By the time the rain let up, it had begun to get dark, but they made it to the hotel just before nightfall. Either her adoring fans had accepted she'd left St. Louis or they weren't her adoring fans anymore after the story in the paper because the crowds were gone.
"Better slip in the back, so folks don't get wind that you're back just in case," Kid told her quietly.
She couldn't agree more.
The cook and the kitchen maid were hard at work cleaning up.
"How is it you two always manage just to miss the dinner hour? Glad to see you both back though. I got some leftovers keeping warm in the stove."
Kid went to get it while Ruth made conversation. "How's your niece?" she asked.
"Fine," the cook answered, beaming. "Whatever she had seems to be gone like it was never there to begin with."
"Praise the Lord. She's been in my prayers."
"I thank you for all you done."
"I had nothing to do with it. The Lord's the one that healed her."
"Maybe so, but all I know is she was barely eating, wasting away, and now she's eating and gaining again and that didn't happen until you rolled into town and agreed to start praying for her. You had a little something to do with it."
"You heard anybody mentioning what's in the papers about me?" Ruth asked, changing the subject.
"Nobody's saying a word," her tone was overly bright, ringing with a false but well-meaning artificiality. A hint of anger appeared in her eyes though. "No good man. See if I buy a copy of the Missouri Gazette for the mister again."
"You're lying to me, ain't you? About nobody saying a word. You know I'd rather you tell me the truth than what I want to hear."
She blushed a bit. "Well, leastways no one dares talk about it around me. I admit I've heard some mentions and rumblings, but I quickly squelched them. Ain't nobody going to talk bad about you while I'm around. I can promise you that."
Kid had put some plates together and was ready to go.
"Well, thank you," Ruth said. "I reckon we better let you finish up here and get to bed our own selves."
After a round of good night wishes, they went up to their room.
"Have I told you how happy I am to be alone with you again?" he said as he handed her a plate.
"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't happy about it too, especially one traveling companion in particular."
He only smiled in reply.
They ate their meal and fell asleep almost as soon as they crawled into bed; the soft bed being a welcome change from the hard ground.
sss
Kid was greeted with the sight of his wife taking a rag to the furniture the next morning. "You cleaning on a Sunday and isn't that the hotel's job to keep the rooms clean? That's part of what we're paying them for."
"Cleanliness is next to godliness," she replied.
"Is that in the Bible?" he asked, brows raised questioningly.
She grinned. "No, but I've always thought it sounds pretty good. Certainly God ain't against cleanliness."
He grinned back. "If we had a house of our own, I pity the speck of dust that would dare land in your domain."
"Maybe you're right that I shouldn't be doing this on a Sunday, but there are exceptions and it takes more work for me not to think about it."
"I believe it. You want to come over here and dust me off while you're at it?" he teased. "I'm certain I'm dustier than the room after 2 weeks on the trail."
She threw the rag at him with a laugh. "Get up and get ready. Lydia's probably waiting on us."
"Yes, ma'am."
Lydia was waiting by the time they walked there. She had obviously taken great pains with her appearance. Her hair was pinned up like Ruth's only less tidily and already pins were working their way lose.
"You look lovely, sweetheart," Ruth told her as she tucked the stray pins back into her hair.
On the way there, Lydia imagined she was walking to church with her parents like regular children did and it felt nice. The girl hesitated just a moment before going in when they came to the church though.
She'd asked her mom once to take her inside a church when she was about 5. They had just walked by it, a beautiful, large log church with a steeple and a cross on top. Something about the cross piecing the early morning sky had touched her young heart and made her yearn for something she didn't know she was missing. Her mom's reply had been harsh though maybe realistic, "People like you and me ain't welcome in there." When she'd gotten older and wiser and learned what the building was for. She pictured a frowning God looking down his nose at her.
As if she had just witnessed the memory, Ruth smiled a warm smile, "If you ain't welcome in there then neither is Jesus and we'll leave, but Jesus loves you and folks that really truly follow Him will love you too."
She believed it when Ruth said it. She took courage from her words and boldly walked in behind them.
John Meachum was welcoming people at the door and looked more than a little surprised to see them there. "I thought you must've changed your mind."
"Sorry there wasn't much of a chance to explain, but Kid got into some trouble not of his own making and we had to leave the city for a bit. I don't know if the invitation still stands to speak at your church, but I'd certainly like to."
"Of course, it does."
Kid and Lydia took a seat near the front. She felt as secure in Kid's quiet as she felt in Ruth's friendly chatter and relaxed as she waited for things to get underway.
When Ruth took her place behind the pulpit, there were murmurings, not murmurings of surprise that a white preacher lady had showed up at their church unannounced, but murmurs that hinted Tom Thumb hadn't been more interesting than her story.
"There were lies printed about me saying that I prostitute myself to fund my traveling and that I have a drinking problem. The only true fact is that I was at a saloon where women sell their bodies to survive, which is where this writer found me."
The congregation looked at one another uncomfortably, gauging their fellow members' reactions.
"I know that alone is enough to shock some people and make me less of a proper lady in their eyes, but I'm going to tell you all the same thing Jesus told His accusers. You see even in Jesus' day they worried at the company He kept. He said to them, "for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance'. And that's all I have to say in my defense. I mingle with those folks not because I share in their vices, but because even today Jesus is calling these to repentance. How can we be the representatives of Christ on this earth, His hands and feet, if we don't dine with sinners? They won't hear the message of healing and mercy unless we speak it to them and show our love in practical ways as the Lord would have us do."
A number of amens rang through the church.
"Mostly though I came not to defend myself but to ask if there are any among you who would seek healing of the body. I believe He wants to show us that the God of today is the God of yesterday. Come, friends, and see the heights to which God can grow the faith of a mustard seed."
5 men and women of various ages and ailments came to the altar and were healed.
"Thank you, Sister Ruth," Reverend Meachum. "I know we all appreciate you coming to us when not all of us can come to you and especially for reminding us of the might and healing found in the Lord Jesus Christ."
Ruth took a seat with Kid and Lydia.
"I would now like to turn our attention to the children. In order that we might do more for our young children, I recommend manual labor schools being established, so as the children cam have free access to them. And I would recommend in these schools pious teachers, either white or colored, who would take all pains with the children to bring them up in piety, and in industrious habits. We must endeavor to have our children look up a little, for they are too many to lie in idleness and dishonor."
Lydia paid attention to his words. She wouldn't mind learning a trade. That would mean freedom to earn her own way maybe sooner than the day she could take a revival on the road. She wished she could learn to sew right now or learn any other useful trade that they had to teach. She wondered if he got such a school open, would children that whites had rejected be welcome in the same way that teachers of either race would be welcomed.
"'Train up a child the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it," he quoted. "'Love your neighbor as yourself,' is the command of the New Testament. We are morally bound by the law of God to teach this to our children.
"I ask, if it would not be to the glory of God for us to endeavor to train up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord? Then if you think so, let us feel it a duty enjoined upon every son and daughter of our race, to endeavor to become united, that we may throw our mites together, and have schools in every state and county where the free children are in large numbers."
It was more of the same for the next hour or so and Lydia was enthralled by the message of the importance of education. She could write letters down. She even knew some of the names and sounds from asking people, but she was eager to learn more, to string the letters into words. Imagine being able to read God's very own words for yourself, she thought, as she gazed longingly at Sister Ruth's Bible.
Ruth noticed her gaze. "Would you like a Bible of your own, honey?" she whispered.
She turned crimson. "Yes'm, but I can't read," she whispered back.
"Ain't no shame in that. A lot of folks can't read, but would you like to change that?"
She looked up, wondering if Sister Ruth toyed with her.
"What's the best time for you? I ain't going to be here forever, but a smart girl like you could pick it up in no time."
"Mornings would be best, but I got to be back by lunch."
"Mornings it is then," Ruth agreed.
Reverend Meachum ended with an altar call. "Then why sit ye here and look at one another? Don't sit there any longer. Rise and go to work like men, and buy property and live like men and women in this world. If you have not got religion, God sends rain on the just and the unjust. But while you are receiving all these good things remember, O man, that thou hast an immortal soul that has to be saved or lost to all eternity. Then let us wake up, not only in regard to earthly concerns, but also in regard to eternity, which is just before us."
There were more amens and the service ended.
"I been thinking about what you said about there being exceptions to working on Sundays and I think He'd understand if I started hunting down the boy now. Keep him from robbing and scaring other innocent folks, so I'm going to walk Lydia home and see if I can't talk to the girl that's seen him," Kid told Ruth after they'd filed out.
"Alright. " She reached up and kissed his cheek. "Be careful."
"Likewise," he returned.
John Meachum's sermon is taken from his book, An Address to All the Colored Citizens of the United States.