“I’ll let you know.”
Meggie came up behind him and took his hand. “The food’s all organized. I’ve asked every lady I could find to make cakes for the bonfire, and Jacqui asked the rest of them.”
Aaron laughed. “They don’t stand a chance, do they?”
“Nope. I just kept asking until they agreed.”
Pastor Jack grinned. “That’s why I asked Meggie to do it. That Welsh stubbornness has to be good for something.”
A thrill ran through him. “I hope so.”
She grinned at him and, tilting her head, winked slowly. “You want stubborn? You ain’t seen nothing yet.”
16
Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me; they have pierced my hands and my feet. Psalm 22:16
Monday morning arrived damp and grey. Just as Aaron was heading to the barn to continue with the seemingly endless task of putting on the replacement roof, the lorry containing the express delivery of new furniture arrived.
He left the farm hands in charge of the roofing and supervised the delivery men carrying the bed and wardrobe up the stairs. When he’d organized it, he glanced around and smiled. Pulling his phone from his pocket, he rang Meggie.
“Hello?” Her voice was a ray of sunshine on a wet day.
“Good morning.”
“Hey, Aaron. I was just thinking about you.”
“Fancy that, because here I was thinking about you.” He grinned, wishing it was a video call so he could see her. “I’ve just taken delivery of the new furniture and wanted to show you.”
“I’d love to see it.” She paused. “I could pop over during my lunch break.”
“Or come for dinner tonight? I’ll cook.”
“You cook?” Her voice took on a teasing quality he’d only heard before with her brothers.
“Yes, I cook. And I’ll also show you the huge wood pile I have now for your bonfire.”
She laughed. “My bonfire? And there I was thinking it was the church’s one.”
He crossed to the window and peered through the new net curtain. “We could even make a guy for it.”
“I’d love to. I finish at three today. Actually, if I’m coming to the farm, I could bring stuff up for the bonfire and leave here earlier.”
“I don’t know what they call that in Wales, but here it’s called skiving.”
“Anyone would think you didn’t want me to come, look you.”
He moved away from the window and headed back downstairs. “Of course I do. I’ll be in or probably on the barn when you get here. We’re repairing the roof this week.”
“I’ll see you later.”
“Sure will.” He hung up and headed outside. He pulled his collar up against the wind and rain. Not exactly the best weather to be up on the roof, but it needed doing. Without the barn to store hay over the winter, he wouldn’t have enough food to feed the animals. And losing the cows and sheep wasn’t something he could afford to do.
Aaron fastened on his tool belt and the safety harness, and then headed up the ladder to the scaffolding that ran along one side of the barn. “Hey, Hal.”
Hal Baker, his foreman and the best worker in his employ, grinned at him. “Morning boss. Nice day for it.”
“For the ducks maybe.” Aaron clipped the harness to the scaffolding and hoisted himself onto the roof. “How’s it looking?”
“Tornado did a heck of a lot of damage. Ripped out some of the support beams here and over there. We’ve got the wood to replace them, but it’s going to take a lot longer than we thought.”
Aaron sighed. He really didn’t need the extra expense, but there was nothing else he could do. The insurance would come through eventually, and he didn’t have time to wait. “I guess the roof did need replacing anyway.”
“That’s the spirit, boss,” Hal said cheerfully. “Of course, this would be a lot easier if we got roofers in to do the job.”
Aaron shook his head and heaved one of the timbers into place. “Need to win the lottery for that. And then tithe half of it into the church offering.”
Hal laughed. “Then we’d have several months’ worth of sermons on the evils of doing the national lottery.”
“Probably.”
Hal tilted his head, as he hoisted the beam straight. “You wouldn’t really do the lottery, would you?”
“Last week, yeah, this week, no.”
“There’s a huge difference in you now, and I don’t just mean that cute Welsh girl that you’re hanging around with.”
Aaron laughed. “Hanging with? What am I? Fifteen?”
Hal grinned as he began hammering at the beam. “No, but I guess we’re all fifteen on the inside. But, seriously, there is something different about you this morning. Something that’s been missing these past few years.”
Aaron grinned. “That would be God. And speaking of God, I want to start up the early morning prayer meetings again, before we start work.”
Hal’s grin widened and he punched the air with his fist. “About time. That’s great, boss. Might ward off some of this evil that’s been hanging around here. The boys and I have been meeting at my place a couple of days a week, but it’s not the same. Daily on the farm would be even better. Just like the old days.”
“We’d better not use the kitchen.” He paused. “Actually, the kitchen is the hub of the farmhouse and exactly where we
should
pray. We’ll meet in the kitchen every morning at five-forty five after milking, beginning tomorrow.”
“That sounds good to me. I’ll let the rest of the blokes know.”
Aaron reached across for the box of nails. It slipped from his fingers, sliding down the beam, until it wedged on the edge of the new roof. He moved along the beam as far as the harness would let him, but he still couldn’t quite reach. “Bother.”
He hoisted himself onto the new beam, cautiously testing it before fiddling with the harness strap.
“Don’t go off rope, boss.” Hal’s warning came a little late.
“I’m fine. It’s two feet, if that.” He let the harness drop to the scaffold and, keeping his center of gravity as low as possible, edged along the beam.
Partway across, his foot slipped and caught in a section of the old roof. A nail ripped his trousers as he struggled to hold on. His grip failed and everything spun as he tilted towards the ground. Heart racing frantically, he hung upside down.
“Boss. Don’t move. I’m coming.”
Aaron closed his eyes and swung himself in an effort to get the right way up again. A crash came from above and his foot was free. He hung for a long second, before plummeting to the ground.
He managed to get one arm up to protect his head before he hit the ground with a sickening thud. Pain reverberated through every part of him. His head spun and stars floated in front of his closed eyes. Voices echoed as the darkness consumed him.
****
Meggie followed the nurse to the cubicle. Her heart hadn’t stopped racing or her stomach twisting since she got the phone call to say Aaron was on his way to the ED. She had no idea what to expect. Fallen from a roof could mean any of a dozen injuries, ranging from dead to being encased in a top-to-toe plaster cast and traction.
He could be paralyzed, either partially or fully. Maybe Aaron had lost his memory and wouldn’t even know who Meggie was. Her steps slowed.
Please, let him be all right.
“He’s in here.”
“Thank you.” She pushed aside the curtain. “Aaron?” Relief flooded her as her gaze landed on the tall figure filling the gurney.
He smiled lopsided at her. Steri-strips bound the cut on his forehead. His left arm was in plaster from just below his elbow to fingertips. “Hello. What are you doing here?”
“Someone from the farm rang and said you’d fallen off a roof and were being rushed to hospital in an ambulance. I came as soon as I could. What happened?”
He reached for her, taking her hand and pulling her to sit in the chair by the bed. “We were fixing the barn roof. I dropped something and went off rope to reach it. I fell.”
“Is your arm broken?” Her fingers traced his swollen fingers gently.
“Just a hairline fracture. They’re being over cautious.”
“How are you going to work now?”
“I still have my other hand, and I’m right handed, so it’s not as great a disaster as it could have been. I’m more worried about dinner tonight and not being able to cook for you like I promised. They want me to stay in, but I’m trying to convince them otherwise. No sense taking up a bed if I don’t need one. And someone has to do the milking.”
“That’s what you pay the farm hands for. You need to take things easy.” She tilted her head. “Are you sure you weren’t taking the verse of the day too literally?”
“I hadn’t had chance to look it up before I started work. What is it?”
“Habakkuk three verse nineteen.
The Sovereign Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like the feet of a deer, He enables me to tread on the heights
.”
He laughed, then broke off as pain creased his face. “That’s more than a little ironic.”
“Just a little. But it could have been Isaiah forty verse thirty-one, which would have been even funnier.”
“What’s that?”
“
But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles
.”
He nodded. “Yeah. I’d hoped that things would start to look up now. That the bad luck would end, but I guess it just isn’t going to happen.”
“This wasn’t bad luck—not that we do luck. It was you being stupid.”
He looked askance at her. “Stupid? That’s a bit harsh.”
“Not at all. Going off rope was Stupid with a capital S. You could have been killed.” She blinked hard, near to tears, but not wanting him to know. She thought she had come close to losing him and that affected her more deeply that she had imagined it would.
“Meggie?” His tone changed, compassion and love coming across on it. “Love, are you crying?”
“No,” she lied. “Just got something in my eye.”
“Uh huh, you got tears in them.” He tugged on her arm. “Come here.”
Not wanting to hurt him, but needing the contact, Meggie sat on the edge of the bed and hugged him, finally letting the tears fall. His fingers gently moved over her back as she sobbed.
Finally, she sucked in a deep breath. “I thought I lost you…”
“No, you didn’t lose me. I’m still here.” His lips brushed her forehead, warm against the chill of her skin. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I’m sorry.”
“Promise me you’ll never do that again.”
“I promise I’ll never go off rope again.”
She looked up at him. She must look awful with her red eyes and swollen cheeks, but his smile would seem to mean he didn’t mind. “What will you do, now? You need someone to look after you.”
“I need to go home, run the farm.”
“Is Tanis back?”
“No. She rang last night and said she’d be back tomorrow.”
“That’s today.”
“No, Tuesday. Our tomorrow, not last night’s tomorrow. Sorry, not thinking straight.”
Meggie thought quickly. “Then stay at my place tonight.”
“I can’t. I need to lock up the hens, do the milking…”
“In that case, I’ll come to the farm, do what the farm hands can’t. And cook for you. At least until Tanis gets home.”
“Thank you.”
She scooted off the bed as the nurse came in. “I’ll go wait outside.”
“You don’t have to. I’d like you to stay.” His grip tightened on her hand.
“OK.”
****
Aaron sat in his overstuffed chair by the fire, his eyes closed, listening as Meggie hummed and cooked. He was floating on a cocktail of pain meds and caffeine. The doctor hadn’t wanted him to leave, but in the end gave in because he had someone in the house with him overnight. Besides, it was his wrist and not his legs. He was quite capable of climbing a flight of stairs to get to bed.
He’d shown Meggie the finished room, and told her she should stay in there tonight. Good job the furniture had come.
He wanted to help her make the bed, but dizziness had prevented him. Under her insistence, he’d lain down for what should have been ten minutes, but almost four hours had passed before he stumbled his way downstairs.
“Hey, boss.” Hal’s voice meandered its way into his conscious thought, and Aaron opened his eyes.
“Hey.”
“Just stopped by to see how you were doing before we knocked off for the night.”
“I’m OK. The meds won’t let me keep my eyes open for more than five minutes, but I’m doing all right.”
Hal twisted his cap in his hands. “I’m really sorry.”
“It wasn’t your fault. Meggie already pointed out in no uncertain terms it was my fault for going off rope. You had even warned me not to, but I’m just too stubborn to listen.” He took a deep breath. “I’ll attempt milking tomorrow…”
“No, you won’t, boss. Clive and I will be here at four to do that. Meggie’s going to lock up the hens in a few and everything else is done.”
“Thank you.”
Hal nodded. “See you tomorrow.”
“Sure. Night.” His eyes closed again and his mind wandered.
Thank You for preserving my life. I’m sorry I was stupid and I’m sorry I frightened Meggie. I don’t want to lose her, I know that now. I don’t know why I fell for her so hard and so fast, except You must have had a hand in it somewhere. Show us where to go from here. Lead us where You want us, whether it be here or somewhere else.
He opened his eyes at a light touch on his arm. Meggie’s radiant face beamed down at him. He took her hand in his. “Hey, beautiful.”
She shook her head. “I think that bump on your head did more damage than the doctor first thought. Do you want something to eat or would you rather sleep?”
“Sleep for a bit,” he said. “I’m sorry. Not very good company either, am I?”
“Don’t be sorry. The food’s not going anywhere, and neither am I.”
“OK.” He shut his eyes again, not letting go of her hand.
When he opened them again, daylight was streaming through the windows. He was still in the kitchen with a pillow behind his head and one under his cast. Several blankets covered him. He pushed up in the chair. “Meggie?”
“Hey, you’re awake. How are you feeling?”