Arms of Love by Kelly Long Page B

My fault.”
    Lena stretched across the small space to put her hand on the other woman’s knee. “I am so very sorry. Your loss must be even greater than my own. I—I imagine that you lost everything in the fire.”
    Ruth’s throat constricted at the simple touch. “Pretty much everything’s gone, though my babe was spared. I came here with nothing but a change of clothes, a few coins I grabbed, and one page of the Bible I tore out ’afore everything burned.”
    “Just a page? What does it say?”
    “Don’t know. Tore it out as a keepsake, like.”
    Ruth was surprised at the girl’s excitement. She herself felt as if one page from the Good Book was about all there was coming to her from God, all that would ever come. Yet even now, the soft breaths of the two babes beside her soothed her heart. She heaved herself out of the chair and crossed the room to the heavy dresser where her bundle lay. She undid the knots on the twine, and the smell of smoke rose to her nostrils, bringing stinging tears to her eyes.
    She crossed back to Lena and held out the tattered page with its ragged end. “Read and see what it says. My eyes are bothering me a bit.”
    Lena tilted closer to the fire. “It’s from Ezekiel,” she murmured. “A difficult book to be sure, but I know one verse here from memory. The Lord says, ‘For, behold, I am for you, and I will turn unto you, and ye shall be tilled and sown.’ ”
    “Ha!” Ruth gave a laugh, feeling like she couldn’t comprehend the full meaning of the words. “Well, I sure have been ploughed under, if that’s what it says then.”
    Lena turned to her with steady eyes, blue like the sea. “ Ach , I know it sounds hard. Even for me to listen to since I learned it as a child. But we turn the soil when we farm, to make room for new growth . . . and the Lord promises the seeds of that growing. But more than that, Ruth, He says that He is for us. He’s on our side.”
    Ruth considered for a sad moment before shaking her head. “ Our side? For us, dearie? Who does that mean in a war, then? I know you’ve been trained to believe, but I ain’t. I told you, it’s a keepsake, ’tis all.”
    She reached out for the page and Lena handed it back with visible reluctance.
    Ruth cleared her throat. “I expect you’ll be wanting us to move on, then?”
    The girl looked at her in surprise. “Whatever for? Because we believe differently? Nee . I think the Lord brought you and Mary to us, and us to you. I want to help you, Ruth, and will be glad if you will stay as my friend.”
    Ruth nodded, feeling like she’d just been graced by the touch of a faerie’s words. “A friend. Well, then, that I will be to you, dearie. A true friend.”
    Lena squeezed her hand, and Ruth allowed her rough fingers to encircle the slender palm, willing to try to do all she could to keep her promise of friendship to the slip of a girl.

    “There’s a man out at the grave.”
    Lena looked up in surprise as she entered the room half an hour later. She had finally found time to bathe and to change into her other black dress and a clean kerchief and apron. She’d also dampened her hair and added a new prayer covering.
    Ruth turned from the dusky window, and Lena reflected that since her father had been imprisoned, she and her mother had been more nervous of strangers about the place. But perhaps Isaac had returned to express further regrets.
    “Do you want me to go and be rid of him?” Ruth asked, hands on ample hips.
    “ Nee , I will go. Perhaps ’tis a wanderer in need of food.”
    Lena slipped outside, drawing her cloak close about her as she stepped off the porch and into the twilight.
    The broad-shouldered, long-legged stance of the shadowy visitor was unmistakable, and she nearly stumbled in her anxiousness to get to his side.
    “ Ach , Adam. I missed you so today. I—I thought you might come back for the burial.”
    She heard him draw a deep breath.
    “ Nee . I—I had some things to attend to