Chapter 6
Chapter Six
Seth
What were the odds that I would see the same woman from last night in town? I didn’t even know her name. I’d heard about her husband in the paper. The biggest scandal to hit Willow Harbor in decades. A robbery-murder.
I should have properly introduced myself, but she was so…
closed off and hurting. I didn’t want to do anything to upset her.
I never should have mentioned that I would chop more wood for her in the feed store.
She clearly wanted to act like I’d never witnessed such a private moment, but I just wanted her to know I was happy to help.
I was chopping my own wood every day anyway.
What was another bundle? But she’d been so short with me and had run off, so I knew I’d offended her.
“We should go check on the new neighbor. I heard her husband was the one who died in the robbery. Awful tragedy,” Maggie said as she cooked dinner in my kitchen.
Most nights, my grandmother came down and cooked and we ate together.
And she had this uncanny knack for bringing up things I was thinking about.
I hadn’t yet had time to tell Maggie about my run-in with the neighbor. I knew from the photo in the paper that her husband was the one I’d seen in church the first Sunday they moved here. The woman, too. They’d seemed really happy together, and my heart ached for the young woman.
“She must be devastated,” Maggie said. “Those kinds of things don’t happen in Willow Harbor.”
I nodded. “I met her in town, actually. Seems like she just wants to be left alone for a bit,” I told my grandmother, who’d insisted I call her Maggie since I was five years old.
Maggie stopped stirring the stew and peered over at me. “Does she have family here helping her?”
How would I know? I’d seen a few rental cars at her house over the past few weeks, but now, nothing.
I shrugged, my stomach knotting at the thought that she didn’t. “I don’t know, but she…” I didn’t want to speak badly of the woman or divulge anything about her private moment I’d witnessed. “Seems angry. Doesn’t want to be bothered.”
Maggie waved me off. “Of course she’s angry. She’s young and just lost her husband, but that doesn’t mean she wants to be alone. We should make sure she doesn’t need help.”
I scratched my head. “Well, I kind of saw her…struggle last night chopping firewood. Poor woman looks like she’s never held an axe in her life.
” I vowed not to reveal what I really saw because it still broke my heart to think about it.
I’d had to restrain myself from walking over, pulling her into my arms, and hugging her.
Her pain was palpable, and I knew that pain all too well. But I didn’t want to overstep.
Maggie perked up, giving me that no-nonsense look. “If she needs help chopping wood, then you better help her, Seth Jacob Knight.”
Uh oh. Full name.
“I did.” I held my hands up in defense. “I left a fresh pile on her back porch this morning, and at the feed store in the afternoon, she told me she didn’t need any more.” Maybe not in those exact words, but she’d rejected my offer and stormed off.
Maggie scoffed, heaping out two portions of stew into our bowls.
“You think she knows what she needs right now? You think God wants you to let a widow suffer trying to learn to chop wood while her heart is still raw with grief?” Maggie stared me down in a way only she could.
A way that made the judgment of God come over me.
I sighed. “No, ma’am.”
Maggie nodded. “That girl doesn’t know what she needs right now, and you, of all people, know that. You’ll do the right thing.”
She set the bowl in front of me, and that was that. Maggie was just going to leave me to figure this out on my own.
Great.