Part Summary: Martha arrives in Helen -- and Hannah Jones is back, too.
(This is really the second part of the previous chapter. It's going up so fast because I wrote them back-to-back and have just been editing ... but also working on chapter 38, which is all Edward. This chapter is a workhorse chapter. Lots of things happen but despite Bella's occasional water-works, it didn't feel as emotionally heavily while writing it. I think that's partly because Bella IS ready to move on, but isn't sure that she's ready to be ready, if that makes sense. It's as much her own grief that she's grieving for right now as it is Mark.)
Martha shows up with groceries. "Because I know how you eat, hon. Frozen food ain't healthy."
Bella sighs, but helps her unload things. If Martha is either put-off or impressed by Rose and Emmett's big house, she says nothing, just makes herself at home in their kitchen. Rose has put in an appearance for Martha's arrival, but stands on the other side of the bar, watching Martha with bemusement. Her lacquered nails click on the counter top. "Let me make you girls a sandwich," Martha says once most of the groceries have been stuffed away.
"I never eat after seven in the evening," Rose lies easily. "It just goes straight to my hips and I won't fit into my suits."
Martha doesn't push, settling instead for making Bella a sandwich. Rose excuses herself and disappears upstairs as soon as she thinks she can get away with it and Martha watches her go. "She's uncomfortable. You know I could stay in a motel -- "
"Absolutely not," Bella replies. "And Rose is just . . . Rose. She honestly doesn't mind you being here. I'd say she's shy but it's not really shyness."
"Her retreat has been invaded," Martha muses, looking thoughtful.
"I live here, so I invade constantly."
"But you're not a stranger. There's a difference, hon. Introverts need their space."
Bella starts to object but can't, realizing Martha has pegged Rosalie perfectly in less than half an hour, not succumbing to any of the misperceptions about her that people usually make. Unlike Emmett, Rose is an introvert, and while she can open her home to social events and put herself on display when necessary -- even likes it -- in the normal course of things, her house is her sanctuary and she doesn't welcome people here beyond her family.
It strikes Bella that she is now considered by Rose to be family.
Martha says nothing else about Rosalie, launching instead into questions regarding the shelter or Bella's dissertation. They stay up until midnight visiting, but still wake early. Rose is already gone, and Martha makes breakfast. When they're finished, Bella drives them to the shelter while Martha asks questions about the hand-controls on the van, then the Oktoberfest currently overrunning the town -- Helen makes much of its Alpine theme -- as well as the population of White County, how many are summer residents versus year-round citizens. "I got a Methodist minister friend who owns a cabin up near Lake Junaluska," she says. Junaluska is a little over an hour away just across the border into North Carolina. "They come up in April and leave at the end of October."
"We have those too. White County is a strange area," Bella tells her. "Some people here have loads of money, others are pretty poor. Tourism is the number one industry, as you can imagine, and not a few are part-time residents. The town used to be a gold-mining town."
The shelter lies off the beaten track on property that Esme found last March. The old farmhouse had been falling down -- quite literally. Esme had removed the wood-burning stove and antique washbasins, then pulled down the rest except for the fireplace, and started over on the foundation. She and Emmett had it rebuilt in six months. Today, it's a charming three-story blue clapboard with room for six families plus a small basement apartment for the live-in resident. Six families aren't many, but they'd thought it a good place to start. Esme and Emmett will add another wing next summer if it continues to grow and Bella thinks it will. Word is still getting out. Presently, four families occupy the shelter, plus one woman without children.
Their live-in staff resident, Madison Snow, greets them at the door as she prepares to leave for day classes. She attends a Baptist college down the highway in Cleveland, so she and Martha hit it off immediately. She studies early childhood education and is newly engaged, working at the shelter to have a place to stay so she can save money for her wedding. Edward has said he finds her tiresome in all her wholesome cheerfulness, but she's neither judgmental nor pushy about saving the souls of the women here -- at least not overtly -- so Bella can live with that. They'd had a long talk about lines in the sand when Maddy had first applied for the residency. The McCarty House might be a private non-profit, but has no religious affiliation and Bella had wanted it very clear that no proselytizing would be tolerated. Maddy's respected that. She might not be a feminist, nor in favor of divorce, but she's perfectly fine with women who flee abusive situations and has a natural empathy that the residents respond to. She also grew up in the area and holds religious views closer to the bulk of their clients' than Bella's or Rose's -- as evinced by Hannah Jones's strong words for Rose when she'd left last August. Having Madison around has helped in the occasional religious communication divide here in the Southern Bible Belt. In addition to Maddy, their volunteer staff includes two retirees who handle childcare during the day, a vocational counselor who comes in twice a week, and a family therapist who leads group meetings on Saturdays as well as offers private counseling. All are women. Alice remains their business manager. On Sunday evenings, local pastors trade off chapel duty. Everybody who wants to meets in the living room for services. Esme and Maddy always attend. Bella and Rose do their best to avoid it.
Martha spends the morning talking to residents while Bella answers mail and phone messages, then deals with next month's schedule. That afternoon, Martha takes over the phones while Bella has meetings with the women. Martha is contacting local black congregations in White, Hall, and Habersham Counties. All their current shelter occupants and staff are Caucasian. In fact, they've had only one black family since opening and Bella hopes Martha can build some bridges with the local African-American community. Bella has already contacted local churches herself, of course, but having been married to Mark, she's all too aware of racial divides and a white woman activist gets a smile and nod, then is sent on her merry way. Martha is heard differently. By the end of the afternoon, not only has Martha made firm contacts, but she has a black female therapist, the wife of a local pastor, lined up to volunteer in addition to Bella's current staff. Bella is thrilled.
Dinner is shared at the shelter, a noisy affair, and it's well past sunset by the time the two of them return to Rose's house. Rose is still gone. Martha and Bella talk a little about how to spend the next day, the anniversary of Mark's death. Martha has brought a sugar maple sapling to plant in the shelter's back yard in memory of him. "It'll turn pink and red in the fall," she says. "Bright like he was." Bella finds herself bursting into tears at that, and they have a good cry together. Bella goes to bed feeling drained but cleaned out, waking the next morning to a brilliant dawn, crisp like the day a year ago when she and Mark had caught the bus together into Dawes College -- the last time she'd seen him alive.
She lies in bed a while, mustering the strength to face the larger world, listening as the wind rustles dry autumn leaves. Finally rising, she showers and meets Martha downstairs. Somewhat to her surprise, she finds Esme -- "Ann" -- there too. Esme and Martha are deep in conversation, and both smile when Bella emerges. "Eggs and bacon are in the oven, staying warm," Martha tells her as Esme rises to hug Bella hello.
Given the brightness outside, Bella wonders how Esme plans to depart without sparkling all over the lawn and sidewalk. But Esme explains in the next moment: "I came to finish my work on Rosalie's office upstairs." She leaves them both not long after, taking the warm coffee Martha offers (and Bella knows will be poured down a bathroom sink).
When she's gone, Martha says, kindly, "She's checking up on you."
"I figured as much," Bella replies around a bite of egg. "What were the two of you discussing?"
"Not you," Martha says with a wink, recognizing Bella's fishing. "We were talking about the shelter and she told me her own story, how she left her husband." The modified story, no doubt, the one Esme uses with residents. "She asked me some about Mark, and told me she has a spot marked out and ready for our sapling."
"Sounds like Ann," Bella replies.
The planting of Mark's tree is a quiet event just for Bella and Martha. The spot Esme prepared includes a pre-dug hole. Martha is surprised and Bella, who knows Esme did it herself, says Esme's brother probably dug it, instead. As per Alice's warning, it is the first time she's made any reference to Edward. Martha asks if she'll get to meet him, to thank him. Bella says probably not; he's working all week in Atlanta. That is the extent of their conversation about Edward and Bella is glad. She doesn't want to think about Edward today of all days.
Martha plants the sapling and stakes it against harsh winds. Autumn isn't the best season for planting but the leaves have only started to turn and the leaf-peepers have arrived in the area -- tourists come to watch the mountainsides turn yellow and pink and red. It will be another month until there's a hard freeze, Bella thinks. When she's finished patting down the dirt, Martha says a prayer and the two of them sit in silence for a while. Bella doesn't cry much, just a few tears leak out. After a while, Martha leans over to take Bella's left hand, tapping her wedding ring. "It's time to take it off now, hon."
Bella fists her hand inside Martha's plump one. "Tomorrow," she says.
"Tomorrow then," Martha replies, letting Bella's hand go.
They are silent once more until Martha says, "Sometimes -- maybe most of the time -- young widows and widowers drift away from the families of their late spouses." She turns to look at Bella. The bright morning sun shines on her skin, turning it rich like the earth she'd packed around Mark's sapling. "But you'll always be my daughter -- even after you find somebody else and marry again."
Bella has feared this conversation and squirms in her chair, uncomfortable. Martha isn't watching directly, but Bella thinks she is watching from the corner of her eye. "I don't need to tell you Mark would want you to find somebody and be happy," Martha says. "You already know that. Today we remember him. Tomorrow, life goes on again. But I did want to make it clear that I want to stay part of that life. You're our family, hon. Mark may have brought you to us, but you're ours now and you always will be. I fully expect a call someday to tell Mama Martha all about the handsome new boy you met -- and I don't want you thinking I'll resent you or think you forgot my son. I know you better than that. We don't forget the ones who leave us. We just learn to go on living."
Bella feels hot tears spill over in earnest now, tears she thought she'd escaped, and feels knotted up inside, her stomach a little sick with anxiety. She should probably have anticipated something like this from Martha, but hadn't. She's never known another widow her age, only divorcees who hadn't wanted to stay part of their exs' families, and she realizes she'd assumed that without Mark to anchor her, or children, she'd eventually lose touch with the Jacksons. One part of her is deeply grateful she won't. Martha has been more a mother to her than her own mother and Mark's sisters became the siblings Bella never had. There aren't many mothers-in-law who'd tell their widowed daughters-in-law they want to hear the dish about her new man. Martha is unique. Of course, not many mothers-in-law are pastors, either.
Martha has reached over to pat her hand, but doesn't ask for overt agreement. Perhaps she takes Bella's tears for that. And they are. But Bella's tears also spring from stress and anxiety. Martha's offer is an unlooked for complication. Keeping her unaware of the Cullens' secrets will be difficult even in a best-case scenario.
Tomorrow, Bella tells herself. She'll worry about all this tomorrow. Today, she'll just be grateful.
The ring of Bella's cell phone interrupts further conversation and she wipes her eyes, sniffing heavily as she fishes in the chair pocket for it. Not recognizing the calling number, she flips it open. "This is Bella Jackson."
"Bella," says a woman's crisp voice on the other end, "It's Anita Jeffries with the White County Sheriff's Office." Jeffries is one of the female police officers who bring women to the shelter now and then. Some arrive via contact through Alice's shop -- the shelter's public face -- but some are delivered directly. "I'm at the hospital," Jeffries goes on. "I wanted to see if you have room for a new family?"
"Yes, of course. We've got four right now and a single, but we can take another. What happened?"
"A young woman was brought in this morning by ambulance after a 911 call concerning a domestic dispute. The officers on the scene took custody of her children too."
"Oh, no," Bella says softly. "How are they?"
"The kids are shook, but physically fine. Their mom has a broken arm, black eye and some bruises and lacerations. I'll explain more when we get there. I just wanted to be sure there was room."
"There is. How soon before you arrive?"
"Probably not for a while. We've got reports to file and the hospital needs to release her. Don't expect us before one at the earliest. I'll call again when we're on the way."
Bella hangs up and looks at Martha. "New resident coming. I know we were supposed to take the day off -- "
Martha just shakes her head. "Best way to honor Mark's memory is caring for people. Let's go get a room ready."
As she predicted, Officer Jeffries arrives about one with their new charges. It's none other than Hannah Jones and her three children -- the shelter's very first residents back in July. Hannah's right arm is in a sling and one eye is swollen shut. Her face is striped with stitched cuts and she walks hunched over. Her unbroken arm looks like a checkerboard of bruises. Her nightdress is clearly ripped, and someone at the hospital gave her a scrub top to cover herself. Her youngest clings to her skirts and won't let go; the other two appear shell-shocked. Bella is glad for Martha, who takes charge of the children, peeling the little girl off her mother, while Bella talks to Hannah. Esme is called but Bella knows the sunshine will make it tricky for her to get here.
Hannah has a hard time describing what happened. She speaks in raw whispers, seeming half humiliated, half terrified, and chain-smokes during the whole intake interview. Residents have arrived before with physical injuries, but this is the worst Bella has yet seen, and she's quietly horrified, her body torn between sympathy and mild repulsion. "He threatened to kill me," Hannah says. "He came home at five this morning -- out all night drinking away our money. I cussed him out good but I shouldna done that. I get impatient sometimes and he smacked me around some for my sharp tongue." Unconsciously, she touches the side of her face near her black eye.
"Hannah," Bella says softly, "nothing gives anybody the right to hit you." Bella knows that Hannah's tongue can be sharp and her temper short, but that's not an excuse.
Hannah finishes one cigarette and pulls out a second; between her shaking hands and broken arm, it takes her three tries to connect the lighter flame with the end of her Benson & Hedges. Finally she manages, then goes on, "Jenna woke up and came downstairs when she heard us shouting. She was crying and begging him to stop. He smacked her too, and I lost my temper at that. I went right for him. He's gonna claim I tried to choke him, the son of a bitch -- and I did. He hit my daughter. I scratched his face and got my hands around his throat but he threw me into the kitchen table and told me he was gonna kill me. That's how I broke my arm. He came after me with a bar stool but Jenna threw herself on top of me, so he just left. I was afraid he'd gone out to the shed for his rifle, but I heard the car start and he drove off. Jenna called 911."
"Jenna is a smart girl," Bella says.
"I filed a restraining order," Hannah adds. "I don't know if it'll be enough though. I can't go back there. I know I can be a bitch; I make him angry. But he hit my daughter. I won't go back."
Bella just nods. That is, unfortunately, often what it takes to make a woman stay away -- a threat to her children.
"Can you call Esme?" Hannah asks.
Bella smiles at her. "I already did. She'll be over as soon as she can be."
Hannah nods and, bending a little, crosses her good arm over her chest, not looking at Bella. She just rocks back and forth and smokes. Bella leaves her there to collect herself, going out to see how Martha is getting the kids settled in. Half an hour later, Esme arrives, having braved a brief moment of cloud cover to run from the car to the porch. She and Hannah sequester themselves upstairs to talk and Martha pulls Bella aside to ask questions. "Yes," Bella says, "she was here before but went back to him."
"So many do." Martha sighs, then tilts her head and eyes Bella. "The location of this house is secure? You don't need the likes of that man showing up here."
"It's secure. The staff knows, of course, and the police, plus the donors, but Alice's shop doubles as our mailing address and business office." Then Bella asks, "Would you be willing to talk to Hannah later? The reason she went back last time is that her family pressured her to be a good wife and her husband swore he'd 'got right with God.'"
Martha sighs again. "He can get himself right with God by getting himself to therapy."
"That's what Rose and I told her, but it might mean more coming from a preacher."
"I'll see what I can do."
Martha is as good as her word. She finds a way to speak with Hannah that evening, although Esme remains with her, unwilling to let the younger woman out of her sight that first day. "Your friend's a little invested," Martha says to Bella later. They're back at Rosalie's house although, again, Rose isn't home. She's at her office preparing papers for orders to be delivered to a judge tomorrow to sign.
"I know," Bella says. "I've talked to her about it. I'm not sure it got through, though. Ann's soft-hearted."
Martha shrugs. "Sometimes you gotta get burned to learn."
"She already was burned when Hannah left the first time."
"It usually takes more than once. She seems like a sweet woman, your Ann -- though Hannah kept calling her Esther."
Esther? Martha's hearing must be going, but Bella doesn't correct her, just says, "That's her other name," then changes the subject. "So what would you like to do tomorrow? I'll need to go into the shelter in the morning, but I can take off after lunch."
They discuss the coming day and Bella is glad they both had something to occupy them on this day after all. It's late when she goes to bed and she takes one of the sleeping pills the doctor had prescribed for her after Mark's death. She doesn't want to lie awake tonight, tossing and turning, nor does she want to dream. As she prepares for bed, she pauses by her jewelry case and looks down at her left hand. Earlier, she'd insisted on not removing it until tomorrow, but finds she is ready tonight. Opening the case lid, she pulls off the gold band, sliding it into one of the ring slots. There is no drama in it. The heavens don't open nor does lightning strike. She closes the lid and finishes her evening hygiene. In the morning, there is no comment on her ringless finger. There is, however, a single white rose on her desk at the shelter. She knows who left it. She hasn't heard from him since Monday afternoon -- not even an email or text message -- and there is no note attached to the rose, but she doesn't need one to know it's from him. She picks up the small vase with her blank left hand.
The rest of Martha's visit passes without real incident, and Bella is glad of that. As per Alice's instructions, they don't get to Dawes College until afternoon and don't run into Lorraine. They meet with Jeff Simmons, Mark's old advisor, and Jimmy DeSanti, who's helping to edit Mark's last two articles, then they drop by Alice's shop on the way home. Martha seems charmed by Alice, but most people are when Alice wants them to be. Alice exclaims over the beautiful African caftan Martha is wearing, which leads into a discussion of weaving, embroidery and women's textile art. Alice gets an address for World Ark, a wholesale company that distributes handmade crafts from around the globe, in case she'd like to stock more than things locally made. Given the way she's eying Martha's clothes, Bella suspects she will. While they talk, Bella finds herself idly wondering if there are vampires in Africa (surely so), whether Carlisle has met any, and whether their bloodless brown skin looks gray.
And that brings to mind Mark's face while he'd lain in the morgue. Suddenly she is bawling in Alice's back room while Martha rocks her and Alice runs upstairs to fetch bottled water she keeps in her otherwise near-empty fridge. Bella can't even explain to Martha what set her off, and it reminds her all over again of the complications her friendship with the Cullens will bring.
The next morning, Martha departs for Jacksonville after breakfast, eliciting a promise from Bella that she'll be down at Thanksgiving. Holidays are for family, which means Martha and Renee, not Rose and Emmett -- although Emmett seems unsurprised by this development. He and Jasper return from hunting around ten that morning, their eyes bright gold and their step peppy. Jasper drops off Emmett at the shelter so he can put back up one of the towel racks a kid accidentally tore down by hanging on it, 'like a monkey.' When he's finished, he stops in her office to put away his drill and hear about Martha's visit. "You wouldn't have a lot of fun with us," he says when she mentions Thanksgiving. "We don't cook our turkeys."
Bella sips tea and smiles at the mental image of Emmett crashing through the underbrush after a wild turkey. "I wouldn't think birds would be worth the effort."
"They aren't. Personally, I prefer ham for Thanksgiving, although finding wild razorbacks ain't exactly easy either."
"Razorbacks are wild pigs?"
"Well they're descendants of farm pigs that broke out, but they're feral now, yeah. Mean suckers. Makes 'em sorta fun, truth be told."
Bella has to laugh, but is glad her vampires feel comfortable enough discussing their eating habits with her -- or at least Emmett does. Edward is more fastidious. "How many deer did you and Jasper catch?"
"Only two each, although I got me a nice five-point buck. We do try to obey the quota limits. To a point. I even have a hunting license." Fishing in his back pocket, he extracts his billfold and pulls out the paper license for her to see. This cracks her up and she laughs so hard she can barely breathe. Emmett grins fiercely, then puts away the license. In a casual voice, he says, "I see you took your ring off."
Bella immediately sobers. "It was time."
"Not a criticism. Just an observation." After only a breath, he adds, "Edward's coming by the house tonight. He called me earlier; he's got the weekend free for a change. He's pissed though that me and Jasper got to go hunting while he was stuck down in the city. I'll probably take him out after you're asleep."
"Maybe he'll find a mountain lion."
"Nah. Not around here. They're gone in the East 'cept maybe a handful up in the Blue Ridge, and even if we did spot one, he wouldn't kill it. We pay attention to what's on the Endangered Species list. This time of year, Edward clears out the deer down Atlanta-way so they cause fewer accidents. We'll be after more tonight, or maybe coyotes. I hear they're getting local ranchers' smaller livestock."
Bella doesn't immediately reply, mulling over what Emmett's told her. Her vampires play by the rules even when they don't have to, and in more ways than just eschewing human blood. Edward might like mountain lion but won't hunt them where they survive only in small populations. Emmett -- and no doubt Jasper too -- bought hunting licenses and obey quota limits. They are responsible citizens. It is more prosaic than alluringly dangerous, but she's proud of them -- which is probably a bit condescending. She can't help it, though, and finds herself smiling as she finishes her tea.
"Edward will be glad to see you," Emmett essays carefully.
Bella's eyes dart to her office window. "I'll be glad to see him too."
Notes: World Ark isn't a real business; I just needed a name. A picture of Martha's caftan is on my profile page at ff-net. As for Edward and mountain lion, given some fanfic, you'd think they were a dime a dozen all over North America! Actually, they're pretty rare in many areas, particularly east of the Mississippi. No matter how much the Cullens like predators, I really can't see them going after endangered animals. They're more likely to pay attention to what the local fish and game commissions say is over-populated. In the fall, deer become a nuisance near urban areas because they're mating and male deer especially are looking for does, not cars. They'll dash right in front of you and a deer can total a car (and severely injure if not kill a driver). There is also a huge problem with coyotes in Georgia. They're no longer just a western predator.
In addition, I find it unrealistic that a vampire would consume a half dozen animals on each hunt. The human stomach just isn't that big, and even if vampires are different internally, our bodies hold only about 6 quarts of blood -- and I don't think vampire bodies would hold a lot more. A single 200-pound buck has more blood volume than the average human male. One deer at a time is plenty even if we assume they spill some blood or don't drain it all.
All signed reviews are always replied to. Thanks for all commentary!