His Ideal Match. Arlene James

her head in defeat.

      “The master suite is much more suitable,” Odelia said brightly. “And Phillip will help you settle in. Won’t you, dear?”

      “I’ll start unloading the car,” he replied, before leaving the room.

      Chester and Kent got up to follow. Magnolia leaned over to pat Carissa’s hand.

      “The master suite is best for all concerned,” she said. “It’s large and airy. You’re welcome to set up your bunk beds, if you like.”

      Carissa nodded, hoping that wouldn’t be necessary, and choked out, “Thank you. You’re very kind.”

      “It’s just practical, dear.”

      A sound from the hallway gave Carissa an excuse to escape. “I’d best check on the kids.” Popping up, she hurried away, determined not to cry.

      This whole day, which she had started by burying her father, had just been one disappointment after another. It was as if God was determined to force her into close proximity with Phillip Chatam, no matter what she wanted. She couldn’t make any sense of it. She couldn’t even try.

      Tomorrow, she decided. Tomorrow she would take another look at her options and figure out what to do next.

      * * *

      As Hilda went to the kitchen for the tea tray, Odelia settled back against the cushions of the elegant antique settee and lifted her eyebrows at her sisters.

      “Still think I’m making mountains out of molehills?” she asked once she could be sure they wouldn’t be overheard.

      Magnolia sniffed but conceded, “We have seen God move like this before.”

      “I’m just not certain that Phillip is cut out for a ready-made family,” Hypatia said doubtfully.

      “You saw the way he reacted with Grace and Tucker in the midst of their grief,” Odelia argued.

      “And they with him,” Hypatia admitted, “but that doesn’t mean there’s a romance developing between Carissa and Phillip. Besides, I’m not convinced that he and Carissa could support those children.”

      “Mmm, and the oldest boy is none too keen on him,” Magnolia pointed out.

      “Nathan is none too keen on anyone or anything,” Odelia said dismissively, “but he’ll get over that. As for Phillip, he’s an intelligent man. He’ll come up with something.”

      “He needs to come up with a firm understanding of God’s involvement in his life,” Hypatia stated flatly. “And I’m sorry, Odelia, but from what I can tell, Carissa doesn’t seem to like our Phillip very much.”

      Sighing, Odelia had to admit that it was true, though how any woman could resist Phillip’s charm and masculinity, she didn’t know.

      “Besides, you’re forgetting something else,” Magnolia pointed out. She waited until she had the rapt attention of both of her sisters before bluntly saying, “Our brother.”

      Hypatia winced. “I hate to speak ill of a loved one, but Murdock can be a bit of a, um...”

      “Snob,” Odelia supplied unhappily.

      Murdock and his wife, Maryanne, both dedicated doctors, had initially disapproved of their oldest son Asher’s wife, Ellie, and they had actively fought the marriage of their oldest daughter, Petra, to Dale Bowen because he worked as a carpenter. They even seemed to disapprove of Phillip himself because he hadn’t chosen a “premium” profession, such as law or medicine. Murdock had even once said that he’d happily settle for banking or education for his younger son, but Phillip had chosen bookkeeping instead then hadn’t even gotten a job in the field.

      Odelia could only imagine what Murdock and Maryanne’s opinion would be of a penniless widow with three children as a daughter-in-law. She hated to think that they might even be petty enough to hold it against Carissa that her aunt and uncle had been longtime employees at Chatam House. She had once heard Maryanne refer to Chester and Hilda as servants. The very term made Odelia shudder.

      On the other hand, no one could say that Murdock and Maryanne weren’t dedicated parents. They had eventually accepted both Ellie and Dale, and the birth of their first grandchild, Asher and Ellie’s daughter, seemed to have softened them considerably. They had both recently retired in order to spend more time with family, and the sisters had noticed a renewed interest in spiritual matters.

      “What is needed here is prayer,” Odelia decided.

      “Indeed it is,” Hypatia agreed, “for all concerned.”

      “Prayer,” Magnolia pointed out, “is the one thing we might do that can only help and never hurt.”

      Odelia bowed her head. God’s will was always the best answer, but she couldn’t help wanting things to work out for Phillip and Carissa together. Perhaps she was just an old romantic, but it seemed like the perfect solution. Carissa needed a husband, and those children needed a father. And Phillip...so far as she could tell, Phillip just needed to grow up. Besides, next to the love of the Lord, the love between husband and wife was the most sacred and wonderful of bonds. That was a normal thing to wish for one’s nephew, wasn’t it?

      * * *

      “This is all too much,” Carissa said for perhaps the fourth or fifth time. “This suite is larger than Dad’s whole apartment, and moving in here is like taking over someone’s house.”

      Phillip mentally kicked himself for mentioning that the master suite had once belonged to his grandparents and had always been considered the heart of the house.

      “But this space was made for children,” he pointed out, setting the last of the suitcases in the center of the sitting-room floor. “Hub Senior and Gussie were very happily married and, unlike many of their generation and wealth, they were hands-on parents. Having triplet daughters prompted them to create this suite in order to keep their infants and their nurse close by.”

      He went on to explain that as the other three children came along, those arrangements proved wise and useful. Even as the children got older and moved into other areas of the house, Hub and Gussie maintained the large three-bedroom suite in order to keep ailing or frightened youngsters near, especially at night.

      “This is the best space for a family. Why shouldn’t you use it?”

      The rest of the house had undergone various renovations over the decades, the latest being Odelia and Kent’s private suite.

      “I don’t know,” she said, shaking her head. “Staying here for a few days is one thing, moving in is another.”

      Tired of arguing with her, he said, “So which of the aunties are you going to annoy, then, Hypatia or Odelia?”

      Carissa looked at him with something akin to horror on her lovely face. The smattering of freckles across the bridge of her pert nose extended just far enough across her high cheekbones to be scarcely visible in profile, but when she turned to fully face him, as she did now, it formed a delicate mask, a gossamer veil above which her deep blue eyes frowned.

      “What do you mean?”

      “Well, if you decide on the small suite, you’ll be next door to Hypatia’s bedroom, and if you take the east suite, you’ll be next to Odelia and Kent’s. Of course, here, you’re only next to...”