“I’d love to come once in a while, but I won’t be able to make it every time. But, please thank Mrs. Holloway for me and let me know what you all come up with. I can expect to see some of you each Saturday, is that right?”
“Yes ma’am.” Sam had been thinking about that, but he wanted to talk his idea over with the others before he said anything to Mrs. Robertson about it.
“If you need to discuss anything with me tonight, feel free to telephone me. I’ll be here.”
Sam agreed to do just that and then spent the rest of the afternoon making notes on what he hoped the others might want to do.
By the time he got to the Holloway house he was hungry and happy.
Jones opened the door to him before he ever had a chance to ring the bell. It was obvious that the man took his job as seriously as Sam or Andrew took theirs. He was a man of few words, but there was a kindness that radiated from him and Sam had come to look forward to seeing him.
“Come this way, Mr. Tucker. Everyone is in the parlor.”
“I hope I’m not late.”
“No sir. We’re waiting on Mr. Collins to get here, and he’s not late yet. I’m not sure all the girls are down yet either.”
“I hope that doesn’t mean I’m too early.”
“Not at all, sir. Besides, Mr. Andrew is running a bit late tonight. He was called out earlier.”
“Oh, I hope his patient is all right.”
“Yes sir, so do we. Mr. Tucker,” Jones announced once they reached the parlor.
“Good evening, Sam,” Mrs. Holloway said. “It’s good to see you. I trust you had a pleasant day?”
“I did. I went to church and had Sunday dinner with Ann’s parents and had a relaxing afternoon. Then I dropped by and talked to Mrs. Robertson for a bit. And I looked forward to coming here all day, so that made it even better.”
“Why, thank you, Sam. We’ve all looked forward to seeing you again.”
Grace hurried into the room, followed by her sister and cousin.
“Sam, I’m sorry we weren’t down before you got here,” Emma said. She looked quite lovely tonight in a summery pink-and-green floral dress.
“We dillydallied the afternoon away and were late changing,” Grace informed him.
“You all look quite nice, so it was worth the wait,” Sam said.
“Oh, you always say the nicest things, doesn’t he, Emma?” Grace said. “If I were a little older—”
“Grace Chapman!” Emma said, shaking her head.
Grace laughed. “Oh, he knows I’m teasing, Emma. Don’t you, Sam?”
“I do. And I’m sure that I seem quite old to Grace. Probably even to you, Emma. But if I were a little younger. . .”
Everyone chuckled at his comeback, and as Sam watched Emma blush a delicate shade of pink, he felt his own neck grow warm. Now why had he said that? He’d made up his mind not to let himself become overly attracted to another woman, and he was determined to follow through with his decision. He never wanted to lose another woman he loved, and the only way to avoid that was to not fall in love.
But still, he was glad to be friends with Emma. It brightened his day to run into her at the trolley stop, to look forward to seeing her. . .and the others, too, of course.
Thankfully, Emma hadn’t seemed any more inclined to show an interest in him, for he wasn’t sure what his reaction would be if she had. He thought that she might be as determined not to become interested in him as he was not to become interested in any woman. And he felt that was as much because of his profession as it was him, but he didn’t know. He did know that he wanted to prove to her that not all policemen on the force were corrupt and that most wanted to bring honor to their jobs. Hopefully, one day, he would.
“Mr. Collins,” Jones announced from the doorway. “And Mr. Andrew has arrived and gone up to change. He said to tell you he’ll be down momentarily.”
“Thank you, Jones,” Mrs. Holloway said. “John, it is good to see you. I’m so glad you could make it.”
The older man headed straight toward her, grasped her hands, and kissed her on the cheek. From the expression in their eyes, Sam wondered if there was more than just friendship between the two.
“Thank you for inviting me, Miriam. It’s always a pleasure to come to your home and visit with all of you.”
Only then did the man turn to greet Esther, Emma, and Grace. “You all look quite lovely tonight.”
“Thank you, Mr. Collins,” Esther said, followed by Emma and Grace.
Then Mr. Collins turned to Sam and smiled. “Officer Tucker, good to see you again.”
“Thank you, sir. It’s good to see you.”
“Oh, you two already know each other?” Mrs. Holloway asked.
“We do. Officer Tucker and his partner take turns patrolling the business area where the pharmacy is located, too.”
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Holloway,” Esther said. “I meant to tell you Sam came in the pharmacy the other day. You were out when I got home, and it slipped my mind.”
“That’s quite all right, Esther. But I am glad they’ve met.”
“It’s always good to know the policemen assigned to the area,” Mr. Collins said. “But I think Sam is the first one to come in and introduce himself before something happened he had to come in and take care of.”
“Have you had much trouble, Mr. Collins?” Emma asked.
The older man shook his head. “Not a lot, although I did have a break-in several years back.”
Andrew entered the parlor just then and greeted everyone, shaking the men’s hands and making his way over to Esther’s side. The look the two gave each other caught Sam off guard and made him realize how badly he missed having Ann by his side, and in spite of his determination never to fall in love again, just how much he longed for—
“Dinner is served, ma’am,” Jones said from the doorway. Mr. Collins escorted Mrs. Holloway, and Andrew did the same for Esther of course.
Sam held out a hand to Emma, who was still sitting on the couch. “May I escort you to the dining room?”
“You may. Thank you, Sam.”
“What about me?” Grace asked. “Sam has two arms. He can escort me, too.”
“Grace—”
“I’ll be glad to escort you also, Miss Chapman.” Sam crooked his free arm for Grace to take and she did so, quite gracefully.
Emma shook her head and giggled. “That’s my sister.”
❧
Emma had seen the expression on Sam’s face when he looked at Andrew and Esther. It seemed to be one of both sorrow and longing, and her heart went out to him.
She could only imagine the heartache of losing a loved one as he had his wife. It had to be hard for Sam to be around a couple as in love as Andrew and Esther were. She’d gotten used to it and, while she longed for a love of her own, she trusted that the Lord would bring him into her life when the time was right. But still, one couldn’t help but long for the kind of love those two shared.
The Sunday night supper was set out on the buffet for everyone to help themselves before taking a seat at the table.
Grace went in front of them, and Emma and Sam were the last in line.
“This is some spread for a Sunday night,” Sam whispered in her ear.
“It is.”
There was thinly sliced roast turkey, ham, and roast beef; warm crusty rolls; and all the condiments one might want to add to them. There were cheeses of all kinds and scalloped potatoes and peas to go along with it. For dessert, there was a four-layer chocolate cake and apple and cherry pies.
“I think Mrs. Holloway has wanted an excuse to have company over for a while. She seems quite happy tonight.”
“Could it be because Mr. Collins is here?”
“It might be,” Emma whispered back. “We all think he’s courting her, but they haven’t come out and said for sure.”
Grace had already seated herself, and Sam pulled out Emma’s chair and seated her before taking the one in between the
two sisters.
As Esther and Andrew whispered to each other, Emma saw Sam glance over and then look away. Sorrow glimmered in his eyes again, and Emma wanted nothing more at that moment than to erase it.
For now, she felt that instead of bringing her a beau, the Lord had brought Sam back into their lives because he needed friends, needed something to keep him from thinking of his loss and to help him look forward to the future again.
“Andrew, would you please say a blessing?” Mrs. Holloway asked.
“Of course.”
They all bowed their heads and he began, “Dear Lord, we thank You for this day, for all of those around this table. We ask You to be with us as we begin our endeavor to help the young people soon to be leaving the orphanage. Please help us to be a blessing to them and to help them with the changes their lives are about to take.
“Thank You for Sam and his idea and for bringing it to us so that we can help with it, also. Please help us to come up with ideas that will truly be worthwhile to the young people we want to help, and please guide us and direct us to that end. Most of all, please help us to instill in them the desire to turn to You in all they do. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.”
“Amen,” everyone at the table said in unison before beginning to eat.
Emma turned to Sam. “Have you thought any more about your plan? Or talked to Mrs. Robertson yet?”
“I have.”
“Good. We can all talk it over after supper.”
“I imagine you’re glad to have this weekend over with at the telephone office?” Sam asked.
Emma laughed. “It was quite busy up until about an hour before my shift left. I figured everyone was finally getting ready for the ball. By then it was too late to change one’s mind.”
Sam nodded. “I’ve been called in to cover a ball or two in my off-hours before. Glad I wasn’t called in on this one.”
“You don’t like them?”
Sam shrugged. “Let’s just say there are things I’d rather be doing. What about you? Would you like to attend one?”
“Oh, I suppose every woman wonders what it would be like to be a guest at something like that. But it’s not something I really think about too much, and I don’t think there’s a chance that I’ll ever go to one. Besides, I’m quite happy with my life right now.”
Sam nodded. “I’m glad.”
Once everyone seemed to be through eating, Mrs. Holloway said, “Let’s go to the parlor and have coffee there. You can all discuss the coming week and what you plan to do.”
Sam pulled out Emma’s chair and crooked an arm for her to take, just as Grace got up from the table and took his other arm.
Emma didn’t know whether to be amused or irritated with her sister. Sam turned and smiled at Emma, giving her a wink.
He seemed to think Grace was amusing, and Emma supposed she was. Sometimes she wished she were as outspoken as her little sister was. And sometimes she wished her sister would just be quiet.
“All right, Sam, tell us what you’ve come up with,” Andrew said.
“I’ve given things a little more thought, and I was concluding that we might want to do a teamwork kind of thing. After this first meeting, perhaps it would be better if we stagger our visits—two people one week and two the next, so that the young people get used to talking to all of us at some point. They can’t have enough good role models interested in them. What do you all think?”
“I think that it is a fine idea,” Mrs. Holloway said.
“I like the idea,” Andrew said.
“You and Esther could go one Saturday evening, and Emma and I could go the next. Grace can go with whomever she chooses, if she wants to.”
“That makes sense,” Esther said. “And that way some of us would be there each week.”
“That’s what I was thinking,” Sam said. “Then we could still have an outing together, maybe one Sunday afternoon a month? What do you all think?” He’d taken a seat beside Emma and now he turned to her. “You won’t mind being my partner, will you Emma?”
“Of course not.” How could she object? Her only problem was in being too pleased that he’d asked. She didn’t want to like Sam too much, didn’t want to be as attracted to him as she could no longer deny she was. He was still a policeman. And that created problems she just didn’t want to deal with.
Emma didn’t want to have to worry about him becoming corrupted. But most of all she didn’t want to worry about his safety.
“So, will that work for you, Emma?” Esther brought her out of her thoughts.
“I’m sorry. I—my thoughts drifted. What were you saying?”
“Since we’re coming up on the last weekend of the month, why don’t we all go over this Saturday evening and meet everyone, give them a chance to meet us all as a group?” Sam asked.
“That should work fine for me if it works for the rest of you,” Emma said.
“If you hadn’t been woolgathering, you’d know it works for everyone else,” Grace said.
“We all lose our train of thought occasionally, Grace,” Esther said.
“I suppose. But I might wait to go along with you until you’ve had a chance to get everything established. I think I’ll be more comfortable that way.”
“I’m glad we can all make it.” Sam got the conversation back on track. “It will give us a chance to explain what it is we’d like to help them with. And Grace, you can decide to come with us anytime you want. But as we don’t exactly know how it’s going to all work out, it might be best to wait. Then you can explain it better to those your age.”
“All right,” Grace said. “It will give you time to work the kinks out of your plans.”
“Yes,” Esther said. “And I do think we should make sure everyone knows that it’s not mandatory that they meet with us—but that we’d just like to help.”
“Do you think they won’t want to meet with us?” Andrew asked.
“There might be one or two who are determined to go it on their own,” Emma said.
“But if the others think they are getting something out of it, they might come around,” Sam said.
“Exactly.” Emma was glad Sam understood what she was trying to say. Of course, he’d lived in the orphanage and knew what it was like contemplating getting out on one’s own. It was a mixture of excitement and pure fear. Andrew had never experienced anything like it, so he wouldn’t know.
“I think it will work,” Mrs. Holloway said. “They know most of you. I don’t think they’ll turn away your help for that reason alone.”
“I’m eager to hear what happens,” Mr. Collins said. “I think it’s a fine thing you young people are doing.”
“Yes, so do I. I’m very proud of you all,” Mrs. Holloway added.
“Well, I suppose there’s not much else to do except get started,” Emma said. “Then we’ll know more what it is each one needs most.”
“You know, they probably are going to need help finding places to live. But they’re going to need jobs before they can stay anywhere.”
“I think some of them have begun to look for jobs, or have them already. At least that’s what Mrs. Robertson has told me,” Sam said.
“I can ask around at some of the businesses around mine,” Mr. Collins said. “And I could probably use another delivery boy and someone to help in the stockroom.”
“That would be wonderful, Mr. Collins,” Esther said.
“You know, I think I’ll ask some of my friends if they know of any positions, too,” Mrs. Holloway added.
“I’ll ask if there are any openings at the telephone office. Someone is always getting married and leaving,” Emma added.
“I knew I was doing the right thing enlisting help from all of you,” Sam said. “I can’t thank you all enough for agreeing to help out. I think we’re going to really make a difference for these young people.”
“We’re going to try,” Emma said.
“And we’ll pray.”
“That’s the most i
mportant thing we can do,” Mrs. Holloway said.
Emma couldn’t agree more. She’d pray this worked out for everyone—and kept Sam very busy in his free hours.
❧
Sam was pleased when Emma walked him to the door that evening. He’d been disappointed not to be able to meet her trolley as much as he’d thought he might in the past week, and he’d hoped to have a little time with her before he left that evening. He wanted to know how her week went.
For once, even Jones was absent from the foyer.
“It went well, don’t you think?” he asked Emma as they stepped outside.
“I do. It is going to be very rewarding for all of us.”
“Most of my friends from the orphanage have been gone awhile. Still, I remember a few as youngsters who used to listen to every word I said.” Sam chuckled. “I hope they’ll listen to me now.”
“I’m sure they will. You were a role model for many of them,” Emma said.
She looked up at him, and Sam saw something in her eyes. . . . But he couldn’t quite read what it was. For a moment he thought he’d seen trust shining in them, and then they clouded over. Was it doubt he saw now?
“Emma, I have a feeling that you don’t totally trust me, and I know you don’t like that I’m a policeman. But I promise you, I want to help those young people about to be out on their own.”
“I believe you, Sam. I just—” She broke off and shook her head. “I want to help, too.”
He sensed she’d been about to say something else but changed her mind. Maybe one day she would trust him. He prayed so. And now, just to get Emma to trust him became a new goal. Maybe he just needed to spend more time with her. If she really got to know him, she’d know he wasn’t going to let anyone corrupt him. But she only knew what she’d seen of him in the orphanage, didn’t know who he was now, and probably thought he didn’t care about those left behind. . .after all, he hadn’t come back to visit or check on anyone.
And no one could deny that some corruption still existed in the police department. Sam certainly couldn’t, and he wouldn’t even try to convince Emma that it was all gone. But he did pray that things would continue to change for the better and that he could help those changes take place.
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