Turner's Rainbow 2 - The Rainbow Promise by Lisa Gregory

look beautiful."
    "See?" Sarah said around the pins in her mouth and continued pinning up the hem. "If I hurry, we can get this ready for you to wear to church tomorrow." She glanced up. "That is, I mean, if you want to go."
    Julia thought of going to church in Sarah's pretty dress, with her children in brand new clothes and Sarah there to smooth her way. It was vanity and pride, of course, not good reasons to go to church, but still... she wanted to go. "Yes, I'd like that."
    The next morning after chores, Julia was surprised to see Luke come down dressed in a black suit and white shirt with stiff celluloid cuffs and collar. Julia realized that he was going to church with them. Julia had never known Luke to step foot inside a church before. She sneaked a glance at Sarah, but Sarah, struggling to get Emily's feet encased in her little black boots, seemed to find nothing unusual in Luke's going to church.
    And when they arrived at the New Hope Methodist Church, no one there seemed surprised to see Luke, either. People did turn to look at them when they walked in, but then they just smiled and nodded to Luke and Sarah. No one looked surprised. No one turned away and began to whisper furiously to his neighbor No one seemed offended.
    Julia felt self-conscious. She often did. She had learned as a child that she didn't fit in most places—not at church or school or the other places where "good" people belonged. Because she had been quiet and well behaved, Julia had been tolerated (as Luke and her older brother had not been), but she had always been aware that she was there on sufferance. She knew that people looked at her and waited for her to do something that would reveal her as a true Turner.
    She knew that they were looking at her here, wondering who she was and what she was doing here. She was very aware of Sarah's borrowed straw hat on her head and Sarah's pink dress on her body and Sarah's white gloves on her hands. Did everyone realize that none of these things were her own? Did they think she was like a pig dressed up in finery? Julia raised her eyes timidly from her hands and met the interested gaze of a bearded man sitting in the next pew beside three stair-step children.
    Sarah leaned over and whispered in her ear, "I think you've caught Bill Langley's attention." Sarah's voice was light and amused. "Tread carefully; I've heard his boy is a tenor."
    Julia felt a flush spreading over her cheeks, and she glanced at Sarah. "You can't mean that he's—"
    "Interested in you? Oh, can't I?"
    Julia turned her attention back to her primly folded hands. Sarah must be mistaken. No man would be interested in her. She'd lost whatever looks she'd had long ago. Why, she was twenty-eight years old and had two children! The years and the work showed on her. She had seen the fine lines around her mouth and eyes and the dulling of her burnished hair and blue eyes. It wasn't possible that a man might still desire her. Certainly not in church!
    She looked up again, but the man was no longer looking at her. Relief spread through her Sarah had to be wrong.
    The sermon was long, Julia glanced over now and then at Luke and more than once caught a glazed look in his eyes. She knew he was bored, but he sat patiently. They sang a few hymns, but Julia didn't know many of them. Will hadn't liked for her to go to church; he had never wanted her to socialize. And, of course, when she had lived at home with her father and brothers, she had never gone to church. But she followed along in the hymnal, enjoying the sound of the music. This was a peaceful, simple church, and she liked sitting here, listening to the preacher's mellow voice and the solemn songs.
    After the service, the congregation moved down the center aisle and out onto the steps of the church, gathering in little groups on the steps and in the yard. A middle-aged man and woman with several children of all ages came over to greet Luke and Sarah, and it was obvious from their smiles and