for Jane—a new members church party. She admitted this was not her scene, but she was determined and therefore played her part to the tee. Everything from the muted and modest pastel dress she wore to her carefully tied back hair...her shoulders slightly slumped, but her gaze was where the true power lay. She emulated the broken doll, the young woman who was childlike almost, afraid of her own shadow and clearly in need of love. She was weak and vulnerable. The type of person the church preyed on. Her misery was an easy target for those who believed anyone could be saved, no matter what. Jane was amused to see them try.
June was lightly guiding her by the arm, promising her introductions with only those closest to Him. It took all of her self-control to bite her tongue against the venomous words she was longing to spew. That will be unproductive, she reminded herself.
Agatha and her clan of devoted followers were more than interested in Jane’s circumstances. They gathered around her closely as the beast of a woman practically demanded answers to all of her questions. But Jane was ready—she rehearsed several days for this specific trial.
“Dear girl, June mentioned that you are an orphan?” one of the older women asked with sorrow etched on her face.
Jane nodded timidly. “My parents were very sick, the Devil had their souls in his grasp. They abandoned me and my sister for sin and pleasure.”
The women around Jane cawed with outrage at such an injustice.
“That’s horrible, you poor thing.”
“It was just me and my older sister until she passed away almost seven years ago.”
“So much tragedy for one so young,” June commented as she patted Jane’s shoulder.
“How did she die?” Agatha asked rather bluntly. Some of the women gave her disapproving looks, but June nodded at Jane, encouraging her to answer.
“She was murdered.” Jane knew that wasn’t the answer they were expecting.
It gave her pleasure to see the horror slapped across their faces. “I was so lost after that, so alone,” she went on, allowing pools of tears to accumulate in her eyes. “Mrs. Collins was the first person to show me kindness in so long.”
“We are never alone when we are with Him,” Agatha insisted.
“I am so grateful to have found Him. My whole life feels like it’s going to change now.”
“Oh it will,” June replied with reverence. “Now you will know how it feels to be loved. To have a family.”
“Yes,” Jane agreed, “I believe I will.”
Agatha eyed her with growing approval. “June, she would have been a perfect wife for your son.”
Jane swallowed the vile laughter that was begging to escape her throat.
“I was thinking the same thing. It’s too bad he’s married to that pagan.”
The women frowned and snorted with disapproval at the mention of Georgette.
“An unfortunate circumstance that I’ve tolerated with the patience and guidance that He shows me. But yes,” June’s eyes wandered over Jane with growing interest, “Hope would be the perfect partner, young enough that I might actually get some grandchildren out of such an arrangement.”
Agatha watched her like a sly fox. “One can hope.”
Jane listened in awe as these two old hens went about planning her future for her. She couldn’t believe the level of delusional thinking she was hearing—as if she was now their property and could therefore fix her life to their own liking, for their own personal benefit. Let them try, she thought. After all, she was here to do the same thing to them.