by Jane Peart
Darcy sat on the edge of her seat, waiting for the train to come to a stop.
The minute she got off the train, she was immediately surrounded.
Her worries about Uncle Henry were unnecessary. He greeted her affectionately with the rest, and Darcy felt enveloped by her loving family. Of course, Carly was there, too. They hugged, laughing and crying at the same time.
A big party had been planned at the Beehive for her homecoming. A banner with “Welcome Home” in big letters was strung over the front door. Grandma Bee, in her best black silk and her lace cap, was waiting in the parlor. As Darcy bent down to kiss her cheek, the old lady commented tartly, “Come to your senses, have you, girl?”
In more ways than one, Darcy thought, smiling to herself, even though she wasn’t sure she meant the same thing as her grandmother had.
The house was decorated with paper streamers, balloons, and flowers. Friends who had not been at the station were setting out platters of food, enough for an army, on the dining room table.
Darcy had always liked being the center of attention. She had forgotten how much she had missed that while being one of the uniformed Harvey Girls. It was fun and pleasant to stand with her mother and aunts and receive the warm greetings of old friends and acquaintances.
Then suddenly she saw a tall figure coming through the door. Grady! It wasn’t until he was only a few feet away from her that she saw the silver star gleaming on his chest. The sheriff’s badge! So Grady had won the election.
Now he stood right in front of her. He held out his hand and, speaking softly, with the old tenderness, spoke her name.
She hesitated a few seconds, then took his hand, smiling. “Sheriff Thomas. What an unexpected pleasure. I thought you’d never want to see or talk to me again.”
His face reddened slightly. “Ah, Darcy, let’s let bygones be bygones. I don’t hold with keeping a grudge.” He grinned. “I’m a peacekeeper. That’s what it said in my pledge when I was sworn in. A sheriff’s purpose is keeping the peace.”
“Of course,” Darcy said with some surprise. She sensed a seriousness in him, a maturity, a certain confidence. Perhaps in the year they had been separated, he too had grown and developed and changed.
However, there was still something of the old teasing twinkle in his eyes. They had shared too many good times together, too much laughter and fun, to forget, to not appreciate and remember.
“Well, Grady,” Darcy said, pointing to his badge. “It looks as if you got what you wanted.”
His smile faded. “Not all that I wanted. Maybe not the thing I wanted most.”
She returned his searching look. “Nobody does, Grady. That’s one thing I’ve learned this year.”
“Guess you’re right, Darcy.”
Grady shifted from one foot to the other. He seemed to want to say more, to prolong this brief meeting. People in line behind him, waiting their turn to greet her, stirred restlessly; others were looking at them curiously.
“Will you be staying now?” he asked.
“I’ll be here until after Thanksgiving—then I’m not sure.”
Something curious flickered in his eyes, and he said shyly, “I sure—we all missed you.”Then he moved on.
Later that evening in her old room, ready to go to bed, Darcy thought over the events of the day. The warm affection showered on her, the genuine pleasure everyone seemed to share at her being back in Willowdale. “Back where you belong,” her uncle had said several times. Was this after all where she belonged?
She fingered the silver cross and chain Ted had given her. Looking at the beautifully crafted Indian design, she felt a nostalgia for all she had left in Arizona. She thought of the wide skies, the distant hills, the cactus flowers of the desert. Her heart was filled with longing.
But then, it was also wonderful to be home, to see familiar faces, to feel the love and hear the good wishes of people who had always known her. Tonight Arizona seemed a very long way away.
Seeing Grady today had been an emotional experience. Maybe she would have been perfectly happy if none of the events of the past year had ever happened. If she and Grady had married as they had planned, settled down here in the pleasant valley of Willowdale, raised a family—maybe it would have all worked out. She would never have known the possibility of any other kind of life.
But maybe that had never been meant to be. Maybe she was destined to go to Arizona, to see new horizons, to find a new life in a beautiful new land, to meet Ted Shepherd. Her heart was divided. Only time would tell. She would pray and think about it.
JANUARY 1905
Darcy changed trains in St. Louis and settled contentedly into her coach seat. She was on her way back to Arizona. Clemmie was marrying her rancher and Darcy was to be her maid of honor. She had also written Miss Cannon to tell her she wanted to renew her contract as a Harvey Girl for another year. After that, who knew? Whatever happened, Darcy was convinced it would be God’s plan, not hers. She no longer made impulsive decisions nor “leaned on her own understanding.” There was a better way, a truer way—she had learned that at last.
Two days later when the train pulled into the station at Redsands, Darcy looked out the window. To her delighted surprise, Ted was standing on the platform. She had sent him a note that she was coming, but she had not counted on his meeting her. He must be very busy now that the house he had designed for himself was under construction. But she was thrilled to see him. In that first moment she was convinced that returning to Arizona was the right thing to do. She had followed the call of her heart to come back, and she had found her heart’s true home.
The train came to a stop, and she stood up, gathered her belongings in preparation for getting off. Before she moved down the aisle to the door, she drew out from her handbag a thin booklet and lay it on the seat she was vacating. It was the tract with the bold statement “You need Jesus,” which someone had left for her to find over a year ago, when she had first started her long journey. Now she was doing the same for someone else. She had learned the truth of it, and the truth had set her free.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
It is with deep gratitude the author acknowledges the following books, which proved invaluable in filling in the background of this story: A Great and Shining Road:The Epic Story of the Transcontinental Railroad by John Hoyt Williams; West by Rail by William Fraser Rae; Inventing the Southwest: The Fred Harvey Company and Native American Art by Kathleen L. Howard and Diana F. Pardue; and The Harvey Girls: Women Who Opened the West by Lesley Poling-Kempes.
A special thanks also to Paul Philippi, computer consultant, who rescued this manuscript when my hard drive crashed.
Books by Jane Peart
The Brides of Montclair Series
Valiant Bride
Ransomed Bride
Fortune’s Bride
Folly’s Bride
Yankee Bride/Rebel Bride
Gallant Bride
Shadow Bride
Destiny’s Bride
Jubilee Bride
Mirror Bride
Hero’s Bride
Senator’s Bride
Daring Bride
Courageous Bride
A Montclair Homecoming
The Westward Dreams Series
Runaway Heart
Promise of the Valley
Where Tomorrow Waits
A Distant Dawn
Undaunted Spirit
The American Quilt Series
The Pattern
The Pledge
The Promise
Copyright
ZONDERVAN
A Tangled Web
Copyright © 2001 by Jane Peart
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced i
nto any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of Zondervan.
EPub Edition © JUNE 2010 ISBN: 978-0-310-86556-8
Requests for information should be addressed to:
Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Peart, Jane.
A tangled web / Jane Peart.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-310-22013-0
1. Women pioneers—Fiction. 2. Restaurants—Fiction. 3. Waitresses—Fiction.
I. Title.
PS3566.E238 T3 2001
813’.54—dc21
2001017682
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