The Tender Flame

by Al Lacy

  The next day, Lydia and Jessica were walking back to Lydia’s house after finishing a Bible club session. When they came in sight of the house, Lydia said, “Jessica, I’ve been thinking and praying about something. The savings account that Clay and I had is still quite substantial, but I need to generate some income so it doesn’t run out in a few years.”

  “Mm-hmm?”

  “Imagine a sign on the front porch, honey. It says, ‘Boardinghouse.’ ”

  “Boardinghouse! You’re going to turn your home into a boardinghouse?”

  “I’ll live on the bottom floor. That will leave six rooms to rent out upstairs. That will certainly help my finances.”

  “That’s a great idea, Mom, considering all the people moving into Oregon City. But won’t it take a lot of work?”

  “Yes, and I’ve already talked to Jake Blane and Harvey Roberts at church about it, just to see what they think and how much it would cost for the alterations. They agreed that it’s a great idea, and they’ll do it for me at their cost.”

  “Wonderful! You’ll make a great boardinghouse cook and hostess.”

  Josh and Jessica heard from Grant from time to time. He assured them he was coming to Oregon City once David was gone and the house was sold.

  The Casey Harmon-Mary Ann Cornell wedding took place in early August, and they left for Virginia two weeks later. It was an emotional time for the Cornell family, and especially for Josh and Casey, whose hearts were entwined in the bonds of Calvary.

  In early February of 1874, Josh and Jessica received a letter from her father that the house had sold and he was on his way west. He had sold all the furniture with the house and would stay in their home only as long as it took to buy a new house and furnish it.

  Josh and Jessica were at the Wells Fargo office when the stage from Ogden pulled in several days later. After greetings and hugs, Josh placed Grant Smith’s luggage in the back of the buggy, and they headed off through Oregon City as the sun went down over the hills. Jessica was sitting between the two men on the front seat.

  “Now, kids,” Grant said, “I want you to know that I deeply appreciate the offer to live under your roof, if I so desire, but like I’ve been saying in my letters, I really need to get my own house. So just as soon as I can buy one, or have one built, I’ll be out of your way.”

  “Dad,” Josh said, “you could never be in our way.”

  “I appreciate that, son, but—”

  They happened to be on the street where Lydia lived. Grant’s attention was drawn to the big white house and the sign hanging from the porch.

  “Well, lookee there,” he said, pointing with his chin.

  “What, Daddy?”

  “Right there. The sign at the bottom says Vacancy. That’s what I’ll do, kids. I’ll take a room in that boardinghouse till I can get my own place.”

  “Well, it would give you more privacy than we can offer at our house,” Jessica said. “It just so happens that we know the lady who owns that boardinghouse. She’s a widow and a fine Christian. She belongs to our church. In fact, do your remember that I mentioned in some of my letters that I’m teaching Bible clubs with a lady, and that I also help her teach a girls’ Sunday school class?”

  “Sure.”

  “Well, that’s where the lady lives. She and I have become so close, I’ve been calling her my Oregon mom. She’s been such a help to me with Mama’s sickness and death.”

  “God bless her,” Grant said. “I’ll look forward to meeting Mrs.—”

  “Price.”

  “I’ll look forward to meeting Mrs. Price.”

  “Tell you what, Daddy,” Jessica said. “You stay with us tonight. I’ll go talk to her tomorrow and get you the best room she has available.”

  “Thanks, honey. I really appreciate that.”

  “Nothing’s too good for my daddy,” she said, leaning toward him and kissing his cheek.

  Josh turned the corner and headed down another street. “Well, honey,” he said, “I guess since your daddy is going to take a room at the boardinghouse, we can tell him.”

  “Tell me what?”

  Jessica giggled. “We … ah … we would have had to move you elsewhere in a few months if you had moved in with us, Daddy.”

  Grant’s eyebrows arched. “Oh? And why is that?”

  “Because that room we were going to put you in will have to become a nursery.”

  “A nursery? You mean—?”

  “You’re going to be a grandfather in early September!”

  Grant lifted his hat, swung it around in the air, and shouted, “Whoopee! Hallelujah! I’m gonna be a grandpa!”

  Josh and Jessica didn’t tell Grant that Martha had prepared a delicious meal to welcome him to Oregon City until they pulled up in front of the Brett Cornell house.

  The reunion was a sweet one. After tender words were spoken about Carrie, the conversation went to the old days at Fort Union.

  Brett told Grant that once he was settled, he would show him what he had in the way of a job in the mill office, and if that wasn’t what Grant wanted, he would introduce him to both bank presidents. One way or another, Grant Smith had a job.

  The next morning, Jessica cooked a hearty breakfast for her two men, then Josh took his father-in-law to the church for a tour. Jessica went to secure her father’s room at the boardinghouse. When Josh and Grant returned, they would all take Grant and his luggage to his new abode.

  A smiling Jessica was waiting for them when they entered the house. She hugged them both and said, “It’s all set, Daddy. My Oregon mom has all but two rooms rented and will give you whichever one you want—on the east so the sunrise comes through your window, or on the west so you can get a good look at the sunsets. Other than that, they are exactly alike.”

  “Well, I guess I’ll take the sunrise room. Did you already give her my name and sign me up?”

  “No. I figured I’d let you take care of that.”

  “Well, let’s go! I’m anxious to meet this Mrs. Price who has been so good to my daughter.”

  Jessica laughed. “I guarantee you, Daddy, you’ll love her!”

  JOSH GUIDED THE BUGGY INTO LYDIA’S DRIVEWAY. “Might as well go to the back. She’ll no doubt be in the kitchen.”

  “No doubt,” agreed Jessica, hanging onto her father’s arm.

  While Grant worked his way out of the buggy, cumbered by his cane, Josh helped Jessica out on his side. As they moved up the steps of the back porch, Josh called, “Hello-o-o! It’s your favorite pastor and his wife. We’ve got your new boarder.”

  “Come on in. I’m in the kitchen.”

  Josh grinned as he opened the screen door. “Didn’t I tell you she’d be in the kitchen?”

  Father and daughter chuckled. Josh let both of them precede him, then closed the screen door and followed on Grant’s heels as he limped along on his cane. When they stepped into the large kitchen, Lydia was on her tiptoes with her back toward them, taking a glass bowl down from the cupboard.

  “Mom, I want you to meet Daddy,” Jessica said.

  When Lydia turned around, she froze. The bowl slipped from her fingers and crashed to the floor, sending broken pieces in every direction. She didn’t seem to be aware of it as she gripped the cupboard for support.

  Grant, too, was frozen in his tracks.

  Josh and Jessica looked on, exchanging bewildered glances.

  Grant still seemed the same handsome young man in Lydia’s haunted, staring eyes as he had been the last time she saw him. Her voice cracked and a sort of broken sob escaped from somewhere deep inside her.

  “Grant! Is it … is it really you? I thought you were dead! They—the army told me you were killed in Mexico!”

  “Lydia … I … I—”

  Jessica looked on with wide eyes. “Daddy … Mom … you two know each other?”

  “Jessica,” Grant said, “Lydia and I were engaged to be married before the Mexican-American War.”

  Tears welled up in Lydia’s
eyes and began to spill down her cheeks.

  Grant let his cane fall to the floor as he limped to her amid the broken pieces of glass. Suddenly they were in each other’s arms, weeping.

  While they held each other, their words tumbled out in a rush. Grant explained about being wounded and the imprisonment that lasted for over three years. He told her of the day he came home and that her shocked parents informed him that she had married and gone out West.

  “Oh, Grant!” Lydia sobbed. “It’s like I’m dreaming! This can’t be real! It just can’t be real.”

  He held her close, while tears streamed down his cheeks. “It’s real, Lydia, it’s real! I … I never thought I’d see you again this side of heaven.”

  Josh and Jessica held each other and let their own tears flow.

  “Josh, I can’t believe this,” Jessica said. “I remember Daddy talking to Grandma and Grandpa Smith one time years ago about the girl he almost married. But never in my wildest dreams would I have guessed it was Lydia!”

  The emotion and astonishment went on for better than an hour as Grant and Lydia sat at the kitchen table and talked. Josh and Jessica sat with them, listening.

  Finally, Lydia told them she would have to prepare lunch for her boardinghouse guests. She would prepare enough food for them, too, and they would eat after the guests were finished. Grant said they would take his things up to the sunrise room, if it was all right, and they would come back after Lydia had served her boarders.

  When Lydia and her special guests sat down to eat lunch at one o’clock, she and Grant told Jessica and Josh the story of their young love for each other—all the way up to the day they parted when he went off to fight in the Mexican War.

  In the months that followed, Jessica’s heart glowed when she saw her father and her adopted mom together. Grant had been in Oregon City barely a week when he accepted the job as office manager of the Cornell Lumber Company.

  One Sunday night in June, after church, Grant and Lydia walked home together. When they reached the house, she said, “Would you like some coffee before you go up to your room?”

  “I won’t pass up an invitation like that.”

  As they sat at the kitchen table, Grant said, “Tell me about Clay.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes. I’d like to hear all about him. Josh has told me he was a wonderful man.”

  Lydia went back to how and when she had met Clay Price and told him of their life together until the day Clay died suddenly of heart failure. She then said, “I already know a great deal about Carrie from Jessica, and I know she was a wonderful woman. Tell me how you met her and how it all came together for you.”

  When Grant had finished his story, bringing it up to the day Carrie died, Lydia said, “I wish I could have known her. Is Jessica like her mother?”

  “Very much so. Same sweet personality. Same unselfish person, always ready to do for others.” He smiled. “Just like you.”

  Lydia blushed.

  Grant sipped coffee, then said, “Lydia, I was just thinking.”

  “About what?”

  “Your mother’s choice words about us that night our family had supper at your house. Remember?”

  “Yes.” She nodded, a faraway look capturing her eyes. “Mother said, ‘Your love is a tender flame. Time will prove if it is the genuine, lasting kind upon which to build a marriage.’ ” Lydia wiped the tears that had gathered in her eyes. “And I remember what you said, Grant. ‘I know the tender flame between Lydia and me is genuine. It will grow stronger as time passes.’ ”

  Grant ran splayed fingers through his thick silver hair, blinking against the excess moisture in his own eyes. “And I remember what you said, Lydia. ‘Life can bring along things we never planned on, but when it comes to my love for Grant, I know it is the genuine thing. I have no doubt at all that the Lord has chosen us for each other, and that He has given us the true, lasting kind of love.’ Remember that?”

  “Yes. Yes, I do.”

  Grant took her hand in his. “Lydia, the Lord knows the end from the beginning. We both knew on that night the kind of love He had given us. He also knew—and planned—my imprisonment. He gave you a good husband, and you had many years of happiness together. He also brought Carrie into my life. She was a wonderful wife and gave me three precious children. You know about Daniel and David.”

  “Yes. And Daniel’s Susan.”

  Grant nodded. “Marvelous girl. Lydia …”

  “Yes?”

  “I’ve heard nothing about children of yours. Are there any?”

  Lydia shook her head. “Shortly after marrying Clay, I found out that I would never be able to give him any children.”

  “Oh. I’m sorry.”

  “No need to be. ‘As for God, his way is perfect.’ ”

  Grant’s shimmering eyes lit up. “Psalm 18:30!”

  “Pastor John Britton used that verse to comfort me when word came from the army that you had been killed. I’ve clung to it many a time since.”

  Grant smiled shakily. “He used the same verse for me when I came home and learned that you had married the young doctor and moved to the West. And I, too, have clung to it over the years.” He thought on it a moment, then said, “Lydia, the Lord put the tender flame in our hearts for each other. Then in His wisdom, He let the Mexicans put me in prison for all that time, then made a way so my fellow prisoners and I could escape. He gave us precious and wonderful mates, then, in His wisdom, took them to heaven.”

  “Yes, Grant, and His way is perfect. In His wisdom, our wonderful Lord has done what you might call a miracle. It’s a big country, you know. Only His hand could have brought us together here in Oregon City.”

  “That’s right.”

  “And something else to think about …”

  “Hmm?”

  “Jessica. And your sons, too. If you had come home from the war and we had married, I wouldn’t have been able to give you children. There would be no Daniel and David, whom I know are wonderful boys.”

  Grant’s eyes widened. “You’re right, Lydia! I wouldn’t have my sons. They indeed are wonderful boys. And … and I wouldn’t have that precious Jessica. Oh, God is so good! His way is perfect!”

  “And I wouldn’t have that sweet Jessica, either! She’s such a bright spot in my life. Because of her, I almost have a daughter. Carrie was her mother … her mama, Grant, and I would never try to take her place in Jessica’s heart, or yours, for that matter. But because God’s way is perfect, I have a precious girl who calls me her mom!”

  “Lydia, my sweet,” Grant said, looking her straight in the eye, “we both had good marriages, and we dearly loved our mates. We still have love for them, though they’ve gone to heaven.”

  “Oh yes.”

  “But we are still here on earth because of God’s perfect way. And deep inside this man’s heart, because God has willed it so, the tender flame still burns.”

  Lydia squeezed his hand. “And deep inside this woman’s heart, because God has willed it so, the tender flame still burns.”

  Grant left his chair and knelt before her. “Lydia, will you marry me?”

  Love light shimmered in Lydia’s tear-filled eyes. “Yes, I will marry you!”

  Instantly they were on their feet and in each other’s arms. After a sweet kiss, Grant said, “This is great! I can’t keep it in! Let’s go announce our engagement to Jessica and Josh.”

  Lydia glanced at the clock. “But, darling, they’re in bed asleep. It’s almost midnight.”

  “So? We’ll wake ’em up!”

  Lydia laughed. “All right! Let’s wake them up!”

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