Fervent Charity by Paulette Callen Read Free Book Online Page A

spread it out on the table in the living room. Even the men took time to marvel at its detail, and even though the initials of the maker were in the corner of each piece, people enjoyed trying to guess who had fashioned which square.
    Gustie found Lena lingering over one piece in particular—the most unusual and deceptively simple in design. “I just love this one. I wonder who made it?” Lena couldn’t place the initials JMR.
    Gustie looked over her shoulder. “Which one?”
    “This one.” Lena fingered the outline of a horse against a background of light brown material. The horse was worked in a feathery stitch that resembled light brushstrokes in shades of blue, orange, yellow, and black, intermingled so that they gave a kaleidoscopic effect, changing depending on the angle from which it was viewed and the play of the light.
    Gustie broke into a radiant smile. “Oh! I know who made that.”
    “You do?”
    “Yes.”
    “Well, who, then?”
    “Jordis.”
    “Oh. My!” Lena was once again teary-eyed. It had been that kind of day. However, between the tears and the chatter, the laughter and good wishes, something had disturbed Lena. She had seen something. A moment of observation had opened a door, which closed again before she could get her mind around it. She was left with a feeling of unease, and it was maddening that she retained the feeling but not the memory of what had triggered it. Probably nothing, she thought. It’s just this house. The place might be clean and uncluttered, but it was still Ma’s house, and things had happened here, leaving their haunts in the walls and the floors and no amount of scrubbing and airing and letting in the light would get rid of them. Nothing but a match would do that. Lena pushed the unease to the back of her mind and visited with her neighbors.
    The women tended to gather in the living room around Lena, while the men, after paying their respects to mother and child and filling up their plates, ended up outside, where more tables and chairs had been arranged. Will stayed out there most of the day, and Lena hoped and prayed that nobody had brought any whiskey to pass around. Who in this town didn’t know Will’s problem with the bottle?
    She needn’t have worried, because Alvinia had spoken to Carl, who had in turn dropped a word here and there among the men that no one was to let Will Kaiser near a drop of whiskey. Alvinia had been stern in her warnings. Nothing and no one were to mar this day for Lena. Hadn’t she been through enough in the last couple years? Alvinia also made it known to Carl, who somehow got the news to Harlan Gudierian, that the horse doctor was not welcome. Maybe it wasn’t fair, Alvinia conceded. Harlan had been asked to attend Lena that day of Gracia’s birth, and maybe he had done his best…but Lena couldn’t stand the sight of him and really, neither could Alvinia. Fair or not, he should stay home.
    Twice during the day, Lena withdrew to nurse Gracia in the spare bedroom upstairs. The first time, she was joined by Alvinia. She tried again to express her thanks, but Alvinia cut her off. “We had a lot of fun doing this, Lena. I didn’t know Mary Kaiser well before, but I have to say she worked like a trooper—on her hands and knees on the floors and then pulling out all of Ma Kaiser’s tablecloths and finding not one that wasn’t frayed or didn’t have a stain or hole, so she brought over her own. She brought her own flower vases and some pretty bowls and cake plates. I never knew she had such lovely things! Gustie was no slouch either. She brought us groceries and a jar of floor wax and another one of furniture polish and she worked right alongside us. I never saw such work and we all were laughing all the time. Why, I even saw Nyla smile once.”
    “No!”
    “Yes, I did!”
    “Well, the place does look fine. What did you do with all the mess?”
    “The boys took a lot to the attic. And if you look under the beds and in the