Tender Love. Irene Brand

five-year-old, with a colorless face and a weak voice. Dark curls covered his head, and his blue eyes were dull. His room was small, housing a set of bunk beds, a dresser, and a collection of toy automobiles. He lay on the bed watching a television cartoon, showing little interest in his potential nanny. Kristin followed Alice and Mark from room to room, listening intently to everything they said.

      When they returned to Mark’s office, he said, “I’ll expect you to take my room, and I’ll move in with Eddie.”

      Alice shook her head. “Not at all,” she objected, envisioning Mark’s cramped position in the narrow bunk bed. “You wouldn’t get any rest that way. Why can’t I sleep on the porch? If we move some of those cartons and use that extra bunk bed in Eddie’s room, I can manage all right—at least through the month’s trial period.”

      Mark agreed reluctantly.

      “Since I expected to be away only a few days when I left Alexandria, I’ll have to return home to get some more clothes and put my affairs in order for an extended stay. Will it be convenient if I start working a week from Monday?”

      “Yes, we can manage until then.”

      As Alice prepared to leave, she asked, “How much authority will I have over the children and the household? If I have to get your okay every time I need to make a decision, your burden won’t lift at all.”

      Mark’s blue eyes looked long and intently into Alice’s brown ones, and she met his gaze unflinchingly. At last, he reached for her hand. “My primary concern is for Kristin and Eddie, and I believe I can trust you with the welfare of my family—that’s all I’m concerned about at this point.”

      He squeezed her hand and walked with her to the car.

      “If you need to contact me, Betty will know where I am,” Alice said, and waved to him as she backed out of the driveway.

      An hour later, sitting in Betty’s office, Alice paced the floor and gave Betty her impression of the Tanners, excluding only her physical attraction to Mark.

      “My hands were itching to pull back the draperies, wash the windows and let some light into those rooms. And on a nice day like this, both Kristin and Eddie should have been outdoors, not cooped up in the house. How sick is Eddie, anyway?”

      “As I understand, surgery has completely repaired the damage to his heart, and he’s able to resume a normal life. You can find out from his father or pediatrician what he’s able to do. I don’t believe Mark will give you any opposition. He’s the best organized preacher we’ve ever had at our church, and it must frustrate him to see his household in such disorder, but he’s simply in over his head.”

      “I suppose that’s the reason I decided to help him.”

      “But let me caution you, Alice. I know you, and you’ll want to move in there and expect an overnight miracle. It won’t happen that way. Their home life has been going downhill for two years—you won’t change it in a few days.”

      Alice shook her head despairingly. “You’re right, and I’ll try to go slow. But there is something I can do. This morning, a friend telephoned Kristin and invited her to go to church camp. Mark had to refuse because he couldn’t afford it, and I want to provide that money anonymously. Will you handle it for me?”

      She reached in her purse and removed seventy-five dollars.

      “No problem. I’ll put the money in a blank envelope, mark it for Kristin Tanner’s camp expenses and drop it in the offering plate Sunday. No one will ever need to know.”

      Alice paused in her pacing to straighten a picture on the wall. “I’m not completely at ease with this situation, Betty. It’s quite a responsibility, and I’m afraid that I’ll get too involved with the family’s problems. You know I’ve always wanted children of my own. What if I get attached to Eddie and Kristin? It will hurt when I have to leave them.”

      “That’s a risk all nannies take, and some of those listed with my agency have been hurt.” Betty observed Alice as she stood looking out the window, and she said compassionately, “But, Alice, why don’t you remarry and have children of your own?”

      “I don’t intend to marry another man I don’t love. I couldn’t have found a more considerate, kinder husband than John Larkin, but I didn’t love him, and I haven’t seen any other man I thought I could love.” Mark’s brilliant blue eyes set in his charming face flashed through her mind, and she didn’t look at Betty, fearful that her friend might note the truth in her face.

      Betty, a happy wife and proud mother of three, was a noted matchmaker. She took Alice by the shoulders and turned her to face the full-length mirror on the wall behind her desk.

      “Look at you,” Betty said, and she enumerated Alice’s features as if she were announcing a beauty contest. “Honey-blond hair, pink-and-white complexion, finely chiseled features, with a smile that always seems to be lurking in steady brown eyes, while also possessing a firmly molded attractive body of above medium height.”

      Betty released Alice’s shoulders and perched on the desktop. “You’re wasted as a single person. You must get married again.”

      “When I’m ready, I’ll tell you,” Alice said, with a laugh.

      Betty’s face became more thoughtful. “Although your chief role at the Tanners is to care for those children, I’m concerned about Mark, too.” She paused and rolled a ballpoint pen back and forth on the desk. “I’ve never known a more effective preacher, and he should be in the ministry—not working in a bank. It was a blow to our congregation when he resigned, and the membership would have taken him back immediately when Clarice died.”

      “He didn’t ask for a leave of absence when he left the church?”

      “No. He wouldn’t take one when the official board offered it. And while he said he couldn’t come back to the church because he needed a lucrative job to take care of his debts, I’ve wondered if that’s the real reason.”

      “Well,” Alice said, “I’ll have to admit when I was so confined with John’s illness and couldn’t see any hope for the future, there were times when my faith faltered. We’ve all been in that position.”

      “That’s true, but the doubts eventually fade away. Yet in Mark’s case, I don’t think they have.”

      Once back in her own home, Alice’s mind became an emotional pendulum. One moment she’d think, This move is definitely God’s will for my life; then she’d fret, Why can’t I be satisfied with the status quo?

      In spite of her doubts, she kept on packing her minivan with clothing and personal items to make her life more pleasant at the Tanners’. As she made arrangements to close her house for a few months, she questioned why she would even consider leaving her comfortable life-style, her spacious three-story brick colonial home, her church friends and her relatives to assume the responsibility of another’s family, to sleep in a bunk bed on a porch, and take on household duties that she paid to have done in her own home.

      When she prayed for wisdom, God led her to a verse in the Psalms, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you.”

      That was the only assurance she had that her decision was the right one, for a visit to her parents, Harley and Norma Taylor, who lived in a retirement community in the nation’s capital, wasn’t encouraging. Norma couldn’t understand why her daughter would want to take on a nanny position.

      When Alice had inherited all of John’s assets, her parents took it for granted that they were also recipients of his money, and were never hesitant about asking for financial help. They thought that if Alice wanted to take care of children, she should devote her time to her niece and nephew, children of Nancy, Alice’s single-parent sister, who always had financial needs.

      Alice took comfort from her prayers and continued packing.

      She timed her arrival