wonderful.
Tell Father thank you for making the arrangements. Everyone here is sad to see me go, but not too sad. I’ll explain why when I see you. But I will tell you part of my secret. John and Henrietta are coming to our home for a visit. Not long after I arrive. You’ll be ever so happy when you see them again and know everything I have to say.
Be ready to carry some extra bags. Henrietta’s family has given me so much, and I have gifts for all of you, too.
See you very soon!
Love,
Julianne
~*~
I put the letter back into its envelope and set the stack aside. I felt like God. Like a God who saw the plight of his people and couldn’t stop their madness. They were blind while he was all-knowing, their free will taking them too far away.
“Why didn’t you stop her?” I threw my head back onto the sofa’s headrest and stared through the ceiling. I wished that by not reading more of her story I could prevent the inevitable from happening. But it did happen. She did come home, and she did eventually marry my great-grandfather. Then she left him for two weeks and was a marked woman from then on. “Why did you let her come home if she wasn’t ready to?” I asked, furious that neither God nor I could stop her.
I thought of the encrypted story Julianne had underlined in her Bible. Now I understood what I’d seen in the Old Testament that Kyle and I had deciphered. My breathing came harder when I recalled the words we’d found so far, the fragments of thoughts and sentiments she’d left behind. My heart wanted to explode.
“Why didn’t you stop her?” I demanded again, even louder this time, as I glared at the ceiling.
Chapter 15
“I moan like a dove;
my eyes look wistfully to the heights.”
Kyle sat across from me at my small table. The house was quiet, reverentially so, as Julianne’s letters and Bible lay between us. I had a small typewriter in front of me, to begin putting her story into readable text, and Kyle had the papers full of our transcription of the chain of underlined letters from her Bible.
“Are you ready to begin?” he asked, pulling the papers toward him.
“Almost,” I said, taking my fingers from the keys. He looked up. “Why?” I asked before we started. “Why did you keep her mailed letters to yourself all these years? You could have returned them to the house or you could have told people what you’d found. But you didn’t. Why not?”
I expected him to redden or look uncomfortable. Maybe even leave, or lie to me, but he did none of those things. He looked me in the eye, his own eyes tender with a compassion that made me sad. Sad it wasn’t in Trevor’s.
“I protected her,” he said.
I’d only read the top few letters so I could learn her story in the order she intended to tell it. They made her look innocent, a young woman with gusto and dreams. What could be misconstrued? No one would have cared about what was in them. But I did know the beginning of her story, the one in her Bible that told of her pain. It painted a different picture than the one her first letters gave. “She’s different than the first letters portray, right?”
He nodded. “I read them all,” he said simply. “And even after that I knew there was more somewhere.”
A familiar mixture of remorse and envy panged from within. What made this shy, retiring young man so much more valiant than we, Julianne’s own family? He was knightly. I wanted someone to fight for me the way he did for my great-grandmother. The way my grandfather had when my great-uncle Simon had tried to tear down this house. I couldn’t keep admiration from my thoughts as I looked at Kyle. I silently applauded him and hoped someday he’d find someone, a very fortunate someone, he could defend and stand beside.
“Thank you. For doing that,” I said. “I just had to know. I’m ready now.”
He made no move to read from our pages of letters and words from Julianne’s Bible. Instead he looked at me, the
Tell Father thank you for making the arrangements. Everyone here is sad to see me go, but not too sad. I’ll explain why when I see you. But I will tell you part of my secret. John and Henrietta are coming to our home for a visit. Not long after I arrive. You’ll be ever so happy when you see them again and know everything I have to say.
Be ready to carry some extra bags. Henrietta’s family has given me so much, and I have gifts for all of you, too.
See you very soon!
Love,
Julianne
~*~
I put the letter back into its envelope and set the stack aside. I felt like God. Like a God who saw the plight of his people and couldn’t stop their madness. They were blind while he was all-knowing, their free will taking them too far away.
“Why didn’t you stop her?” I threw my head back onto the sofa’s headrest and stared through the ceiling. I wished that by not reading more of her story I could prevent the inevitable from happening. But it did happen. She did come home, and she did eventually marry my great-grandfather. Then she left him for two weeks and was a marked woman from then on. “Why did you let her come home if she wasn’t ready to?” I asked, furious that neither God nor I could stop her.
I thought of the encrypted story Julianne had underlined in her Bible. Now I understood what I’d seen in the Old Testament that Kyle and I had deciphered. My breathing came harder when I recalled the words we’d found so far, the fragments of thoughts and sentiments she’d left behind. My heart wanted to explode.
“Why didn’t you stop her?” I demanded again, even louder this time, as I glared at the ceiling.
Chapter 15
“I moan like a dove;
my eyes look wistfully to the heights.”
Kyle sat across from me at my small table. The house was quiet, reverentially so, as Julianne’s letters and Bible lay between us. I had a small typewriter in front of me, to begin putting her story into readable text, and Kyle had the papers full of our transcription of the chain of underlined letters from her Bible.
“Are you ready to begin?” he asked, pulling the papers toward him.
“Almost,” I said, taking my fingers from the keys. He looked up. “Why?” I asked before we started. “Why did you keep her mailed letters to yourself all these years? You could have returned them to the house or you could have told people what you’d found. But you didn’t. Why not?”
I expected him to redden or look uncomfortable. Maybe even leave, or lie to me, but he did none of those things. He looked me in the eye, his own eyes tender with a compassion that made me sad. Sad it wasn’t in Trevor’s.
“I protected her,” he said.
I’d only read the top few letters so I could learn her story in the order she intended to tell it. They made her look innocent, a young woman with gusto and dreams. What could be misconstrued? No one would have cared about what was in them. But I did know the beginning of her story, the one in her Bible that told of her pain. It painted a different picture than the one her first letters gave. “She’s different than the first letters portray, right?”
He nodded. “I read them all,” he said simply. “And even after that I knew there was more somewhere.”
A familiar mixture of remorse and envy panged from within. What made this shy, retiring young man so much more valiant than we, Julianne’s own family? He was knightly. I wanted someone to fight for me the way he did for my great-grandmother. The way my grandfather had when my great-uncle Simon had tried to tear down this house. I couldn’t keep admiration from my thoughts as I looked at Kyle. I silently applauded him and hoped someday he’d find someone, a very fortunate someone, he could defend and stand beside.
“Thank you. For doing that,” I said. “I just had to know. I’m ready now.”
He made no move to read from our pages of letters and words from Julianne’s Bible. Instead he looked at me, the
Similar Books
