The older woman gasped. The man on the roof dropped his hammer, and it skittered down the shingles to plop harmlessly into the shrubs.
“I used to answer to that name,” the woman said. “I’m Stella Greenleaf now.”
“Oh.” The last hope that Stella was blissfully sheltered within the loving arms of her forbidden lover in a high-desert paradise evaporated. Marianne wished she could run away and pretend this meeting had never happened, but she was here now and had to see this through. “I’m Marianne Magruder. Clyde Magruder is my father.”
The older woman pressed a hand to her chest. “My goodness,” she finally stammered.
The news seemed to have rendered Stella speechless, but not so her husband. Mr. Greenleaf was standing on the roof, both hands braced on his hips. “Who threw you out?” he called down. “Clyde or old Jed?”
“No one,” she answered. “I figured out it was time to leave all on my own.”
“Hang on. I’m coming down.” Mr. Greenleaf was remarkably nimble as he reached the edge of the roof, lowered himself to plant a foot on the porch railing, then sprang to the ground. He wiped a grubby hand on his trousers before offering it to her, his eyes dancing with laughter.
“I’m Joseph Greenleaf,” he said. “This is my wife. You’re welcome to join us for lunch if you can stomach lousy egg salad.”
Stella threw a dish towel in his face, but he caught it, and both of them started laughing.
Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad.
Perhaps she’d been naïve, but Marianne had assumed she would be automatically welcomed into Aunt Stella’s home. That wasn’t the case.
“You have the whiff of a girl who is running away,” Stella said as she brought Marianne a sandwich in the compact kitchen near the back of the house.
“I’m a photographer,” Marianne defended. “I’m taking pictures out west.”
Joseph scrutinized her, chewing his disagreeable egg salad sandwich while his dark, relentless gaze made her shift in her chair. He finished his sandwich, drained a glass of milk, then slammed it down. “Tell us what really drove you all the way across the country, and we’ll be glad to support you howeverwe can. But I don’t want any trouble from the Magruders, and I don’t want to open my home to a woman with secrets.”
She told them everything, including the scandal of her illegitimate birth and the ill-fated romance with a man her parents disapproved of that led to his imprisonment.
“I agreed to leave Washington in exchange for his freedom, and my father took the deal.”
“And you intend to honor your word?” Joseph demanded, his voice and face stern. “No running off to your young man now that he’s out of jail?”
She would honor her word to the letter. “I vowed not to initiate contact with him, and I won’t. I’m more than two thousand miles away.” If Luke managed to contacther, however, all bets were off. “All I ever wanted was a normal family. I don’t think that’s too much to ask for.”
“That’s it?” Joseph demanded. “You ran away to the desert hoping that it would magically give you a normal family?”
“It’s a lot more complicated than that,” she said, glancing uneasily at her aunt. Why was Stella letting her husband interrogate a virtual stranger like this?
“Maybe you’re hoping for the wrong things,” Joseph said. “Maybe you should start looking for a stronger faith, or victory over temptation, or the strength to extend a bit of grace to someone even if they don’t deserve it at all. How about demonstrating a bit of godly obedience?”
Resentment built inside her. She just saw this man practically shout himself hoarse over his wife’s egg salad, and he had the gall to challenge her character?
“I don’t know what I’m looking for!” she burst out. “I’m not a perfect person, and I’m lugging around an avalanche of guilt over what I’ve done. If I knew how to fix it, I wouldn’t be here.”
Joseph and Stella retreated outside to discuss what was to be done with her. This wasn’t the sympathetic welcome she’d expected. Hadn’t they once been young and insanely in love?Hadn’t they risked everything to elope? More than anyone, they ought to be understanding of her plight.
“All right, you can stay,” Joseph said when he and Stella finally returned to the kitchen. “Sometimes it’s good to escape into the wilderness for a while to sort things out. You can stay for forty days, a good solid biblical number that will be time enough to get your priorities straight. You are to send a telegram to your parents, assuring them you are safe and being looked after. We’re not rich like the Magruders, so I’ll be putting you to work. Stella and I both work at the silver mine west of town, and there will be a job for you there. I’m a pastor, so you’ll be going to church on Sundays, and you can help me finish building the bell tower on Saturdays.”
Joseph leaned forward to pierce her with a hard, disconcerting look. His voice was firm as he continued. “And at the end of each day, in the quiet of night while the world sleeps but your soul awakens and searches, I want you to think about why you felt compelled to run here and what role God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit ought to have guiding your choices in the future.”
She rocked back in her chair. Well! She’d never had a preacher size her up so bluntly before, and she didn’t like it.
But that didn’t make him wrong, and she reluctantly agreed to Joseph’s conditions.
Thirty-Three
Luke couldn’t find Marianne, and it was driving him crazy. She had quit her job at the Department of the Interior, and three consecutive days spying on the Magruder town house revealed nothing.
