Madysen had a bad feeling in her stomach. Even though Whit had said she could handle Judas alone, it didn’t sit right with her. So she headed toward the door.
It opened.
Whitney stood there. Her face ashen.
“What happened?”
“I need to sit down.” Her older sister put a hand to her stomach.
Madysen led her back into the parlor where John, Havyn, and now Daniel stood waiting.
Once Whit was in the chair, she put her face into her hands. Then she looked up, tears brimming. “It’s so much worse than I expected. I can’t believe I allowed this to happen!”
“What?” Everyone asked at once.
Maddy gripped Daniel’s hand. He was still so weak—would he be able to handle this? But she desperately needed him with her.
Havyn pulled a chair closer to their sister. John stood right behind her.
“The deed ... all of this that he just told us? It’s to get me to marry him.” She stood up. “I’m guessing he wants Granddad’s farm.” Her eyes widened. “I bet he took the mercantile from Martin as part of the plan too. The man is evil. Pure evil. How did we not see this?” She put a hand to her forehead.
“The mercantile?” Daniel looked down at Madysen and squeezed her hand. “What’s going on?”
As Whit told them everything––from Peter going into town to get supplies and discovering the mercantile run by someone else, to Martin and Granny being sick, to her going to Judas’s office to confront him, to his threat outside just now––it made more sense. The man had lost his mind, or so it seemed. Who would act this way? Do these horrible things?
But the dread built in Madysen’s gut. “What are we going to do?”
Everyone began to talk at once.
Then someone whistled. They turned toward the sound. Dad stood there, his hands on his hips. He stepped toward them, a deep furrow in his brow. “Let me get this straight. Judas Reynolds is trying to swindle my family?”
If steam could come out of a man’s ears, Madysen imagined she would see it at that very moment. “Dad ... we’re all upset. But we’ve got to keep our heads about us. No one needs to go off and lose their tempers.” She grimaced at her sisters. “Even though we all would be prone to do just that.”
“Fine. I won’t lose my temper. But I’m going to pay him a visit.”
Whitney reached their father first and grabbed onto him. “Oh no, you’re not.”
And the discussion started up again.
“Before we do anything, we’d best get on our knees and pray about it.” Daniel’s voice cut through the chatter. “It’s not just our livelihood on the line here.”
Madysen looked up at her wonderful husband.Thank You, Father for this man You’ve given me.“I agree.”
“And then,” her husband continued, “I need to go visit my dad and Granny. You can discuss what we need to do as a family, but my father is sick and he’s lost the business he loved.”
“Of course. As much as I want to barrel into town and take matters into my own hands, I know that’s not right. Thank you for being a voice of reason.” John drew them into a circle. “Let’s pray right now. And like Whitney said to Judas earlier, we know that God has got this under control. We have to wade through the muck and mire together and keep our eyes on Him. He will deal with Judas Reynolds.”
“Let’s join hands.” John took his wife’s hand on one side and Whit’s on the other.
After a good hour of prayer together, Madysen was more refreshed than she had been in a long time. Tears had flowed down her cheeks, and she’d heard sniffles from others as well.
“We really should do this more often,” she said after Daniel’s “amen.” He’d had to sit after only a few minutes, but his voice had grown stronger as they prayed.
“Agreed.” Havyn smiled and hugged her husband. She turned to their older sister. “You gonna be all right, Whit?”
“I’m fine. I’m mad, but I’m fine.” She pulled her hankie out of her pocket.
Daniel wrapped an arm around Madysen’s waist, and it made everything right with the world. Oh, how she adored this man.
