And the greatest of these is Love

Chapter 4

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Debra Blakely did a wonderful job with Dottie's Apparel shop while Dottie was gone on her honeymoon! In spite of not having much time to get to know the place and just Clara stopping by to help whenever she could, Debra managed quite well. She had all the clothes hung up or folded and placed on the tables. She strategically added a hat and gloves to the side of a dress and a belt and fedora by the menswear. Touches of jewelry or tiepins were displayed near matching outfits.

As Dottie continued throughout the shop she liked that there were several extra touches placed as accents such as a bouncing ball by the display of toddler clothes, dried floral pieces scattered among the ladies' new spring clothing, and even a fishing pole laid in a corner next to the men's outdoor clothing area.

"My, my Debra, you are very creative with the display of clothing and in the front window too. I am quite impressed with what you did while I was gone making this shop more appealing! The window is really an eye-catcher with pinks, purples, soft blues, and other pastels displaying Easter hats, bonnets, gloves, handkerchiefs, dress shirts, and the like. Well done, I must say!"

"Thank you, Dottie! It was my pleasure. I enjoyed doing the decorating and displaying. It kept me busy and my mind off of other things," Debra smiled.

Dottie looked around and nodded to herself as she said, "Debra, I want to offer you a permanent job here if you'd like. I could use some more time at home, so although we'd be working together for the most part, I need you to be here when I can't be."

"Really? I'd like that! After growing up with my mother who always enjoyed working at the Mercantile, and had me help, I was studying business as my major. So, this was an answer to prayer," Debra confided.

"Wonderful! I'm glad you like it, because I have put my heart and soul in this business and I'm proud of it, but I need to cut back. I'm not the energetic lady I once was and it's catching up to me."

"I can work anytime, really! I'm wide open. Just say when and I'll be here!" Debra assured Dottie.

"Aren't you going back to school to finish up your schooling?"Dottie inquired.

"Yes, I am but not right now. I couldn't face my friends after my fiance left me."

With that, Dottie and Debra sat down with a calendar to work out hours for the coming week.

Rosemary came down the stairs after nursing little baby Grace to sleep. Paul and Lee were finishing up breakfast and set a plate for Rosemary. The omelet Lee made smelled good and so did the coffee.

"How are my two favorite men this morning?" Rosemary grinned.

Lee spoke up, "We're just dandy and sweet as candy!"

Paul laughed at his dad's corny saying, then asked, "Mom, how are you feeling? Any better?"

"I'm just fine, don't you worry. I'm listening to Dr. Faith and she checks on me every other day. What about you two, what are you up to this morning?" Rosie asked.

Lee sat down next to Rosemary and asked her, since she was feeling stronger, when should he make arrangements for little Grace to get baptized.

"Let's see if we can have her baptized next weekend, it'll be Easter. What do you say?" Rosie asked.

Lee thought for a minute, then spoke up, "It might be too crowded, but I'll talk to Joseph when I go to work and see what he suggests."

"Can we have a small gathering of friends afterward? Rosemary asked. "I suppose you'll ask Bill, who I'm sure you want as Grace's Godfather, and we'll ask Elizabeth to be her Godmother."

Lee confirmed the choices for Godparents that Rosie suggested and said he would talk to Bill if she would ask Elizabeth.

Since it was getting nicer outside, Paul asked if he could ride his bike into town to play with Benjamin and Cooper. They were supposed to be practicing pitching and batting for their baseball team, the Hope Valley Stallions. Lee told him to go ahead and he'd meet him in a bit over at the Canfields.

Seeing to it that Rosie and Grace were content, he kissed Rosie and told her that he had a few errands to take care of but would be back as soon as possible. He drove to town stopping at his Coulter Lumber Company office and went through some orders. The crew was starting to chop down some trees for the next big projects. Last year alone they had added to Minnie's Cafe and Billees, plus lengthened the church and built row houses. It looked like there was a need for more room at the Infirmary now too. Sorting through the blueprints he started to figure out what crew would work where. His biggest projects this year were to build a new school and St. James church. He'd have to look for men who could handle brick-laying and installing stained glass windows.

Since his lumber business was increasing with multiple new constructions, he hired Harper to help with the Valley Voice. Rosemary had taken off for the next few months so he had to find someone to help write. He had been burning the candle at both ends trying to work at the lumber company and newspaper businesses both. He knew Lucia Moretti had been helping her mother with her younger siblings, but she was also a serious student. Carlotta Moretti had home-schooled her children and told Lee that Lucia was keen on writing and journalism. He'd have to take a ride out to the Morettis and talk to Lucia after he talked to Pastor Joseph about a date for Grace's christening.

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Trevor went home feeling lighter. He was still in pain, but Father Ricardo had helped him to begin to release some of his torment. Praying to God for the first time since the war, helped him lay his anguish at the foot of the cross. It was freeing for him and he was grateful that Luke had insisted that he go see Fr. Ricardo.

"Trevor, hey how did it go?" Luke asked as he watched Trevor come inside their row house.

Trevor felt relaxed, "It was all right, I mean it was good. Father Ricardo is a great listener."

Luke was a bit puzzled, "So, what did you tell him?"

Trevor looked down, and kicked at the chair leg next to him, "I..."Trevor sighed, "I told him about Buddy. I let him know how angry I was at God, and he didn't tell me I was wrong, instead, he listened."

Luke grinned, "That's good. I thought he'd help you, didn't I say so?"

"You know Luke, it was like he knew I had to face my anger head-on in order to pray again. I don't know what it was, but when we prayed the Our Father together, it felt right," Trevor shook his head in disbelief.

"That's a good start. Maybe you won't have those nightmares now." Luke laughed.

"Let's go to Billees and get some food. I know you're a good cook, but let's go out and enjoy ourselves."

The two of them stopped by Matthew and Mark's house to see if they wanted to go with them. "Let's go Mark," Matthew nodded, "we can play some darts afterwards."

"Sounds good to me," Mark agreed.

When the four of them arrived, they talked to Maggie and Sam to see what was going on that night at Billees.

"Nothing in particular, just some music, cards, darts, why?" Sam asked.

"We just want to have some dinner and relax," Luke answered.

The night was more fun than they expected. Some of the other Hopefuls joined them. Katie brought Debra and Rosaleen and Lisa joined in too. What started out as a simple idea to have dinner, actually turned out for the better. The spontaneous group sat together and asked Sam to crank up the Victrola so they could dance. Some played darts and others played cards. The night was lively and fun.

As expected, there was a lot of flirting and when Bill stopped by he was keen on seeing who wound up with whom. Molly had stepped in for Rosemary with helping oversee what was needed at Billees so she was with Bill. As she walked around visiting with the guests, Matthew asked Molly to dance with him. Bill watched as Molly did the Charleston and he became a bit jealous that she was having such a good time with another man, even though he was young enough to be her son.

Walking over to Molly, he tapped Matthew on the shoulder and asked, "May I have this dance with my wife?" If looks could speak, Matthew would have heard, "Get out of here, buster, this is my wife you're dancing with."

Matthew shrugged when Bill came up to him and Molly, and left to join his friends. He challenged Mark to a game of darts which he confidently accepted but Luke and Trevor joined them and played team against team.

Molly laughed at the interruption and patiently tried to show Bill how to dance the Charleston, but he was all left feet with it. He was embarrassed, but Sam noticed and quickly changed the record on the Victrola to a fox trot. Now that Bill was quite good at and soon had his bride in his arms sweeping across the room with him.

Debra being new to town and recently introduced to the group of young adults hung back at the table. She didn't know if she could ever trust a man again. John noticed that she was alone and decided to join her.

"Hi, I'm John, do you want to dance?" he asked Debra.

"I'm sorry, but I'm just here to relax," she answered.

"Then if you don't mind, I'd like to join you, all right?" John asked. When Debra smiled and nodded, he pulled out a chair next to her and sat down.

The two of them talked about minor things at first, like the weather warming up and spring arriving. After they broke the ice, John asked Debra about when she came arrived as he hadn't seen her before. Debra explained that she just came home for Christmas, but wound up deciding to stay.

"What about your studies?" he asked.

"I'm not sure when I'll go back. Right now I'm working for Dottie Gowen at her apparel shop and it's challenging and rewarding," Debra explained.

"What were you studying?" John wasn't giving up.

"Business, I don't know why other than that's all I knew I was good at with my mother working in the Mercantile. She had me helping her since I was about 10 years old. So, it seemed like the path I should follow," Debra said.

"That makes sense, but it seems you aren't happy," John suggested.

Debra didn't want to say anything more as she just was getting to know John, so she quickly changed the subject. "Do you know how to play hearts?" John smiled, he was intrigued.

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John and Debra hit it off quite easily. It helped that they were surrounded by friends and the atmosphere was joyous. Playing hearts was an easy enough card game that they could converse. John hadn't talked much to anyone before except his work buddies and was a bit on the shy side when it came to girls. Debra being quiet herself, was a good match for him.

Debra relaxed a bit more by the time they were on their second game. She asked John, "how did you come to Hope Valley?"

He explained that his war buddies had all been looking for work when the war was over. Some of them went straight home and stayed, but John didn't. His family was small as his mother had passed away from the Spanish flu leaving his father and sister. His father had grown despondent, so his sister left and went to stay with their aunt and uncle.

"Didn't you go see your father?" Debra questioned.

"Of course, but there was nothing I could say to help him. He was grief-stricken and withdrew from everyone even my sister. So, I told him I was leaving to find work. I hated to leave, but I had to support myself," John explained.

"Oh, that must have been really hard to leave him like that," Debra was concerned.

"Yea, I didn't want to, but that's when my friends told me about Hope Valley hiring for the oil business or the lumber company. So, I packed up and joined them. My father didn't seem to care, he was in his own little world. His sister, my aunt, told me to go ahead and go and she'd try to help him."

"Have you talked to him since you left?"

"Yea, I called him a few times, but he didn't have much to say. He was going to move in with my aunt and uncle, so I'm glad about that."

"What about you Debra? You said you grew up here, so how does it feel to be back?"

Debra shied away from explaining herself but did let on that she was glad to be back with family. "My mother is totally opposite of me. She's bubbly and outgoing and knows everything that's going on in town. Her husband, Ned is quite a nice man and calms her down, so that's good." Debra chuckled.

"So, how are you related to Katie?" John asked.

"Katie? She's Ned's daughter. We grew up together as friends and now we're sisters. We both went off to college, which is a big deal for women, so it's great, we're like kindred spirits."

"You know what's funny, is that Katie is bubbly like your mother, and your quiet like her father."

Debra thought about it, "Yea, you're right, and you are quiet but your roommate, Matthew is very social! Ha! I guess opposites complement each other."

Speaking of the others, Katie plumped herself down on a chair at their table. "Whew! My feet need a rest from all that dancing! What are you playing?"

"Hearts," Debra answered with a look like go away which Katie picked up on.

"I'm going over to watch the guys play darts," and off Katie went.

Gunther and Andy walked in and were happy to see the dart game and dancing. Gunther went over to Rosaleen's table and asked her to dance, while Andy spotted Katie over at the darts and joined that group.

After a while, Sam announced that they were out of food and would be closing in an hour. Maggie piped up and mentioned that they were going to have a moving picture night in a few weeks, after Easter. That brought about a cheer.

"It's about time," Mark shouted back.

When it was time to close up, John offered to walk Debra home, but she declined, saying she would be walking with Katie. "Thanks for the card game, it was fun."

John grinned as he watched Debra's eyes twinkle and her dimples show. She was a bit of a mystery and he hoped to learn more. Debra thought John was different than any man she had met before. He was sincere and caring, at least so he seemed.

"Well, maybe next time." John winked. "Have a good night."

Over at the Landoch house, Allie was staying overnight by Karen. They were still awake and giggling talking about boys.

"Did you know Harper is going to help Mr. Coulter with the Valley Voice as his assistant?" Karen asked.

"No way!" Allie grinned.

"Yes, he'll be training under Mr. Coulter learning how to display the articles and announcements, ads, etc. It's a full-time job now," Karen shared.

"Who's doing the writing?" Allie asked.

"One of the Moretti girls. She's good at writing her mother said, so Mr. Coulter hired Lucia on a temporary basis, for now."

"Wow! Really? I wonder if Mrs. Coulter will return to work at the paper."

Karen nodded, "Yes, Harper says she loves to spill all the town gossip and thinks she's the best at it. It's true though, so I think she'll be back as soon as she can."

Allie spoke up, "I got a letter from Robert!"

"No way!" it was Karen's turn, "what did he say?"

"It's tough. They have to get up early and have their beds made exactly perfectly. Their boots have to be polished until they gleam morning and night. Right now they're learning defense moves, and practice outside," Allie explained.

"That sounds hard."

"So are the exercises, push-ups, pull-ups, crunches, squats, jumping jacks, and more. He's tired every night falling into bed. Oh, and he hates the food. He says it's terrible. Dad called it slop," Allie laughed.

"What about you?" Karen pushed for more.

"What are you asking?"

"You know."

"Well, he did say he missed me and was hoping I'd write back." Allie shrugged with a grin.

"Are you?" Karen asked.

"I already did!" Allie giggled.