“Yes. They’re mother and daughter, and they’re good people.” Annie held up her hands. “Do you want me to take her?”
“Sure, she’s like a little furnace. I’m burning up.” Rafter handed Grace over to Annie. He waited for Annie to secure Grace to her breast and shoulder, and then followed Annie out the front door. A woman in her mid to late forties sat with a teenager on a swing on the gallery.
“Jon, this is Lorelei Charbonneau and her daughter Alisha,” Annie said.
For a split second he couldn’t speak, but thankfully he found his voice. He stepped forward and extended a hand to Lorelei. “Hello, Lorelei, I’m Jon Rafter.” The woman took his hand and shook it warmly. He then offered his hand to the girl, a pretty young woman who bore an unmistakable resemblance to Arcadias. “Hello, Alisha, good to meet you.” The girl shyly took his hand and shook it.
“And this is our daughter, Grace,” Annie said proudly.
“How old is she?” Alisha asked, her shyness forgotten.
“She’s two weeks old today.”
“Can I hold her?”
“I don’t see why not,” Annie said. She bent down and carefully put Grace in Alisha’s outstretched hands.
“So I take it you are Arcadias’s wife,” Rafter said to the woman.
“I’m his ex-wife. Alisha is our daughter we had together.”
“May I ask what brings you here?” Rafter said, eyeing Grace in the girl’s arms. He was a little unnerved by the whole scenario.
“I came here to apologize for the terrible thing Arcadias did here. I am so sorry he brought violence into your beautiful home. I never would’ve dreamed he would do something so horrible.”
“How long have you been divorced from Arcadias?”
“Almost seven years. And we haven’t talked for two years. Had I any inkling he planned to do this I would’ve reported him. You must believe me, Mr. Rafter.”
“If you haven’t talked to Arcadias in two years there is no way you could’ve known. You shouldn’t feel guilt for something he did on his own.”
Lorelei shook her head. “I feel partially to blame because I’m the one who introduced Arcadias to relic hunting. I even bought him his first metal detector. My father was a Civil War buff. He used to relic hunt quite a bit. So I thought since Arcadias was a history major he might enjoy looking for Civil War relics with my dad. You know, have something in common. But I greatly underestimated how much he would enjoy relic hunting. He quickly became obsessed with it. And he even vowed to me he would one day hold Jean Lafitte’s gold in his hands. I told him he was crazy and that it would never happen. But I’m afraid I only made Arcadias more determined to prove me wrong. Eventually he abandoned Alisha and me to treasure hunt around the clock.”
“He made his own bed, Lorelei. Arcadias chose to break the law all on his own. You didn’t play any part in this,” Annie said.
Rafter continued to watch Alisha. She was a pretty girl, and seemed down to earth, even modest. He didn’t understand how Arcadias could discard his wife and daughter so thoughtlessly. Rafter never wanted to be selfish like Arcadias and take Annie and Grace for granted. He couldn’t imagine missing a moment of Grace growing up.
“Thank you for saying that,” Lorelei said quietly. She looked over at her daughter. “What makes this all so poignant is that we drove down to Grand Isle the night of the incident. We stopped at Arcadias’s treasure shop. Alisha wanted to extend forgiveness to her father, and offer to have a relationship with him. But of course he wasn’t there.”
Rafter spoke to the girl. “Alisha, I admire your courage. Most girls your age wouldn’t have considered doing what you attempted to do.”
Alisha looked up at him. Her brown eyes had grown moist. “I had to do it. I couldn’t stay angry at my dad any longer. The bitterness was changing my personality little by little. I hated what I was becoming. And Jesus said in Matthew 6:15, ‘But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.’ This verse convicts me. I can’t get it out of my head.”
Lorelei placed an arm around her daughter. “Alisha just turned sixteen and she’s already more mature than me. I’m still not sure I’ve completely forgiven Arcadias. And if he’s ever found, I don’t know if I can attend his trial.”
“Most people stumble over this verse, Lorelei. I know I do,” Annie said. “But just think if everyone on the planet kept the verse. Peace would rule the world.”
A sudden prompting entered Rafter’s head. He’d never been an impulsive person. He preferred to weigh his options, research the cause and affects, the pros and cons before acting on an idea. But this prompting seemed divine in nature. An invisible hand pushed at his back, urging him to respond. “Alisha, do you have a summer job lined up?”
“Not yet. I intend to get one though. I want to save up for a car.”
Rafter looked at his wife. “We haven’t talked this over, Annie, but I didn’t think of it until now. We’re about ready to reopen for business. And summer is right around the corner. We’ll be swamped with guests and weddings. And now we have Grace to take care of. I think it might be time we hire our first ever employee to help us out.”
Annie nodded. “I think you’re right, Jon. So what do you say, Alisha. Would you like to work here?”
Alisha smiled. “Sure I would. What would I be doing?”
“Mostly cleaning and preparing rooms, assisting me with weddings, running to town for supplies, and probably helping me with Grace.”
“I can do all those things, no problem.”
“Great, you’re hired,” Rafter said. “But there is only one stipulation. When you go to town for groceries, you have to drive my old truck, the one sitting by my art studio. Whenever I go to town for something I drive the pickup and skip the big supermarket. I go straight to McDougal’s General Store. I feel like I’m stepping back in time. It’s the coolest thing.”
Alisha looked over at the restored 1954 Ford F-100 pickup truck. “It’s cute, but I only know how to drive an automatic.”
“That’s okay. I can teach you. We have a long driveway and the road is quiet. Hardly anyone drives down it.”
“Okay, that sounds fun.”
Lorelei looked at Annie and then Jon. “But wouldn’t this be like a conflict of interest at the trial? My husband tried to kill you and now you’re employing his daughter.”
“I wouldn’t worry about it, Lorelei. As slow as it takes the judicial system to work, summer will be over and Alisha back in school before the jury is even selected,” Annie said.
Lorelei wiped at her eyes. “You two are so kind. I didn’t know what to expect when we came here. If anything I expected to receive cold indifference. But you’ve offered only grace. I can’t begin to thank you.”
“Life is a challenge for everybody. But if we all help each other out life becomes easier,” Rafter said. He looked at his daughter Grace, awake now but content in Alisha’s arms. “God knows we all need a little grace every day.”
Chapter 61
That same moment
Sitting in his recliner and surrounded by his grown children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, Ned Hoxley felt conflicted. He celebrated his ninetieth birthday today, and the love and attention showered on him made him feel young, but seeing his great grandchildren growing up so quickly made him feel old.
The whole family had come over and squeezed into his tiny house to help him celebrate his milestone birthday. His daughters had helped Cora prepare a delicious meal of jambalaya and corn on the cob. After the main course they served him cake and ice cream. Stuffed to the gills, he forced down the dessert obligingly. And then he’d opened a few gifts. Now everyone sat around him and talked. Laughter rang out often.