By the time Martha Crandall got around to inviting Reverend Daniel Boydston over to dinner, he’d already been serving All Souls Chapel for close to a year. Usually Martha wasn’t so slow on the uptake, but what with her back going out again and being in charge of her crochet club’s annual retreat, she’d had a fuller plate than usual. Time had flown. Wasn’t it just yesterday that Brother Steve was in the pulpit, plying them with those sermons that had no point and, seemingly, no end? Thankfully, the bishop had sent the young and strapping Daniel to rescue them. Now the sermons were succinct and lively, the pews were packed, and the air at All Souls was full of promise.

Martha hated it, of course, this tardiness on her part, for it meant that Sadie Bullock and Beth Marie Black had already taken their shots at impressing Daniel with their cooking. And if asked, Martha will grant that those two women are almost as talented in the kitchen as she is. Martha had worked hard to earn a reputation as one of Luckettville’s culinary elite—goodness knows she was well established long before that upstart Honey Holcomb began offering cooking classes—and she’ll be darned, excuse her language, if she’s going to let anyone take that distinction away from her, even a fellow believer.

So anything that might put that at risk, like the vegetable soup meat loaf that Sadie always brings to potluck suppers, or the country-style pot roast that Beth Marie serves every chance she gets, makes Martha nervous. She’ll have to pull out all the stops now that Reverend Boydston has already been feted by many of the other parishioners.

Martha loves a good challenge, though, and she knows deep down in her heart that once she serves him her chicken and dressing, he’ll realize she’s not only a faithful pilgrim but also a fine cook blessed with the gift of hospitality. Rumor has it that the reverend likes spicy foods, so she’ll whip up a green chili and corn casserole, a dish her husband likes to say could convert a sinner it’s so good. Start with orange strawberry salad and end with warm cherry cobbler, and Martha feels sure she’ll impress the preacher.

The first time Daniel had been fortunate enough to eat the handiwork of Martha Crandall was just after he arrived at All Souls. The congregation had a tea to welcome him, and it was at that event that he started to think maybe Luckettville wouldn’t be so bad after all. The food was delicious; Martha’s apple pie was so tasty he couldn’t even tell she’d used low-calorie sweetener. With each bite, Daniel began to feel better about his new job. To top it off, at the tea he had the pleasure of meeting the comely Lindsay Lancaster, who was, he would soon realize, the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.

Daniel, a city boy, had been disappointed when the bishop told him he’d been assigned to Luckettville, a town so Podunk Daniel couldn’t even find it on an old Rand McNally atlas, and you can forget about GPS.

Of course, Daniel no longer describes Luckettville so dismissively and is embarrassed to recall a time when he did. Now Daniel hopes he can stay here forever. Or at least long enough to convince Lindsay to marry him, and maybe have a few children. Even the deacons are starting to ask him when he’s going to pop the question, so he knows he better get a move on.

“It’s about time they had me over,” he said to Lindsay when the Crandalls’ invitation finally came. “Goodness knows I’ve eaten enough bad meals cooked by the, let’s just say, less gifted cooks in the congregation.” Daniel made air quotes around the word gifted when he spoke.

The Crandalls invited Lindsay too, of course, but she was already committed to a volunteer shift of tutoring out at the women’s prison and she wasn’t one to go back on a promise made, especially when it involved the less fortunate.

“Remember me to the Crandalls,” said Lindsay. “And try to bring me some leftovers. Especially if Martha makes that yummy cherry cobbler of hers.”

As Daniel made his way up the sidewalk to the Crandalls’ ranch-style home, Martha was still tidying up inside. She’d tried to get everything done earlier in the day, but she’d had to make another cobbler after discovering that her husband had eaten half of the one she’d made that morning, thinking, somehow, that it was okay for him to do so even though he knew the preacher was coming for dinner. She didn’t even take the time to yell at Mr. Crandall, so intent was she on getting everything just right for the reverend.

Get it right she did, from the table decorations to the food and the flow of conversation—not one word about her concerns that the choir robes needed replacing—save for the stack of romance novels she had accidentally left in the bathroom. So tawdry were the covers on these books that Martha had taken to ordering them online instead of buying them up town at the Down South Book Shop. These tales of forbidden love were Martha’s secret vice, and the surreptitiousness of getting them in the mail only added to the excitement for her.

When Daniel returned to the dinner table with a smile on his face after having excused himself between the entrée and dessert, Martha knew she’d been found out. Her face turned red, briefly, while Daniel moved his fingers across his lips from left to right, as if closing a zipper. Martha smiled back at him before making a mental note to be sure and whip up a batch of cookies to drop off at the parsonage later in the week.