“Meeting at the Mill”

by Jo and Stacey

“This is the place,” Abby told Dwayne as they pulled up in front of the old mill that Reverend Harris made his home in.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” She got out of the side of the truck and walked towards the mill, smiling as she stood and took in every detail of it.

“Not sure I’d go and refer to this old hunk ‘a stone as ‘beautiful’,” Dwayne chuckled, “but if you say so, darlin’.” He walked up behind her, slipping his right arm possessively around her waist and pulling her close.

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” she replied, sighing, then said, “Well, c’mon then, let’s get this over with before I go and change my mind again.”

“Aw, you wouldn’t go and do a thing like that now, would you darlin’?” he asked her.

For some reason, when he said this, a cold chill ran through her, and she thought she detected something slightly sinister in his eyes. She flinched, then quickly recovered herself, blowing it off as just nerves about their upcoming nuptials.

“Of course not, Dwayne,” Abby replied, managing a smile.

“Good, then let’s go work our charm on the good Reverend in there.”

Dwayne led her up to the front door and knocked loudly on it, waiting for someone to answer.

Alistair opened the door and seeing the couple smiled. "Well, hello, there," he greeted. "How may I help you?"

"Well howdy there," Dwayne drawled, with a wide grin on his face, "You Reverend Harris?"

"I am, indeed," Alistair replied. "Are you from the Glen?"

"Why, yessir, we are at that," Dwayne told him, "Name's Dwayne Campbell and this here lovely is my beautiful wife, Abby."

Abby smiled warmly at him, "Nice to meet you, Reverend Harris."

"Please come on in. Ahnna, my wife, was just making some lemondade. Would you like some? Fresh oatmeal cookies, too."

"Don't mind if I do," Dwayne told him, as he led Abby into the house with him.

"Thanks, Reverend, for seeing us today," Abby said, "I hope it's not too much trouble having us just pop in like this. Dwayne here is, well, in a bit of a hurry to get things done," she chuckled nervously.

Alistair had a way of studying people closely but with an entirely open, pleasant expression on his face. Something was 'off' here. He'd get to the bottom of it. It seemed from first impression, the young man wanted something, but had said they were already married, so a hurried-up wedding couldn't be it. Just what was he in a hurry for, then?

"Ahnna, I'd like you to meet a young couple from the Glen. Dwayne and Abby Campbell. This is my wife, Ahnna. Please, have a seat here at the table so we can talk."

Ahnna looked at Abby. "Hello, Abby," she smiled. "I've seen you around town. You work for Cal, don't you?"

Alistair watched Abby's face. She made a definite small grimace when Dwayne said, 'error of her ways' and 'come back home to me.' "There is some hurry about this?" he asked mildly, passing Dwayne the plate of still-warm cookies.

"Only that I just can't wait another minute to be with my darlin' wife again," Dwayne grinned at him, as he took Abby's hand in his.

Abby sat quietly, smiling nervously at him, slightly embarrassed by the whole thing.

"Does this mean, then, that you're planning on staying in the Glen?" Ahnna asked. "I've heard a lot of good

things, Abby, about how valuable you've become to the Glen Times."

"Oh yes, I... I mean, we... are definitely planning on making the Glen our permanent home. Isn't that right, Dwayne?" she asked, letting him know she had no intentions of him moving her off somewhere after the ceremony. Dwayne or no Dwayne, she already thought of this little community as her home and nothing was going to change that.

"Of course, darlin'," Dwayne replied, smoothly, "Anywhere my sweet darlin' wife wants to live, we can live." A wide smile played upon his lips as he thought about the huge estate he'd just purchased for them to live in. He hadn't told her about it yet, it was meant to be her wedding present - one of many he had planned.

"I'm glad to hear how happy you are here, Abby," Alistair smiled. As Dwayne had Abby's gaze on him at the moment, he looked quickly at Ahnna and the two of them exchanged a look. "It's good that you're staying, then. Our community is all the better for people like you."

"What a sweet thing to say," Abby replied, "I was just sittin' here thinking the same thing about the two of you. I um... am a member of the volunteer fire department, and I was here... that day...," she trailed off, afraid her mentioning the fire Alistair had recently survived might bring back some bad memories. "I do hope you're okay now, the whole community - myself included, was really worried about you."

"I'm almost back to my old self. Still get tired a little faster, cough sometimes, but I'm quite fine. I'd like to thank you for any help you were that day. It's due, no doubt, to the new fire department that this entire mill didn't burn down."

Ahnna looked down at her hands. She still had a raw place inside from that day, from how close he'd come to dying. Alistair, always aware of his wife, reached his hand under the table and cupped it over both of hers.

Abby smiled at them, thinking how lucky they were to have such an obvious bond with one another and wondered if she'd ever have that with Dwayne. True, he was trying really hard and was growing on her, but still... there was just something...missing, and even though she did have feelings for her husband, she still questioned if their relationship would ever be as strong as Alistair and Ahnna's obviously was.

Dwayne, however, was thinking of different things... such as how he liked the way Ahnna seemed to dote on Alistair, baking him cookies and making fresh lemonade, taking care of him the way a wife should take care of her husband. Yeah, he'd have to make sure Abby treated him like that once they were re-hitched. First things first, she'd have to quit that job of hers, stay home, take care of him and the house and have babies. Yeah, that's how a wife should be, and he, of course, would be the king of the castle, so-to-speak, and would therefore be treated as such. He smiled slyly as he rubbed the back of Abby's hand with the tips of his fingers, counting the days until she'd be fully his again. Finally, when the chatter had come to a pause, he looked up and said, "So, Rev, you up for re-hitchin' us or what?"

Alistair paused. Marriage was a sacred thing to him and vow renewals came under the same heading. He didn't ever want to be a participant where he wasn't completely sure it was right for both the man and the woman. "I'd like to speak with each of you...privately...first. It's the way I do things." He kept his face, again, smiling and pleasant.

Abby tensed up, cleared her throat, looked over at Dwayne to see how he was going to react to the Reverend's request. To her surprise, Dwayne just smiled and nodded, saying, "Fine by me, Rev...lead the way."

"If you have time now, we could just step into my office." He stood and led the way. "The people of the Glen pitched in and almost rebuilt this whole part of the mill. We've got a lot of wonderful folks here in our town. I'm sure you'll enjoy living here, Dwayne."

He indicated the new couch. "Have a seat." He smiled and added, "And it's not even on fire." It was, he hoped, to be a bit of a hot seat for this young fellow, though. "So, tell me a bit about yourself, what you do for a living, where you're from, what you want to do to take care of Abby when you're all settled in town."

Dwayne leaned back on the couch, making himself quite comfortable, a cocky grin on his face as he listened to Alistair's question. "Oh, I dabble a bit here and there... online investing, real-estate, businesses, hotels and the likes. Not to toot my own horn here, Rev, but my family's quite loaded, always has been, going way back to my great, great grandparents. I'm pretty well set for life, only work so's I got somethin' to keep myself occupied. And, well, makin' money is in my blood - wanna keep up the family tradition... have somethin' to pass down to the kids and grandkids some day. So, no need to go worrying... Abby will be well taken care of, just as she has been for the past 5 years we been married."

"Why have you two been separated?" Alistair decided to be direct.

Dwayne knew this question was bound to pop up sooner or later and was, therefore, quite prepared for it. "Sometimes a person don't know what they got 'til they been away from it for a while. Abby had some thinkin' to do off on her own, and now that she's done that she's ready to come back to me." Well, with a little prodding from him, anyway, he thought to himself, smugly.

"All right, Dwayne. Thank you for speaking with me. Would you mind going back out for some more cookies and sending Abby in?" She was the one he mainly wanted to talk to anyway.

"No problem, Rev," He grinned, and smugly sauntered out into the next room.

A moment later, Abby hesitantly walked in, sat down on the couch, her hands fidgeting with the hem of her shirt.

"The room looks really nice now, doesn't it?" he began, trying to put her at ease. "I'm just so grateful for so many good people all pitching in together to help. And that you were a part of it all means a lot to me, Abby. I hope I can return the favor." He smiled at her with genuine fondness. "You like living here in the Glen, don't you, Abby. I can see that." He paused a moment. "How do you think Dwayne will like living here? Do you think our village has what it takes to keep him happy?"

Abby was surprised by his question. She smiled, thought for a moment, "Truthfully? I'm not sure, I mean, Dwayne is kind of a paradox, he seems happy enough no matter where he is. Of course, even when I know deep down that he's angry, he's still usually has a smile on his face. That's just... Dwayne."

"He hides what he's really feeling? Is that what you're trying to say, Abby?" He knew it was. Dwayne was actually rather obvious in his way of going about saying what he thought people wanted to hear even though that wasn't what he was really feeling. "He said you had some thinking to do about your relationship with him. What did he mean by that? What did you need to think about?"

"Um... well," Abby replied, "Dwayne and I got married pretty quickly, didn't really know each other, decided we'd try and make it work anyway. He's a great guy, handsome, rich, treats me well...tends to spoil me even," she chuckled nervously, "I just... wasn't sure, ya know? If he was the one for me, if I wanted to be his wife. Dwayne kept blowing me off, sayin' I just had cold feet and all, but I needed time to think things out, try and find myself, I guess, on my own terms. So, when Dwayne was on a business trip a couple months ago, I packed up my belongings, bought a ticket to the farthest place away from Texas I could get, and well, here I am."

"How did he feel when he found out you were gone, Abby? And how did you feel when he found you again?"

"He said he missed me terribly, looked everywhere for me," she thought for a moment, wondering if he really did miss her or just miss the idea of her being around. "When he found me, well, he was really happy to see me, least he acted like he was. Bought me a new wedding ring and everything, apologized for whatever he said I thought it was he did to cause me to leave him. He's been trying really hard to win my heart back, and truthfully, I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt." Saying it outloud like this for the first time, it dawned on her that she really did want to be with him, try and make a marriage out of it. She hadn't really given him the chance before, felt she owed him at least that.

"Well, Abby, you are the only one who knows what your heart feels about your marriage. If it's telling you to stay with him, then that's what you should try. It's not my place to tell people whether they belong together or not. They have to come to the knowledge of that themselves. Making marriage promises to another person has to count for something. But if you're ever afraid, then it becomes another ballgame. It seems to me that there may be a lot you two need to find out about one another, a lot that's not really spoken. Maybe you should do that first, really, really get to know the truth of how the other one feels, what the other expects out of a marriage, see if that's something you truly can live with before you go making more promises to each other. Find out what the first promises mean to you, then you can renew them, add to them. But there has to be a foundation, Abby, for a renewal to be built on or else it's nothing more than mere words. You need to mean them when you say them, mean them with all your heart. Why don't you two take a little time and make that foundation first?"

"That's great advice, actually," Abby replied, "thank-you, Reverend, for taking the time to sit and talk with me about this. Hopefully, Dwayne and I can sit down and have a good talk about things and then." She stood, heading for the door, took a deep breath, then walked out to where Dwayne was waiting.

TBC...