Promise of Yesterday Read Online Free PDF

read that evening and wondered how best to approach the subject of Aaron Walck. The man had captured Miss Jenny’s fancy soon after the death of his wife, and it seemed, to Marylu’s mind, that Jenny’s interest hadn’t waned a bit.
    “Are you going to begin, Marylu?” Miss Jenny asked.
    “Got it right here. First Samuel 18.” As she read out loud, the verses became mere words, so caught up was she in trying to make sense of Miss Jenny’s preoccupation.
    “This is such a sad story. Saul started out with such promise and slid away into such bitterness,” Jenny murmured.
    Marylu gave an absent nod. “Spirit gets hold of a person and don’t let go.”
    “He made bad choices,” Jenny added.
    “Reminds me of that young Zedikiah. He best be getting some sense in that head of his before his brains shrink up.” Marylu opened her mouth to add something more to the statement but closed it.
    Miss Jenny’s gaze had sought out Cooper’s and something passed between them. Cooper wasted no time in starting up a coughing fit, but Marylu knew she’d missed some silent message. A message that looked much like a gentle rebuke.

five
    For the next hour they ate and talked about Saul. Miss Jenny seemed inclined to have her say about the man’s change of heart and his ability to sire a young man like Jonathan, who had a soft heart despite his father. And all the while, Marylu listened to Miss Jenny’s soliloquy with rising suspicion.
    Cooper seemed bent on studying the ingredients of the stew and the rim of his bowl. She wanted to stop her friend and ask what was going on but thought it best to hold her tongue.
    It wasn’t long after Cooper had shuffled his empty bowl to the counter that Miss Jenny seemed satisfied and closed the subject.
    When Jenny left to work on some mending for Cooper, Marylu whirled on him. “What was that all about? I saw her giving you messages with her eyes.”
    “To know me is to love me.”
    “That’s not the kind of eyeballing she was giving you, and you know it.”
    Cooper’s shoulders slumped, and a sigh further deflated his frame. “It’s an old problem.”
    “I’m listening.”
    The old man didn’t raise his face or even twitch. Marylu’s stomach twisted. She could remember only a handful of times ever seeing Cooper cry, and they were always like this. He’d get real quiet and still and then haul the handkerchief from his back pocket and take a swipe at his eyes and snort into the cloth. All the signs tears were there.
    He crammed the kerchief back into his pocket and finally raised his face to her. “You think you know all ‘bout me, but you don’t. Sometimes a body’s done too many wrongs and ain’t nothing no one can do to help.”
    Whatever it was, it had to be bad. She twisted it over in her head how it was that Jenny knew something about old Cooper she didn’t. The revelation seemed a recent one, making it all the more mysterious. Cooper hardly ever went anywhere or did anything out of his routine.
    She turned her back on the man and set to work on the dishes. A light knock on the door broke the rhythm of swishing her rag around the plate. She glanced over her shoulder to make sure Cooper would break from his doldrums to open the door.
    “Good to have some man-company for a change,” she heard Cooper greet their visitor.
    Marylu set aside the clean dish. “I’ll get my shears out in a minute. Let me finish up these dishes. You had yourself some supper, Chester?”
    Not only did she not expect an answer, she didn’t wait for one. Plucking a bowl from the open cabinet, she ladled stew into it. No bachelor she knew would cook for himself unless held at gunpoint.
    When she turned, bowl in hand, she met Chester’s gaze. He stood at the closed door as if afraid to enter the room, or unsure of himself, though his eyes held the light of a man full of sass.
    Marylu’s hair prickled along her scalp. She slid the bowl down the table, careful not to spill any, and motioned