Heart to Hearth, Part 1

To Sam’s surprise, it wasn’t Mr. Joveday who was waiting for him inside the black Rolls Royce parked outside the abbey’s rear gate. The woman seated at the other end of the rear passenger seat was Marie Shepard.

“Get in before any reporters see you standing there, Samuel,” Marie insisted.

Her face remained as impassive as ever, although Sam could see that there were more lines on his grandmother’s brow than when they last met.

“Aren’t you with the press?” Sam reminded her.

“Not today.” Marie patted the seat next to hers. “I just want to talk.”

Sam gazed at Marie with some skepticism. She never just wanted to talk, he recalled. There was always a lecture included in these chats. Usually, this was because Marie thought Sam had once again failed to meet her expectations. But in Sam’s defense, it was hard to meet expectations growing up when he was measured against his uber-cool and nearly-perfect dad, Steven Shepard.