Angels Make Their Hope Here Read Online Free PDF Page A

stared openly at the three. Oh! At last the woman of Duncan Smoot’s house had come back. But it was clear when she walked onto the porch and entered that this was not her house. She was comfortable but exuded no air of ownership. Her bundles and baskets were left on the porch, and both Jan and Duncan treated her as a guest. She nodded her head toward Dossie.
    “Girl, bring me some of tha’ coffee I smell,” she said. Dossie continued to stare, taking in the woman’s striking countenance. For it was her altogether rather than some piercing, pretty eyes or one lovely nose or spongy soft, smooth skin or her thick braided hair singly.
    Duncan, who’d been wholly engaged by the woman’s arrival, came back to himself. “Dossie, this here is Noelle. Miz Noelle Beaulieu,” he said with a charming and humorous emphasis that made the woman smile broadly and show all of her teeth.
    “Noelle, this here is Dossie. Boy, take off Noelle’s boots,” Duncan ordered Jan. Dossie realized she’d never seen Jan so happy as he now seemed. His face was split wide across with smiling. He sat before the woman in the cross-legged fashion and pulled away her boots. When Dossie brought the coffee, Jan took the cup from her and gave it to Noelle.
    Duncan looked like an embarrassed hound dog in Noelle Beaulieu’s presence. He drank in the woman throughout supper.She traded looks and smiles with him so that Jan knew she had forgiven Duncan and was as itchy for him as he was for her.
    Jan knew them best after all. After supper, he gathered up Noelle’s things from the porch and took them to her place. He knew she’d stay the night with Uncle.
    Jan considered his relations with the two of them. Noelle would have made a perfect wife for his uncle. But she would not—could not—be obedient to him. You can’t tie a Spirit Woman up in the kitchen and expect her to cook and clean and tend to young’uns. She has got to be out and about her healing. She can’t be expected to let herself be told what to do and not do by a man.
    She would have made a good mother for him, though. Jan’s mama had been Noelle’s dearest friend. Her death had only taken her body away from them is what Noelle always told him. As much as his mama loved him, she was surely still watching and guiding, Noelle explained, and so they must keep a place for her. Jan reflected that his fervent little prayers had simply never been answered. Nobody’s god listened to him! He’d wanted his mama’s body, and he couldn’t have it. He wanted them—Uncle, Noelle, and him—to stay together around a hearth, under one roof. He could not have that either.
    At daybreak Dossie woke to see Noelle’s back as she walked away from the house. The woman in doeskin was carrying her boots and picking her way out of the yard. Her eyes were trained on the path. Her hips moved with energy like potatoes in a sack. What kind of a wild circumstance was this woman who looked so different and acted so different? The surprise was that Mr. Duncan seemed smitten with her. He’d looked ather and listened to her with rapt attention throughout supper. Dossie had to admit she was annoyed. It didn’t suit with him being God. This woman’s sudden appearance had messed up her cloud of imagination. She’d conjured up a whole circumstance with herself at the middle of it holding on to Mr. Duncan. Here come this woman! Dossie kept up her sulky reverie throughout the early morning until Duncan Smoot came into the kitchen for his repast. “I want my coffee, little girl,” Duncan said sharply. Dossie came back to herself quickly. His face was freshly splashed with water, but he did not smile at her as he’d become accustomed to doing when his first cup of coffee was brought to the table.
    “Hey, Dossie gal, gwan in and help Hattie with our supper,” Duncan said as soon as they reached the Wilhelms’ porch. Dossie’s head bobbed in response like a puppy’s. She quickly looked down at her feet when