The Parson's Waiting

by Sherryl Woods

  Concern had him trying to maneuver himself into her path, so he could save her. Only when she whooshed by, her laughter carried on the crisp night air, did he realize he’d been had.

  At the bottom of the hill, when he caught up with her, she was still laughing.

  “You deliberately distracted me,” he accused, tumbling her from the sled into the snow and pinning her down.

  “You’re the one who insisted on a race,” she reminded him, her eyes sparkling with mischief.

  “I expected a fair race.”

  The kids arrived just then, anxious to have their sleds back. She gave him a saucy wink and slipped out of his grasp. “I guess you don’t know me nearly as well as you think you do.”

  For the first time since he’d met her, Richard began to wonder if that might not be true. The possibility flat-out intrigued him.

  They were still dusting snow from their clothes and bickering about the fairness of the race when they arrived at Anna Louise’s.

  She stood on the front porch gazing up at him. “Would you like a cup of coffee before you walk back? Or maybe some hot chocolate?”

  “Put marshmallow on top of that chocolate and you have yourself a deal,” he said, wondering when that sort of drink had become more appealing to him than a tumbler of aged Scotch whiskey. He realized that since he’d met Anna Louise only once had he needed the liquor to take the edge off of his memories. For that alone, he ought to be grateful.

  It wasn’t exactly gratitude he was feeling, though, as he sat across from her in front of a fire, sipping the sweet cocoa with its melting marshmallow topping. The fire lit her hair in a way that had him debating which red was brightest...or which was more dangerous. He felt a sudden yearning to run his fingers through the strands that wisped around her face and tumbled to her shoulders in careless, untended curls.

  A stern reminder that she was off limits played through his head, but sounded weaker than usual. He settled for reaching into his pocket for the package of antique combs. He pulled it out and held it just out of her reach, deliberately forcing her to move closer to take it.

  “You shouldn’t have,” she said, eyeing the small package speculatively.

  He took it back. “If you don’t want it...”

  She scowled at him. “Hand it over.”

  “You are a greedy little thing.”

  “Just curious. I want to see what sort of taste you have,” she said, taking the package and fingering it as if she wanted to guess its contents before opening it. Or maybe she just wanted to prolong the anticipation. That possibility delighted him in some inexplicable way, perhaps because it hinted that a gift from him might really matter to her.

  Eventually, though, her patience wore thin and she ripped off the paper and opened the small, square box. At the sight of the silver combs, her eyes brightened with what just might have been the sheen of tears. “They’re beautiful,” she murmured, delicately tracing the silver.

  He held out his hand. “May I put them in your hair?”

  Her own hand trembled just a little as she held them out. Richard took the combs from the box. Scooping up a strand of her hair on one side, he held it in place with one comb, then followed the same pattern with the other. The light of the fire caught in her hair and glinted off the silver. His fingers remained tangled in her silken strands as his thumbs brushed against her cheeks, framing her face.

  “You look so incredibly lovely,” he whispered in a voice that had grown thick with emotion.

  Anna Louise’s eyes sparkled back at him. “Can I tell you something?”

  “Anything.”

  “When I see the expression on your face, for the first time in my life I feel truly beautiful. Is it so terribly wicked to want to feel this way?”

  “Never,” he said as a sigh shuddered through him. He pulled her into his arms. “You are beautiful. Inside and out.”

  He could feel the rapid beat of her heart, the unmistakable quickening of her breath, and knew that they matched his own. It required every ounce of willpower he possessed to resist the temptation to do more than hold her close, to keep the promise he’d so recently made to himself.

  “Richard?”

  “Hmm?”

  “Kiss me,” she requested, her voice all soft vulnerability and sweetly innocent pleading.

  He swallowed hard, his body aching with desire. The stern voice in his head protested, louder this time, but he pretended not to hear. One kiss. Was it so terribly much to ask? He had kissed her before, and it hadn’t led to anything more.

  Tonight, though? Something about tonight was magic, a continuation of the wondrous feelings first stirred in him during the Christmas Eve service. Could he deny himself, or her, on a night like tonight?

  The answer came when he tilted her chin up and looked into her eyes, which were so filled with hope and longing. A heavier sigh shuddered through him.

  “You do know how to test a man, Anna Louise,” he murmured right before he settled his mouth over hers.

  The feelings that rocked him then had less to do with raging desire than they did with something even more incredible, something even more alluring. For the first time since he’d returned to Kiley, Richard felt as if he’d truly come home.

  * * *

  After the holidays, Anna Louise started getting more harassing late-night calls filled with vitriolic accusations and dire threats. A woman’s voice had been added to the man’s now. Anonymous promises of eternal damnation became as commonplace as her bedtime prayers.

  She refused to admit to anyone how shaken she was by the stepped-up intensity of the calls. In fact, she told no one they were happening. She should have known, though, that she couldn’t keep them a secret forever.

  “Looks like you have quite a few messages,” Richard said one night after he’d brought her home from a visit with Maisey.

  Anna Louise was in the kitchen fixing hot chocolate. The walks, the cocoa, the conversation and a sweet achingly tender good-night kiss had become habit ever since Christmas night. It always stopped with a single kiss good-night, though, as if Richard had set a line and nothing on earth or in heaven would get him to cross it.

  “I’ll listen to them later,” she said just as he apparently pressed the Play button.

  With her heart climbing into her throat, she listened to the first message. It was innocuous enough. Her youngest sister had called to ask how her holidays had been and to report that her brand new baby niece had loved the stuffed toy Anna Louise had sent.

  Guessing that the simple words of her sister weren’t all that was on that tape, she raced into the living room and tried to get to the machine before the next message could play. Richard apparently caught her panicked expression.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked at once.

  “Nothing,” she insisted, trying to stop the darn machine just as an all-too-familiar male voice began with its litany of Scripture. She was numb to the words, but with a sinking sensation in her heart, she watched the play of emotions on Richard’s face—dismay, shock, outrage.

  His gaze narrowed. “Who is that?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “What do you mean, you don’t know? I can see from your expression that this guy has called before. He has, hasn’t he? That’s why you tore in here when I started the machine.”

  She nodded and tried to still the trembling of her hands. He sounded so angry.

  “How often?” he demanded.

  “More since Christmas.”

  “Who have you told?”

  “No one.”

  He regarded her with astonishment. “Why the hell not?”

  “I thought I could handle it. I’ve been dealing with people like this for years now.”

  “Is this what you call handling it? Letting some jerk terrify you?”

  “It’s not uncommon for a woman preacher to get calls like this. I’ve told you—”

  “Right. There are people who don’t approve of what you do. Why is that?�
� he asked furiously. “What have you ever done to the people in this valley except treat them with kindness? For heaven’s sake, Anna Louise, why didn’t you tell me about this?”

  “I couldn’t. I knew you’d react just the way you are.”

  “What did you expect? People like this ought to be strung up.”

  “That’s no solution,” she said stubbornly. “Given enough time, I can win them over. I know I can. And the ones I can’t, well, they’d probably be happier over at Orville’s church, anyway.”

  He rewound the tape and played it again...and again. “Does this sound like someone you can win over? The man is sick. He’s not going to wake up one day and say, `Gee whiz, that Anna Louise Perkins is a nice little lady, after all. I think I’ll get off her case.’” He threw up his hands. “I don’t know why any of this surprises me. It’s typical of the small-mindedness around here.”

  “It is not,” Anna Louise said adamantly, devastated that she’d been responsible for stirring up all of his old hatreds. “Most folks are not like this at all.”

  “I just don’t get it. You are the kindest, most decent person I have ever met. If people can treat you like this, then I’ve been right all along, there is no good left in the world,” he said bleakly.

  “It’s just one person,” she argued, but he wouldn’t listen. At least he hadn’t heard the other voice. Maybe, given a day or two, she could persuade him to see reason.

  “Why do you stay? You don’t owe this town anything.”

  “I stay because I’m needed,” she said simply. “And this is where I want to be. It’s always better to stay and fight for what you believe in than it is to run, hoping to find someplace where things will be easier.”

  “I think you should call the sheriff, at least,” he said.

  “No.”

  “Anna Louise...”

  “Richard, these aren’t the first. They won’t be the last. And I’m not the only woman pastor to be pestered this way. I seriously doubt if any of these people intend to act on their threats. They’re just hoping to run me out of town. I’ll face more of the same wherever I go. I’ve dared to break with tradition. There will always be people who can’t handle that.” She lifted her gaze to his. “Frankly, I’m not sure you can handle it.”

  He looked stunned by the accusation. “How can you possibly say that? Have I ever once suggested you don’t belong in the ministry?”

  “Maybe not,” she agreed. “But I’ll wager you wish I’d chosen a different profession.”

  He hesitated, clearly torn between honesty and admitting his own vulnerability.

  “Maybe,” he said finally. “But not for the reason you’re thinking.”

  Anna Louise was elated that she’d steered him onto a subject she’d been trying to find a way to bring up for days. “How do you know what I’m thinking? I’m thinking if I weren’t a preacher, you’d have made love to me by now.”

  An expression of shock spread across his face so quickly it was almost laughable. “Anna Louise,” he protested.

  “Well, it’s true, isn’t it?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Liar.”

  “What are you asking me? Are you asking me to admit that I’m attracted to you? I ache with it every time I get near you. You know these chaste little kisses we’ve shared are sheer torment.”

  “But you’ve never done more than kiss me. Why is that?”

  When he didn’t answer, she offered her own interpretation, “Because I’m a preacher.”

  “It’s not that simple, blast it.”

  “You’re good with words. If that’s not all there is to it, then explain it to me.” She stood back and watched him struggle with himself over the explanation.

  “You stand for something,” he said finally. “Something I’m not sure I can believe in. I can’t ask you to walk away from that and I’m not sure I can live with it.”

  “So you’re saying there’s no future for us, no chance at all because you can’t accept what I do for a living. Isn’t that exactly what I began by saying?”

  “How did we get away from this creep who’s been calling you?” he said, running his hand through his hair in obvious exasperation.

  “This is more important. Answer me.”

  “Okay,” he said wearily. “The ministry is more than a career to you, Anna Louise. It’s who you are. Your whole spirit is all about giving and decency. A part of me is drawn to that. Another part believes I’ll just spoil it if I let you get too close to the reality I’ve experienced.”

  “Hogwash!”

  He blinked and stared at her. “What?”

  “Hogwash! You’re just running scared. You don’t want to acknowledge how much you want me because then you’d have to do something about it. Maybe you’d even have to make a commitment to something.”

  He backed off a step as if he feared she’d aggressively set out to seduce him if she could. “I will not sleep with you, Anna Louise.”

  He studied her warily. “Is this some kind of game you’ve been playing the last few minutes?”

  “Maybe. Maybe not.”

  He reached for her, then let his hands drop back by his sides. “I will not lose my temper,” he muttered solemnly.

  Anna Louise laughed out loud. “Do you honestly think your temper scares me?”

  He scowled at her. “I’m not thinking about what effect it has on you. It scares the dickens out of me. No one on earth infuriates me the way you do. You are the most annoying, most exasperating woman I have ever had the misfortune to be attracted to.”

  “Good.”

  “Good?” he repeated incredulously. “What in the world is good about it?”

  “You’re starting to feel again, Richard Walton. That’s what’s good about it. For a while now, I’d almost given up on you.” She stood on tiptoe and planted a chaste little peck on his cheek. “Go home and think about that, why don’t you.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Richard had never been so furious or felt so helpless in his entire life. Not in Iraq. Not in Bosnia. Not in Haiti or Somalia. Maybe it was because those things had been beyond his power to control. But he should have been able to protect one incredibly special woman from the kind of harassment she was facing in supposedly safe and civilized Kiley, Virginia.

  Over and over Richard heard those terrible messages playing in his head and wondered what kind of spiritual beliefs made excuses for hatred and harassment, especially when the target had brought only kindness and gentleness to everyone she met.

  He tried telling himself it was not his fight. He tried to focus on the more pressing issue of what to do about the crazy turn Anna Louise’s mind had unexpectedly taken. A few more conversations like that and he wasn’t going to be responsible for his actions.

  As for that business about getting him to feel again, he supposed that was true enough. He just wasn’t sure she was as ready as she thought she was to deal with what he was feeling. And he sure as hell wasn’t ready to deal with the consequences of acting on those very same feelings. He’d suffered enough pangs of guilt in his time without actively courting more.

  But as much as he tried to turn his attention away from those damnable messages and onto more provocative topics, he couldn’t. He kept seeing Anna Louise’s face as the terrible words had spilled from that tape. It wasn’t fear he read in her eyes. It was anguish. She was deeply hurt that anyone could hate her so much.

  It might be better if she got angry, he thought. The way he had. Fury led to action and that was what he believed with all his heart that she needed. This was no time to be turning the other cheek.

  He broached the idea of discovering the caller’s identity while sitting in her kitchen a few nights later. “I’ll hire a private investigator,” he suggested. “We’ll nail this guy and put an end to it.”

  Anna Louise regarded him with a rueful expression. “This is Kiley. How long do you think a stranger would go unnoticed? He’d only drive the caller further u
nderground.”

  “There are devices we could put on the phone, ways to trace the calls,” he argued.

  “Identifying him won’t change the way he thinks. And there will always be someone else to take his place. I won’t live like a victim. He’s not out to harm me, just to drive me away.”

  Richard shook his head and lifted her hand to his lips. “I can’t decide if you’re incredibly brave or an idiot.”

  She smiled at him. “Neither one. I’ve just lived with this before. I’ve accepted that it comes with the territory.”

  “It’s not right, blast it!”

  “Nope,” she agreed. “But no one knows better than you that life isn’t always fair.”

  “Shouldn’t your God protect you from this kind of antagonism?”

  Her face paled slightly at his bitter sarcasm. “Maybe He’s just trying to test my strength,” she replied.

  She said it so quietly and with such acceptance that Richard wanted to shake her. Seeing the stubborn lift of her chin, he heaved a sigh of resignation. “I wish I had half as much strength as you do.”

  “You do,” she reassured him. “You’ve managed to resist me.”

  He couldn’t help grinning at that. He supposed she had a point. As tests went, that was without question one of the toughest he’d ever faced. Nobody was more surprised than he was that he was passing.

  Maybe he couldn’t get Anna Louise to actively do something to identify her tormentor, but there was at least one thing he could do without bringing down her wrath. He could talk to Orville. If his old friend vocally opposed Anna Louise, then maybe he’d have some idea if one of his followers would take whatever he said and carry it to an extreme.

  The next morning he went into the drugstore to see Tucker.

  “Morning, Richard. What brings you out so early?” Tucker said, pouring him a cup of coffee before he could ask. “Care for a piece of coffee cake? It’s fresh. Has a touch of raspberry preserves in the middle.”