Dangerous Mercy: A Novel by Kathy Herman Page B

help. She was impatient with anything less than perfection. She didn’t fire people. She tormented them. Belittled them. Alfred had to pay a high price to keep people willing to put up with her relentless perfectionism.
    And then he died of a heart attack. He kissed her good-bye one morning and went to play golf. She got a call later that he was gone. Died on the way to the hospital—while she thumbed through the latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens, totally unaware that her soul mate had taken his last breath.
    Adele turned on the lamp. She picked up the picture and looked for a moment into Alfred’s eyes, then held the frame to her heart. If her baby’s death had driven her away from God, wasn’t it Alfred’s death that had brought her back? One night, while she was in the throes of grief and despair, she had watched a Billy Graham crusade on TV. His message of hope touched something deep inside her, compelling her to confess her corrosive attitude and all the emotional wounds she had inflicted on others—and ask God’s forgiveness. She invited Jesus into her heart and was filled to overflowing with His grace.
    Adele was a changed woman. Was it anything short of a miracle that her critical spirit had turned to genuine affection? Over time, she sought out the people she had hurt and apologized for her harsh words. And instead of pointing out the faults of those in her employ, she began to bring out the best. She came to regard them as extended family, even though her peers cautioned that fraternizing with the help was foolish and that someday it would cost her. But she hadn’t seen it coming—and certainly not from Zoe, the most trusted member of her household staff.
    Adele dismissed a pang of sadness. Why dig up unpleasant memories? She had forgiven Zoe’s transgression. And hadn’t the Lord used the painful truth to teach everyone involved the depths of His grace?
    Grace . Adele smiled without meaning to. It was significant that Zoe and Pierce named their daughter Grace, and perhaps, when the child was old enough to understand, they would tell her why.
    Adele yawned and captured it with her hand. How could she be this tired and still unable to fall asleep? Her treatment of Flynn Gillis was weighing on her. Isabel and Zoe had absolved her of guilt, but would the Lord agree that there was nothing more she could have done to show kindness to this young man?
    She could still see Flynn helping Murray move her furniture out of the bedroom. He was cocky. And unkempt. But he had been a soul in need of love, just like everyone else. Why hadn’t she reached out to him with kindness instead of keeping her distance and feeling relieved when he finally left? Hadn’t she promised the Lord that she would extend to others the amazing grace He had bestowed on her—the most unworthy of all?
    A knock at the door startled her.
    “Mrs. Woodmore? Are you all right?”
    “Come in, Isabel.”
    The door opened, and Isabel, dressed in her yellow nightgown, filled the doorway. “I noticed your light was on. Is everything okay?”
    “Yes. Yes. I’m fine. I just can’t sleep.”
    “Why don’t you take something on nights like this? You’re having entirely too many of them.”
    “I’ve gone eighty-six years without being dependent on pills. I don’t intend to start now.”
    “I could get you a cup of warm milk,” Isabel said. “That’s my drug of choice.”
    Adele didn’t especially like warm milk, but she didn’t want to deny Isabel the blessing of helping her.
    “Very well, hon. Maybe it will help. I really do need to sleep. I have to be up and presentable by nine, since the computer desk is being delivered. And I really don’t want to be exhausted when Murray comes to take me shopping.”
    A long moment of silence registered Isabel’s disapproval, and then she turned and walked toward the kitchen.
    Adele slipped on her robe and slippers, trying not to be annoyed with Isabel’s stubbornness and remembering