Tracie Peterson (33 page)

“Come with me today. Come to the Blackwell’s church and be at my side. It is important to me and I only ask because it would mean a great deal.”

“But why now? Why is it suddenly so important to you?” Darlene felt fear constrict her chest. It was difficult to breathe.

Abraham smiled lovingly and put his hand upon her arm. “Because today, I will accept Jesus into my heart.”

“What!” She jumped up from the table. “You can’t be serious!”

“Darlene, I have never been more serious. These long months I have searched for answers to questions that have eluded me all of my life. The knowledge given to me through the
Tanakh
and the New Testament has answered those questions.”

“New Testament?”

Abraham smiled tolerantly. “It’s the story of Jesus and His followers. It tells how believers in Christ should act and live. It filled my longing and took away my emptiness.”

Darlene thought of her own longing and the emptiness that haunted her. She swallowed hard and sat back down in a rather defeated manner. “Then you are no longer of the faith. What of your friends and the shop? You will become as dead to them.”

“Most likely,” Abraham agreed. “But then, they haven’t exactly been very friendly these last months anyway. I make a good living from people who are not Jewish, so the shop should not suffer overmuch.”

“But Hayyim will leave us. How will you manage to work without help?”

“I’ll advertise for a Christian. There must be plenty of Christian young men who would take up the job of tailoring.”

Finally Darlene had to ask the one remaining question. “What of me? What of us? The cantor says I should leave you and live with Esther. He says you are a traitor and that should you reject your faith, I must leave or face the possibility of becoming a traitor as well.”

Abraham shook his head. “There is nothing between us that must cause us to part. Come with me today and I believe you will come to understand my choice. In time, you may well come to make that choice for yourself and when you do, I want to be at your side.”

Darlene stared at the table rather than meet her father’s joyous expression. How could she be so sad when he was obviously so happy? How could she, who had listened to the words and advice of her father for all of her life, now reject his words because they seemed rash and contradictory to everything he had taught her?

“Please come with me today.”

His pleading was more than she could bear. In that moment Darlene knew that should she be forever branded a traitor, she would still go with her father wherever he asked her to go. “I’ll come with you,” she whispered in a voice that barely contained her grief.

Abraham leaned over and kissed her on the head. “Thank you, my little soul. You are all that is left to me on this earth.”

Darlene was still thinking about his words when the Blackwells’ carriage arrived and Dennison Blackwell stepped down to greet them. Darlene had put on her best gown, a pale-blue muslin with huge gigot sleeves and lace trimming around the neck. It was a simple dress, yet it was her finest. In her mind she had imagined Pierce taking her by the arm to lead her into his church, and it was then that she wanted to look her very best.

“Good morning, Abraham, Darlene,” Dennison said in greeting. “Have you ever known a more perfect day?”

“It is very lovely,” Abraham said, then took hold of Darlene’s arm. “My daughter will come with us today. Is there room in your carriage?” He looked up at the open landau where Eugenia and Constance Blackwell sat on one side, while Pierce occupied the other.

Dennison was at first quite surprised, but quickly enough a broad smile crossed his face. “There is plenty of room and you are very welcome to come with us, my dear.”

Darlene felt her heart give a lurch when Pierce stood up and held out a hand to assist her up. “We’re very glad to have you join us,” he announced, while Eugenia gave her a harsh look of disdain. “You may sit here with Constance and my Aunt Eugenia.”

Darlene put her gloved hand in his and allowed him to help her into the carriage. Eugenia looked away, while Constance smiled most congenially and made room for Darlene to sit in the middle. Abraham took his place between Pierce and Dennison and without further fanfare, they were on their way.

Immediately, Darlene was painfully aware of the contrast to her best gown and the Blackwell women’s Sunday best. Constance wore a beautiful gown of pink watered silk. The trimmings alone were worth more than Darlene’s entire dress. Tiny seed pearls decorated the neckline and heavy flounces of lace trimmed the sleeves and skirt. Her hair had been delicately arranged in a pile of curls and atop this was a smart-looking little hat complete with feathers and ribbons. A dainty pink parasol was over one shoulder to shade her from the sun and around her throat lay a strand of pearls, all perfectly white and equally sized.

Eugenia, of course, was attired even more regally in mauve-colored satin. Darlene tried not to feel out of place, but it was obvious to anyone who looked at her that she felt completely beneath the standing of her companions.

Dennison introduced her to his sister and daughter, but only Constance had anything to say. “It’s so nice to have you with us.”

“Indeed it is,” Pierce said with great enthusiasm.

The church service was unlike anything Darlene had ever known. The women and men sat together for one thing, and somehow Pierce had managed to have her seated between himself and Constance. She was very aware of his presence. The smell of his cologne wafted through her head like a delicate reminder of her dreams. She couldn’t suppress the fantasies that came to her mind and while they joined in to sing and share a hymnal, Darlene wondered what it might be like to marry Pierce and do this every Sunday.

What am I thinking?
She admonished herself for such thoughts, while in the next moment her heart betrayed her again. To be the wife of Pierce Blackwell would mean every manner of comfort and luxury. It would mean having gowns of silk and satin. It would mean never having to worry about whether enough suits were made to pay the rent and grocer. She stole a side glance at Pierce. He caught her eye and winked, continuing the hymn in his deep baritone voice. Marriage to such a man would also mean love. Of this she had no doubt. Pierce Blackwell would make a most attentive husband.

The minister began his sermon by praying a blessing upon the congregation. Darlene watched for a moment, then bowed her head and listened to his words.

“Heavenly Father, we ask your blessing upon this congregation. We seek Your will. We seek to know You better. We ask that You would open our hearts to the truth, that we might serve You more completely. Amen.”

Well,
Darlene thought,
that wasn’t so bad.
She relaxed a bit. Maybe this wasn’t going to be such an ordeal, after all.

The minister, a short, older man, seemed not that different from the cantor. He wore a simple black suit and while he had no beard, his mutton-chop sideburns were full and gave the appearance of at least a partial beard.

“It is good to come into the house of the Lord,” he began. His words were of love and of a deep joy he found in God. Darlene couldn’t help but be drawn to his happiness.

“God’s love is evident to us in many ways,” the minister continued. “God watches us with the guarded jealousy of a Father to His child. You fathers in the congregation would not allow a thief to sneak into your homes and steal your children from under your watchful eye, and neither does God allow Satan to sneak in and steal their hearts and souls.

“Just as you provide for your children, so God provides for us, His children. If your child was lost, you would seek him. If he was cold, you would warm him. If your son or daughter was hungry, you would give your last crumb of bread to feed them. So it is with God. He longs to give us good things and to care for us in His abundance.” Darlene was mesmerized.

“God wills that none should be lost. He gave us His Son Jesus Christ as a gift of love. Seeing that we were hopelessly lost, separated by a huge cavern of sin and despair, God sent his Son Jesus, to reconcile us to the Father. Is there anyone here who would not try to rescue your child from a burning house? Would any of you stand idly by and watch your children drown? Of course not. And neither would God stand by and watch us sink into the hopeless mire of sin and death, without offering us rescue.

“But what if you reached out a rope to your drowning child and they refused to take it? What if you tore open a passage in the burning house, but your child refused to come forward? So it is with God, who extends to us salvation through Jesus Christ, only to have us refuse to accept His gift.” Darlene felt as though the minister was speaking to her alone. She’d never heard such words before. No wonder her father found himself confused. No wonder he questioned his faith.

“Will you be such a child?” the minister asked. “When God has offered you a perfectly good way back to Him, will you reject it? Will you throw off the lifeline God has given you in His Son? Will you die without knowing Christ as your Savior?”

Darlene could hardly bear the now-serious expression on the minister’s face. He seemed to look right at her and, inside her gloves, Darlene could feel perspiration form on her hands. She wanted to get up from her seat and flee from the building, but she couldn’t move. Should the building have caught fire and burned down around her, Darlene knew that it would have been impossible to leave.

The minister spoke a short time more, then directed those who would receive Christ to step forward and publicly declare their repentance. Her mouth dropped when Abraham stood. She had known he would do this, but somehow watching it all happen, she didn’t know what to think. A kind of despair and trepidation washed over her. It was as if in that moment she knew a wall had been put in place to forever separate her from her beloved Tateh. A wall that she could only remove if she accepted Christ for herself.

As if sensing her fears, Pierce put her hand over hers and gave it a squeeze. This gesture touched Darlene in a way she couldn’t explain. It was as if he knew her heart, and that somehow made it better.
Does he understand my loss?
she wondered.

Hearing a confession of faith from the man who had nurtured her so protectively, Darlene felt all at once as though he’d become a stranger to her. And yet, was it this that disturbed her most? Or was it the words of the minister? Words that made more sense than she would have liked to admit?

The ride back home was spent in animated conversation between Dennison and Abraham, and Pierce and Constance. Eugenia remained stubbornly silent, while Darlene felt her mind travel in a million directions. All of which brought her continuously back to the dazzling smile and penetrating brown eyes of Pierce Blackwell.

“I’m glad you took time from the shop to accompany us today,” Pierce told her.

“Do you work in your father’s shop?” Constance asked in complete surprise.

Darlene nodded. “Yes. I do sewing for him.”

“How marvelous. Tell me all about it,” Constance insisted.

Eugenia harrumphed in obvious disgust and with that simple gesture, Darlene saw all her girlish dreams of marriage to Pierce fade. Of course, there had never been any real possibility of a lowly Jewess marrying a rich Christian socialite, but she had felt at least comforted by the possibility.