Texas Brides Collection (82 page)

Pearl noticed her mother’s sheets had twisted and turned. “Here. Let me smooth these for you.” She set about her task.

“You would have made a good nurse if you hadn’t of…” Ma regarded Benjamin. “I’m glad you’re here, too. I’m in desperate need of prayer, and I’ll take petitions from anyone with a voice.”

Pearl dried her mother’s forehead with a clean cloth. “Your head is as hot as a branding iron.” Pearl’s throat tightened.

“I know it. And I feel mighty puny.”

It wasn’t like Ma to admit she didn’t feel well. The confession worried Pearl.

“I don’t want to die. Not yet.”

Die! “You’re not gonna die, Ma.” Pearl hoped her words would prove true.

Ma took Pearl’s hands. “Please. Please pray for me.”

“I will, Ma. But first there’s something we need to do.” Pearl turned to Benjamin. “Fetch the preacher. If he’s not at church, try the parsonage next door.”

Benjamin nodded. “Right away.”

Ma’s voice rang out in the room. “No!”

“Ma! Don’t you want the preacher?”

“There’s not enough time. I know there isn’t. You’ll have to do.”

Ignoring her mother’s veiled insult, Pearl dropped to her knees and set her elbows on the side of the sickbed. “Lord, I pray You’ll see fit not to take my ma. I know the mansion You built for her in heaven is much better than anything she can have here, but she’s not ready to leave us yet. She feels so bad, Lord. Can’t You see her tossing and turning, doing her best to sweat out the fever? I know she has a lot of life left in her, and she wants to live it. Please grant her a few more years with us. Please.” Pearl felt tears drop down her cheeks.

She kept praying, not keeping track of time. During that spell, she noticed Benjamin’s presence beside her. He had joined her by the bed and was on his knees, too. Though he didn’t speak, his nearness consoled her. The fact that he had joined her in prayer made her sob.

She felt Benjamin’s arm around her. “Shh. You’ll wake her up with all that boo-hooing.”

“Wake her up?” Pearl studied her mother. Indeed, she had fallen sound asleep.

Ma’s aged features had softened far beyond anything Pearl could have imagined only a few moments ago. Deep wrinkles, brought on by years of toiling in the sun, weren’t as apparent as usual.

Unwilling to rise from her knees, Pearl scooted along the floor until her hand could reach her mother’s forehead and cheeks. When she touched her mother’s face, Pearl was relieved to find that her skin didn’t feel nearly as heated as it had before they prayed. The redness had left her cheeks, leaving in its stead the soft pink color she was accustomed to seeing in her mother. The woman’s breathing had become even. An occasional rattle that could once be heard in Ma’s chest had left. It was as if the years had floated away and a youthful Ma was taking a nap while her little children played.

Benjamin took her hand and lifted her to her feet. “Let’s go,” he whispered. “There’s nothing more we can do.”

A
few minutes later Benjamin and Pearl returned to the kitchen. “I can’t believe Ma is resting so well.” Pearl kept her voice low. “After the way she was acting so sick before, I can’t believe it, either. Let’s just hope she stays that way. Restful and feeling better.” Benjamin took his usual seat at the table and then looked at the entrance to the sickroom. “God sure acted fast, didn’t He?”

Pearl joined him at the table. “He sure did. Not that He always works that quickly. But I’m glad He did this time. Ma was suffering.”

Benjamin looked back at Pearl. “So you think our prayers had something to do with your ma’s fever breaking?”

“What else could it be? She begged us to pray for relief. As soon as we did, the fever broke.”

“We’ve been here awhile now. Wonder why she picked that moment in time to ask us?”

“I think she was too sick and desperate not to.”

Benjamin was thoughtful. “Maybe God does help people, after all.”

“Of course He does.” Pearl remembered Benjamin’s bitterness over how his brothers had deserted him at Sadie’s. “Just because you had a tough childhood doesn’t mean God wasn’t there.”

“But how could He expect me to find Him at Sadie’s? I didn’t go there on my own. But when I ended up there, I naturally fell into the gambling life. What else could I have done? If I’d had my druthers, I’d have done something else with my life if God hadn’t abandoned me.”

“Like what?” Pearl kept her voice gentle. She wanted to challenge him to think, not to alienate the only man she had ever loved.

Benjamin shrugged. “I don’t know. I might have been a blacksmith’s apprentice. Or worked at a shop in town. Or maybe even been a rancher.”

“You’re a rancher now. Of sorts.”

“I suppose I am.” Benjamin crossed his arms. “But it’s taken me an awful long time to get here.”

“Maybe God had a reason for you to take the long way around.”

“You took the long way around, too,” he pointed out.

“I’d like to think of my time in Denmark as a mistake. I learned a lot from straying off the path. I never will stray again.”

“I’m glad,” Benjamin said. “I don’t mean any disrespect against your ma, but I can see by the way she talks to you that you haven’t always had it easy. You never have had it easy, really.”

“Maybe not. But I haven’t had it as hard as some people. At least I do have a ma, and she does love me enough not to want me to suffer for an eternity out of the presence of God. I don’t want you to suffer, either,” Pearl said. “I want you to know God, but not because you’ve made some sort of bargain or deal with Him. You must seek His face because you want to know the Lord and because you want the Lord to be part of your life through all times, not just bad times.”

“Things have gotten better since I stopped gambling and cheating people out of their money. I feel much better now in my heart. I can see now, by the way things have turned out in my life, that God never abandoned me while I was at Sadie’s. But I sure can see a difference in my life now compared to then.”

“I can see the difference in you. And I can feel the difference in me, too. That was no life for me. Or you,” Pearl added.

“I do want a new life, Pearl. Pastor Giles said I can get baptized. I think I want to do that.”

Pearl gasped and touched Benjamin’s arm. “You do! Oh, Benjamin, I’m so glad to hear you say that. You’ve made me so happy!”

Ma called from the next room. “Pearl!” Her voice sounded strong.

“Ma!” Pearl jumped from her seat and rushed into her mother’s room. “How are you—?” She stopped. “Ma!”

The older woman was sitting upright in her bed without her back touching the pillow. Sickness had melted from her being. A smile decorated her face.

Pearl gasped. “Ma! What happened?”

“I—I feel better than I have in weeks. Why, I do believe the Lord cured me! Hallelujah!” Ma lifted her arms in praise. “Thank You, God, and thank you both for your prayers.” She threw back the covers and started to exit the bed.

Pearl hastened to stop her. “Don’t leap out of bed just yet. You might not be as strong as you think.”

“What do you mean? I should be able to get up and fix supper. Remember Peter’s mother-in-law in Matthew, how Jesus healed her of a fever? ‘And when Jesus was come into Peter’s house, he saw his wife’s mother laid, and sick of a fever. And he touched her hand, and the fever left her: and she arose, and ministered unto them.’ ” She shook her head at the young couple. “And if there’s anybody who needs ministering to, it’s the two of you.”

Pearl let out an exasperated sigh and watched her mother try to bound out of bed. As soon as she did, she sat back down.

“I’m a bit dizzy. Must be the vertigo,” Ma conceded.

Pearl helped Ma position herself back into a reclining position. “I’m not sure it’s vertigo. What I am sure of is that you’ve been in bed a long time, and you’re still weak. That’s nothing to be ashamed of. You’ll be as well as Peter’s mother-in-law was soon enough. Then you can minister to us all you want. And cook supper, too.”

“I’d like that.”

“Let me bring you some hot soup in the meantime.”

“I’d like that, too.” Ma’s voice sounded gentler than usual. She placed her hand on Pearl’s. “Thank you, Pearl. And thank you, Benjamin.”

Pearl nodded, unwilling to say anything that might discourage Ma’s gentleness. Perhaps her healing marked the beginning of a new era. A new era for them all.

“Now won’t you have another helping of chicken, Benjamin?” Ma asked him two weeks later as she served supper.

Benjamin set a clean drumstick bone on his plate. “Don’t mind if I do, Ma.” She’d asked him to call her by that name, but it still sounded strange to his ears. “It’s mighty good chicken.”

“I know I’ll never cook chicken as good as Ma can,” Pearl conceded, though she declined a second piece.

“Sure you can fry up a bird as good as I can,” Ma protested. “I’ll show you how. Again.”

Benjamin cut Pearl a look and tried to withhold a grin. Ma’s acerbic tongue would outlive her, most likely. “Pearl cooks just fine, Ma. No husband of hers would ever starve to death.”

“Is that so? Well, then, why don’t you find out?”

“What do you mean?” Benjamin knew exactly what she meant, but he wanted to hear her put her feelings into words.

“I mean, what are you waitin’ for, boy? Do you think a woman as pretty as my Pearl is goin’ to sit around here forever and wait for you?”

“Now, Ma,” Pearl protested, “you’re embarrassing me!” Reddened cheeks confirmed her statement.

“I thought you were long past the point where anything could embarrass you, Pearl. Although I must say, you do seem more modest than you used to.”

“I reckon I should thank you?”

“That’s a compliment. But if you’re lookin’ for an insult, I can give you plenty of those, too.”

“Ain’t that the truth?” Pearl asked no one in particular.

“Now, if you keep on talkin’ that way, I’ll tell Benjamin here that he can forget about asking you to marry him. He can go on about his business, and I’ll get Zeke Callihan to work for us in his place.”

“Zeke?” Pearl scoffed. “Now, Ma, I know you mean well, but I don’t want Benjamin to ask me to marry him just because you say he should. You wouldn’t do that, would you, Benjamin?”

He grinned. “I think you know the answer to that.”

With her fork, Pearl played with her mashed potatoes and didn’t look up. Benjamin had delivered the quip without the least bit of hesitation. Maybe he wasn’t planning to ask her hand in marriage after all. Not that she could blame him. She had asked an awful lot of him, that he come to a saving knowledge of the Lord and change his ways. From all appearances, he had done both.

Lord, You know what’s best. If Benjamin isn’t the one for me, let me know quick. I can’t stand the idea of waiting and wondering. But if he’s the one You have picked for me, please let him ask me real soon
.

“What are you daydreamin’ about, Pearl?” Ma asked. “Never mind. You’d best get goin’ on your chores. You took on a powerful lot more work while I was sick, and now you’ve got to be sure it all gets done.”

Leaving the general store in Rope A Steer, Benjamin reached into his pocket and fingered the little ring he’d bought for Pearl. He wouldn’t rest until he got it safely on her beautiful finger.