Read Online The Gathering Storm by Bodie Thoene, Brock Thoene - Free Book Online Page B

him.
    At last I fell asleep, aching for him to come into my room and take me into his arms. I dreamed all night about the White Rose Inn and Hafflinger horses grazing in a field around an enormous Tannenbaum decorated with English volumes of Shakespeare and Dickens and Robert Louis Stevenson, while Eben sang.
    My dream made no sense, but it was a pleasant escape from the reality of the Reich.
    Mama knocked softly on my door the next morning before I was awake. "Lora?"
    I answered with a reluctant groan. The clock said half-six. I opened my eyes as, with a cup of steaming tea, she came in quietly and sat on the edge of my bed. She was beautiful in a soft blue cotton robe and slippers.
    Mama did not speak. She merely took a sip of tea, then offered me a pitying smile.
    "Mama?" I asked. "What?"
    "I want to tell you something about myself. Between us girls."
    "All right, Mama. But at half-six?"
    "Isn't everyone asleep?" she whispered.
    "Not you."
    "Lora, darling?"
    "Mama?"
    "When I was younger than you, there was a music teacher. His name was George Helstrom. A young fellow, a music professor out of Amarillo. Handsome, handsome. Oh! I tell you, he was the love of my life, wasn't he just?"
    This was interesting. I propped myself up on my elbow. She offered me a taste of her tea. Suddenly we were more like girlfriends than mother and daughter. I still had not grasped why she was sharing such a deep, intimate secret with me.
    "And?"
    "He loved another. Terribly. But she didn't love him, poor fellow. I loved him. Wouldn't my heart pound every time he came to the house? Just imagine how poor George and I suffered."
    Mama brushed my hair with her fingers. I asked, "What happened to George?"
    "He ran off to Hollywood and married a rich girl. Works for his cousin at a film studio. A director of Marx Brothers movies. Can you just imagine?"
    "And you?"
    "I married your papa and have been happy every day of my life. I should have known all along: how could I have ever loved a man who would move to Hollywood and get hitched for money? So shallow."
    "Mama?" I paused, wanting to tell her everything."Yes?" She lowered her chin, and I knew she knew.
    "Eben is not shallow."
    "No."
    "I have loved him since the first time I ever saw him."
    "I know, dear."
    "He is older than I am."
    "Yes."
    "And I know he doesn't care about me. He thinks I am a child."
    She chewed her lower lip. "Poor Varrick."
    "Yes. Poor boy."
    "I think he loves you very much."
    "Perhaps he does. But Mama, how can I fight such a love as I feel for Eben?"
    Now her expression grew more serious. "Has Eben told you how he feels?"
    "I told him how I felt."
    "What did he say?"
    "He...said he would tell Papa how foolish I am."
    Mama sighed with relief. "Well, then. How can you love a man who threatens to tell your father everything?"
    "I thought the very same thing. Cruel."
    "But young Varrick. Can't you just see how he could be helped through this difficult time by a mature young woman who sees things as they are?"
    I considered her suggestion. "I like Varrick. Once I thought I loved him. Perhaps I did in a way."
    "Maybe you'll find a reason to love again, Loralei Bittick. Just don't give up hope. Aren't I certain the Lord has some fine young man for you to love?"
    "How old is Eben?"
    "Perhaps twenty-seven or twenty-eight, I would guess. Thirty?"
    "Mature."
    Mama looked at her hands a long time before she answered. "You cannot know the life of a man like Eben Golah. Few know him well. Your father knows his history but tells me nothing about him. Perhaps he is too old for you. I do think so. If he is ten years older than you, think of it. When you are my age...forty-six...wouldn't he be fifty-six?"
    A shocking thought. "Oh, dear. So old." I lay back on my pillow. I felt as though my soul was purged. I rubbed her hand. "Thank you, Mama. I have felt very alone until this morning."
    Mama winked. She seemed so very young in that instant. I marveled that my own mother did not look even close