The hospital in Wheatville was small but attractive, set on rolling grounds dotted with old trees. The original building of redbrick, ornate ironwork and double-hung sash windows had been added on to several times, each addition taking the best attributes of the old building and capitalizing on them. The result was a quaint-looking building that embraced both the old and the new.

But before Alex entered the hospital, he had something to do. He called Myrtle Chadwick. “Myrtle, this is Alex Armstrong. Do you have a minute to talk? I’d like to chat with you about your son.”

“What’s Bucky done now?” Myrtle asked, frustration in her voice.

He told her about the rabbit. There was a long silence at the other end of the line. “I don’t know what to do with that boy anymore,” she finally said. “I wish his daddy was still alive. He’d be able to keep him in line. It wasn’t until after Herman died that Bucky got so bad. He was a difficult child, mind you, but this…”

“I’m just concerned…” Alex realized he was tiptoeing around the subject. “I’ll ask you right out, Myrtle: do you think Bucky is prone to violence? He’s hurt a lot of animals. Is there any danger he might hurt a child?” Will was always in Bucky’s face over his critters. The last thing Alex wanted was for Will to be hurt by someone three or four times his size.

“I’ve never thought so before. There’s a sweet spot in Bucky too, you know. You’d be surprised how often he brings presents home for me, things he’s purchased at Good Finds, Good Flowers or the hardware store. Sam Waters carries a selection of gift items, you know.”

Instead of being charmed, Alex immediately wondered where Bucky was getting the money for such things. He chose not to ask Myrtle right now. “I’m concerned that if Bucky is hurting small things, he might also, well, you know…”

She was quiet for a long time before she spoke. “Bucky’s got a lot of anger inside. I don’t want to think he’d hurt anyone but can’t say it’s impossible. I’ll watch him more closely, Reverend. That’s all I can do.”

“I know. Don’t blame yourself. Bucky’s making his own bad choices. I just wanted you to be aware.” He could hear Mrs. Chadwick snuffling back tears.

Feeling disconcerted and sad about his conversation, Alex tried to move it out of his mind as he took the elevator to the second floor where Lila’s room was located. He walked down the long, tiled hallway to room 217 and tapped on the half-open door. “Lila? It’s Pastor Alex.”

A dark-haired, middle-aged nurse opened the door. “Come in. Lila has been hoping you’d come by to visit.” She stepped aside and Alex walked into the small, immaculate room.

The head of the bed was raised and Lila was propped up on a bank of pillows. She was nearly as white as the bedding and looked small as a child beneath the covers. Her graying hair was pinned up with bobby pins, and she clutched a TV remote as if it was a lifeline. She appeared as frail as the gossamer strands of a spider’s web.

“You came,” she breathed.

As Alex moved closer Lila reached out her free hand for his. “I was so ill. I do believe I would have died if I hadn’t had help.” Her lips trembled.

“I’m glad you didn’t do that,” Alex said gently.

“I’m not afraid of dying,” Lila said. “Jesus has me covered, you know. It’s the process that scares me—especially after how I felt yesterday.”

“Let’s make it a goal not to let that happen for a few more years, Lila. You do know, however, that you’ll have to give up cooking concoctions and leaving food out on the counters.”

“That’s what Doc Ambrose says too.” Lila’s small face crumpled. “I have to have my health drinks! I’ll be sick all the time without them.”

Alex restrained himself from pointing out that it could have been a health drink that made her so deathly ill in the first place. “Once you get well, Lila, I want you to visit the church office. I’ll show you how we can find you a safer, easier way to get those nutrients you want.” No weeds included.

“How’s that?” She stared at him with suspicion. “You don’t grow anything there.”

“We’ll look on the Internet. You can buy healthy mixtures online. I’ll help you. They’ll be even better for you than the ones you cook up.”

“More expensive too,” she said gloomily. “My drinks are free.”

“I’ll make sure these are too,” he assured her. He’d buy them himself rather than have Lila go through this again.

“You’re a good man. I’m glad God sent you,” she said as her eyes drifted shut.

“She’ll doze for a couple minutes and wake up again. Poor little thing is all worn out.”

Alex had almost forgotten the nurse was still in the room. “I’ll slip out now. Tell her I’ll be back to visit her again.”

On his way through Grassy Valley, Alex stopped at Red’s to get gas. Red himself came out to fill the tank.

“How’s it going, Preacher?” Red greeted him with his ever-ready smile.

“Fine, thanks.” Alex jumped out of the car to clean the windows. He still wasn’t accustomed to having someone pump his gas for him. Full-service stations had gone the way of dinosaurs and, thanks to cell phones, phone booths in the city. “I enjoy this area very much. It’s warm and connected…and safe, as if I’ve walked back in time to a more civilized era.”

Red scowled as he topped off Alex’s tank. “I don’t know if that’s so true anymore. Safe, I mean. Yesterday I might have agreed with you, but today I’m not so sure. Somebody smashed my outside vending machine last night and took all the money. I’d planned to empty it yesterday but didn’t get around to it. Whoever the thief is got away with a lot of coins. Same thing happened to the vending machine over by the rest home. Takes a pretty gutsy crook to do that in such public places. Anybody could have driven by and caught him.”

“But no one did.”

“I called the police. They said it’s happened before but not recently.”

“Did they catch the culprit?”

“No. We hope it was somebody passing through. No one wants to believe someone from town would stoop to such a thing.” Red tilted the hat back on his flame-colored hair. “This has always been a good place to live. I want it to stay that way.”

“If it was local, do you have any suspicions about who might have done it?” Alex ventured. He hated hearing what Red was saying. Alex felt as if he’d been robbed as well.

“I might, but that’s all they are, suspicions.” He studied Alex for a moment. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to tell you. You’re not likely to pass it on, right?”

“Not likely at all,” Alex said. “Part of what I do best is hold people’s confidences.”

“Bucky Chadwick was in here the other day. He comes in a lot because his mother works here. If Myrtle weren’t such a good worker—and a gem of a woman—I’d let her go just to get Bucky out of the store. Anyway, after he left, I noticed that some items were gone from the shelves—a couple boxes of ammunition, a wrench set and a box of chocolate bars. Oh yes, and all the pennies out of that dish by the cash register, the coins people can use so they don’t have to break a bill to pay what they owe.”

“That’s small-time, petty thievery!” Alex was surprised at how indignant he felt that someone had defiled his image of his new hometown.

“My thoughts exactly. Bucky’s not bright, but hopefully he’s not dim-witted enough to pull something like that.” Red patted the hood of Alex’s van. “I’ll put this on your bill. You can pay me some other time.”

That was another thing to which Alex wasn’t accustomed. Around Grassy Valley, every storekeeper trusted him to pay for his purchases at the end of the month. Remarkable.

When he arrived at the church, Gandy was there. At least it resembled Gandy. She was dressed in jeans and a man’s T-shirt spattered with paint, and she wore a patterned babushka-like affair on her head. Her wild mane of hair erupted out the back of the scarf. She was pale and grim and busy gathering cleaning rags from the storeroom closet.

“What’s going on?” Alex asked, coming up behind her.

As she stood up, she knocked over the clump of brooms and mops leaning against the wall, and they fell around her like pick-up sticks. The largest of the mops clunked her on the head.

“Rats.” She shoved at the offending cleaning equipment and it fell, scattering in all directions. “This just isn’t my day.”

“Whose day is it?” Sometimes Alex had to do everything in his power to keep from laughing at his secretary’s antics.

“Lila Mason’s, I guess. Some of the church ladies—me, Nancy, Lauren, Betty, Amy Clayborn and Lilly Sumptner—decided we should go to her house and clean things up for her for when she comes home.”

Gandy made a horrible face. “Reverend, it’s the worst mess I’ve ever seen. Although she tried to keep it tidy, the place needs a thorough cleaning from top to bottom…or to be burned to the ground. It breaks my heart to think we didn’t see what was going on. Why, I was there looking for her sewing machine only days ago. Why didn’t I look closer? It’s no wonder the poor thing got sick. We found cucumbers fuzzy with mold and milk that had not only gone sour but was so thick we couldn’t pour it out of the carton! Her clothes were hung up dirty and…” Her voice trailed off. “I’m ashamed of all of us, letting this go on.”

She waved some rags in front of his nose. “I had to come here for more cleaning supplies. We used up everything we brought. Do you mind if I take the wood polish and the window cleaner?”

“Help yourself. Maybe your cleaning is premature,” Alex said slowly. “Perhaps Lila can’t go home after all.”

“We can’t let it wait. We’ve got it passable in there now, after throwing out everything in her cupboards. I found a can of tomatoes in there with an expiration date of 2007! Betty Nyborg is taking all the clothing, towels and linens home to wash. Lauren says she and Mike will come back and do windows. And Nancy says she has a quilt she just made that can replace the bedspread we threw out. Betty even talked Alf, of all people, into setting out mousetraps and ant traps, just in case.”

So something good was coming out of this mess. Betty had actually gotten Alf Nyborg to do something for a member of Hilltop church. After the years he’d spent bitter, resentful and full of hard feelings, to have him do anything was a miracle.

“And,” Gandy continued, “the quilting ladies from All Saints are going to make meals to put in the freezer so Lila doesn’t try to cook. Althea and Amy are organizing it.”

“Praise God,” Alex said with feeling. Miracles sprang from the oddest places.

He stopped at his mailbox at the end of his driveway on the way home. He liked the fact that it was personally delivered to him every day. It was pleasant to open the box and see what surprises were in store for him—a book he’d ordered or a care package from Carol. Today there was a catalogue selling nuts and cheeses, a flyer from the grocery store, a coupon for an oil change from a garage in Wheatville and a package from Natalie. He blinked and did a double take. A package from Natalie.

He realized his hands were shaking while he opened the box. Inside it was a second, smaller parcel. The paper fell away from it to reveal a little gold box, and a smile spread across his features. Natalie had sent him the one thing she knew he couldn’t resist. Carefully, he lifted the lid. There, nestled in a crimped brown cup, rested a single chocolate truffle.

The way to his heart, she’d teased him often, was chocolate.