Measure of Grace (21 page)

“All right,” said Knight, opening a desk drawer and taking out a sheet of paper. He picked up a pencil. “What do you want to say in the ad?”

Jordan thought on it for a moment. “Tell you what, Knight. You’re the man of words. How about you write it for me?”

“If that’s the way you want it.”

“You’re the newspaper man. That’s the way I want it.”

With Jordan looking on, Knight wrote the ad for him. When it was finished, Knight handed it to him and said, “Read it over carefully now and see if there are any changes you want.”

As Jordan read the finished product, a smile spread over his face. Looking at his friend, he said, “Perfect! I like it very much. It’ll catch many a female eye.” As he spoke, he handed it back to him.

“Okay,” said Knight, “I’ll wire the ad to a dozen eastern newspapers. From what I know about the mail order bride system, you no doubt will get many responses from eager young women. The ads should be in the papers within a week, and you will probably start getting letters within two to three weeks.”

“Good,” said Jordan, rising to his feet. “What’s the charge?”

“Nothing from the
Sentinel
. The newspapers back east will send their bills here to me. I’ll turn them over to you when they come.”

Jordan grinned. “You should charge me something, too.”

“Friends don’t do it that way.”

“I appreciate it, ol’ pal. Now, just one thing …”

“Mm-hmm?”

“This must be kept a secret. Just between you and me, all right?”

“Of course. Just between you and me.”

As Jordan mounted his horse and headed for the ranch, he smiled to himself, knowing it would shock Belinda and both families when his new mail order bride arrived, but the stress he had suffered over the Belinda situation would be over.

O
N
W
EDNESDAY
, O
CTOBER 16
, at the same time Knight Colburn was writing the mail order bride ad for Jordan Shaw in Idaho, Martha Morrow was in the operating room at the Richmond Hospital in Virginia.

Derick and Diana sat close together on a threadbare sofa in the waiting room. Hands clasped in their laps, shoulders hunched, they tried to encourage each other, but often slipped into deep thoughts of their own.

Head bent low, Diana stared at the well-worn hardwood floor that had been paced and scuffed by countless feet over the years.

Outside in the hall, Chief Constable Bob Perry stopped at the nurse’s station and was informed that the Morrow siblings were in the waiting room next to the operating room.

When Perry drew up to the door, he paused as he set sympathetic eyes on Derick and Diana, who were the only ones in the room. They were not yet aware of his presence.

Children should not have to suffer at the hands of a father who is out of control
, he thought.

Taking a step into the room, Perry was still unnoticed. Both young people were bent over, staring at the floor. The chief constable coughed lightly to get their attention.

Both heads came up, and when Derick and Diana saw him, they rose to their feet in anticipation of the news he was bringing them in regard to their father.

Perry moved up to them. “Hello, Diana, Derick. How is it going with your mother?”

“Her shoulder is definitely dislocated, Chief Perry,” said Diana, “and the bone in her upper arm is fractured. They should be through working on her soon from what a nurse told us about twenty minutes ago. Of course, it will be some time before she is awake so we can see her.”

Perry nodded.

“So what about our father?” asked Derick.

“He’s going to spend a month in jail for assaulting Tom Wymore, and Judge Weathers has ordered him to pay all of Tom’s medical bills.”

Brother and sister exchanged glances.

Derick released a weary sigh. “We don’t even have the money to pay Mama’s medical expenses. How will we ever pay for Tom’s as well?” he muttered. “And with Papa in jail, he can’t even earn any money.”

Diana patted his arm. “We’ll make it somehow, Derick. Right now our biggest concern is Mama. Somehow we must protect her from this horrible thing ever happening again.”

Derick set his jaw, rolled his narrow shoulders, and said in a brave, determined voice, “Papa better never touch her again, or he’s gonna answer to me.”

Discreetly hiding a grim smile, Perry laid a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “Judge Weathers told me if your mother will press charges against him, Derick, he’ll sentence him to a year in jail.”

Derick looked at his sister again, then at the chief constable. “Mama won’t do that, sir. I know it.”

“Right,” said Diana. “She knows if she did, when he got out, he would come after her with a vengeance.”

Perry sighed and shook his head. “Well, I guess the best you can wish for is that the month in jail will be enough time for your father to realize his mistakes, and not let himself repeat them.”

“We can only hope so,” said Diana.

At that moment, the doctor who had been working on Martha came through the door. All three turned to face him.

“Hello, Chief,” said the doctor.

“Hello, Dr. Bates.”

To Derick and Diana, Bates said, “We were finally able to get
your mother’s nosebleed stopped. The puffiness around her eye has made it close completely, but it will heal in time. We put her shoulder back in place, and we set her arm. She has a cast on it and will carry the cast in a sling. It’s going to be quite a while before she’s back to normal again. She won’t be able to do much in the way of cooking and housework until the cast is off.”

“We’ll see that she has all the help she needs,” Diana assured him.

“Good. She is bound to get a little discouraged at times, so she’ll need all the encouragement you can give her.”

The doctor turned to Perry. “Something has to be done about Mr. Morrow, Chief. Martha can’t take any more of this kind of punishment.”

“I understand,” said Perry. “Stu can be jailed for a year if Martha will press charges. But that’s as far as the law can go. I’m glad, at least, that her injuries are not worse.”

“So are we,” said Derick.

Perry ran his gaze between brother and sister. “I’ll come back and see your mother tomorrow. I must, by law, ask her if she wants to press charges.”

The siblings both nodded silently. Perry excused himself and left.

Dr. Bates said, “You can see your mother in an hour or so. She will be in a room by then, and the anesthetic will be wearing off. One of the nurses will advise you as to what room they put her in.”

Almost two hours had passed when a nurse came into the waiting room, approached Derick and Diana, and said, “You are Mrs. Morrow’s children, right?”

“Yes, ma’am,” said Derick.

“She’s in room 212. You can go down there now, but you should only stay ten minutes or so. She needs to rest.”

They assured the nurse they would make it a short visit, thanked her, and hurried to room 212. As they stepped into the room, they saw their mother in the first bed, and another woman in the bed by the window.

Martha was still groggy from the chloroform, but she managed a weak smile. “Hello, sweet babies,” she said.

They both greeted her quietly, saying they loved her, and bent down one at a time to kiss her cheek.

Diana laid a hand on her mother’s good arm. “Dr. Bates said you will be fine. It’ll just take a little time.”

Martha nodded slowly.

“When you get home,” said Derick, “you are going to be a lady of leisure. You’re going to sit and rest while your daughters cook and your sons clean house.”

Martha managed another weak smile, then looked toward her roommate. “Laura, this is my daughter, Diana, and my son, Derick. Children, this is Mrs. Laura Thomas.”

Both greeted her politely, then Laura said, “I am recovering from surgery that I had three days ago. Your mother hasn’t been awake very long, so about all we’ve done is introduce ourselves to each other. I’m wondering what happened to her.”

Brother and sister looked down at their mother questioningly.

“You might as well tell her,” Martha said. “She will hear the nurses talking about it, anyway.”

Derick stepped to the side of Laura’s bed, and in brief, explained that his father had lost his temper and beat his mother severely.

Laura’s facial features tightened, and a compassionate look showed in her eyes. “Oh, I’m so sorry, Martha. I didn’t know. I didn’t mean to pry. Please forgive me.”

“You weren’t prying,” said Martha. “You were only being kind enough to show interest. There’s nothing to forgive.”

“Chief Perry came to see us in the waiting room, Mama,” said Diana.

“He told us Papa will be in jail a month for what he did to Tom.”

Martha closed her eyes, opened them again. “A month.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“And Judge Weathers says he has to pay all of Tom’s medical bills,” added Derick.

“Chief Perry told us that the law says he has to present you with the opportunity to press charges against Papa,” said Diana. “He’s coming to see you tomorrow.”

Martha’s already pallid face went sheet white. “Oh no! I can’t. You know what he would do when he got out.”

“We told him you wouldn’t press charges, Mama,” said Derick. “And we told him it was because of what Papa would do to you. But he still has to come in his official capacity as chief constable and give you the opportunity to press charges. He said if you did, Judge Weathers would sentence him to a year in jail.”

“A year?” Martha said, her voice quivering. “It would only make things worse.”

The trepidation that was in Martha’s eyes touched Laura’s heart. She wanted to say something encouraging, but she couldn’t find what she felt were the proper words.

Diana said, “Mama, the nurse told us not to stay but ten minutes or so. We need to go so you can get some rest.”

“Right,” said Derick. “We’re going to Tom’s room and see him before we head for home.”

“I hope he gets well soon,” said Martha.

Diana bent down and kissed Martha’s cheek. “I love you, Mama. You rest, now.”

Derick kissed her cheek also. “We’ll see you tomorrow, Mama. I love you.”

Martha said, “I love both of you so much. Tell Deborah, Daniel, and Dennis I love them, too. I wish the hospital didn’t have the rule that a child has to be at least sixteen to visit someone here. I’d love to see them.”

“You’ll be coming home soon,” said Diana in a soothing tone. “It was nice meeting you, Mrs. Thomas.”

“Yes,” said Derick. “It sure was.”

Laura smiled warmly. “Since your mother is in that cast, I’ll ring the bell for her anytime she needs a nurse.”

Both of them thanked her, then started toward the door, heartsick over their mother’s condition. They paused at the door and looked back at her tired, bruised, and battered face. She looked so pathetic in the cast and with the black-and-purple eye that was swollen shut. Their faces showed the anguish they were feeling.

“Please go on home and take care of the younger children for me. Like you said, Diana, I’ll be home soon.”

Derick and Diana, still reluctant to leave her, held onto each other, looking at her with sad eyes.

Summoning up all her strength, and making an effort to smile again in spite of her battered mouth, Martha said, “You will do me more good by taking care of them than by staying here—as much as I love having you. I’ll be fine, and when you come back tomorrow, I’ll look much better. I promise.”

“All right, Mama,” said Diana. “We’ll do as you say.”

Both took a lingering look at their mother, then left.

Laura’s gaze was fixed on Martha as she released a pent-up sigh, and a pained look etched itself on her features. “Martha, you’re hurting. Would you like for me to call a nurse? I’m sure they can give you something to relieve the pain.”

Martha swallowed hard and turned her face toward Laura. “Yes, please,” she said in a strained whisper. “Even the light makes my head and eyes hurt.”

When Derick and Diana entered Tom Wymore’s room, they found his parents there, standing beside the bed. Zack and Ruth Wymore gave them a cold look.

“Hello, Diana, Derick,” said Tom through the slit in the bandage on his face and jaw. “Nice of you to come by.”

“Tom is supposed to rest,” Zack said curtly.

“That’s right,” came Ruth’s frigid agreement.

Diana stepped ahead of her brother, drew up close to the bed, and said, “We’ll only stay a moment. Tom, I just want you to know how sorry I am for what my father did to you.”

Ruth’s face flushed red. The veins stood out prominently on her neck as she said bluntly, “It would be best, Diana, if you and Tom don’t see each other anymore. If the two of you hadn’t been talking there on the street, this wouldn’t have happened.”

Tom reached out and touched his mother’s hand. “Mom, I told you it wasn’t Diana’s fault. It was I who approached her.”

Zack said grimly, “Tom, since Stu Morrow feels toward you as he does, it really is best that you stay away from Diana.”

Diana said, “Mr. Wymore, it isn’t Tom in particular that my father dislikes. He doesn’t want me in contact with any young man.”

“I told both of you,” said Tom, “that Diana warned me about
her father when I approached her. But I thought I could reason with him, so I went against Diana’s warning and tried to talk to him. Please don’t blame her. It’s my fault.”