Hedda looked like she’d been wrung out. “She didn’t want me to say anything. But things weren’t right. I kept nagging about it. I kept saying the ladies weren’t what they seemed to be.” She wailed. “And all that time, I was being judgmental even though Mama McCory was so happy. I’m sorry. Please, everybody forgive me.”
Everyone murmered his or her forgiveness.
“I don’t understand, Grandmother. How could you know about the ad and not say anything?”
“Maybe we’re cut from the same cloth, Neil.” That look again. “At first I was shocked. Then I got to thinking. That gave me something to think about instead of lying in bed dying. I couldn’t wait to see who in the world you’d bring home. I planned to expose you before you went through with any wedding.”
“Why didn’t you?”
She waited awhile before answering. Giving him a sidelong look and smiling, she finally said, “I liked Juliet. . .um, Olivia. If that delightful girl wanted the job of being my companion, I was all for it. I was ready to say, ‘Let her have the job; you don’t have to marry her.’ ”
Again, he asked, “Why didn’t you?”
“When she served your cup of tea and you looked into her beautiful eyes, I felt like you were seeing a new world—one where Kathleen didn’t live, one filled with possibilities. This girl was for you.”
Was she? Olivia wasn’t looking at anyone.
“At first I thought it would be wrong to marry for any reason but love. But I got to thinking further. In some countries the parents arrange the marriage. Why, right here in West Virginia, there was a time when mail-order brides came in. So I knew if you thought a girl would make me happy, that meant deep in your heart, even if you didn’t know it, she would make you happy, too.”
She patted Stella’s hand. “Oh, and as for Stella, who wouldn’t want this vivacious woman around? I felt like I’d found a new friend.” They smiled fondly at each other. “There’s something else you don’t know.”
Neil thought this was supposed to be their confession. It looked as if it was his grandmother’s. “If you remember, when I looked at Stella, I said her eyes were unforgettable. Well, I knew exactly where I’d seen her, and it wasn’t the nickelodeon. About fifteen years ago, a traveling troupe of actors came through here. Streun and I went to the perfor-mance. There was this beautiful young woman with long red hair and the greenest eyes imaginable, kicking up her heels and singing to beat the band. She made these mountains ring with music. When I remembered that, I realized who she was and thought that Olivia looked a lot like that young woman.”
Neil could hardly believe what he was hearing, but Grand-mother wasn’t finished.
“Oh, I was already middle-aged when I saw her. But I thought if I was a young woman, I’d like to do that. I envied her. Then to have her in my house, being entertained by that famous actress every day has been such a joy.”
She looked at Olivia. “And anyone would have to love this young lady.”
“I didn’t mean to do anything wrong,” Olivia said.
Neil listened as she told of her dream to be an actress and said that her name was Olivia Easton. Her breath caught.
Stella interjected, “What’s she’s saying is that she’s not legally married to Neil.”
Neil felt it and knew it, but to hear it stated was like a knife in the heart.
“I came here for a job,” Olivia said. “And from the beginning, I wanted to be your companion. I didn’t realize anyone would be hurt.”
“I’m not hurt,” his grandmother assured her. “I would have done anything to be an actress, too, if I was young like you. I think it’s time this job with Neil ended.”
He nodded, and his grandmother continued.
“If you want to stay on at the inn, I will hire you. If you want to go on to acting school, I would love to help out with that, too. I love you.”
Neil had to leave the room. A man could take only so much of women hugging and crying all over each other.
Out walking the halls, he thought of his grandmother saying, “And anyone would have to love this young lady.”
Neil didn’t know about that. He didn’t know Olivia Easton.
He’d fallen in love with an actress playing a part, not a real woman who returned his affection. How did one deal with being in love with a character in a play?
twenty-three
That afternoon Olivia said she was going for a walk and would be back soon. She hadn’t really planned to go and see the pastor. It just seemed like the thing to do.
She didn’t want Neil blamed at all but wanted Pastor Whitfield to know why she must leave Sunrise. She told him the entire story. “I’m sorry for pretending to be a fine Christian woman when I wasn’t even sure what I believed.”
“Olivia, I can’t condone misrepresentation. But I can’t condemn you either. If we place blame, we must also give credit. You’ve been good for Neil. He hasn’t been this happy in years. You and Stella have brought laughter into people’s lives. Mama McCory has lived longer than expected. The specialists said she would never be up and around again like she has been since you and Stella came.”
“Stella says she and I can go back and live in her cabin if we need to. Do you think,” she said, “if I confess to my father, who will probably disown me again, that I can clean up my life and be a good Christian?”
Olivia was shocked when he said, “No.”
“Oh.” She placed her hand on her heart.
Her feeling of devastation must have shown. He smiled kindly. “What I mean is that you don’t need to wait until you clean up your life. First, just ask Jesus into your heart.”
“I don’t know how,” she confessed.
“Just tell Him that you’re sorry for your sins and ask Him to come into your heart.”
“That’s. . .all?”
“That’s the first step. If you really mean it, then you’ll want to live the way He tells us to live in the Bible. You pray and ask Him to show you how to live each day.”
“I want to do that.”
“Then pray after me.”
She did. After they finished, she waited for a long time. Finally, she said, “I don’t feel any different.”
He smiled kindly. “It’s not a magic potion. But you asked Jesus into your heart. He’s there. You’re a baby Christian right now.”
“I think I understand,” she said. “The Bible is my script. I need to read it and learn it and follow instructions on how to act on it.”
“Exactly. And you’ll find out that having Jesus in your heart isn’t just a feeling. It’s a knowing. You’re now a part of God’s family. And it’s not just your heart; it’s your life.”
❧
When Neil walked into the church, he saw Olivia and the pastor standing at the front. She was wiping tears from her face.
He started to turn. “Come on in, Neil,” the pastor said.
“I can come back later.”
“No,” Olivia said, “I was just leaving.” When she passed him in the aisle, she said, “I told the pastor everything. I’m sorry.” She hurried out.
Neil and the pastor both sat on the front row. Although Olivia had said she told him everything, Neil told his side of it.
“Neil, like I told Olivia, I’m not here to condone or condemn. I know good has come of this situation. But if you feel you’ve done wrong, you can always ask God’s forgiveness. He’s in that business, you know.”
Neil gave a self-conscious laugh and nodded.
They prayed.
Afterward, the pastor said, “Olivia has given her life to Jesus.”
Then she was a part of God’s church, which Jesus called “His bride.” It was much more important for Olivia to be “the bride of Christ” than the bride of Dr. Neil McCory. Maybe some great good would come out of this situation. Perhaps God’s plan for her life was for her to be a shining light in the acting world.
He could survive, although he didn’t expect to ever love again. “Do I
need to confess to the church?”
“Wait awhile,” the pastor said. “Olivia said she may go to her father’s. Who knows, she might decide to return and work at the inn. After all, the Lord works in mysterious ways.”
Looking into the sympathetic eyes of the pastor, Neil knew he hadn’t hidden his broken heart.
❧
Although it seemed all the truth was out now, including her having given her heart to the Lord, Olivia dreaded hearing the prognosis about Mama McCory. She and Stella sat on the bed and Neil in the chair when two doctors came in.
They were wearing long white smocks and carrying clip-boards. “This has taken so long because we had to be sure. That’s why all the tests, consultations, and waiting.”
Olivia felt as stark as Neil and Stella looked. All the color seemed drained from them. Mama McCory looked fine, as if she could hold up under anything. Olivia admired her strength.
“It seems,” the doctor said, “she’s improving.”
The moment of stunned silence was suddenly filled with their exclamations of joy and wonder and laughter.
Mama McCory smiled broadly. “I was afraid to say any-thing. Afraid it wouldn’t be true. Oh, I knew I felt better after you two came, but anyone would. There was music, laughter, and love in the house again.”
Olivia could only praise God. Yes, this must be what it felt like to have Jesus in one’s heart.
They wept together. Even the doctors had moist eyes.
After the doctors left, Olivia said she was trying to be truthful to everyone now. She needed to go and see her father. Knowing that she had to do it, she laid Mama McCory’s locket in her hand.
“Remember, Olivia,” she said, clasping the locket. “I’m your friend. And I know your heart is breaking. But whatever you decide to do, I’ll be praying for you. Don’t forget me.”
“Oh, I could never do that.”
She knew she could never forget Neil either. But there was no way she could stay at the inn. Mama McCory knew her heart ached for Neil. She would never be a good enough actress to hide that from him. She had to leave.
“I can’t keep the money I made,” she told Stella later as she was packing.
Stella nodded. “I know.” Without either having to say it, she knew that Stella was aware she was in love with Neil. She left the money, rings, music box, and little black, jeweled handbag on the desk in Neil’s study.
❧
Olivia didn’t want to see Neil, so Stella took her to the depot. Neil must have felt the same way, because he hadn’t been there for breakfast. Not until the train left Sunrise far behind did Olivia allow the tears to fall.
When Olivia arrived at her father’s house, he and Evelyn greeted her warmly, although they gave her curious glances when she said Neil wasn’t with her.
When they were settled in the parlor, Olivia said, “I need to talk.”
Evelyn said softly, “I’ll get us something to drink.”
“No,” Olivia said. “I can’t let you be hospitable to me. This is not just a visit. You both need to hear what I have to say.”
She told the whole story in the face of wide-eyed disbelief. She let none of that stop her. When she finished, her father stood and stared at her for a long time. He paced in front of her. She and Evelyn glanced at each other guardedly.
Finally, he turned and hit the palm of his hand with his fist. “That took courage.”
Courage? She’d be quaking in her boots if she hadn’t been wearing her pointy-toed shoes.
He returned to a chair across from her. “I’m to blame, too, Olivia.”
She couldn’t believe it. He wasn’t calling her a liar? Saying she was worse than a rogue and vagrant?
“I see now how much acting means to you. When I gave you an ultimatum, I thought you’d give in, give up the idea of being an actress. I thought I was protecting you.”
He surprised her further by saying she was welcome to stay there as long as she wished. “Evelyn and I will go with you to New York and help you get settled there. You have our blessing.”
Olivia should have been the happiest girl in the world, having come to know the Lord and now having her father’s approval for an acting career. But she wasn’t.
She thought and questioned for several days, then came to the conclusion that acting was not what she wanted after all. She wanted a real life, like managing an inn and having a husband and children.
She called Stella. First she asked about Mama McCory.
“She’s improving every day,” Stella said brightly. Then she told about going to the preacher and giving her own heart to Jesus. “Maybe we can be baptized together.”
“Maybe someday,” Olivia said. “But I’ve had a change in plans. Right now I don’t feel like going to that acting school. I don’t know what I’ll do. For now, I need to study my Bible, attend church with Dad and Evelyn, and pray.” She took a deep breath. “How is Neil?”
“Like all of us,” Stella said, “he misses you.”
“How do you know?”
“I’m smart.”
They laughed, and Olivia said no more about it. Maybe Neil did miss her. She had done a good job.
❧
Neil didn’t feel as thankful this Thanksgiving as he had a year before.
“Holidays can be a sad time,” Stella said when he sat heavily, thoughtfully, at the kitchen table and accepted a cup of coffee from her. She poured herself a cup and sat in front of him. “I heard from Olivia.”
He stared at his cup. He wouldn’t even act excited. She was probably in New York, living her dream.
“She’s studying the Bible and has a good relationship with her father and Evelyn.”
“That’s good,” Neil said blandly. He was glad about that, but self-pity seemed to take precedence. He’d had to reprimand himself for being glad people’s illnesses kept him almost too busy to think. That didn’t speak well for his own Christian life.
Suddenly Stella blurted out, “I have a confession.”
Neil braced himself. What was it now? That he would lose this brightness in his life, too—along with Danny Quinn?
Stella sounded repentant as she told about the influence she had over Olivia. “I’ve basked in the admiration of Olivia—one of the few people, aside from actors, who thought I was in a respectable line of work.”
Neil realized Stella wasn’t acting but was being very honest and open with him. “I wanted to feel important in someone’s eyes, and Olivia has been that someone to me.”
“I know Olivia loves you very much.”
Stella nodded. He saw the tears form in her eyes. “I be-lieve, Neil, that part of her wanting to be an actress is her identifying with me. I have tried to take on a mother role for her, maybe selfishly because I never had a child. She needed someone after her mother died.”
“Just so you know, Stella,” Neil said. “I think now that Olivia has given her heart to the Lord, she could do a lot of good as a Christian actress.” He scoffed. “I remember that she wouldn’t even look at me that first day, and I came to the conclusion she was cross-eyed.”
“You think of her often?”
Neil heard that intimation in her voice. He was tired of acting. “Yes, I do. Stella, she loved my grandmother. I really believed she was legally my wife, and in pretending, I sometimes forgot she wasn’t.”
“I think Olivia has had enough acting to last her for a lifetime. I’ve set her straight on a few things. The life of an actress has its disadvantages, too. I couldn’t have done anything else. But I have suspected Olivia wanted to be like me more than she wanted to be an actress. She’s reconsidering.”
His head came up. “Reconsidering?”
“Yes. When a girl gets a taste of what a good husband can be like, it sort of takes precedence over a career.”
“Is she. . .interested in someone?”
“Neil, I think that’s for you to find out—since you are in love with her.”
“But she’s not in love with
me.” He looked at Stella for confirmation, but Stella simply looked at the ceiling and sighed as if she were bored to tears.
“I don’t know if she cares for me that way,” he added.
“You lived here with her for almost a year, Neil. You two liked each other. Do you think it was all an act?”
“I was trying to act like a dutiful, loving husband myself,” he said. “Yet I condemned her for doing what I hired her to do.” He gave an ironic laugh. “It’s just that she did it better than I could have imagined.”
“At least you can laugh about it now.”
“That’s all I can do,” he said. “She gave back everything I gave to her. I can’t just show up on her doorstep and expect her to greet me with open arms.”
When she didn’t answer, he asked, “Can I?”
Stella scoffed. “I should hope not. With an adventurous, imaginative girl like Olivia, that would seem so old-fashioned and dull.”
twenty-four
Olivia got letters from Mama McCory at least once a week. She would tell what was going on with her, with the church, and with the inn. While reading her long, detailed letters, she could imagine all that Mama McCory described. Oh, how she would love to be there herself.
On Tuesday, Olivia called Stella. “You must come to Dad’s for Christmas. You know you’re welcome now. He’s such a different person.”
“I suppose we all are, Olivia,” Stella said. “A lot will depend on the weather. You know how the snows are up here, and sometimes even the trains don’t run. And you’ll never believe this—Danny and I have talked seriously about getting married.”
“You would leave the inn?”
“Oh, no. Danny and I both love it here. We’ll stay as long as Mama McCory and Neil want us. And they say we’re family and must never leave.”
“I’m so glad for you, Stella. But. . .I thought you never wanted to marry again.”
“Well, nobody does until the right one comes along. We girls make our plans, then boom! Some man comes along and changes them.”
Olivia laughed lightly, but she felt a tug on her heartstrings. She knew exactly what Stella meant. “So, is Neil doing all right?”
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