“I checked on her earlier and she said this is the best she’s felt in weeks and weeks.” Mrs. Cassidy’s color had returned. “Nora said she’s been eating.”
“I took out some chicken soup for her and she gobbled up a whole bowl.” Shannon sat with her own glass of lemonade. “I’m relieved. When I was sick myself, I felt terribly guilty about my little sister having to take the burden of the farm and my mother.”
“Nora has the farm running well,” I said. “She’s an impressive woman.”
“Yes, she is. Nora wants to sell the farm. Did she tell you that?” Shannon asked.
“She mentioned it, yes,” I said.
Flynn returned with two brown bottles of beer. Where had he gotten the bottles? Maybe I didn’t want to know. I took a tug from mine. The taste was light and very cold, like the German beer we’d had overseas after the war. “This is good. Are you selling it at the bar?”
A muscle in Flynn’s jaw twitched. “Nah, this is just for me. Why do you ask?”
“Louisa and I went out there last night. I had no idea our sisters were such frequent visitors. Or that Fiona was singing in front of a roomful of drunks.”
Flynn raised his chin slightly the way he did when defensive. “They’re safe out there. My men keep a close watch on them.”
I didn’t want to spoil the evening or make the ladies uncomfortable, so I kept quiet.
“I cannot believe what those women did to your father,” Shannon said. “After all he did for our community.”
Louisa didn’t answer other than to mumble a thank-you.
“Town’s growing,” Flynn said. “Which is good and bad. We can’t control what people do, unfortunately. I hope it gives you comfort knowing how many people he helped through the years.”
“Yes, it does.”
“Those awful women don’t understand what that church meant to us,” Shannon said. “Or how much we loved Pastor Lind.”
“Someone needs to start another church,” Flynn said. “Give people a choice of where to go.”
“Without a pastor?” Louisa asked.
“You could find one,” I said. “Papa would help you. After all, he found Pastor Lind.”
Louisa’s expression brightened. “Perhaps we could.”
“You’d need a building,” Shannon said. “But wherever three or more are gathered is the church. Isn’t that what it says in the Bible?”
“Yes,” Louisa said softly. “My father always quoted that saying.”
“We’ve got the land,” Flynn said. “We could put a little church anywhere. Doesn’t have to be in town.”
“A church in the countryside would be nice,” Louisa said. “Mother would like that, I think.”
The sound of a car in the driveway pulled me away from the conversation.
“That’s Josephine and Phillip,” Shannon said. “They were able to come last minute.”
I got up, excited to greet my oldest sister and her husband. They came around the side of the house instead of going in through the house. My sister and brother saw each other all the time, I realized. While I’d been away, Flynn and Phillip had become close. A twinge of jealousy reared its ugly head. I squashed it down and greeted my sister and brother-in-law with enthusiasm.
That was dimmed somewhat when my sister whispered in my ear. “Flynn and I want to talk to you after dinner. Alone.”
***
After dinner, Flynn, Josephine, and I walked down a dirt path toward his horse pasture. Like the foliage around the cottage, the entire area of land was lush and fertile. My brother seemed to have a gift to make everything grow and reproduce. The meadow was a glorious sea of wildflowers and natural grasses. His love of horses was evident in the mare and colt who grazed behind the fenced pin.
“How’s life as a country doctor?” Flynn said.