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go for a while. He would come home exhausted. More than that. He was terrified of failing.”
    â€œHe told me of that time,” Kenneth said quietly.
    â€œI may not be very religious,” Abigail went on determinedly, “but what little I have managed to attain has brought me face-to-face with how I failed him during his hour of greatest need. He needed me to give him strength. He needed me to give him love.” Her voice cracked over the words, “And I gave him nothing but demands.”
    Kenneth waited, marveling that they could be seated there in the same cluttered office where he had once served as her husband’s assistant. The woman who had tried with all her might to block his marriage to Kyle, who had treated him from the very first day as an enemy. Yet here they were, talking with an openness that left no room for hiding behind shadows of the past. “I don’t think you’re a bad person, Abigail.”
    â€œWell, I am. I’m a society matron who places far too much importance on what other people think. But there’s nothing I can do about the past, and that’s not what we’re talking about now.” She drew herself up by strength of will and continued, “I failed my husband, Kenneth. I do not want to fail my daughter. Or my son-in-law. I have seen how hard it is for a strong man to face defeat. I’ve learned that the worst suffering is the kind that goes on day in and day out, with no answer and no end in sight.”
    Kenneth nodded slowly, the power of her understanding almost overwhelming him. “I feel like it’s tearing me apart inside.”
    â€œI’ve seen how hard it is for a strong man to turn and look for help. To ask for help.” Her chin trembled slightly, but she lifted her head and forced herself to remain in control. “I want you to know that I am here to support and encourage you, Kenneth. Day or night. As a friend should be. As family.”
    She saved him from having to respond immediately by pulling back her cuff to examine her gold watch. “Now we really must be going. If I know my daughter, she will be anxiously watching for us to come.”

6 
    â€œIt’s not just the problems with the baby,” Kenneth confessed as he turned down Connecticut Avenue and joined the heavy morning traffic. “It’s everything.”
    â€œAll the weight of the world has landed on your shoulders,” Abigail sympathized.
    The gift of being understood opened the door further, freeing him to say what before had escaped words. “Everything’s become so confusing, Abigail. On the one hand there’s my relationship with God. At this time when He could seem very far away, He is so close to me. Even in the worst moments, I feel His presence. So I pray for baby Charles, I pray for Kyle, I pray for us. But on the other hand, I don’t hear anything in reply. Nothing. And that really scares me. How can God be so close and yet so silent?”
    â€œI can’t answer you,” Abigail sighed. “To be perfectly frank, God has never seemed close to me at all. I’m far too inadequate to offer you anything except a listening ear.”
    Washington traffic was growing slower every day, or so it seemed to Kenneth. Especially now, when there was so much pressing him to hurry. More cars, more people, more noise in the urgency of one crisis pushing hard on the feet of the last one. In the past he had made it a point of staying on top of the Washington political scene. Now it was just too difficult. His mind seemed to move at the pace of these overcrowded roads. And every thought was about his wife and his precious little baby.
    Kenneth stopped for a traffic light and looked at her. “It’s hard to believe we’re having this conversation.”
    Abigail turned her face toward the windshield. Her lovely features tightened and aged. “I have spent a great deal of time watching you since your