The Widow of Saunders Creek (34 page)

His hand tightened around mine, barely, and only for a second, but I felt a sense of peace. Still, I prayed while I waited for the ambulance. The rain finally began to fall. It dropped onto us. “I guess the barn roof leaks, Eli,” I whispered. I did my best to keep my hands over his face so he wouldn’t get rained on, but it didn’t do much good. While I waited and prayed, I looked him over. His head had a gash by his ear. That’s
where the blood was coming from. I wasn’t about to leave him, not even to go inside for a towel. He had gotten hurt because I wasn’t home, and I wasn’t about to leave him to get hurt again. But I needed to find something to stop the bleeding. There wasn’t much to my dress. No jacket or anything. “Oh,” I said aloud as I remembered I had put on a slip. It wouldn’t be very absorbent, but maybe I could use it to apply pressure. I stood, reached under my dress, and yanked it down, then stepped out of the undergarment. It wasn’t much, but I folded it and pressed it against the bleeding wound.

Eli mumbled something barely audible. My heart soared. If he was lucid, maybe he was okay.

I leaned down close to him. “What did you say, Eli?”

“I saw you take off your slip.”

For a second my mind registered only confusion. He saw me? Then I rolled my eyes. He was trying to tease me. Battered and wounded, and he was being Eli.

“You behave yourself,” I said, pressing harder against the wound as the blood began to soak into the worthless silky material. “Can you tell me what happened?”

“Kitty,” he murmured.

“Kitty?”

“I thought he was in the loft, so I climbed up.”

I turned to see the ladder. Close to the top, three rungs were broken. “You fell off the ladder.” Now it made sense. “Oh, Eli. You were going after Kitty and fell. I’m so sorry.”

“Shh,” he said.

I could see there was effort involved, and I wanted him to just be still. “Don’t try to talk,” I said, trying to control my tears.

I heard the sirens outside, coming up the road. “The ambulance is here,” I said. “I’m going over to the door to wave them in. Just be still.”

“Wait, Corrie. Wait.”

But I didn’t want to chance the ambulance missing us.

“I’ll be back.”

I waved to the ambulance, and they drove past the house to the barn. By the time I got back to Eli’s side, he was unconscious again.

I could tell as soon as I woke up that someone had filled me with painkillers. I was woozy and could barely stay awake.

“He’s coming to again.” My mom’s voice.

“Mom,” I said, keeping my eyes closed, not that I could open them through the drugs they’d given me. I heard her name come out, “Mum.”

“I’m here,” she said. She took my hand.

I nodded, wishing I had words or energy to ask for Corrie, but blackness overwhelmed me again.

The next time I remember waking, Corrie sat next to me in what looked like an extremely uncomfortable chair. Her legs were pulled to her side and covered up with a thin hospital blanket. Her eyes were closed, her head resting on her hand.

My heart swelled with love for her. Slowly, the memory of what had happened came back, from falling off the ladder—no, I was pushed by human hands—to seeing her take off her slip. I grinned. Her eyes opened, and she caught me staring.

“Eli,” she said, my name almost a gasp in her throat. “Oh, you’re smiling.” She stood, and the blanket dropped to her feet. Without bothering to pick it up, she stepped over and came to me. She took my hand. “How do you feel?”

“Like I could wake up every day to watching you sleeping next to me.” I’m sure it was the drugs talking, but hey, I wasn’t lying.

Mom came to the end of the bed and touched my leg. “The doctor said you’re one lucky guy. Especially after Corrie told us what happened. It’s not often a man can fall from that high up on a ladder and walk away with a concussion and a sprained arm.”

Relief moved over me. No wonder I couldn’t stay awake.

“You have a gash on your head too, and sixteen stitches,” Corrie said. She hadn’t dropped my hand.

Mom seemed to anticipate my next question. “The doctor said you can go home tomorrow. The blow to the head was pretty bad, and he wants to watch you one more night. And only if you have someone to watch over you.” I knew what that meant. Mom would insist I go to her house, and she’d likely win that argument, so there wasn’t any sense in attempting to talk her out of it.

“I’ve been here a whole night already?”

Mom nodded. “It’s Monday afternoon.”

I groaned. I’d never get the camp ready in time. “I wonder if I will need to cancel the camp. Or at least the first couple of weeks.”

Corrie shook her head. “Joe has that covered. He went after Lola before any of this happened, so he won’t be back for a couple of days, but he’s got some guys working out there. He told me to tell you not to worry about anything.”

“That’s a relief. I’ll call him as soon as they’ll let me use the phone. Wait, what do you mean he went after Lola?”

Mom cleared her throat. “I’ll leave the two of you alone.”

She patted Corrie’s shoulder on the way out, and I noted the love in her eyes. I guess when a person saves your son’s life, there would be nothing but love to reflect. I shifted my gaze back to Corrie. “So, Lola and Joe?”

“Oh, Eli, don’t bother about that now. You need to rest.”

“Sounds like something’s going on. I’d rather know about it than wonder.”

She pressed her lips together.

“You’re denying a wounded man?”

She gave a little laugh. “Oh my goodness. Fine. Lola left to drive back to Dallas without saying good-bye to Joe. She figured they couldn’t have a long-distance relationship, so she’d just hightail it back without the drama of good-bye.”

“And Joe went after her to change her mind?” I hadn’t realized how much Joe cared for Corrie’s sister.

She nodded. “Lola called earlier. They’re going to try to figure something out.” She shrugged. “I’m not sure what’s going to happen, but best-case scenario—for me—is for them to fall madly in love, get married, and live right in Saunders Creek.”

“I can’t imagine Joe as a city slicker.”

“I can’t imagine Lola as a small-town girl, but you never know.” She attempted a stern look but placed her hand in mine, and I felt anything but scolded. “Now enough about that. Okay? You need to worry about getting yourself all better.”

I lay there, enjoying the feel of Corrie’s hand in mine. I realized she was wearing the same dress she’d been wearing in the barn. “You’ve been here all night?” I asked.

“Yes.” The simple answer spoke to me as—more than a word—a promise. I dared hope she might love me the way I loved her. I wanted to be careful, though. If I moved too fast, I might lose her.

“I’m so relieved you’ll be okay.” Her breath caught in her throat.

I laced my fingers with hers. “You saved my life.”

She shook her head and tears filled her eyes. “You wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for me.”

Shock bolted through me. She blamed herself? “Why do you say that, honey?”

“Do you remember why you went into the barn?”

Looking at Corrie, all I could remember was the way her sweet face filled with worry while I lay on the barn floor. I gathered in a deep breath and closed my eyes so I could think back.

“Let’s see. I was sitting on the swing waiting for you to get home.”

“Do you remember hearing Kitty?”

“Yes, that’s what happened. The cat was whining, and I didn’t want you to come home and have to go find him, so I followed the meowing.”

“To the barn.”

I nodded. “The sound was coming from the loft, so I climbed up.”

“And you fell.” She sighed. “Because of my cat, who by the way got down by himself. I saw him on the back porch when I went back in to get my keys.”

“I remember falling.” But there was something else I couldn’t figure out. My head hurt just trying to remember.

Before I could put the foggy images together in my mind, two nurses came in. “Your mom told us you were awake.” One turned to Corrie. “We’re going to check vitals and look over the wound. You’ll need to step out.”

“Okay.” She turned to me with a reassuring smile. “I’ll be just outside the door, but I promise I’ll be back.”

Every part of me protested her absence. By the time the nurses left, the new pain medicine was taking effect, and I felt myself drifting to sleep.

I walked toward the little waiting area, where there was coffee and a vending machine with snacks. My stomach dropped when I reached it. Aunt Trudy and Ray were in the waiting room with Sam, drinking coffee.

Ray spoke first. He stood up and offered me his seat. “How is he?”

“Lucid and feeling better. The nurses are with him now.”

“Does he remember what happened?”

I nodded, and Ray’s expression went white. “It was an accident,” he said, his voice hoarse.

“We know. He fell off a ladder.” Who would have thought Ray would care so much? I still thought he was a bit of a creeper, but maybe I could overlook it, on occasion.

Aunt Trudy looked up at her grandson. Her eyes filled with compassion. “Tell them, Ray.”

Samantha frowned and looked at me as though I should know what they were talking about. I shrugged. “I don’t understand,” she said. “What’s wrong?”

He sat down in the seat across from me and looked at his grandmother and Sam, who sat side by side. He scrubbed his hand over his face and breathed out. His gaze met Sam’s. “Aunt Sam,” he began, “before she came”—he rolled his eyes quickly to me and then back to Sam—“I used to go to the home place. I visit a spirit there.”

Sam’s face went white.

He nodded. “Only it’s my great-grandmother I commune with.” He turned to me. “You know she’s there. You can’t pretend you haven’t felt her presence.”

I gathered a long, slow breath and leveled my gaze at him. “There was a demon in my house, Ray. It wasn’t your great-grandmother. It was an evil demon, and Jesus helped me make it leave.” I thought back to finding Eli on the floor, broken and battered. He’d said he was pushed. I stared at Ray as anger poured through me like acid rain.

Aunt Trudy’s eyes narrowed. “That was no demon. I would know if it was an inhuman spirit. What we felt that day was Jarrod. A wife should be able to tell the difference.”

“Believe what you want, Aunt Trudy,” I said. “I don’t want to offend you. And I know you have tried to help me make sense of all the strange things I’ve experienced, but I was deceived. Things happened in that house that I know would never be Jarrod. A
wife
would know her husband.”

She gave a
harrumph
and folded her arms across her chest. Clearly I wouldn’t convince her, but as I turned back to Ray, his expression crumpled and tears filled his eyes. Instead of addressing me, he turned to Eli’s mother. “Aunt Sam, she told me to push Eli.”

Taking in a harsh gasp of air, Sam stared at her nephew, horror widening her eyes. “Wh-what?”

I turned quickly and looked at Aunt Trudy, who shook her head vehemently. “Not me. He means his great-grandmother.” She frowned. “But that can’t be.”

Uttering a deep groan, Ray dropped to the floor, his head buried in
his hands. The hands that had nearly killed the man I loved. “I’m sorry. I don’t know why she’d tell me to hurt him, but I couldn’t help it. I just did what she said.” Tears dropped to the tiles as Sam stared down at him.

“We have to call the police,” she said, her voice strangely calm, though her eyes flashed anger.

Aunt Trudy looked as though she might protest, but Sam had already pulled out her cell and was dialing 911. Compassion rose in me as Aunt Trudy sat back; her shoulders slumped as tears filled her eyes. She nodded simple acceptance.

Before I opened my eyes the following morning, I saw Ray’s face in my mind’s eye. The night before I had agreed to see him, even though I knew from my mother what he wanted to say. He confessed that he was the one who pushed me and begged forgiveness just before an officer escorted him from the room. A soft sigh forced me to open my eyes. Corrie was again in the chair next to me, legs curled up, covered by a blanket. Her cheeks were tear-stained, and I remembered.

“She won’t leave,” a voice said. I looked to my right at the nurse who was checking my vitals with her computer. “I didn’t have the heart to send her away.”

“I’m glad you didn’t.”

Corrie stirred then, and her eyes opened. “Hey, you’re awake.”

I smiled at her, and she burst into tears. I reached out with my good arm, and she came to me. Bending, she laid her head on my shoulder and wept and wept.

If my heart had been any larger in that moment, it would have burst through my chest. I smoothed her hair and held her close.

Even when the tears were spent, she didn’t move, and I didn’t want her to. Finally, she pulled back and pressed a kiss to my forehead. I was pretty sure those lips had been designed by God for me.

Her beautiful blue eyes glistened as she looked into mine. Words failed me.

“I could have lost you,” she whispered.

“But you didn’t,” I said. “You found me.”

I pulled her close and her lips touched mine, sweet and warm and filled with hope.