The next morning, Katherine woke in the darkness to the smell of fresh scones. She sighed happily and reset her alarm. She had been unable to convince Miss Harriet to stay home a day and rest, though she had tried her best.
“I’ll be just fine, Dearie. The best way to get back into American time is to get back into my normal schedule,” Miss Harriet had said confidently as she left late the night before. As much as Katherine doubted the soundness of that plan, she still felt glad not to have to rush to get the baking in. She reset her alarm and basked in the luxury of letting her mind drift drowsily.
Miss Harriet had listened sympathetically the night before as Katherine related her tale of woe. But even the wise Miss Harriet had been unable to suggest a way to fix the rift between Katherine and the captain.
“Begin again.” Miss Harriet had said, “Just be as trustworthy as you know to be from now on. Do your duties well, but remember, Katherine, a broken trust doesn’t heal overnight. It will take time, and it will also take a willingness in Captain Braddock, both to forgive, and to choose to trust again. It is possible that things may never be the same again.” Here, she had put her arm around Katherine and smiled encouragingly. “But don’t give up. Do what God wants you to, and it will all come out right in the end.”
Katherine hoped Miss Harriet was right, and she knew that God said He would work all things together for good for those who are His, and yet… it was so hard to believe that anything so badly broken could be fixed, especially when it had been so fragile in the first place. For the first time since she came to Harborhaven, she dreaded Tuesday.
29 Tuesday
When Tuesday came, Katherine woke with a sinking sort of nervousness. As she hurriedly dressed, her mind raced, imagining out what she should say, how she would act. Oh, how she wished she had never looked at those papers!
Sitting down on the window seat, Katherine opened her Bible. She had been reading through the book of Psalms, and as she read through chapter 27, her eyes filled with tears. It seemed to her as if the words had been written just for her that morning. She stopped at the last verse and read it again slowly, letting the words soak into her soul.
“Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.”
Bowing her head, Katherine prayed.
I’ll wait, Lord. I’ll wait for you to make it all right with the captain. Just please, strengthen my heart to bear it all till then.”
* * * *
When she arrived at the Harborside, Katherine found the captain sitting at his desk. He looked up when he heard her come in and gave a tight little smile.
“Jars first, I think.” He said, then turned back to the ledger he had been writing in. Katherine meekly picked up a dust rag and walked over to the shelves. She dusted each jar thoroughly, thankful to have something to do. After a while, Captain Braddock came in. He grabbed a rag from behind the counter and silently joined Katherine at the shelves.
They stood side by side for a while, until Katherine could bear it no longer.
“Captain?” She began.
“Yes?”
“Thank you—I mean, for letting me stay on. I really am so very sorry.”
“I’ll have none of that,” interrupted Captain Braddock gruffly. Then with just a little more softness to his tone he added, “I said I forgave you, and that’s the end of it.”
They continued on in silence, but a cautious wave of joy thrilled through Katherine’s heart, for she knew now that, however slowly it might progress, things had at least begun to mend.
* * * *
The weeks passed, and January blustered icily into February. Katherine and the captain began to interact a little more normally, but there was still a disconcerting reservedness on the captain’s part. It wasn’t as if he ever said anything—it was just little things, a look, an almost unconscious attentiveness to where she was and what she was doing. Katherine was sure it had not been purposeful. He now even left the bank papers on his desk out in the open, instead of trying to hide them when she came in or when he left the room, but even that felt to her like a silent rebuke.
Katherine slid the navy apron over her head and reached for a rag. The dusting had become her favorite task in the past few weeks. It gave her hands something to do while her heart and mind were busy.
Things had been a little better lately between her and the captain, and she had been quite hopeful that they were returning to something like their old camaraderie, until the fuss he had made about the mail yesterday.
Katherine shook her head and reached for another jar, remembering how the captain had come in from an errand and asked whether any packages had arrived. He seemed quite anxious about it until she told him that none had come.
“Well,” he had said with a greater sternness than usual, “Yer not to open any packages this week or inventory them until I’ve looked through the lot first. In fact, just have the delivery man leave them over there behind the counter till I can see what’s come in.”
Katherine nodded, astonished and puzzled by this sudden departure from normal shop procedure.
Captain Braddock began to limp back to his office, but stopped near the doorway and said coolly, “This time, I’m tellin’ you: don’t go snoopin’.”
“Yes, sir.” Katherine bent her head over the jar she was filling to hid the tears that had started to her eyes. I deserved that, she thought. Somehow, the fact that the captain had reason to tell her not to snoop hurt more than the gruff tone he had used. Katherine sighed. Despite the progress made recently, she had not yet regained the captain’s trust. It had been a miserable afternoon for Katherine.
She sighed again as she mulled over the previous day’s events, turning each detail over in her mind as she deftly turned each jar in her hands. Suddenly, the bell over the door rang. Turning around, Katherine saw a man in a stiff-looking uniform standing in the doorway.
“Harborside Tea Shop?” he asked nervously, glancing at his clipboard.
“That’s us.” She said. Must be his first day, she thought.
He turned and wheeled in a stack of boxes on a dolly. “Sign here, please.” He said, holding out a clipboard and a pen. “Where do you want these boxes?”
Katherine pointed where the captain had shown her. “Over here, please.” She said, trying very hard to keep down the curiosity that threatened to rise at the sight of the tall stack.
