“Like I could wake up every day to watching you sleeping next to me.” I’m sure it was the drugs talking, but hey, I wasn’t lying.
Mom came to the end of the bed and touched my leg. “The doctor said you’re one lucky guy. Especially after Corrie told us what happened. It’s not often a man can fall from that high up on a ladder and walk away with a concussion and a sprained arm.”
Relief moved over me. No wonder I couldn’t stay awake.
“You have a gash on your head too, and sixteen stitches,” Corrie said. She hadn’t dropped my hand.
Mom seemed to anticipate my next question. “The doctor said you can go home tomorrow. The blow to the head was pretty bad, and he wants to watch you one more night. And only if you have someone to watch over you.” I knew what that meant. Mom would insist I go to her house, and she’d likely win that argument, so there wasn’t any sense in attempting to talk her out of it.
“I’ve been here a whole night already?”
Mom nodded. “It’s Monday afternoon.”
I groaned. I’d never get the camp ready in time. “I wonder if I will need to cancel the camp. Or at least the first couple of weeks.”
Corrie shook her head. “Joe has that covered. He went after Lola before any of this happened, so he won’t be back for a couple of days, but he’s got some guys working out there. He told me to tell you not to worry about anything.”
“That’s a relief. I’ll call him as soon as they’ll let me use the phone. Wait, what do you mean he went after Lola?”
Mom cleared her throat. “I’ll leave the two of you alone.”
She patted Corrie’s shoulder on the way out, and I noted the love in her eyes. I guess when a person saves your son’s life, there would be nothing but love to reflect. I shifted my gaze back to Corrie. “So, Lola and Joe?”
“Oh, Eli, don’t bother about that now. You need to rest.”
“Sounds like something’s going on. I’d rather know about it than wonder.”
She pressed her lips together.
“You’re denying a wounded man?”
She gave a little laugh. “Oh my goodness. Fine. Lola left to drive back to Dallas without saying good-bye to Joe. She figured they couldn’t have a long-distance relationship, so she’d just hightail it back without the drama of good-bye.”
“And Joe went after her to change her mind?” I hadn’t realized how much Joe cared for Corrie’s sister.
She nodded. “Lola called earlier. They’re going to try to figure something out.” She shrugged. “I’m not sure what’s going to happen, but best-case scenario—for me—is for them to fall madly in love, get married, and live right in Saunders Creek.”
“I can’t imagine Joe as a city slicker.”
“I can’t imagine Lola as a small-town girl, but you never know.” She attempted a stern look but placed her hand in mine, and I felt anything but scolded. “Now enough about that. Okay? You need to worry about getting yourself all better.”
I lay there, enjoying the feel of Corrie’s hand in mine. I realized she was wearing the same dress she’d been wearing in the barn. “You’ve been here all night?” I asked.
“Yes.” The simple answer spoke to me as—more than a word—a promise. I dared hope she might love me the way I loved her. I wanted to be careful, though. If I moved too fast, I might lose her.
“I’m so relieved you’ll be okay.” Her breath caught in her throat.
I laced my fingers with hers. “You saved my life.”
She shook her head and tears filled her eyes. “You wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for me.”
Shock bolted through me. She blamed herself? “Why do you say that, honey?”
“Do you remember why you went into the barn?”
Looking at Corrie, all I could remember was the way her sweet face filled with worry while I lay on the barn floor. I gathered in a deep breath and closed my eyes so I could think back.
“Let’s see. I was sitting on the swing waiting for you to get home.”
“Do you remember hearing Kitty?”
“Yes, that’s what happened. The cat was whining, and I didn’t want you to come home and have to go find him, so I followed the meowing.”
“To the barn.”
I nodded. “The sound was coming from the loft, so I climbed up.”
“And you fell.” She sighed. “Because of my cat, who by the way got down by himself. I saw him on the back porch when I went back in to get my keys.”
“I remember falling.” But there was something else I couldn’t figure out. My head hurt just trying to remember.
Before I could put the foggy images together in my mind, two nurses came in. “Your mom told us you were awake.” One turned to Corrie. “We’re going to check vitals and look over the wound. You’ll need to step out.”
“Okay.” She turned to me with a reassuring smile. “I’ll be just outside the door, but I promise I’ll be back.”
Every part of me protested her absence. By the time the nurses left, the new pain medicine was taking effect, and I felt myself drifting to sleep.
Corrie
I walked toward the little waiting area, where there was coffee and a vending machine with snacks. My stomach dropped when I reached it. Aunt Trudy and Ray were in the waiting room with Sam, drinking coffee.
Ray spoke first. He stood up and offered me his seat. “How is he?”
“Lucid and feeling better. The nurses are with him now.”
“Does he remember what happened?”
I nodded, and Ray’s expression went white. “It was an accident,” he said, his voice hoarse.
“We know. He fell off a ladder.” Who would have thought Ray would care so much? I still thought he was a bit of a creeper, but maybe I could overlook it, on occasion.
Aunt Trudy looked up at her grandson. Her eyes filled with compassion. “Tell them, Ray.”
Samantha frowned and looked at me as though I should know what they were talking about. I shrugged. “I don’t understand,” she said. “What’s wrong?”
He sat down in the seat across from me and looked at his grandmother and Sam, who sat side by side. He scrubbed his hand over his face and breathed out. His gaze met Sam’s. “Aunt Sam,” he began, “before she came”—he rolled his eyes quickly to me and then back to Sam—“I used to go to the home place. I visit a spirit there.”
Sam’s face went white.
He nodded. “Only it’s my great-grandmother I commune with.” He turned to me. “You know she’s there. You can’t pretend you haven’t felt her presence.”
I gathered a long, slow breath and leveled my gaze at him. “There was a demon in my house, Ray. It wasn’t your great-grandmother. It was an evil demon, and Jesus helped me make it leave.” I thought back to finding Eli on the floor, broken and battered. He’d said he was pushed. I stared at Ray as anger poured through me like acid rain.
Aunt Trudy’s eyes narrowed. “That was no demon. I would know if it was an inhuman spirit. What we felt that day was Jarrod. A wife should be able to tell the difference.”
“Believe what you want, Aunt Trudy,” I said. “I don’t want to offend you. And I know you have tried to help me make sense of all the strange things I’ve experienced, but I was deceived. Things happened in that house that I know would never be Jarrod. A wife would know her husband.”
She gave a harrumph and folded her arms across her chest. Clearly I wouldn’t convince her, but as I turned back to Ray, his expression crumpled and tears filled his eyes. Instead of addressing me, he turned to Eli’s mother. “Aunt Sam, she told me to push Eli.”
Taking in a harsh gasp of air, Sam stared at her nephew, horror widening her eyes. “Wh-what?”
I turned quickly and looked at Aunt Trudy, who shook her head vehemently. “Not me. He means his great-grandmother.” She frowned. “But that can’t be.”
Uttering a deep groan, Ray dropped to the floor, his head buried in his hands. The hands that had nearly killed the man I loved. “I
’m sorry. I don’t know why she’d tell me to hurt him, but I couldn’t help it. I just did what she said.” Tears dropped to the tiles as Sam stared down at him.
“We have to call the police,” she said, her voice strangely calm, though her eyes flashed anger.
Aunt Trudy looked as though she might protest, but Sam had already pulled out her cell and was dialing 911. Compassion rose in me as Aunt Trudy sat back; her shoulders slumped as tears filled her eyes. She nodded simple acceptance.
Eli
Before I opened my eyes the following morning, I saw Ray’s face in my mind’s eye. The night before I had agreed to see him, even though I knew from my mother what he wanted to say. He confessed that he was the one who pushed me and begged forgiveness just before an officer escorted him from the room. A soft sigh forced me to open my eyes. Corrie was again in the chair next to me, legs curled up, covered by a blanket. Her cheeks were tear-stained, and I remembered.
“She won’t leave,” a voice said. I looked to my right at the nurse who was checking my vitals with her computer. “I didn’t have the heart to send her away.”
“I’m glad you didn’t.”
Corrie stirred then, and her eyes opened. “Hey, you’re awake.”
I smiled at her, and she burst into tears. I reached out with my good arm, and she came to me. Bending, she laid her head on my shoulder and wept and wept.
If my heart had been any larger in that moment, it would have burst through my chest. I smoothed her hair and held her close.
Even when the tears were spent, she didn’t move, and I didn’t want her to. Finally, she pulled back and pressed a kiss to my forehead. I was pretty sure those lips had been designed by God for me.
Her beautiful blue eyes glistened as she looked into mine. Words failed me.
“I could have lost you,” she whispered.
“But you didn’t,” I said. “You found me.”
I pulled her close and her lips touched mine, sweet and warm and filled with hope.
Corrie
I had thought spring in the Ozarks was beautiful, but fall took my breath away. I stood on my bridge, looking out at the gently flowing water dotted with red leaves and golden leaves traveling downstream. Joy washed over me as a cool breeze signaled the end of the long summer we’d just endured.
Eli’s solid arm stretched across my back, his fingers curling around my waist, pulling me firmly against him. I slipped my arm around him and held him as close. My heart swelled with love for this man.
“How’s the painting coming along?” he asked against my hair.
“It’s going to make the perfect wedding gift for Lola and Joe,” I answered. I had taken a photograph of the bridge and blown it up to eight by ten to look at while I painted. Lola loved this bridge almost as much as I did.
“Would you consider painting another one as a wedding gift for me?”
My stomach twisted for a second at the thought of Eli getting married, but then logic returned. He pulled back and knelt on his good leg. He reached into his jacket pocket and retrieved a velvet box.
He looked up at me with such tenderness in his brown eyes, I found myself kneeling to face him, tears springing to my eyes.
“Hey,” he said softly, reaching out to brush my hair from my face. “You’re supposed to stand there until I ask at least.”
“I was too far away from you.” I leaned my forehead against his and clasped my hand over the box. “Ask me.”
With his forehead against mine and tears flowing down my face, he did. “Corrie Saunders, will you marry me?”
What had I ever done to deserve the forever-love this man was offering? I nodded, opening the box. He took the beautiful solitaire ring and slid it onto my finger. He held my face between his strong, capable hands.
Our eyes locked, and in the same calm way Eli had always approached me, he leaned close and pressed his lips to mine, sealing our promise that we would join our lives.
I prayed that the sins of the past were gone from this place and only God’s Spirit would dwell here as we raised our family and left this land to new generations.
Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all
the days of my life,
And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.
Corrie has spent the last decade as an army wife, moving from base to base, and hasn’t been able to put down roots, but she no longer belongs in Dallas either. She moves to Saunders Creek hoping to find a place that feels like home, but Jarrod’s family doesn’t believe that the family house—the “home place”—is truly hers. Do you think she will find what she is looking for? How does her idea of home change throughout the story?
Eli loved his cousin, but they always had a rivalry. Which do you think he felt more strongly? How does this affect his choices in the book?
Most people in Saunders Creek see Jarrod as a hero, but Corrie wrestles with blaming Jarrod for his own death, which she sees as needlessly reckless. What do you think? How do you see the theme of sacrifice playing out in the story?
Corrie gave up painting when she married Jarrod. Do you think this was a good decision? Have you ever made a big sacrifice for someone you loved? How did it affect your relationship?
Eli explains to Corrie that a lot of people in the area practice the “old magic,” and Eli says his family has been filled with healers and naturalists for generations. This plays out in many different ways, from Sam’s herbs and health food to Aunt Trudy’s witchcraft to Tonia Lancaster’s role as a medium. What do you think of the differences between these approaches? Where do you draw the line?
Strange occurrences happen at Corrie’s house, some innocuous—like the spilled coffee and slamming doors—and some more menacing. Have you ever had an encounter you could not explain? What happened? What do you think it was?
At the beginning of the book, Corrie suspects Jarrod’s ghost is haunting the home place. Rational Lola doesn’t believe in supernatural events, at least at first. Aunt Trudy thinks it’s Jarrod’s spirit and it can be conjured, while Eli believes the presence is a demon. What do you think? What does the Bible say about ghosts? About spirits? Do you believe spirits are still active in the world today?
“Just be careful. It’s seductive. It’s also easy to justify it and make it much less dangerous in your mind and heart than it is,” Eli says to warn Corrie away from Aunt Trudy’s witchcraft. It is a warning that could apply to many situations. Have you ever been in a position where these words were relevant? What did you do?
“God’s grace is all over situations like the one you are in,” Eli tells Corrie. “But given the choice, He would much rather you turn to Him for comfort than anything else.” What does Corrie rely on for comfort in this book? What do you tend to turn to for comfort in trying times? Is it necessarily a bad thing? How do you know when something good becomes a replacement for God?
What is the significance of the verses from the twenty-third Psalm that open each part of the book? Why do you think the author chose those verses? How do you see them relating to the story?
Eli tells Corrie, “Prayer might not change the immediate situation, but it changes the way I feel about it.” Do you agree with his statement? Can you think of a time you’ve found this to be true?
My thanks to Kristine McGuire, who shared liberally from her experiences as a former medium and ghost hunter. Those two hours on the phone with you changed the direction of the book and deepened the authenticity. Thank you for not shying away from the hard places and for using your life to set the captives free. May God bless your efforts and use you mightily.
Kathy Helmers, for believing in the project and helping with initial development. The Widow of Saunders Creek would never have seen daylight without your confidence in me and your negotiating abilities. Thank you.
Shannon Marchese, editor extraordinaire. I definitely benefit from our partnership more than you do! Thank you for setting the bar high and challenging me to stretch myself.
Kathy Fuller, thank you for critiquing my work and reminding me that sometimes less is more.
To my family: Rusty, Cat, Michael, Stevan, and Will. You guys make me laugh and give me encouragement when I’m sure I can’t write another word. Thank you for having my back and loving me in spite of my weaknesses. I love you more than any five people in this world.
The Widow of Saunders Creek Page 26