© 2014 by Grace Livingston Hill
Print ISBN 978-1-62416-322-7
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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted for commercial purposes, except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without written permission of the publisher.
All scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any similarity to actual people, organizations, and/or events is purely coincidental.
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Published by Barbour Publishing, Inc., P.O. Box 719, Uhrichsville, Ohio 44683, www.barbourbooks.com
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Printed in the United States of America.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 1
World War II Eastern United States
The stars were all out in full force the night that Rodney and Jeremy Graeme came home from the war. Even the faraway ones were peeping eagerly through the distance, trying to impress the world with their existence, showing that they felt it an occasion when their presence should be recognized. And even the near stars had burst out like flowers in the deep blue of the darkness, till they fairly startled the onlooker, rubbing his eyes in wonder if stars had always been so large. It was early evening, scarcely six o’clock, but it seemed so very dark, and the stars so many and so bright.
“It almost seems,” said Jeremy, “as if all the stars we have ever seen since we were born have come out to greet us now that we’ve come home. They’ve all come together. The stars that twinkled when we said our prayers at night when we were little kids, and seemed to smile at us and welcome us into a world that was going to be full of twinkling lights and music and fun. The stars that bent above the creek where we were skating, and seemed to enjoy it as much as we did. The stars that smiled more gently when we drifted down in the old canoe and sang silly love songs, or lay back and grew dreamy with unmade ambitions.”
“Yes,” said Rodney with a grin down at his brother, “the stars that blessed us with a bit of withdrawing when we walked home from church, or a party at night with our best girls. Right, Jerry? There must have been girls somewhere in your life after I left. There’d have been stars for them, too, of course. That’s a swell thought that all those star fellows have sort of ganged up on us for tonight. Nice to think about.”
“It seems an awfully long time ago, though, all those other things happening,” said Jeremy thoughtfully. “Like looking back on one’s self as an infant. After all we’ve been through, I wonder how we’re going to fit into this world we’ve come back to.”
“Yes, I wonder!” said Rodney. “I sure am glad to get back, but I’ve sort of got a feeling every little while that somehow we oughtn’t to have come away till we’d finished the job and had ’em licked thoroughly so they can’t start anything again.”
“Yes, that does haunt you in the back of your mind, but anyway we didn’t ‘come’ away. We were sent, and had to come. They thought we were more important over here.”
“Of course,” said the older brother. “And I’m satisfied, understand. Only somehow there’s a feeling I ought to take hold and do some more over there yet. But I guess that’ll wear off when I really get into this job over here they think is so important.”
“Yes, of course,” said the younger brother. “But there’s this to remember: we aren’t like some of the other fellows. I heard one fellow on the ship complaining the folks over home didn’t understand. They hadn’t any idea what we’ve been through. They’ve been just going on happily having a good time between their good acts of doing a little war work. But our family isn’t like that. Our dad and mother understand. Dad’s never forgotten his own experience in the other war. You can tell from their letters.”
“Yes, of course,” the older brother said, smiling. “Our family has always been an understanding family. But you’re right about this world we’re getting back to, I suspect. For a while it will be like going out to play marbles or hide-and-seek. The trouble is one can’t go out to meet death without growing up. We’ve grown up, and marbles don’t fit us anymore.”
“Sure!” said Jeremy thoughtfully. “We’ll just have to get adjusted to a new world, won’t we? And somehow I don’t see how we’re going to fit anymore. I don’t really have much heart for it all myself, except of course getting back to Dad and Mom and Kathie. But the others will seem like children. Of course you don’t feel that way because you have Jessica. You’ll get married, I suppose, if it really turns out that we get that job they talked about overseas. You planning for a wedding soon, Rod?”
There was a definite silence after that question, and suddenly the younger brother looked up with a question in his eyes. “I didn’t speak out of turn, did I, Rod?” He looked at his brother anxiously. “You and Jessica aren’t on the outs, are you?”
Rodney drew a deep breath and settled back. “Yes, we’re on the outs, bud. Our engagement is all washed up.”
“But Rod! I thought it was all settled. I thought you bought her a ring.”
“Yes, I bought her a ring,” said the older brother with a forlorn little sound like a sigh. Then a pause. “She sent it back to me a year ago today. I guess by now she’s married to the other guy. I don’t know, and I don’t want to know anything more about it. She just wasn’t worth worrying about, I suppose.”
There was a deep silence with only the thunderous rumbling of the train. The younger brother sat and stared straight ahead of him, his startled thoughts taking in, in quick succession, the sharp changes this would make in his idolized brother’s life, the things he knew in a flash must have been being lived down by Rodney all these silent months when they had not been hearing from each other. And then his comprehension dashed back to the beginning again.
“But the ring!” he faltered, thinking back to the bright token that had meant to him the sign of everlasting fidelity, the lovely, peerless jewel that they had all been so proud their Rodney had been able to purchase with his own well-earned money and place upon the lovely finger of the beautiful girl who was his promised bride. “What will you do with the ring?” Jeremy was scarcely aware he was asking another question. He had been merely thinking aloud. Rodney turned toward him with a look almost of anguish, like one who knew this ghastly thing had to be told, and he wanted to get it over with as soon as possible.
“I sold it!” he said gruffly. The brothers’ eyes met and raked each other’s consciousness for full understanding. And in that look Jeremy came to know how it had been, and how it had to be with Rodney. Rodney was four years older, but somehow in that look Jeremy grew up and caught up the separating years, and understood. It did not need words to explain, for Jeremy understood now. Saw how it would have been with him if he we
re in a like situation.
But after a moment Rodney explained. “At first I wanted to throw it into the sea. But then somehow that didn’t seem right. It wasn’t the ring’s fault, even though it was of no further use to me. Even supposing I should ever find another girl I could trust, which I’m sure I never will, I wouldn’t want to give her a ring that had been dishonored, would I? No, it would never be of any further use to me, or to anybody unless they were strangers to its history. Yet what to do with it I didn’t know. I couldn’t carry it on my person and have it sent back to my mother sometime after I had been killed, to tell a strange story she wouldn’t understand, could I?”
“Then Mom doesn’t know?” asked Jeremy.
“Not unless Jessica has told her, and I doubt if she has. She wouldn’t have the nerve! Though maybe there was some publicity. I don’t know. I haven’t tried to find out. There hasn’t been a word of gossip about it in any of my letters. My friends wouldn’t want to mention it, and any others didn’t bother to write, so I’ve had to work this thing out by myself. After all, it was my problem, and I worked at it part-time between missions. It helped to make me madder at the enemy, and less careful for myself. What was the use when the things I had counted on were gone?
“And what was the ring that I had worked so hard to buy but a costly trinket that nobody wanted? So I found a diamond merchant who gave me a good price for the stone, more than I paid for it, and I was glad to get rid of it.
“That’s the story, Jerry. It had to be told, and there it is. At first I thought I couldn’t come home, where Jessica and I had been so much together, but then it came to me that there was no point in punishing Mom and the rest just because Jessica had played me false. So I’m here, and I only hope I won’t be subjected to too much mention of the whole affair. Jessica, I’m sure, will be out of the picture, thank heaven! She spoke of being married in another part of the country.
“Certainly I never want to lay eyes on her again, of course, and perhaps in due time, with the help of a few more wars, I may forget the humiliation I have suffered. But I don’t want pity, kid. I’m sure you’d understand that.”
“Of course not,” said Jeremy, giving a sorrowful, comprehending look. “But Rod, I don’t see how she could. She always seemed to be so crazy about you.”
“Well, let’s not go into that. I’ve been through several battles since that thought used to get me,” said Rodney.
“The little vandal!” said Jeremy. “What did she do? Just send the ring back without any letter or explanation?”
“Oh, no, she sent a nice little letter all right, filled with flowery words and flattery, to the effect that she was returning the ring, though she did adore it, because she thought I might want to use it again, and that I had always been so kind and understanding that she was sure I would see that it was a great deal better for her to frankly tell me that she had discovered she didn’t care for me as much as she had supposed; and as she was about to marry an older, more mature man, who was far better off financially than I could ever hope to be, and she wished that I wouldn’t feel too bad about her defection. She closed by saying that she hoped that this wouldn’t be the end, that she and I would always be friends as long as the world lasted. That we had had too much fun together to put an end to it altogether. Words to that effect, said in a flowery style, quoting phrases that had been supposedly dear to us both in the past, showing me plainly that they had never really meant a thing to her but smooth phrases.”
“The little rotten rat!” blurted Jeremy. “I’d like to wring her pretty little false neck for her!”
“Yes, I felt that way for some time, but then I reflected that I didn’t want to even give her that much satisfaction. She isn’t worth so much consideration.”
“Perhaps not,” said Jeremy, “but all the same I’d like to class her with our enemies and let her take her chances with them.”
The older brother gave an appreciative look.
“Thanks, pard!” he said with a wry grin. “Well, enough said. It’s good to know you’ll stand by if an occasion arises.”
“Yes, brother, I’ll stand by,” said Jeremy solemnly, and then after a moment, “And what about Mom and the rest?”
“Oh, they’ll have to be told I suppose, but at least not the first minute. The time may come soon, but probably not tonight.”
There was silence for several minutes, and then Jeremy spoke slowly, speculatively. “Ten to one Mom knows,” he said. “You know she always had a way of sort of thinking out things and knowing beforehand what had happened to us before we even got home.”
“Yes, that’s true. Dad always said it was her seventh sense. That she sort of smelled ’em out ahead of time. Still, I don’t see how she could this. However, it’s all right with me if she has. I guess I can take it. Gosh, I hate to tell her. I hate to be pitied.”
Another long silence, then Jeremy said, “Yes, I know. But I guess you can trust Mother.”
“Yes, of course,” said the older brother, lifting his chin with a brave gesture. “Yes, Mother’s all right. Mother’s wonderful! And it ought to be enough for any fellow to be getting home to her without worrying about some little two-timing brat of a gold-digger.”
Jeremy flashed a quick look at his brother. “Was that what she did? Was it money?”
“Yes, I figured that was what did it. A guy I met in the navy mentioned his name once and said he was just rolling in wealth. Had something to do with the black market he thought, though when I came to question closer, he wouldn’t tell any more. He said he guessed he oughtn’t to have mentioned it. Seems the fellow is an uncle of a buddy of his on his ship, and he was afraid it might get back to him that he had been talking. Well, what difference did it make? She’d thrown me over. Why should I care what for?”
“But Rod, we’re not exactly poverty-stricken. And as for you, Jessica knew Uncle Seymour left you a nice sum. You had a good start in life for a young man.”
“My shekels wouldn’t hold a candle to what a black market man could make now,” Rodney said, grinning.
“No, I suppose not,” said his brother with an answering grin. Then there followed a long silence, the brothers thinking over what had been said. Rodney had perhaps been more confidential with Jeremy than ever before in his life, and the younger brother had a lot to think over.
Rodney had dropped his head back on the seat and closed his eyes, as if the confidence was over for the time being, and Jeremy stared out the window unseeingly. They were not far from home now, another half hour, but it was too dark to notice the changes that might have come in the landscape. Jeremy was interested, after his long absence from his own land, in even an old barn or a dilapidated station they passed. Anything looked good over here, for this was home.
But there were adjustments to be made in the light of what Rodney had just told him. He had come home expecting a wedding soon, and now that was all off, and there was a gloomy settled look of disappointment on the face of the brother who had always been so bright and cheery, so utterly sure of himself, and what he was going to do. Was this thing going to change Rod? How hard that he not only had the memory of war and his terrible experiences at sea, but he had to have this great disappointment, too, this feeling of almost shame—for that is what it had sounded like as Rod told it—that his girl had gone back on him. The girl whose name had been linked with his ever since they had been in high school together. What a rotten deal to give him! Good old Rod! And he had always been so proud of Jessica! Proud of her unusual beauty, proud of her wonderful gold hair, her blue eyes, her long lashes, her grace and charm!
Jeremy searched his own heart and found that for a long time he himself had never cared so much for Jessica. Perhaps it was because she had always treated him like a younger brother, sort of like a little kid, always sending him on errands, asking favors of him, just a sweep of her long lashes and expecting him to do her will, do her errands, give up anything he had that she chose to want, like tickets to bal
l games. Well, he thought he had conquered those things, because he had been expecting ever since he went overseas that she would sometime soon be his sister-in-law, and he wanted no childish jealousy or hurt feelings to break the beautiful harmony that had always been between his brother and himself. The family must be a unit. And so he had disciplined his feelings until he was all ready to welcome his new-to-be sister with a brotherly kiss.
But now that was out! And Mom didn’t know anything about it yet? Or did she? Could a thing like that fail to reach their mother? If she didn’t know, how would she take it? Had she been fond of Jessica? He tried to think back. He could dimly remember a sigh now and then, a shadow on her placid brow. When was that? Could that have been when Rod first began to go with Jessica? But Mom had later seemed to be quite fond of Jessica, hadn’t she? Jeremy couldn’t quite remember. He had been more engrossed in himself at that time. About then was when he got that crush on Beryl Sanderson, the banker’s daughter. Of course that was ridiculous. He, the son of a quiet farmer, living outside the village, on a staid old farm that had been in the family for over a hundred years, without any of the frills and fancies that the modern homes had. And she the daughter of a most influential banker, who lived in a great gray stone mansion, went to private schools, then away to a great college, dressed with expensive simplicity, and never even looked his way. Beryl Sanderson! Even now the memory of her stirred his thoughts, although he hadn’t been pondering on her at all, he was sure, since he went away to war. Well, that was that, and he wasn’t mooning around about any of his childhood fancies. He had a big job to do for his country, and there wasn’t time for anything else then.
Suddenly Rodney broke the silence. “How about you, kid? Did you pick up some pretty girl across seas, or was there a girl you left behind you? Come, out with it, and let us know where we both stand now that we’re getting home.”
Jeremy grinned. “No girl!” he said.
“No kidding?” said the older brother, turning his keen eyes a bit anxiously toward the younger man, with a pleasant recognition of the goodly countenance he wore, his fine physique, his strong, dependable face. There was nothing of which to be ashamed in that brother.