Love in Store by Vannetta Chapman

Author:Vannetta Chapman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2015-12-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 9

Stella met with David each day at lunch. He would share with her any odd events that had happened in the previous twenty-four hours, and they would try to discern any connection between them. It became the favorite part of her day, the hour that she looked forward to most.

The day after the schoolhouse incident the lights went out suddenly in the gift shop. Guests and employees were plunged into darkness until the breaker box could be located. They couldn’t determine what had caused the breaker to flip.

“It might have been an accident,” David said.

“Doubtful since we haven’t had this many accidents in ten years.” She felt as if a clock were ticking somewhere, ticking down to a terrible event that she couldn’t imagine.

Things were quiet for the next three days. Though Stella remained worried, David began to think perhaps they’d imagined a conspiracy when there had been none.

“Perhaps it has simply been a run of bad luck,” he said as they sat on a picnic bench sharing cheese and sausage and crackers.

She didn’t answer him then. She was thinking how her life had changed since David came to work at the Mill. She found herself humming as she went about her tasks, and she was certainly less irritated by young Ethel. She had even sewn a spring dress to replace one of the old worn ones she should have cut up for quilt squares years ago.

She began to hope that perhaps her life had found some peaceful, natural pattern and maybe the problems at the Mill would disappear.

But the following week dispelled any possibilities of that.

The animals were let out of the hog house.

Bees were stirred up and chased one man across the property. Some of the bees had to be moved to a different hive as the first had been bludgeoned with a bat. They’d had to call in a beekeeper to relocate the queen.

The wooden hand pump, which connected the open well with the milk house, was broken in two. The basement of the house was flooded and one guest slipped on the steps, spraining an ankle.

“Perhaps it’s time to file a report with the police,” she suggested.

David stared down into his cup of coffee. “That’s McPherson’s decision. I don’t know that we need more folks traipsing around watching us work though. There are city officials here nearly every day now. You can’t walk ten minutes without tripping over someone with a city badge and a clipboard.”

David’s mood was sour, which was unusual. She wanted to reach out and touch his shoulder, to comfort him somehow, but she didn’t.

Instead she said, “We simply need to look over all of your reports one more time.”

“Sure. You’re right.” He looked at her and smiled, and all was right with her world in spite of the mysterious happenings.

“I’ll bring them tomorrow, to lunch. Maybe you can spot something I haven’t been able to see.”

That luncheon was destined not to happen though. They had barely sat down to eat the next day when David’s walkie-talkie suddenly squawked and a grim voice came over the line.

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