Vera nodded agreeably. “Yes, of course, dear. You need your rest. I just thought I’d let you know.”
Vera turned toward the staircase and disappeared. Leigh went back into her bedroom and closed the door again.
She poured herself a cup of ginger tea and took a testing sip. It tasted good, spicy but not sharp, and a few sips later she felt her stomach settling. She wondered why she had never had ginger tea before. She smiled to herself. It suddenly seemed perfectly logical, almost inevitable, that she would discover this miracle cure in this remote, picturesque place.
Maybe Alice was right. Maybe she had stumbled on a safe haven here. Maybe being stranded in Cape Light was a blessing in disguise.
CHAPTER THREE
JESSICA HATED BEING LATE FOR CHURCH. SHE COULD TELL from the number of cars parked around the church and the sight of the closed arched wooden doors that the service had already started.
Sam gripped her hand and quickened his pace. “It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have begged you for those pancakes.”
“I wanted them, too.” It was true; plus, facing lunch at her mother’s house, where the portions were notoriously spare, Jessica knew her husband needed something substantial to start the day.
Sam held the heavy door open for her and they slipped into the vestibule. Inside, the congregation was standing, singing a hymn led by the choir. At least they hadn’t missed much, she thought.
With his hand lightly touching the small of her back, Sam led her through the side door into the sanctuary. “There are some seats on the left,” Sam whispered. Jessica spotted a space on the aisle in a middle row and slid in. She slipped off her coat, grabbed a hymnal, and held it out for Sam to share. As they started to sing she heard someone quietly call, “Hey, Sam! Over here!”
She turned to see Darrell Lester seated across the aisle a few rows behind them. Sam turned, too. He smiled and nodded at the boy. That seemed to be all the encouragement Darrell needed. He quickly left his seat and came over. “I was waiting for you. We’re going to sit together, right?” Darrell whispered eagerly.
Jessica felt Sam nudge her to move in and make room. “Sure thing. You sit right here,” he said quietly.
Jessica shifted over and Sam held the hymnal out to Darrell so they could share. Darrell held up his side, Jessica noticed, but didn’t sing. He kept glancing up at Sam, who had a deep, impressive voice and wasn’t shy about singing in church. Jessica found another book and quickly looked for the page, but by the time she found it the hymn was over.
Settling into her seat, Jessica looked around the pews for her family. She soon spotted her mother sitting in her usual place, front and center, alongside her older sister, Emily, and Emily’s fiancé, Dan Forbes. Jessica found it secretly amusing that Dan, the former newspaper publisher and avowed skeptic, was now a regular at the Sunday service. But perhaps he just came to help with their mother and to stay on Lillian’s good side, Jessica thought. Although Dan’s prominent background made him a far more acceptable son-in-law than Sam had ever been, that still didn’t prevent Lillian from subjecting him to her barbs.
As if sensing Jessica’s thoughts, her mother slowly turned and met her younger daughter’s gaze. She nodded slightly in greeting, then her cool, gray gaze took in Sam, and finally, Darrell Lester, which caused her eyes to widen and her eyebrows to arch. She stared at Jessica again, pursed her lips in what could only be displeasure, and turned to face forward.
Jessica felt a small knot of tension in her stomach. Of course there would be questions later. “Who in the world was that strange child sitting with you? One of those troublesome boys from that center?” her mother would say.
The unavoidable comments would rub Sam the wrong way. And I’ll be right in the middle of it, as always, Jessica thought. Not that it was any of her mother’s business if Sam let a kid from New Horizons sit with him in church. It was just that her mother had a true genius for making tempests out of molehills . . . or whatever the expression was.
Jessica looked up, realizing her thoughts had wandered. The service had begun, and Reverend Ben was making this week’s announcements. “ . . . And in two weeks, on November thirtieth, we’ll be celebrating the first Sunday of Advent. Though it’s far too soon to start hearing Christmas music in shopping malls, it’s certainly not too early for us to begin work on our holiday projects.
“Particularly, the Christmas Fair, which will be held over two days this year, starting on Friday, December nineteenth. As most of you know, the fair is a big fund-raiser for the church. The proceeds are an important part of our budget. While I know this is a hectic time of year, if we each donate some hours and effort, we’re bound to have a successful event. The sign-up sheets are out in the hallway. I’m sure everyone can find a job they’re suited for, from making floral arrangements to cleanup crew—”
“And if you don’t see anything you want to do, come see me. I’ll put you to work.”
All eyes turned to Sophie Potter, who half-stood in her seat then sat down again at the urging of her granddaughter, Miranda.
“Sorry, Reverend,” Sophie added in a meeker tone.
“Not a problem,” Reverend Ben said easily. “Sophie is in charge of the fair this year . . . in case any of you haven’t guessed. Sounds like we got the right woman for the job.”
The comment drew some laughter, and he paused and smiled. Jessica wasn’t surprised to hear that Sophie was going to organize the fair this year, even though Sophie had lost her beloved husband, Gus, only last spring. It wasn’t that she didn’t still mourn Gus, Jessica knew. Sophie simply believed that the best way to honor Gus’s memory was to keep active and contribute what she could for as long as she could.
“Last, but not least, is our annual outreach to the Helping Hands Mission,” Reverend Ben continued in a more serious tone. “This year we have the honor and pleasure of having Reverend Cameron, the mission director, visiting us and serving as our assistant pastor. In the coming weeks, he’ll be talking to us more about the mission and the latest developments there.”
Jessica saw Reverend Cameron sitting in the front row near the pulpit. She hadn’t spoken with him much since he had arrived in Cape Light earlier in the fall, though she enjoyed his sermons on the weeks he stepped in for Reverend Ben. Jessica admired the work he did with the mission. She could barely imagine the degree of personal sacrifice and hardship he seemed to so willingly embrace. Yet his personality gave no hint of that. James Cameron was bright and humorous, clearly committed to his work but not weighed down by his calling.
It took a special kind of person to be so selfless, Jessica thought, so empathetic. She thought of herself as a good person with good intentions most of the time. But she knew she didn’t have whatever it took to make that kind of effort. Sam was more the type. He didn’t seem to notice a person’s “container”—the type of clothes someone wore, their age or profession, their status or lack of it. He looked to the light inside a person, the spirit common to everyone. Which was probably why her husband had so many friends . . . and such a motley crew of them.
She glanced at Sam and the boy seated beside him. Darrell had made a paper airplane out of the church bulletin and was now tugging on Sam’s sleeve, trying to show it off. Sam looked down, smiled gently, and shook his head. Then Jessica saw him whisper something in Darrell’s ear. Darrell nodded and put the plane down carefully between them.
At least he’s not going to launch it out over the pews, she thought. With my luck, it would probably hit Mother right in the head.
It was soon time for the children to go to Sunday school. Darrell left with the others without complaint. Jessica felt relieved. Although she couldn’t pin down the what or why of it, something about the boy unsettled her. Maybe it was because he wasn’t very friendly to her. He hadn’t even spared her a glance this morning. No matter, she told herself. It’s great if Sam can help him while he’s here.
After the service Jessica and Sam walked out to the vestibule, where
Jessica looked around for her mother and sister. She saw them some distance back, coming out of the sanctuary. Dan was the easiest to spot, standing head and shoulders above the crowd.
“I guess I should wait for my mother and Emily. I’m not sure what time she expects us.”
“I hope we don’t get stuck there all day. The Patriots are playing San Diego. I really want to catch some of the game.”
“Just tell me one thing, honey. Will there ever be a weekend when you don’t want to watch some part of some game?” The Patriots, the Celtics, the Red Sox—in the short time they’d been together, Jessica had quickly learned there was a sport for all seasons.
Sam caught her eye and laughed but didn’t attempt to deny it. “There’s Luke. I need to talk to him. I’ll be right back.” He grinned at her again and walked over to talk to his friend.
She’d married a charming man, that was the problem. All he had to do was look into her eyes and turn up the wattage on that smile of his and she forgot what day it was. I still fall for it, too. After almost a full year of marriage. I guess that’s a good sign, Jessica thought with a secret grin. My mother was definitely wrong about my choice of husbands.
“There you are. We tried to save a seat for you but you came in quite late, I noticed.”
Jessica turned to find her mother wearing one of her many annoyed expressions.
“We weren’t that late, Mother. We didn’t even miss the announcements.” Jessica forced a bright note into her tone. It must be hard to be Lillian Warwick, she thought. The world was just so irritating, in a conspiracy to frustrate her at every turn.
“Mother, please. Does it really matter?” Emily gave Jessica a sympathetic glance and leaned over to kiss her cheek. “Nice service, wasn’t it?”
“I didn’t notice anything unusual about it. Seemed rather mundane if you ask me.” Lillian offered her critique without waiting for Jessica to reply. “Who was that little boy sitting next to Sam? They seemed very cozy.”
“Oh, just a boy from New Horizons. Sam’s been volunteering out there, teaching woodworking and doing some tutoring and sports.” Jessica felt her mother’s cold stare but didn’t meet her eye.
“Is he really? Good for him.” Emily sounded genuinely impressed. “I’ve been thinking of doing that myself one of these days. When things slow down a bit.”
“When you give up being mayor, you mean?” Lillian said.
“I’m not giving it up, Mother. I’m only taking a honeymoon trip.”
“A rather extended one, I’d say. I’m surprised the town council lets you get away with that. I only hope Dan doesn’t expect you to give up your career and run off to live on some tropical island.” Lillian sniffed and shook her head. “Such a silly fantasy for a grown man.”
Everyone in town knew that Dan Forbes, a dedicated sailor, had long planned an extended sail through the Caribbean once he retired from the newspaper. Emily’s appearance in his life had slowed down the schedule. Though his long-awaited solo adventure had unexpectedly turned into a honeymoon, he was still determined to carry out his plan.
“Maybe I should give you a grass skirt for your trousseau.” Lillian persisted when her first barb brought no reaction.
“I think she would look cute in a grass skirt. She certainly has the legs for it.” Dan came up behind Emily and kissed her on the cheek. Jessica thought it was sweet the way her older sister actually blushed.
“There you are. I thought we’d lost you, too,” Lillian said to Dan.
“You can’t shake me that easily, Lillian. I’m going to be around for a while.” Dan gave his future mother-in-law a calm smile. “I stopped to talk to Reverend Cameron. He’s an interesting guy. He would make a nice feature for the paper.”
“There’s a good idea—if you know someone who writes for the paper.” Emily glanced up at Dan and squeezed his arm. “You have a book to write, remember?”
“Right, the book. Thanks for reminding me.” Dan nodded dutifully.
Dan had been running the paper for so long that it was hard for him to stop looking at the world in terms of what made a good story. But Jessica knew he was in the middle of writing a book about the town’s history, and the couple couldn’t get married and sail off into the sunset until the first draft was at the publisher’s.
“It’s a good idea for Sara, I meant.” Dan turned to Lillian with a hopeful look. “Is she coming by this afternoon?”
Sara Franklin was Emily’s daughter by her first husband, Tim Sutton, a local fisherman. Emily had defied her parents and run away from home just after high school to marry him. The young couple lived on the Maryland shore for two happy years until Tim died in a car accident. Grieving, eight months pregnant, and completely alone, Emily called her mother. Lillian agreed to help her reprobate daughter but with a terrible condition: she insisted that Emily give up the baby for adoption.
Sick and vulnerable and convinced she had no other recourse, Emily finally agreed. She returned home and went to college, taking up her life, as if marriage and motherhood had never happened. But Jessica knew how her older sister had suffered silently, living a half life, never able to maintain a real relationship, steeped in regret and self-reproach for having given up her daughter.
Emily had searched for Sara without success. Then about a year ago, Sara had come to Cape Light searching for her birth mother and had finally introduced herself to Emily. Jessica had seen her sister’s life completely changed and Emily’s spirit renewed in a way she’d never dreamed possible.
Luckily, Sara liked the town enough to stay on and she found a job on the Messenger, the newspaper Dan’s family had founded, which was now run by his daughter, Lindsay.
Jessica hoped Sara was coming today. Though Lillian feigned indifference, it was clear that she actually delighted in her only granddaughter. Sara seemed to have a mysterious gift for getting along with Lillian that had completely eluded Emily and Jessica.
“Sara Franklin may deign to arrive after lunch, with her boyfriend, Luke,” Lillian said. “But only for dessert. She has some previous engagements, something more important than visiting her grandmother.”
Lillian pulled her gloves from her handbag then closed it with a loud snap. “Well, let’s not stand around here all day. I need to get back to the house for our lunch, Emily.”
“Yes, of course, Mother.”
“Do you need any help?” Jessica asked her sister.
“There’s not much to do. All the food is ready. I just have to set the table. Where’s Sam?”
“I don’t know. He was talking to Luke McAllister,” Jessica answered as she looked around for her husband. “I don’t see him now.”
“Well, he can’t have gone too far. Come along whenever you find him.”
Jessica watched her family depart through the church’s front doors. When she turned again she spotted Sam coming toward her, along with Reverend Ben and Darrell.
Reverend Ben greeted her with a smile. “I hope we haven’t kept you waiting long. Sam’s friend wanted to see how the organ worked, so I gave him a special tour.”
“That was nice of you, Reverend. Did you get to try it?” she asked Darrell.
“A little. I didn’t hit too hard though. I didn’t want to break it.”
“Of course not.” She smiled at him again, but the boy wouldn’t meet her eye.
He’d spoken to her quickly, she noticed, then stared down at the floor. Jessica wondered if she’d said something wrong, something that had sounded unintentionally accusatory. But she hadn’t. He was just touchy—around her, at any rate.
“Darrell loves music. He wants to learn to play the piano.” Sam placed his hand on Darrell’s shoulder.
Jessica just smiled. She didn’t know what to say. Would it even be kind to encourage him? What were the chances of a boy like Darrell getting the opportunity to learn to play the piano? Who would pay for the lessons? Where would he practice? Learning to play an instrument seemed such a simple thing; most kids she knew t
ook it for granted. But for a boy like Darrell, it wouldn’t be so simple, she realized.
“So, where are you off to today? Doing anything special?” Reverend Ben asked.
“We’re having lunch at my mother’s house. In fact, we should probably go. I want to help Emily set things up.” Jessica glanced at her watch then at her husband. “Where’s Luke? He must be looking for Darrell.”
“It’s all right.” Something in Sam’s tone made her wary. “He’ll pick up Darrell later . . . at your mother’s.”
“At my mother’s?” Jessica heard the harsh note in her voice and felt embarrassed in front of Darrell and Reverend Ben.
“Luke said he was going over there later with Sara.”
Luke and Sara had been going out for several months. Of course he’d be coming over to Lillian’s with her today. But how did that add up to Darrell coming along with them?
“You mean Darrell is coming with us?” Jessica asked in a deliberately milder tone.
“Well, he asked if he could visit with us a little longer today, and I thought it would be okay to bring him with us. I mean, it’s only lunch. Luke thought it was a great idea.”
Jessica felt her cheeks growing warm with embarrassment and annoyance. What could Sam be thinking? He knew it was anything but a great idea. He knew her mother hated surprise guests. She practically hated any guests, surprise or otherwise. But Jessica couldn’t argue about it, not in front of Reverend Ben and Darrell. For one thing, she didn’t want to hurt the boy’s feelings again.
Finally, she drew in a breath and forced a small smile. “Sure, it’s only lunch. I’m sure there’s plenty. Darrell might get a little bored with only grown-ups to talk to, though,” she added.
Darrell looked up at her. “Sam’s not a grown-up. I mean, not like in a bad way.”
Jessica just stared at him a moment. “I definitely agree with the first part.” She glanced up at Sam and he gave her a relieved look. He knew he was safe, for a while at least.
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