Read Online The Devil's Puzzle by Clare O'Donohue - Free Book Online

Maggie said.
    “What?”
    “You know Jesse is going to propose.”
    “Eleanor told you that, I assume.”
    Maggie smiled. “He’s a wonderful man. Just perfect for you.”
    “He’s not going to propose.”
    “Well, he’s not nearly good enough for you anyway.”
    I laughed. There might be nearly fifty years between us, but Maggie was a true girlfriend, willing to spin 180 degrees at a moment’s notice just to back me up.
    “Oliver. He’s the one planning to propose,” I said.
    Maggie stared off into the distance, the shock evident on her face. Then she smiled slightly and nodded to herself before turning back to me. “How much time do we have to make them a wedding quilt? They probably won’t have a long engagement at their age, so it will need to be a simple pattern, but very, very special.”
    “There may not be an engagement. Eleanor thinks getting married again is ridiculous. She doesn’t know Oliver is planning anything. She’s just against the idea in theory. But if he asks, I think she’ll say no and . . .”
    “The poor man.” Maggie shook her head. “Did she give you a reason why she wouldn’t marry him?”
    “No. That’s why I’m here. I don’t want to interfere in her life, but I don’t want her to make a mistake she’ll regret.”
    “You want my permission?”
    “Maybe ‘advice’ is a better word.”
    “Well, if the situation were reversed, and you were against marrying Jesse but wouldn’t give a reason, what would she do?”
    I laughed. “She’d lecture me and nag me and bug me until I either married him or gave her a good reason why I wouldn’t.”
    “Then that’s your answer.”
    I felt a weight lift off me. “Okay, then, Maggie, you’ve known Eleanor longer than anyone . . .”
    “Since she was your age,” Maggie agreed.
    “So I thought you might know about her marriage to Joe.”
    “I didn’t meet Eleanor until after Joe died. She came to Archers Rest with her two little ones and got a job as Grace Roemer’s live-in assistant, I guess you would say.”
    “I know that part of the story. But how did she get that job? She never told me.”
    “I don’t actually know. Grace’s own children were grown and living far away, so she needed Eleanor as a companion and a kind of nursemaid, and Eleanor needed a home for her children. However Eleanor got it, it was just what she needed.”
    “Did Eleanor ever say anything about Joe?”
    “Of course. The memories were fresh then. The pain was front and center. But she had your mother and uncle to raise. She put aside her pain and got on with her life.”
    “Would there have been something in her marriage that would stop her now, after all these years, from getting married again?”
    “Meaning?”
    “I don’t know. Maybe they were really happy and she felt he was her one true love.”
    “I can’t picture Eleanor uttering the words ‘one true love.’ ”
    “She thought I was nuts when I suggested it,” I admitted. “Was the marriage really unhappy and she doesn’t want to repeat a nightmare?”
    “I don’t think so. Eleanor loved your grandfather and she spoke of him fondly, as she still does. From what I learned about him, he was a well-liked man, but maybe he wanted more than he could afford. In those days folks like us didn’t have credit cards, but we could still get things on credit at stores. I gather he did that. Their car wasn’t paid for. Their house was behind on the mortgage. There were debts and nothing in the bank to pay them.”
    “Was he a gambler?” Suddenly the poker chip popped into my mind, and I tried to push away what I was thinking.
    Maggie shook her head. “I don’t think so. I think he was just a dreamer. He might have been able to achieve his dreams if, well,” she paused. “I understand the weather was very bad that night.”
    “It must have been heartbreaking,” I said.
    “It was, of course, but she got on with life and did whatever she had to for the sake of her