Mary's Renewal by ELLEN ANDERSON & KATIE WYATT

Author:ELLEN ANDERSON & KATIE WYATT
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Royce Cardiff Publishing House

Chapter 7

Mary Howard

August 9, 1888

* * *

Mary had always loved singing in church. Something about the way that the voices all blended together into a disorganized but beautiful harmony just warmed her soul. She sang with all her heart, praising God with her new community—and with Nora and Jessamine on either side of her, their own voices joining in.

The sermon on Sunday morning spoke to her too. It was a message of hope and commitment. A reminder that God had a plan for every part of their lives and that even when hard times came, God was there, sheltering them. Mary listened with her hands on her stomach, soothing the sleeping child within who would soon be born into a world where he would be entirely dependent upon Mary. She didn’t know what his world would look like, other than that she would be devoted to making it the best world possible for her child. And she was trusting in God to help her do that.

As the pastor spoke, Mary found herself glancing over at Simon. He was sitting on the other side of the small building, seated by himself but in the same row as a family with three kids. Every once in a while the youngest—a boy who looked like he was about three years old—would look over at Simon and imitate the way he was sitting. It was cute how the little boy looked up to the doctor, and Mary caught Simon smiling at the boy several times, encouraging him. Not once did Simon look over at her, making it quite clear that her reaction to him the morning before had sufficiently put him off.

It made her sad, she realized.

And conflicted.

There was so much good in Simon. She had seen it herself in the way he patiently and diligently cared for her when she had first arrived. His relationship with Annie in the restaurant. Jessamine had only good things to say about him as well. Mary believed that he was a kind man who cared about his patients and had a good sense of humor and a heart that was in the right place. He sang in church with real feeling, and he bowed his head reverently in prayer with the rest of the congregation.

And so had Alfred. Jessamine had promised Mary that she was mistaken about Simon—that he wasn’t a drunk. He wasn’t even a regular drinker. Jessamine had told Mary that she was overreacting and that she needed to give Simon the benefit of the doubt.

That’s what people had told her about Alfred, too, when she’d first had her suspicions. So many people wanted to believe the best about Alfred—including her—and together they had all ignored the red flags that they should have seen earlier on. They had found ways to explain them and rationalize, and Mary had ended up married to a man who put his need for drink above their finances, above her, and ultimately above his own life.

She wasn’t going to let

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