Hypatia Chatam smiled serenely. “Thank you. Given names are always easier with three Miss Chatams about.” She beckoned them closer with a wave of one hand, saying, “Join us, please.”
Magnolia crossed over and took a seat next to Odelia on an elaborately carved settee upholstered in a lush floral damask. Hypatia returned to the gold-striped wingback and nodded Bethany toward its twin. Garrett stood beside her, his arm stretched across the chair back.
“When is the baby due?” Odelia warbled eagerly, butterflies dancing.
“Eighteenth of October,” Bethany answered cautiously.
“So,” Magnolia said to her sisters, “the master suite, do you think?”
“What?” Garrett exclaimed. “No, no, that’s not necessary.”
They blithely ignored him.
“Hmm, yes, I think that would be best,” Hypatia mused.
Odelia clapped her hands again. “Room for the two of you and the baby!”
Without warning, Bethany burst into tears. “I’m sorry! Garrett said you were kind, but I never dreamed…I never expected…”
“Now, now,” Hypatia said calmly.
“It has become clear to us,” Magnolia put in, “that the good Lord has ordained Chatam House as a place of sanctuary for those in need. We are only following His dictates, dear.”
“And babies are such fun!” Odelia chirruped.
Bethany laughed, blinking away her tears. “I don’t know how to thank you. I promise I won’t abuse your hospitality. I intend to look for a job right away.”
“Is that wise in your condition?” Odelia worried aloud.
“I was working until I came here,” Bethany told her staunchly. “I can certainly continue.”
“That might not be so easy,” Garrett warned. “It’s one thing to continue working at a job after you become pregnant. It’s another to get someone to hire you when you’re almost six months along.”
“Well, it’s a matter for prayer,” Hypatia said in a tone that clearly indicated the subject was closed for the moment. “Bethany, I’m sure you’d like to freshen up before dinner. Garrett, will you show her the retiring room, then ask Carol to set two extra places at the dining table.”
Garrett nodded. “I’ll get your bags in, too, sis.”
“Chester will help you both settle into your new space later,” Hypatia decreed.
“Father would be so tickled, don’t you think?” Odelia said as Bethany rose and hurried from the room at Garrett’s side.
“The master suite was old Mr. Chatam’s room,” Garrett whispered to Bethany. “He died at the age of ninety-two in nineteen-ninety-nine, and they still speak as if it was yesterday.”
“I don’t care if they set a place for him at the dinner table!” Bethany whispered back. “They’re not that eccentric, and they’re sharp as razors, believe me.”
“Oh, Garrett,” Bethany cried, laying her head on his shoulder, “I’m so glad I came!”
Maybe, she told herself, the Willows family was finally going to come right.
“Well, my dears,” Hypatia said, keeping her voice low, “it looks as though we’re going to have a full house.”
Magnolia nodded, oddly satisfied. She’d known Garrett as a child. After his father had died, Garrett had come around occasionally asking to mow the yard. She’d let him mow for an hour or so, paid him and sent him on his way. After his mother had remarried, he’d started showing up with bruises, but he would never answer Magnolia’s questions about how he’d obtained them. She’d heard rumors, but once she’d asked outright if his stepfather had hit him, Garrett had stopped visiting. Later, when she’d learned that Mrs. Benjamin had been hospitalized and Garrett had assaulted his stepfather, she’d expected the boy to get off with a reprimand. Instead, he’d gone to prison. She had always considered that a grave miscarriage of justice, so when he had approached her in the yard just over two months ago, Magnolia had hired him on the spot. Garrett had quickly become a household favorite. Now, his pregnant sister, Bethany, had come to them. Magnolia definitely felt the hand of God at work.
“Even with Chandler here,” she said, “I don’t see what else we could have done.”
“Oh, of course Bethany has to stay!” Odelia gushed. She bit her lip. “But I know I heard Kaylie say that Garrett’s sister was married.”
Hypatia nodded. “Yes. I recall the same thing.”
“Perhaps they’ve divorced,” Magnolia suggested.
“Perhaps,” Hypatia murmured. “I confess to some curiosity, but all will undoubtedly become clear in time.”
“What God wishes us to know, He will reveal,” Magnolia added with a nod.
“I’m more concerned about Chandler, frankly,” Hypatia went on.
Magnolia, too, was concerned about their nephew. They had hoped at first that his moving in here had signaled a compromise of sorts with his father, who disapproved of both Chandler’s occupation and his partner, Kreger, but something else was obviously afoot, and Chandler hadn’t seemed to know what that was.
“We’ve prayed a long time for him to make certain things right in his life,” Magnolia pointed out. “Maybe the good Lord is forcing his hand a bit.”
“True,” Hypatia agreed.
“Or,” Odelia exclaimed, hunching her shoulders with excitement, “we could have another romance brewing! Wouldn’t that be lovely? Chandler and Bethany and a baby! What fun that would be!”
Magnolia rolled her eyes at her sister. “That’s a stretch.”
“Why? Don’t you think she’ll like Chandler?”
“That’s not the point.”
“I’m sure he’ll like her, and they’ll be living in the same house, after all. Once they get to know each other, anything could happen.”
“Now, now,” Hypatia cautioned sternly, holding up a hand. “We’re getting just a bit carried away here, don’t you think?”
Odelia turned a vexed gaze on her. “You’re the one who always says that God has a reason for everything.”
“Those reasons don’t have to be romantic, though,” Magnolia interjected.
Odelia blinked. “But they could be.”
Hypatia sighed. “Let us leave this subject, please. We don’t want to be assigning motives to God now, do we?”
“I suppose not,” Odelia mumbled. Then she brightened. “But it will still be fun to have a baby in the house. Maybe we can babysit!”
Nodding, Magnolia shared a look with Hypatia, whose lips firmed against obvious laughter. Bowing her head to hide her own smile, Magnolia rolled her eyes again. Oh, to be as joyful as her dear, frothy-headed sister! On the other hand, Mags was supremely satisfied with her own life. The lives of her and her sisters had been, from the shared day of their birth, a life of privilege, which just meant, as Mama and Daddy had always said, that they were obliged by God to do as much good as they possibly could for others.
Lately, God seemed to be bringing those opportunities to do good right to their doorstep. The outcome thus far had been quite rewarding, resulting in two weddings.
While a romance seemed unlikely in this case, whatever God had in mind, Magnolia was sure that it would be, at the least, very interesting.
Sighing wearily, Chandler turned the rig between the gate-posts