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THURSDAY MORNING, ALICE and Reverend Lamb waited for Harry outside the church. She fidgeted. “What time is it?”
He took her hands in his and smiled. “Harry will be here soon.”
Ten minutes later, it was Mrs. Barnes and Aunt Caroline—not Harry—stopping their buggy in the churchyard.
“He’s not coming, my dear.” Mrs. Barnes smirked from her seat.
“Is he ill?” Was it possible the epidemic wasn’t over after all?
“No, he’s quite well. He said I should tell you, and now I have told you. Why he drinks and smokes, I blame on the army. Why he isn’t here with you, I couldn’t say.” She turned her attention to the Reverend. “Good morning, Reverend Lamb.”
“Good morning, ladies.”
Aunt Caroline nodded. “Reverend.”
Mrs. Barnes laid a gloved hand on her chest. “Reverend, you must excuse my lack of manners. I didn’t mean to ignore your presence, but I promised my son I’d deliver his message. And now I have.”
Jack joined them. He’d been at the feed store stocking up for the coming winter. Alice looked away and wiped a stray tear from her cheek. “What are you doing here, Mother? Where’s Harry?”
“Good morning, Jack.”
“Good morning, Mother. Aunt Caroline. Where’s Harry?”
Alice took a breath to calm her trembling. “He’s not coming.” Her voice betrayed her with a little hitch.
“Not coming?” Jack turned his attention to his mother.
Mrs. Barnes shrugged.
Aunt Caroline stepped down from the buggy and hugged Alice. “Don’t let my sister get under your skin. I know you and Harry had a little spat the other day.”
“He told you about it?”
“He didn’t have to. It was pretty obvious he was angry when he came home from your picnic.” Aunt Caroline patted her arm. “Give him time.”
“Come along, Caroline.” Mrs. Barnes huffed. “I have much to do today and we’ve already been here too long.” Mrs. Barnes and Aunt Caroline rode away.
Reverend Lamb turned to Alice. “I’m sorry. I’m certain Harry will want to reschedule soon. For now, I think I’ll practice my sermon for Sunday.” He left her alone with Jack.
Jack shook his head. “I can’t believe Harry could be so . . . so . . .” He kicked a stone at his foot. “I need to have a little talk with my brother. I’ll get to the bottom of this.”
“He must be angrier than I thought.”
His face brightened. “Tell you what. I have more errands but let me walk you over to Lizzie’s. She always cheers you up.” He wiped a tear from her cheek with his thumb.
Alice nodded and blew her nose.
* * *
AFTER JACK LEFT, LIZZIE clutched Alice’s arm and led her into the parlor where Fin sat reading the latest issue of the Pine Lake Gazette. “Say you’ll have lunch with us,” she begged. “It won’t be much, sandwiches from the ham Fin’s mother baked last night. They’ve been so good to me since Mom passed. It’ll give us a chance to talk about your wedding plans What’s your date?”
“Harry didn’t come.”
Fin dropped his newspaper. “What?”
Lizzie spun around to face her. “Why not?”
“His mother couldn’t say—or wouldn’t.”
Fin jumped up, hands on hips. “He sent his mother?”
Alice didn’t want to talk about it anymore. “You look tired, Lizzie.” She placed a cool hand on her forehead. “And a little flushed. Perhaps you should rest. We can visit another time.”
“I’ll rest while we visit. Please. I’ve been so lonely.”
Saying no to Lizzie was like trying to deny a puppy a pat on the head. “All right. But I can’t stay long. I have things to do this afternoon.” Top of her list was a stop at the Barnes house to confront Harry.
Lizzie sighed and lowered herself into her father’s old over-stuffed armchair. Fin moved the footstool closer. Alice arranged a lap rug over her legs. “I feel fine. Truly.”
Alice squeezed Lizzie’s hand. “You take a nap. I’ll be back later.”
Lizzie opened her eyes and held tight to Alice’s hand, preventing her from going for her coat. “I don’t need a nap. But I will sit here while you help Fin with the sandwiches and tea. We can visit.”
Alice suspected that meant having to answer all of Lizzie’s questions. “All right.”
Lizzie eased back and folded her hands in her lap. “Don’t forget the cookies. Fin’s mother makes the best sugar cookies. She brought over a big tin of them the other day.”
Alice followed Fin into the kitchen. She put a kettle on to boil while he sliced the bread. “I’m so happy for you and Lizzie. She’d be lost without you and your parents being here for her.”
He stacked the sandwiches on a platter and set it on a tray. “Lizzie makes it easy to be nice to her.”
The kettle hissed over the burner flame. Alice placed mugs on the tray, added a tea bag and sugar cube to each, and topped them with steaming water. She felt him watching her.
“Alice . . .”
“If you carry the tray, I’ll get the tin of your mother’s famous sugar cookies.” Alice popped the lid and took a bite of one. “You don’t think your mother would share her recipe, do you?” Crumbs fell from her full mouth. She brushed them free from the front of her blouse. Her mother would have been horrified at her lack of proper food manners.
“Sorry. She says she’s taking it to the grave. Not even my sisters know her secret.”
“Shame.” Alice finished off the one in her hand and debated sneaking another but decided to wait. She replaced the lid before she changed her mind and hurried out to the parlor.
She handed Lizzie a mug “Careful, it’s hot.”
“I’ll just hold it for a while. It’s warming my hands nicely. There’s a nip in the air. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a little snow before long.”
“Well, it is November.” Alice sipped her tea. “It was only last week the leaves were so pretty. Now they’re almost gone.”
“So, what happened between you and Harry?”
She wanted to ignore Lizzie’s question but knew her friend wouldn’t stop until she got some answers. “We argued.”
“About what? You didn’t tell him . . .?”
“Of course, not.” Was there no end to Lizzie’s questions?
Fin looked up from his sandwich. “About what?”
“Nothing important.” Alice’s insides quivered recalling Jack’s lips on hers. “Which is why I didn’t tell him.”
Lizzie exchanged her tea for a sandwich. “What was it about? His drinking?”
“No, that came later. There was a second fight.”
“A second fight?”
“The day after the first fight. Oh, Lizzie, everything is such a mess.” Tears ran down her face. “I’m afraid Harry no longer wants to marry me. We were supposed to set our date with Reverend Lamb today.”
“Fin, maybe you better leave us to talk alone.”
“Glad to. Lady tears aren’t my strong suit.” He gulped down the rest of his tea, grabbed a second sandwich and a couple of cookies. “I’d be happy to talk some sense into Harry for you, Alice.”
Jack promised to talk to Harry, too. It was nice they cared enough to offer, but she didn’t see how it would do any good. “Thank you, but this is my battle.” Why hadn’t she told Jack the same thing? She hadn’t refused his help. Could it be she was more than flattered by Jack’s offer? Could it be deep down she wanted Jack to fight for her?
Fin kissed Lizzie on the cheek. “I’ll see you later.” He turned to Alice before leaving. “Let me know if you change your mind.”
Lizzie waited until the back door clicked shut behind him. “Now that we’re alone, start at the beginning.”
Once Alice started, she couldn’t stop. She told Lizzie everything. She told her about the picnic, how nice it was until Harry told her about his job in Minneapolis, when she said she didn’t want to move.
“I want our children to grow up with your children, go to school and church together. I want holiday dinners with a roaring fire, summer picnics at the lake.”
“I wouldn’t want to live in Minneapolis, either. I hear it’s noisy and dirty and the people aren’t nice like they are here in Pine Lake. But if Harry wants to live there, if he’s already accepted the job, you’re going to have to move if you want to be his wife. You do still want to be his wife, don’t you?”
“With all my heart. I was going to tell him this morning. Surely in time I will grow to like it there.” She hesitated. “But that wasn’t all. When I told him about Doc’s offer, and how much I love nursing, he really got mad. It didn’t even matter when I told him I already said no.”
“You’d make a great nurse. Everyone says so. I saw it myself when I was sick.”
“The entire afternoon was ruined.”
Lizzie pushed the cookie tin closer to her.
“No, thank you. I’ve had enough.”
Lizzie helped herself to one more. “You said there was a second fight?” She snapped the lid firmly in place. “You better put these away.” She giggled.
Alice set the tin on the kitchen counter and returned to the parlor. “Harry must have gone straight to Dooley’s Tavern after dropping me off.”
“Oh, dear.”
“He showed up later that night, terribly drunk, and started a fight with Jack. He believes there’s something going on between us.”
“Is there?”
“I told you before, we’re just friends.”
“But Jack kissed you.”
“Harry can never know.”
“He must suspect something.”
Alice hesitated. “Yes.”
“What happened between them?”
“Not much. Harry tried to provoke Jack, but Jack wasn’t having it. I found them arguing in the barn. I told Jack to be sure Harry stayed to sleep it off. Which he did.”
“Then?”
“Then the whole argument about selling the farm and moving to Minneapolis started all over again at breakfast. That’s when I told him what I thought about his drinking, and he stormed off. This all started two days ago, and I haven’t seen or heard from him since. I tried ringing him, but he won’t come to the telephone. Aunt Caroline says to give him time. . .”
Lizzie picked at a loose thread on her lap rug. Was there something Lizzie wasn’t sharing? She was terrible at keeping secrets. “What?”
Lizzie opened her mouth to speak, then closed it and stared down at her lap.
Alice knelt next to Lizzie and took her hand before she worked a hole into her blanket. “Please, you have to tell me. How can I fix things with Harry if no one will talk to me?”
“I know where Harry’s been spending a lot of his time lately.”
“Where?”
“I’ve seen him going in and out of Betty’s house almost every day—even before your picnic.” Her voice was quiet.
Alice sat back on her heels. Her stomach clenched and she feared she’d be sick. Why had Harry been with Betty and not her?
“You know what she’s like.” Lizzie was quick to say once the secret was out. “Betty can be a terrible flirt. And she’s always had a thing for Harry. Why, she darn near turned green when he proposed to you.”
A knock on the door stopped Alice from what she might have said next. Betty popped her head in.
“Anybody home?” She walked in with Harry close behind.
“We saw you walking over from the church and thought we’d see how you were doing.” Harry searched the room. “Where’s Fin?”