Gatehaven
Page 31
“This might not be the best time to mention this, Mrs. Aimee, but Shannon and I want to get married. I will ask for her hand as soon as her father returns.”
“Well it is about time,” her mother said. “Welcome to the family, Ian. And how do you like the colonies so far?”
He reached over and kissed the top of Shannon’s head. “If you are asking whether I like this new country so far, the answer is yes. I think I am going to like it here—very well.”
Shannon was sure that the day Ian asked her to marry him was the best day of her life. Obviously, marriage to the man she loved brought joy now and would in the future. But there was another reason why this day would be forever special.
She’d been in and around the church and Christians all her life, but when she saw her mother reach out in love to the one man who had hurt her the most, Shannon knew at last that God’s Word was truth. They really were living under the shadow of the Almighty.
EPILOGUE
Five years later
EARLY ON A summer morning, Shannon and Ian took their two children and Peter and Kate’s two on a picnic at a beach near Charles Towne. Ian took out his boat to do a little fishing, and Shannon minded the four children. She’d put their infant son, Pete, on a quilt spread on the ground while the older children waded in the water nearby.
All at once a toddler with big brown eyes and dark, curly hair walked right up to the quilt and stood there, staring at the baby. No adults were in sight as far as Shannon could tell.
“Baby.” The little boy smiled, pointing to Pete on the blanket.
“Yes, he is a very tiny baby, is he not?” Shannon looked around for the child’s parents, but was unable to see them. “Do not stand too close,” she warned, “or you might wake him up.”
A dark-haired young man with an olive complexion and a young woman with gold-colored hair raced out from behind a small shed. They appeared to be searching for someone. Shannon thought they looked frantic.
“Lee,” they shouted against a soft breeze. “Come back here.”
Shannon motioned toward the toddler. “Is this who you are looking for?”
“Yes!” the woman called back.
The mother and father hurried forward.
The woman scooped up the little boy in her arms and held him close.
“Thank you. We thought Lee was standing right beside us. But then I looked back, and he was gone.”
“I know what you mean.” Shannon motioned to their daughter, Rachel, wading in the water, and to Peter’s twin boys. “Not long before you came, I could not find Pierre, one of my brother’s twins. He was hiding in that very shed.” Shannon shrugged. “Forgive me for not introducing myself sooner. I am Mrs. Colquhoun. My husband, Mr. Ian Colquhoun, is off in his boat, fishing. But I expect him to return very soon.”
Shannon offered the woman her hand, and she shook it.
“I am Mrs. Picard,” the woman said, “and this is my husband, Mr.Picard.”
Stunned, Shannon froze for a moment. “Did you say Picard?”
“Yes, my husband is Mr. Leon Picard. Our son, Lee, is named for him.”
It must be a coincidence. The Leon Picard Shannon knew couldn’t be related to these fine people.
“You seemed surprised by our name,” Mrs. Picard said. “It’s French. Do you know someone by that name?”
Shannon didn’t want to reply. “I spent some time in England a few years ago, and I met a man there named Leon Picard. But he was much older than either of you.”
“This truly is ironic,” Mr. Picard said. “I was born in Paris, France, but my father went to England before I was born. We lost track of him after that and assumed he died there. Then only a few weeks ago, I met a woman from England—a Mrs. Woodhouse—and she said her son, Stephen Woodhouse, was also related to my father.
“When I was two,” he went on, “my mother and I moved to the colonies and lived in Charles Towne for a short while. Then we moved north. My mother is dead now, but I moved my wife and child back to Charles Towne a few weeks ago.” He smiled. “We noticed you and your husband at church last Sunday morning.”
“You attend the French Protestant church?”
“Yes. You see, we are Huguenots.”
Puzzled and in deep thought, Shannon shook her head. The Leon Picard who stood before her looked a great deal like a younger version of the man who had done her such harm. Could it be that this Leon Picard and little Lee were the son and grandson of the man who had haunted her family until the day he died?
After they married, Ian finally told Shannon about Lela and Stephen Woodhouse and that he thought Stephen was Leon’s out-of-wedlock son. Had Lela and Stephen arrived in the colonies as well? It seemed impossible, and yet . . .
Shannon never saw anything but evil in the eyes of the older Leon Picard, but the younger man’s eyes were clear. When this Leon Picard looked at his wife and child, Shannon saw nothing but love and tenderness. She knew there was good in him no matter who his father might have been.
She thought of the portrait of her mother that Ian found at the inn where Leon was staying when he died. Peter had commissioned an artist to paint duplicates so Peter and Shannon as well as their mother would have copies of the painting.
But if this man was truly the Frenchman’s son, he and Stephen were the rightful owners of the original portrait as well as the money and other personal items they found in Leon’s room at the inn. In a way, Shannon hated to part with the original since it was a painting of her mother. Yet she knew she would never want to hang it on a wall or even look at it because it brought back too many unpleasant memories. If Mama agreed, Shannon would give the original portrait to Stephen or to Mr. Picard as soon as their identities were confirmed.
Shannon was writing a journal to pass on to her descendants, detailing all that happened to her at Gatehaven as well as what went on before and afterward. Perhaps she would also tell Leon Picard’s son part of the story that went with the painting—but certainly not all. It would be cruel to tell him all that she knew about his father.
Shannon glanced out at the sea. Ian was rowing his boat toward the shore. She would see his smiling face in a matter of minutes. “That is my husband you see coming.” She looked back at the man and his wife.
Leon Picard smiled. “My wife and I are eager to meet him.”
She’d already shaken the woman’s hand, but at first, she was reluctant to shake the man’s. At last, she offered him her hand in friendship, and he shook Shannon’s hand.
“I know that God has put us together,” Shannon said with a kind of glory. “My husband is the assistant pastor at the French church under Pastor D’Span. And I know the four of us will become great friends as well as brothers and sisters in the Lord.”
They had come full circle. And the scripture verse that says, “Love your enemies,” had never seemed more relevant.
God is good.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
MOLLY NOBLE BULL, Christian novelist, is a native Texan and a graduate of Texas A&M University at Kingsville, Texas. She grew up on a sixty-thousand-acre cattle ranch, and married Charlie Bull, her college sweetheart. Charlie encouraged Molly to write about faraway places, and she did just that.
Her first two novels, For Always and The Rogue’s Daughter, were published by Zondervan, and later reprinted as Promise Romances from Guideposts. She also sold novels to Love Inspired and Tsaba House. Her novel Sanctuary won the 2008 Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence in the inspirational category, and tied for first place in the 2008 Winter Rose contest, also in the inspirational category.
Molly struggled with dyslexia as a child, and still struggles. But with God’s help, she continues to be a victorious overcomer in Christ. She and four other Christian authors with learning disabilities collaborated in writing The Overcomers: Christian Authors Who Conquered Learning Disabilities, a nonfictional work published by Westbow Press.
Molly has always been interested in genealogy, and when she learned t
hat one branch of her family came from Luss, Scotland, and another branch included French Huguenots, she felt compelled to write about her ancestors. Thus, her latest novel, Gatehaven, was born. Gatehaven won the 2013 Creation House Fiction Writing Contest and is scheduled to release in 2014.
Molly and Charlie have three grown sons and six grandchildren, and reside in Kingsville, Texas.
CONTACT THE AUTHOR
To learn more about Molly and her books, please
visit her website at www.mollynoblebull.com.