Anna Louise heard about the argument Richard had had with Orville Patterson from half a dozen people before suppertime the same day. Several people called her at the church. Two more stopped her on the street. Maisey even managed to sneak out of ICU to get to a phone after Millicent reported the astonishing turn of events to her. She was clearly elated.
Even more amazing, Orville Patterson’s daddy repeated every last word the men had spoken when Anna Louise stopped by the drugstore to pick up a prescription before going to call on a member of the congregation who lived alone and was down with the flu. Since Tucker Patterson told her with a grin on his face, she had to assume he’d taken Richard’s side over his own son’s.
At first she’d been alarmed when Tucker mentioned that Billy Joe Hunt had been there, but he’d reassured her that Richard had held his temper firmly in check.
“Did he realize—” She cut herself off, not wanting to get into the harassment issue with him.
“That Billy Joe was the one who’d been making those calls to you?” he asked, surprising her. “Yes, he figured that out straightaway. There was fire in his eyes, I’ll tell you that, but he didn’t strangle the man the way I was tempted to do. He just warned him that one more call would be the end of his sorry hide.”
“Amazing,” Anna Louise murmured, half to herself.
“When are you going to marry that young man and put him out of his misery?” Tucker had asked then.
“He hasn’t asked.”
“He will,” Tucker said confidently. “You going to say yes?”
Anna Louise hadn’t allowed herself to think that far into the future. She’d been trying too hard to convince herself to give up any hope of Richard making a commitment in their lifetimes. “I guess we’ll see when the time comes,” she told Tucker. “If it does.”
When Anna Louise had finished her calls for the afternoon, she went looking for the man who’d stood up for her. Despite Tucker’s interpretation, she wasn’t sure what to make of what he’d done. The only way to understand it was to look him in the eye and ask.
Figuring that the unseasonably warm afternoon would have drawn him outdoors, she looked first out by Willow Creek. There was no sign of him. She finally found him in Maisey’s apple orchard, sitting on a blanket that had been doubled up. He was propped up against a tree, wearing a heavy jacket, an old hat shading his eyes from the setting sun.
“Thank you,” she said softly, dropping down beside him on the blanket that turned out to be scant protection from the cold, hard ground. One day of sixty-degree temperatures was no match for a winter’s worth of icy weather.
“For what?”
“For standing up for me. You didn’t have to, you know. I can fight my own battles. I’ve been doing it a long time now.”
His blue eyes glinted back at her. “Maybe so, but I didn’t see that I had much choice.”
“Oh?”
“Orville was wrong and he was smug about it, to boot. No one I know has worked harder or been more dedicated to their beliefs than you. You don’t just talk your principles, you live them every day of your life. As for Billy Joe, he’s lucky I didn’t strip him of his sorry hide.”
Anna Louise drew in a sharp breath. “You figured it out, then? Tucker guessed you had.”
“Figured out that Billy Joe was the one making the calls? Yes, I figured it out,” he said mildly. “Apparently you did, too. Why didn’t you mention it?”
She shrugged. “I didn’t want to be the one responsible for your stripping him of his sorry hide.”
“How very considerate,” he commented dryly. “Were you thinking of him or me?”
“You, of course. And myself. I’d hate having to visit you in jail.”
“I’m not the one who would have been sent to jail,” he said with that supreme confidence she sometimes envied. “Besides, I have other fish to fry.”
He tossed his hat aside and slanted a look at her that made her stomach do flip-flops. She couldn’t think of a thing to say in response. It didn’t matter, because Richard seemed to have quite a bit on his mind.
“For instance,” he continued. “I’ve been thinking I just might come back here permanently. That made this disagreement with Orville and Billy Joe a little more personal.”
She regarded him in amazement. “You have? When did you decide that? I thought you hated it here.”
“Things change,” he said, his gaze pinned on her. “More importantly, I’ve changed.”
Anna Louise’s breath seemed to be caught in her throat. Was it possible that he was ready to let go of the past? She couldn’t read his expression at all. Well, she could read that expression of longing plain as day, but she’d chosen to ignore that. “What are you saying?” she asked finally.
“Just that I’d sure hate to decide to stay here in Kiley when the woman I want as my wife is about to pack her bags and go off in search of another church. I figured I’d better do something to see that didn’t happen.”
So Tucker and Maisey were right, after all. Anna Louise couldn’t have been more flabbergasted if Richard had announced he was going off to become a Buddhist monk.
Fighting to maintain a serious expression, when her heart seemed about to burst with pure joy, Anna Louise said, “So this argument you and Orville had was motivated by purely selfish reasons?”
“That it was,” he said. A lazy, devastating grin spread across his face. “Is that a mortal sin?”
She gave the question the deliberation it deserved, then leaned down and kissed lips that were still warm from the last rays of the sun. When she lifted her head, the corners of his mouth tilted up.
“Now I know that that was a sin,” he declared. “In fact, it was just about the sweetest sin I’ve ever committed. It could become downright addictive.”
Anna Louise gazed into his warm, laughing eyes. “You’re a fraud, Richard Walton.”
His expression turned indignant. “Now that’s a fine thing to be saying to the man who’s just asked you to marry him.”
“I don’t recall hearing those precise words.”
“And here I thought you were so intuitive. I intended to wait and do this up right, but here goes.” He took her hand in his. His gaze locked with hers. “Anna Louise Perkins, would you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”
Anna Louise wasn’t about to play coy. Richard was too darned slippery. He might wriggle off the hook. “How soon?”
He laughed at the quick response. “The minute you say yes.”
“Yes,” she said at once, leaning forward to kiss him again. “Yes, yes, yes.”
But as happy as she was, Anna Louise was afraid that Richard was making a promise he wasn’t ready to keep. “I can’t believe you’re ready to give up chasing stories around the globe,” she said.
“I’ve been sitting here all afternoon giving that a lot of thought.”
“And?”
Richard shrugged. “I’m not so sure my voice will ever effect any sort of change in places where people are intent on destroying each other. Here, though, I could start up a brand new paper and maybe make a difference. Maybe if enough people made the commitment just to try to change the world in their immediate vicinity, we could eventually fix up every single corner of the globe.”
She was startled by his new sense of purpose and pleased by it. “You want to start a paper in Kiley? That would keep you happy?”
“I’ve got some money saved. It’d probably only be a weekly at first and it would probably have to serve the whole county, but who knows what I could make of it, given time. If there had been a local paper around to cover this business between you and Orville, maybe it would never have gotten out of hand the way it has. In fact, maybe I’ll make that story the lead in my first edition.”
“Great idea, except you won’t be able to report it,” she reminded him.
“Why the hell not?”
“Conflict of interest. Unless that proposal of yours was all talk.”
“Definitely not.” He grinned. “I knew you were going to have a positive influence on me.”
“Your journalistic ethics were never in doubt.”
“But in this one instance I might have been willing to bend then. Instead, I’ll hire a freelance person to write the story. The important thing is to rally public support in your favor.”
Touched by his determination and the warmth shining in his eyes when he looked at her, Anna Louise knelt in front of him and framed his face with her hands. “I love you for wanting to do this, for wanting to sacrifice your career to stay here, but are you sure? Really sure?”
He nodded. “Thanks to you I’ve discovered that peace comes from knowing you’ve given life and love your best shot.” He glanced at her. “What? You think there’s more to it?”
Anna Louise nodded. “I understand why you were so determined to leave here in the first place. You haven’t resolved that. Can you be truly happy coming back, if you haven’t settled things with Billy Joe?”
“It’s true that I grew up hating this town and its small-minded people,” he admitted finally. “And if it hadn’t been for my grandmother, I would never have come back.”
Anna Louise’s heart thudded dully. It wasn’t over for him, at all. How could he possibly conceive of staying, even for her? How long would it take before he hated her for forcing him to make the choice?
“Those same people are here now,” she reminded him. She knew the power of forgiveness, but she wasn’t so sure that he did. “Can you let go of your bitterness toward them?”
He looked her in the eyes. “I’ll be honest with you. It won’t be easy. I doubt there will ever come a day when I’ll be able to look Billy Joe in the face and not think about him causing my mother’s death. Or about what he’s been doing to you these past few months.”
He reached for her hand and held it tight. “But I’ve been around the world. The people here are no better or worse than anywhere else. I’ve worked side-by-side with people in Kiley, thanks to you. Yes, a few of them may be intolerant and mean-spirited, but the only way to change that is to stay and fight. You’ve taught me that. If I’m only going to look for the bad in people, I’ll find it anywhere. It’s time I started seeing the good.”
“And learned to forgive?”
He nodded. “And learned to forgive.”
Anna Louise pressed her lips to his. “I love you, Richard Walton.”
Richard sighed. “I love you, too, Anna Louise Perkins.”
* * *
They set their wedding day for mid-April, to give Richard a chance to get his new paper up and running, to give Maisey time to recuperate, which she was suddenly determined to do one more time, and to allow Anna Louise to devote all of her energy to the upcoming meeting with the church council.
Not that she could concentrate worth a darn. She finally understood exactly what she’d been asking of Jeremy and Maribeth when she’d encouraged them to postpone their wedding. Not a day went by that she didn’t scandalize the whole town of Kiley by kissing him soundly in public. If that was all she could do before the wedding—and Richard was sweetly adamant about that—then by heaven she was going to enjoy it.
She was thinking about just such a kiss on her doorstep the previous night—Richard flatly refused to be alone with her inside the house—when she realized that Orville Patterson had just addressed a remark to her. The most important meeting of her professional life and she’d been daydreaming like a smitten schoolgirl!
“What is it?” she said.
“Miss Perkins...”
“Pastor Perkins,” she corrected automatically.
His jaw worked, but eventually he managed to grit out the words. “Pastor Perkins...”
“Thank you.”
“I was just inquiring about your qualifications.”
Anna Louise bit back a smile. Bad question, Orville, she thought. She laid out her course of studies in college, graduate school and seminary. “I believe that more than meets the necessary standards, doesn’t it?” she said, trying very hard not to sound smug. She knew darn well it was more education than he had.
“Why, yes,” he said.
She wondered what kind of man would start a fight like this without knowing such a simple thing about her background. Or maybe he’d hoped to scare her off long before it ever became an issue.
He turned to the other pastors who had gathered at the Jasper Junction church. “I believe we have no grounds to deny Miss—rather, Pastor Perkins the right to maintain her position in the Kiley church.”
Anna Louise almost felt off her chair. Behind her, she heard Richard’s indrawn breath.
Apparently the comment took the others by surprise, as well.
“Now wait just a minute here. Are you saying you’re withdrawing your objections, Pastor Patterson?” one of the others asked. Anna Louise recognized him as Harlan Baskins, whom she knew to be as rigid and set in his ways as Orville.
Orville glanced at Richard, then met Anna Louise’s gaze head-on. “I believe there is room to argue this on Scriptural grounds, but I will not fight the majority if it is your will to grant her the right to continue in her present position.”
“But we haven’t even voted yet. How do you know it’s our will?” Harlan Baskins demanded, his flushed face a study in confusion. “What’s going on here? Did a bunch of you cook up a deal?”
“Harlan, are you saying you still object?” the council chairman asked.
“Of course, I do.”
“Well, then, perhaps, we should hear from Pastor Perkins.” He looked to Anna Louise. “Do you feel there are legitimate grounds for a woman to hold the position you currently hold?”
“Absolutely,” Anna Louise said. She stood and faced them. After a quick look in Richard’s direction to draw on his strength, she took a deep breath and began. She started with what she knew from studying the Bible, then wound up with the way she’d been raised to believe that all of mankind had the right to strive for whatever goals were within their reach.
“There are those who’ve said I am bold or daring or courageous. There are some who’ve labeled me blasphemous. I want to reassure you about my motives and about how I see myself. I am not doing this to be controversial. Far from it, in fact. I’d like to be a simple, country preacher in a town I love,” she said with heartfelt sincerity.
“Nor am I trying to be a trendsetter. I am just a woman whose faith is strong, whose sense of calling is powerful, whose desire to serve is built on an unconditional love of my God and my church. If you deny me the chance to fulfill the calling that has guided me for almost my entire life, then you will be denying me the opportunity to be myself. And worse, I sincerely believe you will be denying the people of my church in Kiley the right granted to every other church in our denomination, the right to select the pastor most suited to lead their congregation.”
Her voice held steady as she looked directly into the eyes of each of these men—some old, like Harlan Baskins, some young, like Orville, some liberal, some conservative, all genuinely dedicated to the conviction that their way was right.
“It is not just my career,” she said finally, “but my very life that is in your hands.”
The words lingered in the air. Eventually the chairman cleared his throat and looked around the table. “Gentlemen, are there any questions or are you ready to vote?”
“I’ve heard enough. Let’s get on with it,” Harlan Baskins grumbled, glaring at Anna Louise. “Make her leave.”
She faced the chairman. “I’d like to stay.”
Pastor Baskins rose to his feet. “If she stays in this room, I will leave.”
“Oh, sit down, Harlan,” Orville snapped. “We all know how you’re voting, so what’s the point of hiding?”
After a bit more squabbling, they agreed to allow her to stay. They also insisted on a secret ballot, rather than a show of hands. When the chairman had all of the slips of paper, he began reading them off one by one.
“For approval,” he said. “For approval.”
Anna Louise’s spirits began to lift. Then there were three consecutive votes against her. And another for.
In the end, the vote was nine to five in favor of allowing her to remain the pastor of the church in Kiley.
Tears clogged her throat. She could feel Richard’s hand, warm and reassuring on her shoulder.
“Thank you,” she said, her voice choked with emotion. Only then did she allow herself to admit exactly how terrified she had been that she might lose. Never once had she considered what she might do if that had happened.
“Thank you, gentlemen,” she said one more time, then turned her gaze on Richard and tucked her arm through his. “Let’s go plan a wedding.”