Gold in the Fire and Light in the Storm
Page 37
Beth finished zipping up her suitcase, then placed it next to her bed before answering, “They’re counting on me to be there.”
“But I want you here.” Allie stomped her foot and pointed to the floor. “I might need someone to help me when school starts at the end of the month. I’m going into the third grade, you know.”
“Your dad can help, and so can Jane.”
Tears glistened in Allie’s eyes. “It’s not the same.”
Beth sank onto the bed and motioned for Allie to come to her. She wrapped her arms around the child. “You can write me and if there’s a computer at the mission, I can e-mail you, maybe even send you some pictures. I’m taking my digital camera.”
“But you won’t be here.”
It was harder for her to leave than Beth had ever imagined, and yet she had committed herself to going to the mission and she would. Samuel was right. She needed to do this for herself. But holding Allie and having to tell her goodbye ripped at her heart.
“We’ll see each other again,” Beth finally whispered.
Allie pulled back. “When?”
“I’m not sure how long I’ll be staying. I’m filling in for someone taking a leave, then I may stay.”
“Why?”
“Because God wants me to.”
“Why can’t God want you to be here with us? God needs workers here, too. Others can go to the mission. Why does it have to be you?”
Beth brushed the child’s hair back from her face. “I promised them I would come.”
Tears streamed down her cheeks. “Do you promise to come home?”
Beth spied Samuel in the doorway, sadness in his eyes, and her heart broke into two pieces. Why had she agreed to go when she had him? Why was she so afraid to make a total commitment to his family?
Beth looked back at the little girl. “Yes, I promise to come home.”
Allie threw herself at Beth and kissed her on the cheek. “Don’t stay away long, please.”
“Allie, I need to drive Beth to the airport. We don’t want her to miss her plane.”
Allie spun around. “Yes, I do, Daddy.”
“Come on. The rest of the family is in the foyer waiting, Allie. Let Beth finish getting her things together.”
Sighing, Allie trudged toward the door, her shoulders hunched. As she disappeared into the hallway, Beth rose.
“I’m sorry about that.” Samuel came into her bedroom.
“That’s okay. I knew she wasn’t happy with me.”
“I tried to explain to her last night, but I guess I wasn’t successful.” He pulled up the handle on the suitcase so he could roll it toward the door.
“I’m sorry.”
He halted and turned back to her. “About what?”
“About causing Allie any pain, about us.”
Letting go of the suitcase, he strode the few feet to her and clasped her upper arms. “You have nothing to be sorry for. You have to do this. That doesn’t mean we are happy about it, but we will live through it. If you decide working at the mission is what you need to do, then I will learn to accept that decision.” He pulled her to him. “I love you. I want what’s best for you.”
His words comforted and yet pained her at the same time. She laid her head against his heart, needing to hear its steady, strong beat, so much like the man.
“Right now my family needs Sweetwater and what it can offer them. You need the mission near Belém. We’ll be here when you want to come home.” He leaned back and framed her face, his intense gaze on her.
When he lowered his head and covered her mouth with his, she melted against him and poured all her love into the kiss. The memory of it would have to last her a long time. Savoring the taste of him on her lips, she finally pulled away.
“I only have a few things to gather for the plane ride. I’ll be out in a minute.”
Watching him leave with her big suitcase, Beth managed to keep herself together until he was gone. Then the tears came, rolling down her face unchecked.
God, why isn’t life as easy as Allie thinks it is?
The rain fell in gray sheets outside the window at the mission. Beth stared at the line of trees marking the edge of the clearing where the jungle began. Eight weeks had slipped by. She loved working in the school with the small children, and if she cared to, the director wanted her to stay on permanently.
But every day for the past eight weeks she had missed Samuel and his children. She felt good about the work she was doing for the Lord, but there was an emptiness inside her she couldn’t fill with her prayers.
God needs workers here, too.
Beth remembered Allie’s plea to her that last day in Sweetwater. She hadn’t been able to get the child’s words out of her mind. She didn’t have to go thousands of miles from home to do God’s work. There was a need in Sweetwater, as there was any place.
Was she ready for a family? Because Samuel came with one. In fact, he wanted more children. After working with the young children at the mission she knew she wanted to be a mother in every sense of the word, from giving birth to raising the child, as she had her siblings.
She had a lot of love inside her—love she wanted to give to Samuel and his children. She needed to go home, and hoped that Samuel still wanted her as his wife, since he hadn’t mentioned it in his e-mails.
Beth rose from the desk and walked to the open window, listening to the steady downpour. Through the gray she caught sight of some orchids growing in a tree. Such beauty here. Raw. Untamed. She was glad she had experienced this, but without Samuel it didn’t mean much. He defined her life, made her complete, and it had taken coming to Brazil for her to realize that fully.
The sound of children’s feet alerted her to the beginning of class. She turned from the window and greeted her pupils as they entered the classroom.
“I thought I would find you here, Dad.” Jane slipped into the pew next to Samuel at the front of the church.
He glanced at his watch. “School’s out already?”
Jane grinned. “Has been for an hour.”
“How was it today? Any problems?”
“Don’t worry, Dad. I’ll get help if I need it from whoever I need to. Beth taught me that, to ask for help.”
“Beth taught us all something.”
“What did she teach you?”
He sighed. “To trust in the Lord. To turn to Him when things are hard to deal with.”
“Is that why you come in here every day before coming home?”
He chuckled. “I work here.”
“It’s more than that, Dad.”
“True. Yes, I like to talk with God before going home. This place—” he scanned the sanctuary “—is comforting.”
“It reminds you of Beth?”
He nodded. “She was so much a part of this church.”
“Everyone misses her. Do you think she misses us?”
“In her e-mails she says she does.”
“Then why doesn’t she come home?”
“She will if it’s meant to be.”
“How can you sit there and calmly say that?”
He turned to face his daughter. “Because I have faith that the Lord will do what is best for all of us.”
“Beth is best for us.”
He took his oldest daughter’s hand between his. “I hope He sees it that way. I hope she does. That’s all I can do, hon. Hope and pray.”
Jane rose. “I will, too. Maybe it will be enough.”
As his daughter started for the door, it opened. Jane gasped and hurried forward. Not able to see who it was, Samuel pushed to his feet and turned toward the back. Jane threw her arms around the person still partially hidden, but Samuel knew who it was.
He rushed down the aisle as Jane pulled Beth into full view. He stopped, taking in the sight of the woman he loved. From her expression he knew she had come home for good.
“I’m leaving,” Jane said, but her words sounded so far away.
All Samuel could see
was Beth’s beautiful smiling face that glowed with a promise of love. She took a step toward him. He moved forward. Then somehow they were in each other’s arms.
He kissed her on the forehead, the cheek, then the mouth. “Why didn’t you let me know you were coming? I could have picked you up at the airport.”
“I wanted to surprise you, and it looks like I did. I took a chance you were still at the church. When I couldn’t find you in your office, I thought you might be in here.”
“You did?”
“Call it a hunch. It was good to see Jane. Is she really doing all right in school? She wrote me she was.”
“The first nine weeks will be over soon and she has good grades so far, but she works hard for them.”
“How are Allie and Craig?”
“There isn’t a day Allie doesn’t ask about you. And Craig is on a football team. It’s his whole life right now.”
“I can’t wait to see them.”
He cupped her face, his fingers delving into her curls. “Will you marry me?”
“Why do you think I came back?”
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
“Yes, that’s a yes. For years I thought I wanted the single life, not having to be responsible for anyone but me. I was wrong. I missed not having a family. It took going thousands of miles away to finally realize that, but I want children and a husband. I want my own family. I want you and the kids.”
“No more traveling?”
She smiled. “I didn’t say that. I’ve decided to organize mission trips for our youth every summer. It’s something we have talked about doing but haven’t done yet. Now is the time. Our outreach program is expanding, especially with the success of events like the auction.”
“You are never going to change. Already home less than an hour and you have a new job.”
“Speaking of a job, I’m going to substitute for the remainder of the school year. One of the teachers in the English department is going on maternity leave in a few weeks and I’m going to take over her classes until the end of the semester.”
“It doesn’t bother you not to have your own classes?”
“No, because I think I’ll be busy making plans for my wedding.”
“Not to mention the mission trip for next summer.”
She snuggled closer. “You know I can’t stay idle.”
“Have you ever thought of having your own child?”
“Ever since I met you, many times,” she said with a laugh. “But I can’t wait too long. I’m pushing forty.”
Samuel wound his arm about her shoulders and headed for the door. “Then we need to get married soon.”
Out in the foyer of the church the front door burst open and in raced Allie and Craig. Both practically tackled Beth in their enthusiasm to greet her.
“Hold it, you two. Let her breathe,” Samuel said, watching his family show their love as though Beth had always been their mother.
“Jane told us you were back.” Allie enclosed her arms about Beth’s waist and pressed her head to her chest.
“I made a promise to a young lady that I had to keep.”
Allie bent back to look up into Beth’s face. “I knew something was up when you didn’t answer my latest e-mail right away.”
“Why don’t you two go let Aunt Mae know there will be one more for dinner?”
Allie and Craig hurried toward the house.
“When I see you and your family, I can’t imagine why I thought I needed to go to Brazil in the first place.”
“What’s ten weeks, three days—” he checked his watch “—eight hours and twenty-four minutes in the grand scheme of things?”
“An eternity when you are away from the one you love.”
Epilogue
“Look, that’s Jane!” Allie pointed toward the stage in the high school auditorium.
Beth’s chest swelled as she watched Jane walk to the superintendent of Sweetwater schools and shake his hand, then take her high school diploma from the principal. The past few years hadn’t been easy for Jane, but she had done it and with a good grade point average. She would be heading to the University of Kentucky in the fall.
Tears clogged Beth’s throat as she thought of Jane telling her that she wanted to be a teacher and help students as Beth had.
Samuel laid his hand on her arm, pulling her attention toward her husband.
“Jane owes you a lot.”
“Samuel, I owe her a lot. She has given me so much.”
“Mama, eat.”
Her sixteen-month-old son wiggled out of Aunt Mae’s arms and climbed over his father to get to Beth’s lap. She rummaged in her large purse and found a plastic bag of cereal for Garrett. He plunged his chubby fingers inside and stuffed some of the round O’s into his mouth.
Samuel leaned close to her ear and whispered, “Will you be okay when Jane leaves home?”
“No, but I’ll deal with it. Besides, I’m going to be extra busy next year.”
“Have you decided to go back to teaching?”
She shook her head. “No, we’re having another baby.”
Samuel pulled back, his dark eyes round. “We are?”
“Yes, around the middle of January.”
He slipped his arm around her. “Beth Morgan, I love you.”
Dear Reader,
I hope you enjoyed Beth and Samuel’s story in Light in the Storm. I am a high school teacher who has worked with students with learning disabilities. It is important to convey to them that they have strengths as well as weaknesses. Sometimes we dwell on our weaknesses and our self-esteem suffers for it. Yes, we need to be aware of what we need to work on, but no one is perfect. Jane needed to learn that in this story, as did Beth and Samuel.
Another aspect of my story was Beth’s battle with breast cancer. With it being one of the common forms of cancer for women, I wanted to stress the importance of early detection. One way is monthly self-examination. There is a Buddy Check program that advocates a woman forming a partnership with a friend or family member; each reminds the other to self-check monthly.
I love hearing from my readers. You can contact me at P.O. Box 2074, Tulsa, OK 74101, or visit my Web site at www.margaretdaley.com.
Best wishes,
ISBN: 978-1-4268-5060-8
GOLD IN THE FIRE AND LIGHT IN THE STORM
GOLD IN THE FIRE
Copyright © 2004 by Margaret Daley
LIGHT IN THE STORM
Copyright © 2005 by Margaret Daley
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the editorial office, Steeple Hill Books, 233 Broadway, New York, NY 10279 U.S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
This edition published by arrangement with Steeple Hill Books.
® and TM are trademarks of Steeple Hill Books, used under license. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.
www.SteepleHill.com
*The Ladies of Sweetwater Lake
*The Ladies of Sweetwater Lake
*The Ladies of Sweetwater Lake
*The Ladies of Sweetwater Lake
*The Ladies of Sweetwater Lake
**Fostered by Love
**Fostered by Love
**Fostered by Love
†Helping Hands Homeschooling
<
br />