A Life Worth Living (11 page)

“What a quaint little town!” Dora said. “And it’s only been here twenty years?”

He nodded, but devoted all of his attention to his skittish horses. Several other horses were tied along Main Street, and he had to watch his team closely to prevent a ruckus if any of the other animals as cantankerous. Canaan didn’t cover much territory, so they were soon out of town, and in a short time Allen pointed ahead to a two-story redbrick house.

“That’s where we’re going.”

“Why, it’s a mansion!” Dora exclaimed. “Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a home like that?”

Recalling the picture he’d seen of the Porter mansion near New York City, he was somewhat surprised that Dora would consider this so noteworthy. Allen didn’t comment, but he was pleased that she liked the area. Hopefully she would also enjoy this Christmas visit with his closest friends.

“That’s a lovely home,” Dora said, and her eyes were alight with interest.

“You’re referring to the building, of course, and I agree
that it’s quite a mansion. But it’s what goes on inside the house that makes it so special. Evelyn and Vance love one another so much that it’s always a blessing for me to visit them. Since I was separated from my parents after I came north, I’ve been blessed because Evelyn has never failed to include me in their family observances and holidays.”

“I’m still not sure I should have come,” Dora said, and her forehead wrinkled into a slight frown. “Christmas is family time, so I hope they won’t mind my presence.”

“They won’t. You have no worries. You met their daughter, Marie, at the Vanderbilt’s open house.”

“I sort of remember her, but there were so many strangers there, I didn’t get to know anyone very well.” She smiled. “Except you, of course!”

Favoring her with an oblique glance, he asked, “Are you sorry?”

With a mysterious smile, she answered, “What do you think?” Then in a more serious tone, Dora added, “No, I’m not sorry. Coming to North Carolina has changed my life. In fact, I don’t feel that I’d ever really ‘lived’ before. I spent years wrapped up in myself, never thinking much about the future or anyone else. You’ve talked to me about having a new birth spiritually, but I also believe that I had a new birth psychologically.”

When Allen pulled his team to a halt in front of the brick house, a black man came from a nearby house to take charge of the team.

“Hello, Jasper,” Allen said as he stepped from the buggy. “Do you have time to look after the team?”

“Yes sir, I sure do.”

Allen lifted his hand to help Dora step from the buggy. “I brought my friend, Dora Porter, with me. Jasper and his wife, Fannie, have worked for the Boldens most of their lives.”

Jasper tipped his hat. “Pleased to meet you, ma’am.” Jasper set out their two suitcases before he climbed into the buggy and headed the team toward the barn, located on a knoll behind the house.

When Allen opened the gate in the picket fence, the front door opened and a tall, handsome man stepped out. Two women followed him from the house.

“I see you brought company, Allen,” the man called. “Come in out of the cold, and introduce me to this lovely lady.”

“This is my friend, Dora Porter. She owns the textile mill in Fairfield.”

Allen’s heart swelled with pride in Dora while Vance and Evelyn welcomed her so warmly. She didn’t seem ill at ease, nor was she condescending, and goodness knows she had reason to be if she wanted to. This was a spacious and elegant house, but nothing compared to what her father owned.

Motioning to the woman beside him, Allen said, “This is Marie.”

Dora greeted Marie, saying that she remembered her. “Allen said you wouldn’t mind if I joined you today,” she said to Evelyn. “I’d have been alone in Fairfield if I hadn’t come here.”

“You are surely welcome,” Evelyn said. “Allen has written about your work in Fairfield, and it will be good for you to have a few days away from the mill.”

Allen and Dora were served coffee and pastries im-mediately, and afterward Evelyn asked Marie to prepare an upstairs bedroom for their guest.

After Marie and Dora went upstairs to the bedroom, Allen addressed Evelyn. “Thank you for allowing Dora to come today.”

Evelyn smiled. “Should we expect an announcement from the two of you before long?”

Allen lifted his hand. “Whoa! Don’t get any ideas like that.”

“Why not?” Evelyn asked. “It’s obvious you love one another.”

“That’s true, but as far as I’m concerned, it will never go any further than that.” His two friends looked skeptical. “Evelyn’s father is one of the richest men in New York, and although he’s mad at Dora now and has threatened to disinherit her, I doubt he will do it because she’s his only child. Even if he does, Dora’s maternal grandmother left her a fortune, and she used that money to renovate the mill, which is probably worth close to a million dollars. I can’t even guess the extent of her finances, and I don’t want to know. She depends on me to steer her in the right direction in dealing with her employees, and I’m glad to do it, but I’ll never ask her to marry me.”

When Evelyn started to speak again, Vance shook his head. “I can understand your situation. I’d probably feel the same way if I were in your position.”

“That isn’t logical,” Evelyn argued. “When you married me, I had no worldly possessions at all, and I had two children, which you took as your own. Why is it any different for a woman to have money and still marry someone who doesn’t have any?”

Vance smiled sheepishly. “I don’t know, but that’s the way it is.”

“Because it makes men feel inferior,” Evelyn retorted, and her dark eyes flashed angrily. “Allen, you might not bring a million dollars into the marriage, but you own property and you have an occupation that keeps you busy. You don’t have to use her money, but I beg you, Allen, don’t let selfish pride ruin both of your lives.”

Considering it time to change the subject, Allen said, “You’ve heard that my brother Timothy has come to live with me.”

“Yes, I saw the boy when he was working for our neighbor,” Vance said. “I gathered he intended on heading to California.”

Smiling, Allen responded, “That was the original idea. Be he met a girl in Fairfield who may have changed his mind.”

❧

Allen had attended several Christmas celebrations in Canaan, and tonight was extra-special because he would have the opportunity to share the season with Dora. Since she’d so recently turned her heart and life over to the Lord, this would be her first Christmas to actually appreciate the true meaning of the season. They drove into Canaan in his buggy for the Christmas church service, and she moved close to him.

“Are you cold?” he asked, wondering how she could possibly be cold in the floor-length, elegant fur coat she wore.

“Not really,” she said teasingly, “but I thought this would be a good time to snuggle close to you. I didn’t want to miss the opportunity.”

Although Allen liked having her so close, he didn’t say so. Instead he asked, “Do you like my friends?”

She nodded her head against his shoulder. “Very much. I especially like them because they’ve been so kind to you.”

“I didn’t have much kindness when I was growing up. When my parents produced a new baby about every year and I was the oldest of the brood, my mother understandingly couldn’t spend much time with me.”

“Did you resent that?”

“At the time, yes I did. I’ve gotten over it.”

They had seen the town’s evergreen decorations when they’d entered Canaan in the afternoon, but now with candles burning in every window and in sheltered nooks along the streets, the area looked like a fairyland. The fact that a lazy snowfall was drifting slowly toward the earth added to the magic of the evening.

A few blocks from the center of town, Allen guided his team into a wide area where a log church nestled in a grove of towering evergreen trees. He tied the horses to one of the trees and came to lift Evelyn down from the buggy. The door to the church was open, and several people were converging on the building. Many of them were former acquaintances of Allen’s, and he heartily returned their “Merry Christmas” greetings.

❧

A woman sat at an organ playing music that was unfamiliar to Dora. Allen hummed the tune and sang a few lines as they moved inside the building and found room for them to sit on a pew halfway up the aisle. As they’d entered the candlelit sanctuary, Dora sensed a peace in her heart and mind she’d never experienced before. Why hadn’t somebody told her before about the meaning of Christmas? Why had her father ignored the Christian faith all his life? She knew that he and her mother had been married in a church, so what had caused him to forsake the faith? Dora was still so new to the gift of prayer she’d received a few weeks earlier that she hardly knew how to pray. Did she have to bow her head to pray like several of the others in the building were doing? She reached over and touched Allen’s hand, and he wrapped his warm fingers around hers. When he bowed his head, so did she.

She’d heard Allen pray several times and, the few times she’d gone to church, she’d listened intently to the preacher’s words. “God, I want to do and say the right thing,” she prayed, “partly because I know it’s what I should do, but also because Allen so desperately wants me to grow spiritually. Will it take a lifetime?”

Although she spoke so quietly that he couldn’t have heard what she was saying, Allen lifted her hand and kissed it. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if they could serve the Lord as man and wife? He obviously loved her, so it was only his pride about her wealth that kept them apart. She was half-tempted to notify her father that she was renouncing ownership of the textile mill and returning it to him. That way she would be penniless. Allen could sell his farm for enough money to finance a trip to California, where they could live on the money he had. Now that she owned the textile mill, she wondered if she’d ever travel to faraway places again. Having seen all of Europe that she wanted to see, Dora had planned that her next big trip would be California.

Before she had more time to think about such a far-fetched idea, the pastor started his sermon. “In order to observe the birth of the Christ Child as we should, it’s important that we look into the Old Testament as well as the New Testament. For years prophets and kings had foretold the coming of the Messiah without any sign of the promised one. Years passed, and most of the faithful ones who had looked for the Messiah had almost lost hope.

“When the time did come, God chose a young girl through whom His magnificent plan would be revealed. Isaiah’s prophecy in the ninth chapter of the book by his name was very plain as to the purpose. ‘For unto us a child is born, unto a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.’ ”

Trying to figure out what this really meant, Dora missed some of the pastor’s sermon, but focused again when he said, “In obedience, Joseph and Mary traveled to Bethlehem and found no lodging except in a stable where Jesus Christ was born. The news of this birth spread quickly when angels announced the birth of Jesus to shepherds, who went immediately to Bethlehem and found Jesus, the Son of God, lying in a manger. The shepherds spread this wonderful news to everyone they met—telling what had happened and the message the angels revealed to them. All who heard it were amazed to learn that God had come to earth in the body of a baby.

“Several months later, others came to worship the Christ Child. In their studies of the stars and universe, wise men from eastern lands had seen the unusual star and knew it could mean only one thing—a king had been born! Although they didn’t know it, this was a king whose reign would be forever.

“The Hebrew people had waited for centuries for the promised one, never expecting that He would arrive in such a humble way. They expected a king robed in royal splendor. Jesus came as a servant. He was born in a stable. They had also believed that the whole world would exalt the Christ Child, yet he was rejected by many because his birth didn’t meet their expectations.”

The enlightening sermon continued. Occasionally someone would cough or a baby whimpered, but other-wise the congregation’s attention was focused on the message. Although it was a new message to her, Dora figured that most of the people had often heard the story, but apparently the “old” message became a “new” message each Christmas Eve.

“There was something miraculous about the angels’ visit to the shepherds that night,” the pastor continued. “The glory of the Lord shone around them, and it was a night the shepherds weren’t likely to forget.”

The audience stood for the closing hymn, which started, “It came upon a midnight clear, that glorious song of old, from angels bending near the earth to touch their harps of gold.”

No one was using a hymnal, but the minister led the congregation from the pulpit as they sang several verses of the song. Dora hummed the melody, and her inner self was warmed by the message and the fellowship of these dedicated people. After the benediction, no one seemed in any hurry to go home. Allen held Dora’s hand and led her through the crowd, introducing her to numerous people, whose names she didn’t even try to remember. It had been a long day, and she was thankful when Allen finally left the building and they headed toward Sunrise Manor.