Heart Of A Husband

“Okay, then, I’ll make the necessary arrangements to move Mae tonight.”

“And you’ll go with her? I mean, be right there, with her? The whole time?”

“Yes. She’ll be comfortable,” Jake explained. “Don’t worry, Jo. I’ll be right beside her bed the entire trip. You’ll see her again soon.”

“You’ll take good care of her?”

“I will,” he promised as they continued walking down the corridor. “Trust me.”

Joanna turned her head to glance into eyes she used to trust. Did she have reason to trust them no longer?

They were nearing Mae’s hospital room when Dr. Eden appeared in the hallway again, needing Dr. Barnes’s opinion on some matter. Something crucial, Joanna thought unkindly, like whether he would be staying to have dinner with her tonight, maybe? If Dr. Eden didn’t want to marry Jake Barnes when she had the opportunity, why was she now so obviously delighted to see him? A change of heart, probably, just as Joanna had always expected. The only surprise was that it had been so long in coming.

Joanna slipped into the silent hospital room to say good-night to her aunt before heading home. There was so much to do in preparation for leaving, she barely knew where to begin. But she had to start somewhere, so upon her arrival at the small house she shared with Mae, Joanna hauled her suitcases out of a bedroom closet. What a place to start, she thought as she sat down on the edge of her bed.

“Lord, what am I doing?” She sat staring at the suitcases Jake had given her when she’d been practically a stranger to him. Was she really going to fill them with clothes and get on that plane? To meet Jake in some strange city in a state she’d never seen? To move into his house? Had she lost all rational thinking?

“Probably,” she whispered. Reason seemed to have disappeared somewhere behind the shadows of her heart.

Chapter Two

“J oanna? Joanna Meccord, is that you?”

Joanna turned from the baggage claim area toward the direction of the voice and found the question coming from a plump, silver-haired lady.

“I’m Joanna Meccord,” she confirmed.

“I thought so. Dr. Barnes gave a very good description.”

Joanna smiled. Jake describing her to someone. Now, there was something she’d have been interested in hearing. “So, you must be Jake’s housekeeper?” she asked.

“Yes, I’m Ina Marsh. Second generation housekeeper as a matter of fact. I worked for Dr. Barnes, Sr., for several years until he passed away. And now I work for Jake. He’d planned to meet you here himself, but an emergency came up at the hospital and he couldn’t get away. So I offered to pick you up,” the woman with the friendly smile and kind hazel eyes explained. She reached to take one of Joanna’s suitcases.

“No, you don’t. I’ll carry these, Ina, you just lead the way out of this airport.”

“Right over there, dear,” Ina said, and they started through the lobby. After a few long minutes, they found their way to a sea of cars in the parking lot. Ina stopped behind a small blue sedan.

“How is Aunt Mae?” Joanna asked. “Is someone with her?”

“Oh, my, yes. Someone is always with her. Dr. Barnes wouldn’t allow it to be any other way. There’s a nurse there right now. Occasionally, it’s just me, but usually there’s an RN or LPN on duty. Didn’t you bring more than this, dear?” Ina asked as Joanna lifted the two suitcases into the trunk.

“No, this is it. Is Aunt Mae feeling any better?”

“Yes, I think she is. She was talking this morning. She said she’s glad to be home. She was born and raised around here, she told me. Looking out her bedroom window and seeing acres of farmland does her good—even though there isn’t any corn growing in late February! ‘The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places….’ That’s a verse she asked me to write down inside the cover of her Bible. I guess rural Indiana must be her idea of ‘pleasant places.’”

Joanna got into the car just as Ina was sliding into the driver’s seat. “I’ve always liked that verse.”

“It seems to be one of her favorites,” Ina commented. “Dr. Barnes told me you’re a religious person, too. I assumed he meant you’re a Christian.”

“Yes,” Joanna answered. “Although some days I don’t feel like much of one. Between Aunt Mae’s illness and everything else I’ve been trying to keep up with, I haven’t been to church regularly in weeks.”

“Well, don’t be too hard on yourself. God understands what you’re going through. And everyone makes mistakes.”

Was that what she was doing now? Making a huge mistake? Joanna’s teeth sank gently into her lower lip. Living with Jake could be the biggest error she’d ever made. Yet, here she was with a conscience that had a guilty edge to it. She knew she wasn’t doing this just for Mae. It was for herself, too. Her feelings for Jake needed to be resolved. Completely. Because, despite her prayers to the contrary, Jake did not seem to be the man the Lord had in mind for her. Now, if she could just convince her heart of that fact.

“I’ve been instructed that our first stop is the nearest shopping mall to buy a winter coat and whatever other clothes you need. Today is an exceptionally mild day for February, but let me warn you—it gets cold around here!” Ina explained.

Joanna knew exactly how much money she had brought with her, and it wasn’t enough to allow for the purchase of any new clothing. “Ina, I don’t think that—”

“Now, listen, Dr. Barnes told me you wouldn’t want to accept this, but my instructions were to talk you into it. So, please make it easy on me, okay, dear? He wants you to buy a coat, hat, boots, whatever else you need. He gave me these credit cards.”

Joanna immediately protested. “Ina, I can’t accept—”

“My job is to give them to you. Now, if you don’t want to keep them, you’ll have to argue with the doctor about that.”

And argue, she knew she would.

They were soon leaving the city behind, traveling down narrow country roads with their necessary purchases completed. Joanna spent the time wondering about things to come. Hopefully, Aunt Mae would recuperate enough to return to South Carolina soon. If not, then what? Joanna liked plans, lists—knowing what came next—and she certainly wasn’t in that position now.

Before long they made one last turn and pulled into the winding, tree-lined driveway in full view of the farmhouse.

The large white house was nestled among several wooded acres of gently rolling farmland. A two-story barn, garage and a couple of other small buildings were set off to the rear and the west side of the home, and a white board fence neatly edged the property line.

“I had no idea it would be so lovely,” Joanna said.

“It is, isn’t it,” Ina replied. She pulled the car up close to the garage, and both of them got out of the vehicle.

Joanna looked toward the woods, now stark and barren from the harshness of winter.

“Just wait until you see it in the summer, Joanna. The trees will be beautiful then.”

“I can almost imagine it,” she said, hugging her new coat to her in the hush of the late-winter afternoon. “But I won’t be here this summer,” she added before pulling her suitcases from the trunk of the car and walking with Ina toward the front porch.

“You never know what the good Lord might have in mind for you, my dear. We’ll just have to wait and see, won’t we?”

Joanna was ready to respond that, whatever the Lord had in mind for her, it certainly wouldn’t include a future with a man who loved neither her nor God, when Ina began describing the house.

“Upstairs there are four bedrooms and four bathrooms.”

“Four baths? Are you kidding?”

“Not at all,” Ina assured her. “I heard Jake’s mother entertained a lot years ago. She wanted each bedroom to have a private bath. And, this, as you can see, is the main entrance.” They stepped inside the home. “The living room is to your right.”

They walked into the large room with warm, inviting tones of gold, rust and shades of brown throughout.

Ina continued, “That door to the left at the foot of the staircase is Dr. Barnes’s study. Lately, he’s been spending too many of his evenings in there, if you ask me.”

Joanna smiled. The fact that she hadn’t asked Ina’s opinion obviously didn’t stop the woman from giving it. “Jake probably wants to be alone,” Joanna replied. She wondered if he regretted this mission of mercy he’d set into motion to help Aunt Mae. It was costing him much more than money.