Part 2 (1/2)

”Carrie, it's good to see you,” a farmer's wife whom she hadn't seen in years said.

Carrie returned her warm greeting, but couldn't help feel surprised by it.

”Stop by and see what we've done to the old place,” the woman added. ”You won't recognize it.”

”Thanks,” Carrie responded, feeling even more surprised by the invitation. She couldn't remember the

last time she'd been in anyone's home in Sunville but Maddie's. The woman turned to talk to someone

else, and Carrie gently steered Maddie into the sanctuary. The trio was ushered to a pew Carrie selected near the back. Bette went in first and then Maddie. Carrie took the seat on the center aisle in the event a problem arose and they had to leave.

Ironic, she thought, that she had taken a seat where escape would be easy with her aged grandmother as the parents with the tiny baby on the other side of the aisle had done. ”We can't bear to leave our new baby in the church nursery just yet,” she heard the young mother explain to someone.

Carrie caught a glimpse of the baby's serene face peeking out from the soft folds of the pastel blanket. She looked away to tamp down the longing she felt for a child of her own. If only that persistent longing for a child would disappear and leave her heart in peace, but the closer she got to thirty, the stronger it grew.

Chapter Three.

The blue-robed organist captured Carrie's attention as he came in the door behind the pulpit and took his seat at the organ that the church had purchased recently. She didn't recognize him.

He made her realize how long it had been since she'd come to church services here. On her visits, she usually slept late while Maddie went to church with Bette. Then after Sunday dinner, she would drive back home to Fargo.

Carrie looked down to see a broad smile filling Maddie's face. Maddie reached for her hand and squeezed it as if to tell Carrie that everything would work out for the best. Carrie returned her smile and wished she could feel as optimistic.

The organ melody changed and from behind the pews the choir began to sing and march up the center aisle. The congregation stood and joined them in the opening hymn.

Carrie held the psalm book she shared with Maddie and sang while Maddie watched the pa.s.sing faces. Without looking back over her shoulder toward the aisle, Carrie could hear the sopranos, altos, and then the tenors and ba.s.ses as they filed past beside her.

After a short break, she heard a strong baritone voice. Carrie a.s.sumed it belonged to the new preacher who would be walking in behind the choir.

Wanting to get a look at him up close so she would recognize him in order to put in a good word about the lawn-service man, she looked back over her shoulder at his face.

Two familiar pale-blue eyes looked directly at her. The man's face suddenly sparkled with a broad grin of recognition.

Carrie stopped singing in mid-word and gasped. He was the lawn-care guy! The man behind the lawn mower who had awakened her yesterday morning had been the minister.

Heaven, help me. I scolded the pastor for making too much noise!

Carrie felt light-headed. She quickly looked down at the hymnal, only to have to tighten her grip on the book when it started to slip from her trembling fingers. She closed her eyes and pressed her hand against her churning stomach.

At the end of the hymn, Carrie sat down abruptly and paid close attention to the church service. Never had she seen the sanctuary so full of wors.h.i.+pers. Whatever the new pastor with the penetrating eyes was doing, he seemed to be doing it right.

Even though attentive to Maddie's needs, Carrie found her gaze riveted on the minister. He had a charisma that she could feel all the way to where she sat.

When it came time for the sermon, there was none of the fussing and s.h.i.+fting positions from the congregation that she was familiar with in the Fargo church she had attended while she was a student at NDSU.

During the service, Carrie thought she felt the pastor's gaze return again and again to her. It had to be her imagination. From so far away, she couldn't tell exactly where he was looking.

The staccato of the rain on the tall, frosted-gla.s.s windows accompanied the congregation for the closing hymn. As he had done before the service, the pastor followed the choir along the center aisle. Without looking up as they pa.s.sed, Carrie sang along with the others. She leaned over and adjusted the hymnal for Maddie at the moment she heard the baritone voice approach. Only after the rich voice had pa.s.sed, did Carrie trust herself to straighten up.

After the service, Maddie became the center of attention. Apparently she hadn't been to church for several weeks. Now as before the service, Carrie was thankful the talk was not about her--or Ralph.

”It must be wonderful having your granddaughter home to take care of you now,” a lady friend said. ”I was so afraid they'd put you in the nursing home,” she added as if it were a terrible fate not worth considering no matter what the circ.u.mstances.

Carrie stoically accepted the guilt these comments heaped on her. Unable to escape by any other route, she and her companions joined the others in the flow that led out the front entrance, right past Reverend Newhouse.

A few times he looked up and their gazes locked. Then someone in front of him would say something and the fragile connection was broken when he looked down.

Carrie grew increasingly uncomfortable the closer she got to him. She felt foolish for what had happened yesterday. If she'd only known who he was.

Instead of looking for a place to hide, which crossed her mind, Carrie concentrated on pulling on her coat and helping Maddie and Bette into theirs. There would be no escape for her.

Her gaze went back to the black-robed figure just a few feet ahead of her. With a vigorous handshake from one of the teenagers in line, a shock of his hair fell across his forehead. His hand slid effortlessly through the errant strands, pus.h.i.+ng them back before he took the next hand offered him.

Carrie wiped her damp palms on her raincoat. Had she truly wanted to run her fingers through that tousled hair to push it back herself? Please, G.o.d, don't let this be happening.

Almost there.

As friendly as the man seemed to be, she could only hope that he would make as little fuss as possible. She would apologize, and she and her companions could go home quickly.

Then he spoke to them and all of Carrie's plans were swept out the main door with the summer breeze that always blew on the prairie.

”Bette, Maddie, how good to see you ladies out on this rainy morning,” he announced, taking a thin, age-spotted hand gently in each of his.

”I wouldn't miss one of your sermons, my dear boy,” Bette announced.

Carrie's eyes widened at her referring to this man as a boy. Definitely wrong.

”Peter, I want you to meet Maddie's granddaughter,” Bette told him along with Carrie's name. ”She's come to arrange things for Maddie. Carrie, dear, this is Reverend Peter Newhouse.”

He held out his hand to her. Carrie extended hers and watched it disappear into his.

”How do you do?” she managed, feeling heat rise into her cheeks. Her breathing became shallow.

Would he say something about her reprimand? How could she apologize when she didn't even want to bring it up?

”Carrie, is it?”

”Well, my name's Carolyn, but everyone has called me Carrie since I was little,” she responded, thinking