Abiding Peace (21 page)

“Well, I had not.” She wiped her hands on her apron and opened the crock where she kept pearl ash for her soapmaking.

He heard Abby’s clear, ringing laugh and looked up. He could just see her back and Ben’s. They were sitting on the floor chattering together while they worked. Despite the rain, despite the bleak events of the last month, he felt happier than he had in a long, long time.

“Christine.”

“Aye?”

He stepped toward her and seized her hand. “My dear, you are lovely in your cap, with flour smudged on your nose.”

She froze and stared at him.

“It is my hope that in the past two and a half years you’ve come to think of this cottage as your home.”

“Oh, I have, sir,” she whispered. She tore her gaze from his and looked down at their clasped hands.

Samuel smiled gently and tipped her chin up until she looked at him again. “It is also my hope that you will consider an offer to make this your permanent home. Christine, if you feel you can find peace here in this house …”

“I believe I can.”

His smile grew without his trying to restrain it. “And if you can love my children as your own …”

“I do so already, sir. You know that.”

“Yes, I do. And if you think perchance you might one day love me …”

She lowered her lashes. He waited, and after a long moment, she looked up into his eyes once more. “I do not believe in chance, sir.”

He laughed and pulled her to him. “Marry me, then, dear Christine. Soon. I’ll ask the minister from Dover Point to read the banns. May I?”

Her glowing smile answered him, although she got no words out before John called down from the loft, “Father! What are you doing?”

When the harvest was in and the golden days of October belied the coming bitter winds of winter, the Reverend Samuel Jewett took Christine Hardin as his lawfully wedded wife.

Her friends and the Jewett girls clustered about her. Jane and Sarah helped her dress in a fine new skirt and bodice. Ruth presented a bouquet of dried blossoms she and her sisters had made. The visiting preacher awaited them at the meetinghouse with Samuel and his sons. When they stepped outside for the short walk from the parsonage, Goody Deane hobbled out from her cottage and joined them.

James Dudley’s wagon was tied up near the meetinghouse, and Captain and Mrs. Baldwin walked quickly toward the building. From down the street came the Heard family and the Otises. From the river path came the Paines and the fishermen and their families. Nearly all the people of the village gathered to witness the pastor’s wedding.

Christine could think of only a few who were missing. Among those was Roger Ackley, who had confessed after a week’s confinement and had been convicted a fortnight since of his wife’s murder. He now awaited his hanging, but she refused to dwell on that. Thoughts of the grisly crime vanished as Christine waited.

Jane peeked in the church doorway, keeping watch for the right moment. At last everyone else was inside and seated. She and Sarah drew Christine to the doorway. Her two friends took the little girls and hurried to their families’ pews.

James Dudley was waiting just inside the door. He offered his arm to Christine, and she slipped her hand through it.

She looked past the pews to the area below the pulpit, where Samuel stood with the officiating minister. Samuel looked at her with such love that she could only return his smile and walk toward him.

A rash of doubts tried one last time to assail her. Could she be a good wife? Samuel said she could. A good mother? He insisted she was already. A proper parson’s wife? He would teach her.

He reached out and took her hands in his, and she gazed into his eyes. Peace filled her heart.

A note from the Author:

I love to hear from my readers! You may correspond with me by writing:

SUSAN PAGE DAVIS
and her husband, Jim, have been married thirty-two years and have six children, ages thirteen to thirty. They live in Maine, where they are active in an independent Baptist church. Susan is a homeschooling mother and writes historical romance, mystery, and suspense novels. Visit her Web site at:
www.susanpagedavis.com
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