Hearts Awakening (32 page)

Ellie felt her cheeks warm. “I’m not certain why some of them seem so determined to be so mean.”

“Because they have pitiful lives and even more pitiful faith, although they’d be the first to spout platitudes at any silly fool willing to listen to them,” Madeline argued as she led Ellie over to the bolts of fabric on the counter along the far wall. “All of which means you need to be prepared, and I’d like to be the one to help you, since I have much more experience doing that than you do.”

“How are you able to do that?”

“You need to select some fabrics,” Madeline suggested, without answering Ellie’s question. “Or if you’re still feeling uncomfortable, just tell me which ones you don’t favor. I’ll choose several for you tomorrow morning and get them to Dr. Willows so he can bring them with him when he comes to check up on Widow Palmer in the afternoon. That way you’ll have much more time to make a new gown by next Sunday,” she said before studying Ellie’s cape and frowning. “You really should pick out some fabric to make a new cape, too.”

Ellie cringed but narrowed her gaze. “How did you know Dr. Willows was coming to the island tomorrow?”

Madeline patted her arm. “Dr. Willows told me. He also told me poor Widow Palmer had taken a turn for the worse. Now, what about those fabrics?”

Ellie shook her head. “If it wouldn’t be too much trouble, I think I’d rather have you choose for me. I’m not very good at selecting fabrics for myself, anyway,” she admitted, although she did not hesitate to point out several fabrics in dark brown as ones she did not favor, since Jackson did not like the color. She also excluded anything with a hint of gray or black, simply because she had worn those colors for years. “I think that’s all. Except for this one,” she added when she spied a deep maroon print that reminded her of the color of the gown she had worn when David Shepherd had withdrawn his request to court her after she had insisted that her mother must be included in any household she established with him.

Madeline chuckled. “Whether it’s fabric or sweets or gossip, there’s always room for more, isn’t there?”

Ellie’s spine began to tingle. She had the distinct impression that Madeline had chosen her words deliberately and had invited her here as much to spread more gossip about Jackson and Rebecca as to accommodate him. “If there’s more gossip about my husband or his first wife, let me assure you—”

“If there is, then you should hear it,” Madeline argued and crossed her arms over her chest. “The only way to best anyone who wants to hurt you is to know exactly how they intend to do it. From what I could gather today, after listening to bits of gossip here and there before overhearing Christina and her friends, I’m not certain you know enough about Jackson or Rebecca to be able to do that.”

“Jackson told me all I need to know,” Ellie countered, stiffening her back. “I know Rebecca betrayed him with another man, and I know she died with her lover,” she blurted.

“But did you also know that Rebecca and her lover had their little trysts in the Sunday house? Or that she made certain she was seen around town with that man?”

Ellie grew still. Although Mrs. Fielding had suggested Rebecca had used the Sunday house for sinful purposes, Ellie never would have guessed that Rebecca had actually flaunted her affair by appearing in public with her lover.

“I didn’t think so,” Madeline murmured and walked over to stand beside her. “Jackson is a good man. Regardless of the circumstances of his marriage to Rebecca, he didn’t deserve what happened to him, and you don’t deserve to have your happiness with him destroyed by it any more than he does.”

Ellie turned around to face the woman. “Then why are you spreading such gossip about him with me?”

“Because others will. They tried today, and they’ll try again and again, until you prove to them that you know absolutely everything about the man you married and you still love him,” she said with such absolute sincerity Ellie was tempted to believe her.

“Why should I trust you? Why should I believe that you’re any different from them?”

Madeline sighed. “You probably won’t. Not unless I trust you with something I’ve never told anyone here—something I’d rather you not tell anyone, including your husband,” she said and drew in yet another long breath. “Did Jackson tell you the name of the man who was Rebecca’s lover?”

“No,” Ellie replied. “But I don’t see how knowing the man’s name makes any difference in whether or not I should trust you.”

“His name was Arthur Rutledge, which is common knowledge. What no one knows, however, is that he . . . he was my brother.” Her eyes glistened with tears.

Ellie’s eyes widened. “Y-your brother?”

“Yes, he was, although why neither one of us ever acknowledged our relationship to each other is not something I’m prepared to share with you today,” she said. “I’m not proud of the fact that he involved himself with Rebecca the way he did, but he was my brother and I loved him. He may not be here to right the wrong he did, but I’m trying to do that for him by helping Jackson and helping you.”

“I don’t know what to say,” Ellie managed.

“You don’t have to say anything, but if you have any questions at all about Rebecca or Jackson, questions you might not feel comfortable asking him, please come to me. I’ll answer them as honestly as I can.”

“I don’t like keeping secrets from my husband or sneaking behind his back to talk to you when I should talk to him.”

“I understand,” Madeline said sadly. “Tell him about Arthur and me, if you must. Get him to talk to you about Rebecca, but don’t stop there. Ask him about Dorothea, too, because the gossipmongers are bound to bring up her name sooner or later.”

Ellie furrowed her brow. “Dorothea?”

“Christina Schuler’s sister.”

“Yes, I know. Christina mentions her every time I see her, but I haven’t asked Jackson why the woman seems so obsessed with mentioning her.”

Madeline let out a sigh. “Because my brother told me that according to Rebecca, Dorothea was the only woman Jackson ever truly loved.”

During the walk back to the parsonage, Ellie set aside thoughts of Rebecca, but she had a hard time setting aside what Madeline had told her about Dorothea.

She remembered Christina Schuler referring to letters from her sister, Dorothea, every time they met and how defensive Jackson had been when Dorothea’s name was mentioned. But the notion that Jackson was still in love with a woman he had not seen for many years—he had, in fact, married another woman instead—was so farfetched she dismissed the very idea as simply an excuse Rebecca had used to justify betraying her husband.

After all, she reasoned, Jackson had promised not to keep any secrets from her, and Ellie had to trust that he was true to his word; otherwise, he would have told her about Dorothea long before now.

Fortunately, she was hard pressed to give either Rebecca or the mysterious Dorothea any of her thoughts once she arrived at the parsonage. Mrs. Shore had introduced the boys to a stray dog she had befriended in a fairly obvious attempt to get Jackson to let the boys take it home as their pet.

Ellie found the dog rather adorable, much to Jackson’s dismay, especially its dark brown wavy hair. Its lower jaw was oddly prominent and revealed its bottom teeth, which made it appear that the dog was actually smiling all the time.

While Daniel and Ethan crawled around the parlor floor with the friendly little mutt, squealing with abandon, Ellie sat next to Mrs. Shore on the settee in the parlor and listened to the minister’s wife trying to defend her idea against each of Jackson’s protests.

Across from them, Reverend Shore sat in a chair next to Jackson’s. Judging by the expression on his face, he was hoping his wife would prevail.

“He can’t be much of a stray. Look at how fat he is,” Jackson argued.

Growing impatient, Mrs. Shore snorted. “It’s not a he, and she’s only put on a little bit of weight, because I took pity on her after I found those foundry workers pelting the poor thing with stones.”

“Is that her name? Poor Thing?” Daniel managed, struggling to talk while the dog licked at his face.

Reverend Shore chuckled. “It may as well be, since that’s all I’ve ever heard for the past two weeks. Poor thing, she can’t sleep outside, because those urchins might spot her again. Or poor thing, she hasn’t had a decent thing to eat, so she gets more at dinner than I do.”

“Poor Thing! Over here,” Daniel cried, trying to lure the dog away from Ethan, who was laughing as the dog tried to chew off his cowlick.

Jackson held up his hands. “I’m sure you’ll be able to find the poor thing a proper home right here in the city.”

“She can’t stay here indefinitely,” the minister said firmly. “Neither one of us has time during the day to spend with the poor thing.”

Mrs. Shore nudged Ellie’s arm. “You’re at home all day with the boys. Don’t you think they’d just love having a dog?”

“Ethan and me want the dog!” Daniel cried.

As always, Ethan expressed his opinion by smiling.

Ellie had the good sense to know that if she even hinted that her answer to the woman’s question was yes, Jackson wouldn’t care if everyone in the entire state of Pennsylvania had stayed after services to offer their good wishes to the newly married couple without a single whisper of ill-will. He would still send Ellie packing and worry about explaining her absence from his life later.

“If Jackson doesn’t think so, then I’d have to agree with him,” she said, although she very much wanted to take the dog home with them.

“Phooey! You like the dog, too. You know you do. She’s almost the same color as that old gown of yours.”

“Exactly,” Jackson chimed in, looking smug.

“That’s true, but the dog’s wavy brown coat is neither as drab nor as ugly as my gown appeared to some people,” she said.

Jackson’s dark blue eyes softened when he looked at her. “We don’t need a dog. Especially a female dog who could have a litter of pups every season,” he insisted.

“How many dogs do you have on that island of yours now?” Mrs. Shore asked.

Jackson shrugged. “None. Old Jake died some years back before Daniel was born, and my father-in-law never thought we needed another one.”

The older woman laughed. “If you don’t have any other dogs there, how could this poor thing ever have a litter of pups? She couldn’t.”

Ellie smirked, and though Jackson remained silent, a hint of bemusement lit in his eyes.

Mrs. Shore clapped her hands. “Next argument, please, or accept defeat and agree to take the dog home with you.”

Before Jackson could respond to the woman’s challenge, little Ethan settled the matter in a way that made it impossible for anyone, especially his father, to say no.

He walked over to his father, mimicked the dog by jutting out his chin, and put his little hand on his father’s arm as he looked up at him. “Poor Thing,” he said, so clearly and so distinctly, no one would ever believe that this child had not spoken out loud to his father or anyone other than Daniel for over six months.

Ellie’s heart swelled.

Poor Thing had found a name and a home with them on the island after all.

Thirty-Two

When the full moon rose to shine its light down on Dillon’s Island in late October, sadness also cast long shadows on the lives of everyone who lived there.

Widow Polly Palmer, their feisty, plainspoken, and beloved Gram, had died peacefully during her nap earlier that afternoon. She had, in death, relinquished her title as the oldest woman in Dauphin County to ninety-nine-year-old Spinster Abigail Holtzben, but Gram would forever be remembered as the best-loved woman who had ever called this island home.

At Jackson’s suggestion, which he had made several days ago when Gram suspected the end was finally near, her final resting place was here in his family’s cemetery on the island. At her request, made only that same morning while Jackson and his family had been in the city attending Sunday services, they buried her beneath the spotlight of the full moon that shone through the thinning fall canopy overhead.

After each of the family had shared their favorite memories of Gram and prayed together, Michael Grant left the cemetery to take his wife and daughter home to begin life without the matriarch who had anchored their lives with wisdom and faith.