Dinner at the St. James Read online

Tave watched as the three guests walked down the steps and headed for the livery stable. She was about to ask Daniel what had happened when her father stepped onto the porch. “I think you two have a lot to talk about. I’ll be in my office if you need me.”

  Daniel took her hand and led her back to the chairs. When they were seated, he faced her. “I can’t believe what has just happened.”

  Tave didn’t know whether to be scared or excited. She frowned and squeezed his hand. “If you don’t tell me what’s going on right now, Daniel Luckett, I’m going to start screaming.”

  He leaned back in the chair and laughed. “Reverend Somers has wanted to leave Willow Bend Church for a while, but he didn’t know who could take over as pastor. He told Reverend Collins how I’d filled in, and Reverend Collins remembered me from our meeting in Montgomery. They want me to take Reverend Somers’s place.”

  Tave’s mouth gaped open. “They want you to be the pastor?”

  He nodded. “Reverend Somers said that all the people really like me, and he thought they needed somebody young to take over.”

  “What did you say?”

  Daniel shrugged. “Well, I told them I wasn’t a real preacher. I’m not ordained. I just study the Bible, and I still have a lot to learn.”

  Tave scooted to the edge of her chair. “And?”

  “And they said that didn’t matter. They still learned something new from the Bible every day. I told them we were getting married in a few weeks, and they thought that would be perfect. Reverend Collins said if we’d come to Selma, he would plan an ordination service for me at his church. Then I could come back and start the work here. Reverend Somers said his house belongs to the church, and we can live there. He doesn’t want to take all his furniture, and he’ll leave some of it for us.”

  Tave stood up and pressed her hand to her forehead. “I can’t believe this.” She paced across the porch, turned, and retraced her steps. “A preacher? I never expected this.” She stopped in front of him. “Did you give them an answer?”

  He rose and took her hand. “I told them I’d pray about it, but I wanted to talk to you first and see what you thought.”

  His blue eyes stared at her, and she recalled the day he’d been shot and had looked up at her. She’d stared into the depths of his eyes and had somehow known God had great plans for him. She’d prayed for him, and God had proven her right by bringing them to this moment.

  She cupped his face with her other hand. “I think you’ll make a wonderful preacher.”

  He bit his lip. “But what about you? It won’t be easy being the wife of a pastor.”

  She smiled. “I know, but if that’s what God has planned for us, we’ll make it fine.”

  He pulled her to him and hugged her then held her at arm’s length and smiled. “I wish I knew where that gambler that shot me is right now. I’d sure like to shake his hand and thank him for doing me a favor. The day he shot me was the luckiest day of my life.”

  ❧

  Daniel ran his finger around the inside rim of his shirt collar and then tugged at the tie knotted at his neck. He didn’t know if it really was the hottest day of the year, or if he was perspiring because he was so nervous. Across the room, Dante Rinaldi leaned back in a chair and scraped underneath his fingernails with the tip of a pocketknife. He didn’t appear hot at all.

  Dante glanced up and grinned. “It won’t be long now. The bride and her father should be arriving outside the church any minute.”

  Daniel rubbed the back of his neck and took a deep breath. “Is it hot in here to you?”

  Dante laughed and stood up. “It’s just nerves. I doubt if there ever was a man who wasn’t nervous on his wedding day.”

  Daniel ran his hands down the front of the new suit he’d bought at Mr. Perkins’s store. “Do I look all right?”

  Dante slapped him on the back. “You look fine, but don’t worry. Nobody’s going to be looking at you. Everybody’s eyes are going to be on Tave.”

  The thought made him smile, and he felt his face grow warm. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. I think I am a little scared. A lot’s happened to me in the past few weeks. I’m about to become the pastor of a church, and the most wonderful woman in the world is marrying me.”

  Dante nodded. “You remind me of how I felt when Savannah and I got married. I was scared to death that day. We didn’t have any family, and I had to drive her to the church. All the way to her house, I was scared she’d changed her mind.”

  “But she didn’t.”

  Dante’s eyes grew wistful. “No, she didn’t. And I thought I had to be the luckiest man in the world. Just like you feel today.”

  They both grew silent, and Daniel knew Dante had to be thinking of his wife just as Daniel was now thanking God for Tave. “Dante, I appreciate your standing up with me today. You’re a good friend.”

  Dante smiled. “And so are you, Daniel. Of course from now on, I guess I’m going to have to be on my best behavior around you.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you’re going to be my pastor. I don’t want to come to church and hear you preaching to me about all the bad things you see me doing.”

  A vision of standing in the pulpit and lashing out at the congregation over their sins flashed into Daniel’s mind, and he laughed out loud. “Don’t worry. I’m sure God just wants me to preach His Word.”

  “Sounds like you’re going to make it fine, my friend.”

  The door opened, and Reverend Somers stepped into the room. “Well, Tave and her father are at the front door of the church. Are you ready to go meet your bride, Daniel?”

  The heat he’d felt a few minutes earlier disappeared, and his spirit calmed. What he’d dreamed about and thought impossible was about to happen. Tave was going to be his wife. He breathed one more prayer of thanks and took a deep breath.

  “I’m ready.”

  ❧

  Her father crooked his arm and smiled down at Tave. She slipped her arm through his and gazed up at the dear man who had dedicated his life to caring for her. Soon she would be Daniel’s wife, and perhaps someday she would be someone’s mother. But in her heart, she would always be her father’s little girl.

  Tears flooded her eyes. “Oh, Poppa, I’m scared.”

  He smiled and patted her hand. “You shouldn’t be. You’re about to start a wonderful new life with a man who loves you very much, and you’re going to be the wife of a preacher. How could I want any more for you?”

  “But what about you? Who will take care of you?”

  He chuckled. “Don’t worry about me. I can take care of myself. Besides, it’s not like you’re moving off to the far side of the earth. You’re going to be right outside of town. And you’ll come to my office and help out some.”

  “I will.” She tilted her head and stared up at him. “Do you think I did the right thing giving up my job at the school?”

  “I think so. Daniel’s going to need a wife to help him, and I know God’s going to use you in a great way.”

  The church door opened, and Tad Thompson grinned at them from inside. “Miss Bonnie’s about to start playing the pump organ, Miss Spencer. Are you ready?”

  She nodded. “I am.” She stood on tiptoes and kissed her father on the cheek. “I love you, Poppa.”

  He stared into her face, and a tear glistened in the corner of his eye. “I love you, too, darling. You look just like your mother today. I just wish she could be here to see you.”

  The first chords wheezed from the organ, and Tave and her father stepped to the door. At the end of the aisle, Daniel stood waiting for her.

  ❧

  Nothing could have prepared Daniel for the vision Tave presented as she walked down the aisle on the arm of her father. She wore her mother’s wedding dress, and to him, she looked like a queen, just as Dr. Spencer had thought of his bride many years before.

  Her gaze locked with his, and the assembled friends vanished from Daniel’s vision. In the stillness of the chur
ch, he saw only her. His soul reached out to her in that moment, and he felt a bonding like he’d never known in his life. This was the woman God had chosen for him, and he would cherish her for the rest of his life.

  Daniel’s breath caught in his throat as they stopped beside him. He smiled at her before he directed his attention to Reverend Somers.

  The pastor stepped forward and looked from Tave to her father. “Who gives this woman in marriage?”

  “I do,” Dr. Spencer replied. He leaned over, kissed Tave on the cheek, and placed her hand in Daniel’s. With a smile on his face, he turned and walked to his seat on the front pew.

  Tave’s hand felt warm in his, and Daniel’s pulse pounded. He wrapped his fingers around hers and directed his attention back to the pastor.

  “Dearly beloved,” Reverend Somers said.

  Daniel heard the drone of the pastor’s voice, but he could only concentrate on Tave next to him. He had little recollection of the responses he made to the questions asked, but from the shy smile Tave directed at him, he knew he answered.

  Then with the final vow taken, Reverend Somers uttered the words that sent Daniel’s heart soaring. “I now pronounce you man and wife.”

  Daniel and Tave turned to face the congregation, and she slipped her arm through his. They walked up the aisle, nodding to those on each side, and made their way to the door. Outside, Dante and Savannah waited in their buggy to drive them back to her father’s house. There they would receive all their friends who’d come to share this day with them.

  Daniel helped Tave into the backseat and climbed in beside her. Savannah reached back and squeezed Tave’s hand. “It was a beautiful wedding. You look so happy.”

  Tave’s eyes sparkled, and she gazed up at Daniel. “I’ve never been happier.”

  Daniel stared into his wife’s eyes and marveled at how God had blessed him. He had left home after his mother’s death and wandered for years. In all that time, he’d been consumed with hatred that threatened to destroy him. Tave and her father had shown him how to find peace through faith in God, and he had been blessed more than he would ever have thought possible.

  He leaned over and whispered in his wife’s ear. “I can still hardly believe it. We’re married.”

  She grinned. “Yes we are, Mr. Luckett.”

  He pulled her close. “I love you, Mrs. Luckett.”

  Mrs. Luckett. No words had ever sounded sweeter to him.

  ❧

  Tave stood on the balcony outside their room at the St. James Hotel and stared at the river that wound past. Two boys, their fishhooks in the water, sat on the bank not far upstream. They hadn’t moved since she’d been watching them.

  The door behind her opened, and she sensed Daniel’s presence. He walked up behind her, circled her waist with his arms, and drew her back to rest against his chest. He bent forward and whispered in her ear. “What are you doing out here?”

  His breath tickled her ear, and she smiled. “I’m looking at the river. I think it’s so beautiful when the sun’s going down, and the last rays are reflecting off the surface.”

  He tightened his arms around her. “That’s not the only beautiful thing I see out here.”

  She laughed and patted his hands. “I’ll assume you’re talking about me, so I’ll take that as a compliment.”

  “You should.” He rested his cheek against her, and they stared across the water.

  She laid her head back against his chest. “I thought the ordination service was beautiful today. I was so proud of you. I shed a few tears when you addressed the group afterward. I know you’re going to be a great pastor.”

  “We won’t have a lot of money, but we’ll be happy because God will take care of us. We’ll always have what we need. I have faith that God will provide for us.”

  “I do, too.” A thought flashed across her mind, and she laughed. “I just remembered something.”

  “What?”

  “The day I first saw you, Savannah had driven me from the school to Poppa’s office. We were talking about falling in love. I told her that sometimes my romantic side wished that I could meet a handsome young man who would sweep me off my feet, but I doubted that would ever happen. Less than five minutes later, I saw you for the first time.”

  He nuzzled her ear. “And what did you think?”

  She laughed. “I gave you up for dead. But then you opened your eyes. When I stared into those blue eyes, it was as if God told me I had to save you. It was as if I knew God had great plans for you.”

  “For us, Tave.” He kissed her hair. “We had a visitor while you were out here enjoying the scenery.”

  She turned in his arms to stare up at him. “Who?”

  He released her, reached in his pocket, and drew out an embossed leather case. Her eyes grew wide with excitement. “My daguerreotype came.”

  He nodded and opened it. “What do you think?”

  She took the picture in her hand and stared at the shiny portrait they’d had made the day before. She was seated in a chair, her wedding dress spread out and her hands clasped in her lap. Her chin trembled, and she fought to hold back the tears. “I look just like my mother.”

  “Since your father gave you the one of your mother, I think we need to put the two of them side by side on the mantel in our new home. What do you think?”

  She threw her arms around his neck and drew him close. “Thank you, Daniel, for having this made for me. I love you so much.”

  “And I love you.”

  Downriver, a steamboat whistle sounded, and Daniel glanced at the river. “That sounds like the Carrie Davis coming upriver.”

  “I wonder if some of the passengers will stay here tonight.”

  “We’ll soon know.” He pulled out his pocket watch. “It’s almost time to eat. Are you hungry?”

  She closed the daguerreotype case and pressed her hands to her stomach. “I’m starved, Mr. Luckett.”

  He smiled, and her heart leaped at the love she saw in his eyes. “Good. There’s a table waiting for us in the dining room.” He crooked his arm and extended it to her. “Mrs. Luckett, it would be my honor to escort you to dinner at the St. James.”

  About the Author

  SANDRA ROBBINS and her husband live in the small college town where she grew up. Until a few years ago she was working as an elementary school principal, but God opened the door for her to become a full-time writer. Without the help of her wonderful husband, four children, and five grandchildren who have supported her dreams for many years, it would be impossible to write. As a child, Sandra accepted Jesus as her Savior and has depended on Him to guide her throughout her life. It is her prayer that God will use her words to plant seeds of hope in the lives of her readers. To find out more about Sandra and her books, go to her Web site at www.sandrarobbins.net.

  Dedication

  To Vera, Martha, and Nancy for your service in our church library. You are a blessing to our members.

  A note from the Author:

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  Sandra Robbins

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