A Groom to Come Home To

Clark’s admiration for her was evident in his eyes. “You’re a caring person, Beth. I admire that.”

His candor embarrassed Beth, and she didn’t know how to answer him, so she lifted a hand and brushed back her long hair nervously.

“I’ve been wanting to talk to you, Beth, but you acted like you didn’t want anything to do with me.”

“I was afraid to talk to you. My folks weren’t too keen on my going to school in Harlan anyway, and I figured if Daddy heard I’d been talking to a Randolph, that would be a good excuse to take me out of school.”

“So it wasn’t that you didn’t want to be friends?”

Beth shook her head, lowering her eyes.

With a gentle hand, Clark turned her head to face him. “Answer me, Bethie,” his deep voice insisted.

“No, I liked you right from the start,” she admitted, her gaze meeting his brown eyes unflinchingly. “Until I found out who you were.”

“These old feuds are foolish, anyway,” Clark said.

“I’ve never known what caused the trouble. Daddy always gets so angry when I ask him, I’ve stopped mentioning the Randolphs.”

“Best I can figure out, the Warners and the Randolphs fought on different sides in the Civil War, and they wouldn’t let their differences die when the war ended.”

“That’s over a hundred years ago!”

“But it was a common situation in many border states where loyalties were divided. Even after the fighting ended, older people harped on the past and kept the bitterness stirred up.”

“Like my daddy,” Beth said. “He doesn’t have anything else to think about.”

“Then you will be my friend?” Clark persisted.

“If we can keep my family from finding out, but that won’t be easy.”

“We can meet up here until it’s really cold, and then we’ll think of something else. I feel as if I just have to be with you, Beth. Something happened to my heart that first day when you got on the school bus, and I haven’t been able to get you out of my thoughts since.”

Beth felt her face flushing, and she couldn’t meet Clark’s eyes, but she didn’t resist when he took her hand in his. She didn’t doubt the truth of Clark’s words, for hadn’t she felt the same? Some of her girlfriends would talk about crushes they had on boys. Some even believed they were in love. Beth had never felt that way about a boy. But the way she felt about Clark was different. All new. A giddy feeling, yet serious and even frightening. Did she love Clark? Was that what had happened to her?

She hoped not, because Clark Randolph was not the kind of person who could share her plans for the future. He intended to work in the coal mines as soon as he graduated from high school, and she never wanted to marry a miner.

“What about your family, Clark? Is your father a miner?”

“He used to be, but he was hurt in a slate fall when I was just a boy, and he’s not been able to work since. I have two little sisters, and my mother takes care of all of us. She hasn’t had an easy life, but you never hear her complaining. My daddy is a preacher now.”

Clark looked upward at the colorful foliage and the white clouds floating by in a baby-blue sky, then sighed deeply. “Do you know what I think of when I’m out in the woods on a day like this? I think of God. What do you think of, Beth?”

“I don’t think of God, that’s for sure. I think of the beauty, I suppose.”

“But God is the one who created all of this beauty that reminds me of the words of the psalmist David, ‘The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handiwork.’ How could you not think of God?”

Beth’s legs were getting numb, and she inched away from the side of the platform to lean against the small structure. Clark moved close to her as a slight breeze scattered reddish-brown oak leaves over their shoulders.

“If your father is a preacher, then you probably hear a lot about God at your house, but my daddy doesn’t hold with religion. The only time I ever hear God mentioned is when my half brothers are visiting. They cuss a lot, using God’s name.”

“But I want you to know the God I do, Bethie. I can tell you’re lonely and fearful lots of times. If you accept Jesus, God’s son, into your heart, life will be a lot more peaceful for you.”

“Perhaps what you say is true, but when I’ve gotten this far without God, I don’t figure I need Him now.”

“Someday you’ll change your mind. You’ll want God really bad, and if you do, call out to Him. He will hear you.”

Clark’s words were foreign to Beth, but because she liked to hear him talk, she listened, and for the first time, a tiny seed was planted in Beth’s heart.

Chapter Two (#ulink_8ddbeb3c-4285-5e7a-9cfd-4aea5c3af002)

Their secret friendship continued throughout the rest of the school year, and while their interest in each other must have been evident to their classmates, Beth’s family didn’t learn about it. They sat together on the bus occasionally, although they tried to be casual about it. Sometimes when he walked past her seat, Clark would drop a folded note into her lap. By spring she had accumulated many of them. Beth hid the notes in a shoe box beneath her bed. She wouldn’t throw Clark’s messages away, but if she didn’t hide them, either her mother or grandmother was sure to find them.

Beth got out of bed and walked around the cold motel room, her eyes misting when she thought of those notes. She still had them in her possession, but she didn’t need to read them anymore—the words of most of them were etched on her heart. As the sound of running water in the rooms beside hers signaled that morning had come, she remembered one of the messages he had given her “You’re looking mighty pretty this morning. The sun is shining on your hair, making it the color of autumn leaves. I dreamed about you last night, Bethie.”

On the day before the schools closed for the Christmas holidays that year, Clark had slipped a note to her when they passed in the hallway.

His message was brief: “Try to come to the tree stand on Christmas Eve. I’ll be there around noon.”

Christmas had no particular significance for Beth’s family, although some of her half siblings and their families usually came for the day. Beth had worked hard for two days helping her mother prepare for the meal, and Mrs. Warner had no objection when her daughter stated her intention of hiking for a few hours.

Beth suspected that Clark would bring her a present, and she wanted to buy something for him, but since her parents were sacrificing to pay her school expenses, she wouldn’t use any of their scarce money to buy a gift for a Randolph. Before she left the house, she slipped one of her school pictures into her pocket

The weather was mild for December, and Beth was panting hard and sweating profusely before she reached the tree house, where Clark was already waiting at the base of the tree. His brown eyes brightened when he saw her, and he pulled her into his arms—a liberty he hadn’t taken before.

“Merry Christmas, Bethie,” he whispered, and lowered his head to kiss her lips tenderly.

Breathless, Beth whispered, “It’s my first kiss.”

“Mine, too. You’re the first girl I’ve ever wanted to kiss,” Clark said, and he bent over and kissed her again.

“See what I’ve been doing while I waited.” He pointed to the trunk of a beech tree, where he had carved a large heart to enclose his initials and hers. “C.R. loves B.W.,” he read proudly.

In an effort to slow the acceleration of her heartbeat, Beth said sternly, “I hope none of my family sees that.”

Clark laughed. “Not likely that they will. It’s cold and windy up on the platform. Let’s walk around the mountain and find a spot in the sun.”

Hand in hand, they wandered into the deeper woods, and Beth said, “I feel terrible sneaking around to meet you this way. There have been a few times I’ve been tempted to tell Mom, but I’m afraid she’ll tell Daddy, and that would be the end of our friendship.”

Clark squeezed the hand he held. “I’ve been praying for a way for us to be together always without keeping it a secret.”

Beth grew tense as she always did when Clark mentioned the future.

“Do you ever think of leaving here?” she asked.

Clark stopped in midstride and turned to her in surprise. “‘Leaving’? You don’t mean—leave Kentucky?”

She nodded. “I want to go someplace else to live as soon as I graduate from high school. I don’t suppose I’ll have enough money to go to college, but I’m going to take secretarial courses during my last two years in school, and I should be able to find a job. I thought I could save some money and try to go to college at night.”