He got to Jaden’s class when there were only two children left, and he rolled down the window to speak to the teacher. “I’m here to get Jaden.”
Checking her list, the teacher stepped to his car. “And your name is?”
“Eric… Richardson. I’m her father.”
“Oh, yes. Right here. Okay, Jaden, your father is here to pick you up.”
On cue Jaden trooped over and got in the backseat door that the teacher opened for her.
“Have a nice day,” the teacher said.
“You too.”
They would be landing soon, and yet Dani could hardly bring herself to put the diary away. She had become immersed in Hazel B. Buchanan Attabury’s world, a world of trying to fit in where she did not. Mr. Anthony Attabury, Tony, as she came to call him married her only a day after her arrival, and she became the mistress of the Attabury household.
Her father-in-law was no longer living. Her mother-in-law, Mother Attabury, still resided with the new couple. Clearly Hazel did her best to please the family, but her upbringing and what they expected of her did not match. It was only with the servants that she had glimpses of peace or joy. Eventually she took to escaping into the kitchen to listen to their stories and have a bit of normalcy.
Not long into 1925, she began to write of her excitement over her first pregnancy, and Dani puzzled over that. No one had ever mentioned an heir. Maybe they had missed something.
Ding. The little bell signaling the time to put all of her carry-on items under her seat sounded, and reluctantly, she obeyed. When it was safely amongst her possessions, she looked out the window and let out a breath. Scotland.
All while Eric finished up for the day, he kept checking on Jaden who had taken up residence on his floor. “You sure you’re okay?”
“Yes.”
“You don’t need anything?” He felt so very guilty for keeping her here even though it could not be helped.
“No.”
“Okay. Daddy’s got to work for another hour. Will you be okay?”
“Yes, Daddy.”
The Skene House Whitehall Hotel in Aberdeen, Scotland literally looked like every other gray stone building on the block. In fact, the buildings were not separate buildings at all but appeared to be one giant, structure made of the exact same whitish-gray stone. Not a single one of the facades all the way down the block was distinct. It was like entering a giant funhouse where everything looks the same so that getting lost is as easy as not.
Joel spoke with the lady at the front desk, and in minutes, they were headed to their rooms. Her room turned out to be what she would barely call spacious, but she was so tired from the trip, she could hardly consider complaining. The jet-lag itself felt destined to kill her. They had agreed to have dinner in an hour though it was monstrously late, but she sat down on the bed and put her carry-on at her feet anyway. Knowing she really shouldn’t, she dug for the diary.
She would just read for a few minutes. That couldn’t hurt anything. No one would know the difference anyway.
“What should we have for supper?” Eric asked as they headed home long after they should have.
Jaden was clearly waning, and she still had homework. She shrugged in the back as he glanced back at her.
“Spaghetti?”
She shrugged again, head down.
“Dad’s famous hot dogs?”
This shrug really wasn’t. His heart fell at her obvious sadness. He considered asking, considered again and finally couldn’t keep the words from coming. “You missing Mom?”
A moment and the little head went up and down.
“I know,” he said softly. “Me too.”
1925 proved a happy one for Tony and Hazel Attabury as they welcomed a son, Benjamin Anthony. There was no mention of the connection though Dani was sure it was not missed on Hazel. The next couple of pages skipped along through life, the baby bringing her much joy even in the midst of turmoil in her home. Tony traveled quite a bit, and she was left with a baby, a vain and demanding mother-in-law, and servants who did their best to keep things running smoothly.
As Christmas 1927 rolled around, Dani’s phone dinged and dinged again. Frustrated that life kept dragging her back to it, she grabbed up the phone only putting the diary on her lap. It was then that she realized her hour had passed five minutes before.
You coming? Joel had texted.
Be right there.
She pulled up the second text. This from Eric. Miss you.
Her own homesickness had yet to set in, mostly because of Attabury, but quickly she texted back. Miss you too. And she went to have a working supper in Aberdeen, Scotland.
“How bad is it?” Eric asked Caleb on the phone after they had eaten as he cleaned the kitchen. He needed to do a load of laundry, and he’d noticed the towels in their bathroom had started to smell funny. Checking on Jaden in the living room, he went upstairs only to find the bed still unmade and clothes on the floor. Strange, he didn’t remember the room ever looking quite so unkempt.
Holding the phone, he whisked the bed covers into place, not perfect but better. The clothing he jerked up from the floor, twisting it around his arm as he went to the laundry hamper.
“Well, it would have been a disaster if we hadn’t caught it in time, which we barely did,” Caleb said. “Made for great TV, but it almost gave me a heart attack. I think that whole back quarter might have come down if we’d have left it overnight. The good news is we started back there first, and those were the easy ones to deal with.”
“The easy ones?”
Caleb sighed. “The front trees are worse. I’ve got an expert coming in from Wilmington tomorrow to take a look at it.”
“They’re that bad?”
“They are worse than that bad. If we start just yanking those trees out, I think the whole thing would just collapse. The way it is, we’re going to have to be very careful extracting them. Then we’ll have to restabilize that foundation. I think it can be done, but I don’t think it’s going to be at all easy.”
“Well, I’ll be there tomorrow night.”
“Just you?”
“Yeah, Dani had to make a surprise business trip to Scotland.”
“Scotland?”
“I know. Believe me, I know. But it couldn’t be helped, so you’ll have to deal with Ja and me.”
“Well, Jaden won’t be a problem, but…”
The laugh felt good. “I’m planning on just picking her up from school at 3:30 and heading your direction, so we should be there around 5:30 or so.”
“Thanks for the warning.”
“You’re welcome.”
Talking about the lawsuit and the coming days of work had a way of bringing Dani back to real life with a hard snap. As she sat cutting into her tenderloin, she stared at it and wondered what Eric and Jaden had eaten.
“So I’m thinking we round up some environmental experts,” Joel who was technically her equal but because of seniority always took the lead when they worked together said as he ate. “Solar power specialists. I talked with Blair earlier. He wants us to hit this hard. He thinks the judgment will probably go our way, but he doesn’t want us to lose that advantage.”
Dani nodded.
“Also,” Joel said, his words slowing, and he looked at her a long minute, “I know this is not like politically correct or anything, but until we know how these guys roll, you should probably let me handle the negotiating part.” He put up a hand to stop her protest. “I’m not saying you can’t handle it. I just want to lead with our strongest hand, and I really think that’s me. You can stay back, work on the research, the law stuff. That’s really your forte anyway.”
The tenderloin slipped down the wrong pipe, and Dani reached for her water so as not to choke.
“Are you okay?” he asked as if he really cared.
She nodded, not meaning a movement of it.
Jaden was occupied, reading her book for school, so Eric sat in his chair and opened Spiritual Wholenes
s. It had been too long.
Once you exercise your faith, reach up, take God’s hand and let Him pull you out of the craziness of living in the world and begin to live with intentional courage, the story is not over. Far from it! In fact, it’s just beginning.
When you get to the “other side,” life changes dramatically. Maybe not at first, but if you are persistent in exercising your faith and making that leap, life does change.
Suddenly, fear no longer has the sway in your life it once did. You let go of having to have everything in order to feel like enough. You let go of guilt and shame. Apathy doesn’t have a prayer of catching you. You can let go of past griefs and hurts and all those things that held you down, making you feel not good enough.
On the other side, you will finally realize that you are enough because GOD SAYS SO. And oddly enough, when you really get that, nothing much else even matters anymore. You stop chasing approval and someone to “love” you because you’re already loved. No longer do you have to show off or put others down. You’re enough. They’re enough. You don’t have to participate in the world’s drama any more.
When she got back to the room, Dani knew there were other things she needed to do, but not a single one of them beckoned her like the diary did. Kicking off her shoes, she lay across the bed and gathered it up.
On this side, you get access to all kinds of cool God-stuff like Knowledge, Understanding, Wisdom, Right Judgment, Courage, Piety, and Awe of God. When things happen that you don’t know how to handle, you know you don’t have to handle them yourself. You can go to God and put it in His hands. Then you simply take the steps He asks you to take when He asks you to take them.
No running here and there trying to figure out what’s best to do. No fretting over “Person A said one thing but Person B said something else and now I don’t know what to do or who to believe.” Life suddenly becomes very stable and serene, and in many cases FUN!
I know that sounds too good to be true. Believe me, I know!
But also believe me, that it is true. Life really can be like this… and yes, even for YOU!
Letting out a breath, Dani found the page, shifted to get comfortable, and let herself fall back into the story.
I do not know where nor how to even begin. I know only that I must write or I shall lose my mind.
Worry cascaded across Dani’s heart at the desperation in the words.
All of the world has fallen dim. Joy is no more for me for only two short weeks ago
There was a large blank space as if Hazel had forgotten which line she was on or simply could not continue.
I know not how, for I have only been able to gather small pieces from what Tony has told me and I dare not ask him more. Tony, poor Tony, I fear may never recover. Nor may I though I am more accustomed to loss and grief than he.
Loss and grief? Dani turned the page, desperate to know what had happened.
It was a day so fair in the beginning. That may have been the cause for Tony brought the car around for a ride into town. I was feeling quite poorly and insisted they go along without me. The road is not treacherous, but this day a wheel gave out or some obstruction diverted their path. The tree stands yet, broken and gnarled where the car hit it.
“Oh, please,” Dani said, swallowing. “Not Benjamin…”
Mother Attabury was found a good ways away from the site whether thrown or toppled out, I do not know. Benjamin too…
“Oh, dear Lord, no. No. Come on. That’s just not fair to her. She’s lost so much already. Why would You take her baby?”
Those who attended the funeral could not even look at me. I shan’t blame them. I have written to Louise to tell her of the accident. I pray she will tell Papa and Mama for to write it thrice
The words ended just like that, and Dani shook her head at the pain. Her eyelids heaved and yawned with tired and with tears, and before she got them under control, they ushered her right off into sleep.
Chapter 20
As she stood at the mirror the next morning, Dani stopped to look at herself. Her eyes spoke of sadness and regret. The regret she understood. The sadness not so much. What did she have to be sad about?
Scenes from Hazel’s life drifted through her mind. The young girl. The bride. The grieving mother. So much life. So much loss. Could she have withstood what Hazel had? Closing her eyes, Dani did the only thing she could think to do. “God, give her peace.”
“Jaden, baby girl. Time to get up. We’re a little late. Up. Up. Up. It’s Friday. We need to go early.” Why hadn’t he thought to lay out the clothes the night before? That’s what Dani did, much to his annoyance because she always made it such a point. Now he understood. “Ja. Come on.”
Coming out of the closet, he clicked off the light and pitched the little hot pink outfit onto the bed. “Come on, sleepy head. Up and at ‘em.” He was halfway to the bed when he thought about the weekend. They hadn’t even packed. “Oh, you’ve got…” He looked at his watch. “Ja. Seriously. Time to get up.”
He went back into the closet and pulled four outfits off the hangers, leaving the hangers spinning on the bar. “These are going to have to work.” There was laundry in the washer. He needed to remember to put it in the dryer before they left.
Slowly Jaden sat up, looking like she was just going to sleep rather than waking up.
“Yep. Yep. Yep. Time to get out of that bed. I’ve got to get downstairs and make us some breakfast, and I need to pack, too. We’ve got to be out of here in like 30 minutes. I’m going to take you in to school so I can get to work early. Here you go.” He handed her the clothes. “Can you do your own hair this morning? I’m not sure I have time.”
“Okay, Daddy.”
“Okay, Daddy.” He smiled at her. “That’s my girl.”
“You must understand,” Blair, the Scottish version of Joel, said. “They don’t have to win. They just have to tie things up long enough and be a big enough headache that Drake System, Incorporated will give up and go home. And we’re not talking weeks. We’re talking years here.”
“So we need a strategy, and we need it fast,” Joel said only glancing at Dani. “What do you think our best bet is?”
“A countersuit would put them on notice that we’re here to play.”
“On what grounds?”
“Whatever grounds we can make sound plausible that the tribunal won’t throw out upon looking at them.”
Dropping off was only mildly better than picking up, and by the time Eric got to work, he could hardly be called early. Like a madman, he answered the emails that had somehow flooded his inbox overnight. The no cell phone or device thing was great until you were faced with the mountain of urgent messages when you got back to it.
A call came in about Phase 3, and before he had handled that, Landon stopped by with the final estimates for Phase 4. They would have to be presenting those soon, so Eric didn’t have the luxury of putting them in the to-be-done-later stack. In fact, it felt like nothing could go in that stack, and the sheer weight of it all was beginning to give him a solid headache.
“This is going to mean late nights,” Joel said somberly over lunch at the little bistro down the block from Blair’s office. “Are you up for that?”
“It’s my job,” Dani said, bristling at the insinuation.
“I know that. I just meant, you know, being away from home. Your husband isn’t worried about you being all the way across the pond for so long?”
“He knows my work is important.”
Joel nodded. “Good. Good. I just need to know you’re in this thing one-hundred percent because I think it may take that and more.”
“I’m in it one-thousand percent. I believe in this project, and I’m not going to do anything to jeopardize it.”
Taking a stack of work without any intentions of looking at it over the weekend, Eric went to pick Jaden up and even managed to make it before the mad rush of crazy parents. He was third in line when she came out. He waved to the teacher who came
over and put Jaden in the back. “Have a nice weekend,” he called to her.
“You too.” And she shut the door.
“So, you hungry?” he asked as he checked both ways and pulled into traffic headed for the Interstate. “You want to stop somewhere and grab something before we go to Ridgemount?”
“Is Mommy coming?”
His gaze slipped to her in the mirror. “No, sweetheart. Remember, Mommy’s in Scotland. She’s doing super-important stuff, but it’s okay. We’re going to have fun this weekend, right?”
A moment and she nodded.
It had been a long day of brushing up on Scottish law and customs. Dani had tried to beg off dinner with Joel, but he insisted they didn’t have a second to lose. So after a quick shower and brush of her hair, she set her sights on getting through this meal as fast as possible. They would be working through the weekend, so it wasn’t like she had the luxury of getting to read much over the next couple of days. That meant nights were her only option.
When she got to the restaurant, Joel was already waiting for her. “Wow. You clean up nice.”
She looked down at herself, not sure how much better she could have gotten in 45 minutes. “Thanks.”
All the way to Ridgemount, Eric worked to drag Jaden out of her little pity-party shell. At first it was impossible, but then when he started being silly about singing to the radio and talking in a horrible English accent that didn’t resemble English spoken anywhere in the world, she finally started smiling and laughing.
“So what’re you going to do in Ridgemount?” he asked when they were only twenty minutes out. “You going to play with Rhett and Natalie?”
Raising Attabury: A Contemporary Christian Epic-Novel (The Grace Series Book 5) Page 28