Two Crosses
Authors: Elizabeth Musser
Tags: #Secrets of the Cross, #Two Crosses, #Testaments, #Destinies, #Elizabeth Musser, #France, #Swan House, #Huguenot cross
TWO CROSSES
Published by David C Cook
4050 Lee Vance View
Colorado Springs, CO 80918 U.S.A.
David C Cook Distribution Canada
55 Woodslee Avenue, Paris, Ontario, Canada N3L 3E5
David C Cook U.K., Kingsway Communications
Eastbourne, East Sussex BN23 6NT, England
The graphic circle C logo is a registered trademark of David C Cook.
All rights reserved. Except for brief excerpts for review purposes,
no part of this book may be reproduced or used in any form
without written permission from the publisher.
This story is a work of fiction. Characters and events are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to any person, living or dead, is coincidental.
All Scripture quotations in the story are taken from the King James Version of the Bible. (Public Domain.) Scripture quotation in the acknowledgments is taken from the New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org.)
LCCN 2012930188
ISBN 978-0-7814-0500-3
eISBN 978-1-4347-0500-6
© 1996, 2012 Elizabeth Musser
The author is represented by MacGregor Literary.
First edition published by Victor Books in 1996 © Elizabeth Musser, ISBN 1-56476-577-6.
The Team: Don Pape, LB Norton, Amy Konyndyk, Jack Campbell, Karen Athen
Cover Design: Nick Lee
Cover Photos: stock.xchng by jvangalen, flaivoloka, kitenellie, breizh;
iStockphoto
Second Edition 2012
This story is dedicated to my beloved grandmother,
Allene Massey Goldsmith,
with thankfulness for all the wonderful afternoons we shared
together, sitting on the wicker love seat on your porch.
For as long as I can remember, you have listened,
encouraged, cared, and believed.
You are one of God’s greatest gifts to me.
Thanks for finding a face in each pansy. I love you.
Contents
Opening Scenes from Two Testaments
Acknowledgments
This new edition
: It is rare for an author to have the chance to reedit a novel. In a sweet story of God’s timing, David C Cook has come alongside me in getting
Two Crosses
back in print.
I send my warmest
merci
to Don Pape, who read this novel years ago and decided it needed another chance.
My wonderful editor and friend, LB Norton, is responsible for my serendipitous meeting with Don. She also walked me through the editing of
Two Crosses
sixteen years ago, and she’s been with me in the process again. We’ve had such fun together, and I raise my glass to you, LB, and say
merci
.
Thanks, too, to the great staff at David C Cook. What a pleasure to be working together.
The first edition
: It seems all of my life I have been writing stories in my head. To have one in book form, after all these years, is a testimony to the Lord’s goodness and timing. “Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.”
To my parents, Barbara and Jere Goldsmith, I owe a lifetime of thanks for encouraging me and allowing me to pursue my dreams. You are truly two of the most generous people on the face of this earth.
To my grandmother, Allene Goldsmith, I say again thank you for caring and spending time with me.
To all my friends here in France who so willingly gave me information about events that were often painful memories,
merci mille fois
!
To all of our prayer partners on the other side of the ocean who have read my letters throughout our years of ministry in France, thank you for your prayers and for encouraging me in my writing.
To Dave Horton, my friend, editor, and fellow French enthusiast, I am deeply grateful to you for making this book happen, for giving patient advice, and for reminding me of the intrigue of the Huguenot cross.
To LoraBeth Norton, for your careful editing and expert eye, I am glad to have had the opportunity to work together.
To Trudy Owens and Cathy Carmeni, for reading and rereading the manuscript and offering helpful advice, I appreciate it.
To my teammates, Howard and Trudy Owens and Odette Beauregard, who have been cheerleaders, babysitters, soul mates, and family away from home,
je vous embrasse avec tout mon coeur
.
To Andrew and Christopher, my precious sons, who have been so patient while Mommy sat at the computer and who have served as role models for the children in this book, I give you a heart full of hugs.
And mostly to my husband, Paul, who has laughed and cried in all the right places year after year, I can never say it enough:
je t’aime
.
Maps
Glossary
Casbah
—the old part of Algiers, named for the Turkish-built sixteenth-century fortress that dominated the quarter. It was also the headquarters for the FLN.
FLN
—Front de Libération Nationale (National Liberation Front), socialist political party in Algeria. It was organized on November 1, 1954, from a merger of small political groups that sought independence for Algeria from France.
harki
—an Algerian soldier who remained loyal to the French army and therefore fought against his fellow Algerians.
Le Monde
—
The World
, a French daily newspaper.
OAS
—Organisation de l’Armée Secrète (Organization of the Secret Army), a French far-right nationalist militant and underground organization during the Algerian War (1954–62) whose goal was to prevent Algeria’s independence.
petits blancs
—the poorest of the Europeans in Algeria.
pied-noir
—a European living in Algeria.
1
September 1961
Castelnau, France
The sun rose softly on the lazy town of Castelnau in the south of France. Gabriella quietly slipped out of bed, stretched, and ran her fingers through her thick mane of red hair. The tile floor felt cool to her bare feet. Peering down from her tiny room, she watched the empty streets begin to fill with people. Mme Leclerc, her landlady, was the first to enter the
boulangerie
just in view down the street to buy
baguettes
and
gros pain
, the bread essential for breakfast for her three boarding students.
She watched a moment longer, until a lanky young man in his midtwenties walked briskly up the street. There was no mistaking the next client who entered the boulangerie. Gabriella had recognized him the first time she saw him buying bread a few days earlier, from the description of the other boarders. This was David Hoffmann, the university’s handsome American instructor. Gabriella strained to get a closer look.
Castelnau was a pleasant town, she thought as she moved away from the window. She pulled the duvet up from the end of the bed and lightly fluffed her pillow. It wasn’t a bit like Dakar, or any other part of Senegal—except, of course, that the beach and ocean were not far away. Only here it was the Mediterranean Sea.
She tied back her unruly hair with a large ribbon and then washed her face in the small porcelain sink that stood neatly in the corner of the room. Opening a large oak armoire, she removed a freshly pressed blouse and a simple straight-lined navy skirt. As she dressed, she noted that the skirt hung loosely around her waist—in spite of the boulangerie’s bread and pastries.
She had come to Castelnau only two weeks earlier, excited and confident, ready to discover a new land and people. But as the days between her and her family lengthened, pangs of homesickness caught her by surprise. In the midst of a walk through town she would notice a woman with hair like her mother’s, or two lithe, tanned girls, carefree and laughing, like Jessica and Henrietta.