Chapter 41

Gordon fixed Ada June a pallet on the floor in their bedroom. Joseph needed Ada June's bed until he could be carried to his house. Miss Effie stayed with him since his mother needed to take care of his sisters and brothers.

After Gordon straightened the kitchen and banked the fire, he stopped to pray with Miss Effie where she sat in the rocker by the bed.

After they prayed, Miss Effie said, "Poor boy."

"But Mr. Riley thinks he'll be all right, doesn't he?"

"He does. Riley has experience with such things. You knew he's my brother, didn't you?"

"I'm sure someone has told me that, but I admit to not always keeping all the relations straight."

"I reckon that ain't no wonder for somebody brought-in."

Gordon cringed a little. No matter how long he lived right in the middle of the Sourwood people, he would always be brought-in. "I didn't get a chance to thank him for fixing Bo before he left."

"He didn't want no thanks." She rocked back and forth a couple of times. "He ain't a bad man, Preacher Gordon. He just ain't one for church. I figure he worries gettin' too much religion might work agin his business." She paused a moment before she went on. "And I reckon it's better we don't talk none about that."

"Then we won't. I'm not in the reforming business. Just the spreading the gospel business. I let the Lord do what reforming he thinks needs doing."

"Just as well. Me and Nicey Jane done been tryin' with Riley for years without the first scrap of progress." She shook her head. "How's Miss Mira? Pains still punishin' her?"

"They've eased up, but Miss Nicey Jane says she should rest a few days and forget teaching for the summer."

"She won't like that."

"No, but if she taught in the county schools, they'd make her quit. They have a rule against married women teachers."

"Plumb foolishness. Being married don't make your head stop working. You ain't gonna make her stop, is you?"

"Not unless she wants to. Our school isn't part of the county system. We can make our own rules."

"Good." Miss Effie nodded. "When she feels up to being back at it, I'll come give her a hand agin, like as how I did afore plantin' time."

"She will like that."

"Being so little and all, I didn't think she could handle some of the rascals, but they generally pay her mind." She was quiet a moment before she blew out a breath. "I'm sorry she had to give up Selinda, but I'm tickled she's took Ada June to heart."

"We want to adopt her legally to make sure nobody will ever show up to take her."

"That won't happen." She sounded more than sure.

"But she could have relatives we don't know about."

"Don't worry your head over that, Preacher. Fact is, it could be she has kin all around her but none that is gonna bother her chance with you and Miss Mira." She looked up at Gordon. "And that's all you'll ever hear me say about it."

"I see." Pushing Miss Effie to tell anything she didn't aim to tell was useless. "Then good night. If you need anything, just holler."

"I can tend to myself. You go tend to your woman. She's a right sweet little thing."

When he went into the bedroom, the lamp was still burning. He was going to take a saw to the logs tomorrow and make a window. If Mira had to stay in bed, she wasn't going to do so in what folks called a blind cabin. One without windows.

Bo raised his head, his tail sweeping against the floor. Then he lay back down next to Ada June.

"Is she asleep?" Mira whispered.

"Looks to be." Gordon sat down on the box that served as a chair.

"Did she change her dress?"

Gordon looked over at Ada June. "I don't know. Did she need to?"

"Would have been best. She looked like she'd had a tussle with wildcats. Said she fell down the hill, but wouldn't say more than that." Mira looked over at Ada June.

"As long as she's all right." Gordon untied his shoes and slipped them off. "Feels like dirt on the floor."

"Part of the tussle with wildcats." A little frown wrinkled the skin between her eyes.

"Give her time. She might tell you more." He thought again about Miss Effie's words about Ada June. More was under those words, but he wouldn't dig for it. Let the Lord handle it.

"She asked if she could call me Mama." Her voice trembled on the word.

He took her hand. "That's good, isn't it?"

"Very good. But sad too. Sad her mother died. Sad I won't ever hear Selinda call me Mama like I hoped. Sad that I might lose this baby too." She sniffed and swallowed hard.

He tightened his grip on her hand. "That hasn't happened yet."

"But it could happen."

"It could. So much can happen. Like Joseph in there. Another inch or two and we'd be burying him. We don't get any guarantees for our tomorrows. The Scripture tells us that."

"Yet we go to bed every night expecting to see the sunrise."

"I think the Lord intends that too."

"But things don't always turn out the way we think."

"What do you mean?" Gordon asked.

She smiled. "Me having a ten-year-old daughter."

"A blessing."

"That's what Miss Ophelia told me I could be to the children here and look what I let happen to Joseph."

"None of what happened is your fault, Mira."

"I suppose not, but I keep thinking if I'd been outside a minute earlier or I don't know. That surely I could have done something."

"You can't change what has already happened."

She sighed. "I know. Will Connor be all right? He didn't aim to shoot Joseph."

"But he did. He'll have to suffer the consequences, but we can hope he'll learn something from it."

She was silent a moment. "Things haven't been at all like I thought they would be when I came here."

"How's that?"

Instead of answering him, she asked a question of her own. "Do you remember when you first asked me to come to Sourwood? When you said if I married you, the people would accept me quicker."

"I remember."

"And do you remember what I told you?" She was smiling.

"I think you used words like ridiculous, outrageous, impossible. Maybe scandalous."

"I never said scandalous." She gave his hand a shake.

"Right. Could be I was the scandalous one for asking. Not only asking. Insisting. Practically badgering you."

"Then it turned out I was the one doing the insisting on the train here."

"Yes."

"What did you think you were getting when you married me? A schoolteacher?"

"That was my aim. I did want a teacher for our school, but what I got was much more. A wife I love more than I can ever say." He lifted her hand up and kissed her fingers. "My turn. What did you think you were getting when you stood before Pastor Haskell and let him marry us?"

"A teaching position. A place to live. A new life. A chance to be a mother. I have always so wanted to be a mother."

"And now." He started to speak, but she put the fingers of her other hand over his lips.

"And now I have already gotten that with Selinda for those few weeks. With Ada June forever. With this beginning of a child that I pray will continue to grow inside me. But I have even more. I am a wife and I'm ridiculously glad I am. I love you, Gordon Covington. Till death do us part."

Gordon's heart felt too big for his chest. "Thank you, Mrs. Covington."

"Come to bed."

He undid his suspenders and took off his outer shirt but left on his trousers in case Miss Effie needed something. "What is in the bed?" he asked as he got under the covers.

"Dirt." She laughed softly. "I wanted Ada June to lie down beside me earlier. She warned me she was dirty from that tussle with the mountain, but I didn't realize how dirty. You might have to hire somebody to do the wash."

"But where am I going to get the money to pay them?"

"Oh well, somebody will do it for nothing. You're the preacher."

"So I am. And the husband of the schoolteacher."

She closed her eyes and was asleep almost at once. He watched her, glad he hadn't blown out the lamp.

The line from an old hymn came to mind. The Lord moves in a mysterious way his wonders to perform; he plants his footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm.

For that, he was thankful.