchewan, Canada, before she began writing novel-length fiction. She cooked for branding crews of a hundred, earned her private pilot's license, helped round up a thousand-head cattle herd, homeschooled three children through the ninth grade, and professionally sewed theatrical costumes (not unlike the heroine of
The Third Grace
).

This was a surprising transition for a woman raised in cosmopolitan Winnipeg, Manitoba—someone who had earned a B.A. in communications from Bethel University (in St. Paul, Minnesota).

Today, her three kids grown, Deb lives with her husband, Gerrit, on the banks of a creek in the rolling hills of southern Alberta near the city of Medicine Hat, a stone's throw from the Montana border. The Elkinks offer hospitality to a great assortment of wildlife and one, lone, eighteen-year-old Texas Longhorn steer.

Deb also holds an M.A. in historical theology from Briercrest Seminary (Saskatchewan). She loves to travel and, so far, has visited five continents. Deb says, “My smattering of foreign phrases delivered with gusto has offended the ears of Japanese, French, and Spanish alike.”

The Third Grace
is her first novel.

Visit Deb's website:
www.debelkink.com

THE THIRD GRACE

Copyright © 2011 by Deb Elkink

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Greenbrier Book Company

P.O. Box 12721

New Bern, NC 28561

Visit our Website at
www.greenbrierbooks.com

The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

Most scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House.

Cover design by Anton Khodakovsky

Cover photograph by Jeff Ruane

Amazon Kindle eBook eISBN: 978-1-937573-28-7

ePub eBook eISBN: 978-1-937573-29-4

Apple iBook eISBN: 978-1-937573-30-0

First eBook Edition: November 2011