Novel Excerpt: Ch2- Almighty Whispers in My Soul

please note-- this will be much more fulfilling, and make more sense if you've read Chapter 1-- thanks! 

     I didn't think it was proper for Nathaniel to mention conditions on Lucy's welcome in our home under the circumstances. But I remembered he didn't really know the real story. He was still hiding Lucy from his best friend with no understanding of why. It was a strong test of his devotion to me, and I had to admit he was passing with flying colors.

     I called Mama and told her Lucy was with me, and was safe.

     "At least she isn't with Dennis," she said.  "That boy has gotten her in enough trouble."

     "She walked here, Mama." I said.  "In her bare feet."

     Mama was quiet on the other end.

     "I'll come get some of Lucy's things later. She may or may not come. Depending on if she feels up to it.  I want to talk to you and Daddy about something anyway."

     I hung up without giving her a chance to answer. I was shaking a little myself, nerves over being the one to line things up the way the Lord intended. I had to convince my parents to leave the farm, and let Nate and I take it over. Nate loved being on the land, even if he and Daddy never got along. That's how he had courted me in the first place; he'd taken his mom's Bonneville out at five in the morning before he was even legal to drive it and find me doing chores out in the chicken house.

     It had been Lucy's job to brush and feed the horses; the only thing anyone could get her to do with any consistency.

     "Not that it doesn't any good," Daddy used to say. "She'll just hop on one like an Indian on a mustang, wear the poor creature out, and spoil it with apples until it doesn't want to work anymore."

     With Nate's help, my chores were done in record time. We'd fill baskets full of apples, and bring them to Denny's mom, who was far more interested in making pies or apple pancakes than my Mama ever was. Despite her willingness to follow my Daddy back to Minnesota she never did settle into the role of farmer's wife any more than Daddy settled into the role of being a farmer.

**

     It was under one of the apple trees where Nate had kissed me for the first time when we were thirteen. It had been Denny's dad's turn to host the poker game, and we all piled into his sister Susie's car to stay out of their hair. Mama was home too, but Susie was the babysitter, mostly to mind Lucy, since the rest of us were teenagers and could take care of ourselves.

     Denny had entered a phase where he was obsessed by all things disgusting, so we gave him the job of gathering the rotten, worm-filled apples that had fallen from the tree. Nate and I were looking for good ones. I reached under a low branch where I fit better than he did. I turned around, smiling after scooping up the perfect apple and it happened.

     I told him my Daddy had warned me about loose Lutherans.

     Nate took the apple from me and took a bite.  "They blame it all on an apple, don't they?' he said.

     Denny had filled his basket of rottens, and asked us if we had found any good ones.

     "Yeah," Nate told him. "I think I did."

     I crawled out from under the tree and Nate helped me to my feet. He squeezed my hand an extra second and smiled. I felt myself blush.

     "Jesus Christ!" Denny said.

     "Shut up," Nate told him. "Go kiss your sister." It was long before Denny had even considered kissing mine.

**

     "Lucy had a suggestion," I told Nate. "I think it's a pretty good one."

     "Really?" he said. "What's the idea?"

     "She thinks we should take over the farm.  I think you'd be good at it."

     "I'm not taking charity, Molly," he said. "And I don't care how big that place is, I'm not moving in with your parents, even if Lucy needs you to protect her."

     "I don't think we should live with them. I think it might be time for them to move on is all. My Daddy never really liked farming anyway."

     "Your Daddy never really liked me."

     This was true. When we were all little, in the same class, Nate and Denny and me, Daddy predicted that Nate would be the one to weasel his way into my affections when the time came.  Loose Lutherans, he said. He wanted me to hook up with some boy from St Anne's.  He used to hire them sometimes to help on the farm, direct them in chores where they'd have to walk past me in hopes of distracting me from Nate. It never worked. They preferred to walk past Lucy anyway, until Denny knocked one of them into a manure pile for winking at her and saying the wrong thing.

     Daddy had been more accepting of Denny and Lucy's coupling initially. At least Denny came from a decent family, even if they were Lutheran.

     Nate's mom worked like a dog at TownMarket, and had been rumored to have had an affair with the store manager, who was married man. It launched a scandal, and led to her to take her trip to Minneapolis to see her brother, and ultimately stay there. Nate's parents may have been locked into matrimony when he was conceived and born, Daddy said, but that boy was a bastard if there even was one.

     "I don't want them around the baby," I told Nate.

     "Molly, they're your parents," he said. "Flawed as they are, they're still there, which is more than I can say for mine."

     "Nathaniel, did you look at Lucy?"

     He nodded.

     "I've tried to protect her my whole life from Daddy's abuse, and Mama's complacency. I'm tired Nate. I don't want to take that chance with the baby. If I'd been a boy they would've handed me the deed at the wedding reception and hopped on a plane with a bottle of sunscreen. Daddy was passed the farm on his wedding day. It's a tradition. Besides, it wouldn't be a free ride. Lucy would come with the bargain."

     Nate kissed me. "We'll talk to them," he said. "I'm not making any promises, but we'll talk."

     Lucy decided to come along and pack for herself when we made our way out to the farm. I convinced Nate to take Lucy out by the stable for a few minutes, feed a couple apples to the horses for a few minutes while I talked to my parents alone. I wanted them to know how much I condemned them in my heart for what Daddy and Larry did to Lucy. I wanted Mama to know how despicable it was to pass the blame to Denny. But most importantly, I wanted them both to realize that Lucy had been able to convince Nate that Lucy was only beaten, and it had been her idea to keep quiet about the rest.

     Daddy still wanted to give me the credit for talking some sense into my sister.

     "I wanted to have the both of you thrown in jail," I said. "It's Lucy that won't have it. It was Lucy that realized that pressing charges against Larry would be a blow to the economy."

     "She means it would be a blow to her boyfriend's economy," Mama said.

     "So what if she does?" I said. "Denny has treated her better than anybody."

     "Except for you," Mama said. "It's time for you to put away your misguided devotion to your sister and pay proper attention to your husband. You're a married woman, Molly. You better understand what that means."

     Nathaniel walked in with Lucy, who immediately headed upstairs to pack. "She understands fine, Mrs. McMillen," he said. He turned to my Daddy, who was staring into a cup of coffee, "Sir," he said. "If you have a minute my wife and I would like to speak to you."

     Nate and I had gone over as much of the meeting as we could imagine. We decided it would be best if Nate took charge, and I retreated into a supportive role.

     Nate had a way of getting inside Daddy's head that I never would've thought of, despite Daddy's Lutheran/Catholic prejudices Nate realized that there had been many similarities in their rearing that might soften him into a proposal.

     Both of their fathers had left when they were young, before they had a chance to know them.

     "Your father was a bum," Daddy said. "My father was a soldier."

     Nate didn't argue. "Point taken," he said. "My father was a bum, fortunately he didn't stick around long enough to teach me to become one. But your father stuck you with this place, instilled in you a sense of Patriotism and loyalty to your family, qualities I admire, Sir."

     "Don't be a suck up," Daddy said. "Get to the point."

     "The point is you never wanted this land, you were stuck with it.  Your brothers betrayed your family, much like my father did mine."

     "Like your mother did too," Daddy reminded.

     "My mother moved on when I was grown. You have every right to do the same."

     "I have another daughter," he said.

     "Whom we'll gladly care for, as long as she needs us."

     "How do I know you're not going to run my family legacy into the ground? What do you know about farming?"

     "Only what I've seen you do, Sir, and what I've helped Molly with the last few years. I know I have a lot to learn. I'll have to work hard, hire help when I need it."

     Daddy laughed.  "Hire help with what? The Halifax family fortune?"

     Nate started to get up. He had a look in his eye as if he was going to lunge at Daddy. I wouldn't have blamed him, but I knew it could blow everything.

     "There's something else, Daddy," I said. "We're having a baby."

     I could see Daddy doing the math in his head. He looked at Nathaniel.  "You son of a bitch," he said.

     "He's my husband," I told him. "We were married, in the Church. Before God."

     "Congratulations, Sweetheart," my Mama said. It surprised me. It was the closest she'd ever come to taking my side. Daddy looked at her.

     "She's defending her husband, Sean, the way God intended. And she's carrying our grandchild."

     Daddy went into the refrigerator to grab a beer. He looked at Nate from behind the door.  "You want one?"

     Nate shook his head. Daddy shrugged and sat back at the table. "You're willing to work for this?"

     "Absolutely."

     "I could use some help this summer," he said. "I'll hire you as a farm hand, pay you accordingly. We'll talk again after the harvest."

     "Thank you, Daddy," I said.

     I had to hire someone," he said. "Which reminds me, I have work to do."

     Daddy went outside and I kissed my husband to toast our victory.

     "You haven't won yet, Molly," Mama reminded.

     "But the round's over," I said. "And I still have cards to play."

     Nate noticed Lucy at the top of the stairs with a large suitcase and went up to help her. "We done here?" he asked her.

      Lucy looked at Mama. "Yeah," she said. "We're done."