Winter Winds

by Gayle Roper

  “What’s wrong?”

  “He’s going to get them to fire Trev!”

  “Who? How?”

  “Jonathan Warrington at some meeting tonight. And I can’t get hold of Trev!”

  “Good old Jonathan.” Phil shook his head. “Trev always said he’d be trouble some day. How did you find out?”

  “The Graces.”

  “Ah.” Phil ran his hand through his hair. “I wish I could help you, but when Maureen said she was spending the night with you, I gave my pharmacist the night off. I have to work until nine.”

  Dori waved her hand. “Don’t worry. I didn’t expect you to fix things. I just needed someone to share the bad news with. And someone to pray.”

  Phil nodded. “Will do.”

  “Don’t you find it, oh, I don’t know, upsetting that a Christian would do this to another Christian?”

  “Personally, I think upsetting is much too nice a word.” Phil stuck his hands in his trouser pockets and leaned back on his desk. “I don’t have much experience in churches yet, but even I know that going after a man when he’s not around to defend himself is punching way below the belt.”

  “Trev’s done a great job here, hasn’t he, Phil? You’ve seen him in action longer than I have.”

  Phil nodded. “Again I don’t have any means of comparison, but it seems to me that he’s given above and beyond no matter how you look at it.”

  Dori nodded. “That’s what I thought. So I’m the issue here.” She felt tears burn behind her eyes. “If Pop had only thought!”

  “He would have done the same thing.” Phil reached for Dori and gave her a hug. “You’re more important to Pop than any church. To me, too, and to Trev. If he loses this pulpit but gets you back, he’ll consider it a great bargain.”

  Dori could no longer contain her tears.

  “But the issue isn’t really you,” Phil continued, ignoring the stream coursing down her cheeks. “It’s that Trev never told anyone about you.”

  Dori sniffed. “It makes him look like a deceiver.” She reached for a tissue from the box on Phil’s desk. “But even if he was wrong in keeping quiet about us, it’s still wrong to stab a man in the back when he’s not there to defend himself.”

  “What I want to know,” Phil said, “is how one man can just call a meeting of the church. I think there’s a rule somewhere in the church policies or constitution or something that tells the way meetings get called. I looked through all that stuff when I joined the chapel, but it was a while ago. I wasn’t thinking I’d need to know that little fact later.”

  The phone beside Dori rang, and she jumped at the sound.

  Phil grinned at her as he reached for the receiver. “A bit nervous, are we? Hello, this is Phil Trevelyan.”

  Suddenly he was all business, and Dori slipped out of the office thinking how proud she was of him for the success he’d made of his life. Now the question was what should she do on behalf of his brother to avert catastrophe tonight? She was so lost in thought that she almost bumped into Maureen before she saw her.

  Maureen’s smile dimmed as soon as she got a good look at Dori’s face. “What’s wrong?”

  The tears came again, and Dori batted at them. “There’s a meeting at church tonight to talk about Trev and me and our strange marriage, and he’s not even in town.”

  Maureen took Dori’s arm and drew her into the corner by a carousel of reading glasses. “Start at the beginning.”

  Dori did and concluded, “So I don’t know what to do!”

  “I’d suggest you get hold of someone you trust who is in church leadership and ask him what’s the story on calling meetings.”

  Dori nodded. “Yes, that’s what I’ll do.”

  “You do know someone you can call, don’t you?” Maureen asked.

  “Frank Shaw. He’s an elder, and he likes Trev.”

  Maureen took Dori’s hand. “You do understand that liking Trev won’t be the issue, don’t you?”

  Dori nodded miserably. “It’s me.”

  “Well, yes and no. What you need to remember is that a pastor’s private life isn’t really private. His congregation wants to know that his marriage is strong.” Maureen wrinkled her nose. “Even more, they want to know if he’s married. The fact that he never said anything about you or your marriage and your separation will be the issue. If anyone has an ax to grind, they can make Trev look very bad.”

  “It’s funny, but if this were a regular job, nobody’d care whether we were married, separated, happy, or sad.”

  “But it’s church,” Maureen said, “and things are different. People expect more of a church leader, and the Bible even says more is required of one.”

  “I don’t know anything about how churches work,” Dori said. “My only exposure to Christians was in Young Life as a teenager. Nobody in our family went to church, and even though I went with some of the Young Life kids my senior year in high school, as soon as I got to college, I stopped.”

  “Well, I’ve gone to church my whole life. My mom took me for the first time when I was two weeks old.”

  “Really?” Dori was fascinated.

  Maureen nodded. “Over the years I’ve seen Christians do lots of very unkind things to each other, especially to their pastors. I remember one lady who stood up in a business meeting when they were seeking approval for a raise for the pastor that would bring his income a tad above minimum wage. She said, ‘Why should we give him a raise? All he ever does is fish!’ And once there was a group who disliked the pastor so much that they left church by the back door every week rather than go out the front and have to shake hands with him.”

  “All the first guy did was fish,” Dori said.

  “I always thought he did it to feed his family,” Maureen said. “They sure weren’t paying him enough. Of course they got mad when he stopped fishing and his wife got a job. She should be home with the kids, you know.”

  “What did the guy they wouldn’t shake hands with do that made them so mad?”

  “He didn’t agree with their ideas on music and suitable activities for the youth program.”

  “He liked fast and they liked slow?”

  Maureen nodded. “And he liked rowdy and fun where they liked serious and quiet.”

  “Poor Trev.” Dori wrapped her arms around herself. “All he’s ever done is love me.”

  Dori went back to Harbor Lights and closed for the day. In the gloom of the early winter’s evening she drove home. Ryan, Trudy, and Jack met her at the door.

  “So Mr. Warrington is making his move tonight, huh?”

  Good grief, Dori thought. Even the kids know!

  “Sort of makes you proud to be a Christian, doesn’t it?” Ryan looked like he’d swallowed something foul.

  Dori dumped the cheesesteaks she’d picked up on the kitchen table. Jack immediately put his chin on the table and began salivating. Trudy jumped onto a chair and then the table, drawn by the smells as strongly as Jack. Dori reached out and brushed Trudy to the floor and pushed Jack back.

  Ryan pulled potato chips and coleslaw from the paper bag Dori had dropped on the counter. He twisted the top on a bottle of Coke and listened with closed eyes to the fwish of the vacuum being broken.

  “Gotta love a meal like this!” he said, unrolling the paper wrapped around his cheese steak. “Pure cholesterol.”

  Dori dropped into the chair across from him. “Lord, thanks for this food, and help me know what to do tonight.”

  “Yeah, God. They want to get Pastor Paul. Don’t let them.”

  They ate for a moment in silence, savoring the blend of chipped steak, melted cheese, spicy onions, and tangy ketchup. Ryan was guzzling his bottle of Coke when Dori spoke.

  “You know, Ryan, all Christians aren’t like Mr. Warrington.”

  Ryan shrugged and kept eating.

  “How long have you lived with Trev?”

  “Almost four weeks.”

  “Is he like Mr. Warrington?”

&nb
sp; Ryan looked affronted at the idea. “Of course not.”

  “Then don’t lump all Christians together. It’s like lumping all seventh graders together and saying Eric Jankowski represents them all.”

  Ryan looked at her for a moment in silence, not wanting to acknowledge her logic. Then he dropped his eyes and stared at the ketchup-stained paper in front of him. “But what if he can get people to turn against Pastor Paul?” When he looked at her again, his eyes were bleak. “I remember when he did it to Pastor Jackman.”

  He pulled a piece of meat from his sandwich and dropped it to Jack. Trudy immediately put her little white paws on his knee and demanded some too. “I liked Pastor Jackman. So did my grandmother. He was a very nice man.”

  “And you like Trev too.”

  Ryan nodded. “But what’s he going to say about you, Dori? Mr. Warrington, I mean, not Pastor Paul.” He gave a devilish little smile. “I already know what Pastor Paul says about you.”

  Dori couldn’t help but grin as she remembered this morning. They’d all been leaving the house at the same time. After Trev had prayed for each of them, he’d turned to Ryan.

  “Take good care of her for me, Ry. We don’t want to lose her again.” He’d pulled Dori close in a hug while Ryan made believe he was gagging. “She’s too good a cook.” And he’d kissed her while Ryan laughed and ran for the bus.

  That’s when he’d said, “I’ll miss you, sweetheart. After the pleasure of being with you this week, even one night away is much too much.”

  Her heart had expanded, knowing she felt the same way. “Hurry back,” she’d whispered.

  Now she wished him home with all she had in her.

  Twenty-Nine

  DORI STOOD IN the church lobby but off to the side where Jonathan Warrington couldn’t see her. She huddled in her red Lands’ End Squall, stomach in knots, and listened to him attack her husband. She shuddered with a chill that didn’t come from the winter’s winds but from the icy vitriol pouring from the man up front. She slid her hands into the jacket’s pockets and rolled them into fists to stop their shaking.

  “Integrity is a characteristic we need, we deserve, in our pastor,” Jonathan said, sounding so sincere, so full of spiritual common sense. “We must be able to trust our pastor, have absolute confidence that he is the man of God he claims to be. Where is integrity in keeping a marriage secret?”

  When Dori had decided to come, leaving Ryan at home with Maureen and the dogs, she’d known it would be difficult to listen to the things that Jonathan said. She just hadn’t realized how difficult.

  Jonathan paused a moment, then said with more than a touch of cynicism, “A marriage, I might add, that is in serious trouble.”

  But its not now, she wanted to yell. We’re working it out. He loves me, and I love him.

  She froze as she heard her own thoughts. She loved him? Yes, she loved him. Whatever had happened six years ago no longer mattered. He was a different man now in so many ways. He would never hurt her like that again. She knew that as surely as she knew the sun would rise tomorrow morning. These years had honed him, tempered him, taken all the things she had always loved about him and strengthened them, making him a much better man than she deserved.

  “He lied to us,” Jonathan told the partially filled auditorium. “Oh, he never said he wasn’t married. That’s true enough. But he never said he was married either.”

  As Dori looked honestly at herself and Trev, she could see that she was the one who was lagging far behind in character development. She was the one who had set God aside rather than embracing Him and asking His help. She was the one who held a grudge of such major proportions that she had kept the two of them apart for years.

  Oh, Lord, forgive me! Dori closed her eyes in pain. And, Lord, please protect Trev. You know he never meant to deceive these folks. He just didn’t know what to tell them. Help us build a strong marriage. Make me a wife Trev can be proud of.

  “You all know that my son is going through a hard patch in his marriage.” Jonathan sounded troubled and sad. “You know he has been told he can no longer play on the church’s athletic teams because of it, and by a man who has a troubled marriage himself! Where is integrity in that?”

  Dori felt her shoulders tighten in frustration and panic. Where was integrity in denying the little fact that Bob was living with Penni, being unfaithful to Shannon, and ignoring his children? Trev never behaved in a manner that would bring such dishonor on the Lord and the chapel.

  Where was the man or woman who would stand up and defend him?

  “You also know how Paul Trevelyan led my daughter on.” Jonathan sounded about ready to weep. “Just imagine her distress and hurt when she found out he had been married the whole time he courted her!”

  When he paused, Dori heard only silence. Did all these people for whom Trev had worked and prayed and cared think for themselves so little that they believed the shrewd web of half-truths Jonathan spun? Was this how he had gotten rid of the last few pastors? An illegal meeting? A clandestine vote? An opposition of such pressure and numbers that the men hadn’t been able to take the strain?

  A huge anger rose up in Dori. If no one else would speak for Trev, she would. She’d tell these people exactly what she thought of Jonathan Warrington and his lies, of them and their malicious silence.

  As she gathered her courage, she was vaguely aware of the door behind her opening. Cold air raced around her feet, but she ignored it. She stepped toward the door into the sanctuary.

  “No, Dori.” Strong arms slid around her and held her in place. “Don’t march in there with that avenging angel look. It’ll create more dissension, exactly what we don’t want.”

  She spun. “Trev! What are you doing here?” She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him.

  “Wow,” he said softly. “I think I’ll go away more often if this is the welcome home I get.” He gave her a quick, hard kiss.

  She smiled at him and thought how much she loved him. She had been a fool to stay away. Maybe she could blame her youth for her original running, but she could blame nothing but her stubbornness and unforgiving heart for the length of her desertion.

  Here I stand, so help me God, she thought. Right here at Trev’s side. I’ll never run again.

  “I tried to call you and tell you about this.” She tipped her head toward the auditorium. “Several times.”

  “I got the messages on my cell phone. I tried to get hold of you then, but somehow we never connected. I did get through to Ed Masterson though.”

  “Ed’s in there? Why hasn’t he said anything?”

  Trev shook his head. “Jonathan would never carry on like this if he thought Ed was around. He’s in the room off to the right, out of sight just like you. Two other elders, Frank Shaw—remember him?—and Jerome Player, are with him. They’ve been waiting for my call that I’m here.”

  He pulled his cell from his belt and punched in a number. “I’m in the narthex.” He nodded, hit off, and returned the phone to his belt. He held out his hand to Dori. “Now come and stand with me in the doorway.”

  “All right!” She nodded, thinking how good it would feel when Jonathan finally got his comeuppance.

  “You look ready to cut out Jonathan’s innards,” Trev said, a restraining hand on her arm. He smiled that wry smile she so loved. “My fierce Dori. I thank you for caring so deeply. It’s a very wifely attitude.”

  “That’s because I’m your wife.”

  He studied her face for a long moment and must have seen things there she wasn’t aware were showing, not that she cared.

  “I love you, too” he said, “but you have to promise me not to say a word.”

  “What? You didn’t hear all the things he said! And everyone else is too cowardly to even challenge his version of things. Somebody’s got to defend you.”

  He gave her a quick hug, chuckling softly. “Dori, the idea here is to keep peace, not declare war.”

  “Jonathan already declared
it,” she said, feeling a holy militancy.

  He put his hands on her shoulders. “Let Ed take care of it, sweetheart. Promise.”

  Her eyes fell to the bottom of the vee in the yellow sweater he wore over a navy and yellow plaid shirt and beneath the red Lands’ End Squall that hung open. She took a deep breath.

  She lifted her eyes to his. “You’ve been talking to the Lord a lot more than I have in recent years, and you undoubtedly have a better feel for what He’d want. I’ll keep quiet.”

  He gave her a little shake of approval. “That’s my girl.” He released her, took her hand, and led her to the doorway into the sanctuary.

  In the few minutes Dori had been talking to Trev, she’d missed part of Jonathan’s rant. She’d also missed his mother rising to her feet. She stood, rouged cheeks vivid against her pallor. Her voice shook as she spoke.

  “Please don’t do this, Jonny.”

  Jonathan looked appalled. “Mother, take your seat.”

  “I haven’t said anything when you spoke against the others, but I know I was wrong then. I don’t want to be wrong now.”

  “Sit down, Mother. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “I know about lots of things, Jonny.” Tears started to run down her cheeks right through her rouge circles. “I know you’re only telling half-truths, and it shames me that you would do that in the house of the Lord. It shames me.”

  With a sigh, Grayce collapsed into her seat, and the other Graces, one on each side, began comforting her.

  Jonathan was so intent on his mother and the giant monkey wrench she’d just thrown into his pseudospiritual, self-righteous plans that he didn’t notice Ed Masterson until Ed was standing on the platform beside him.

  “Excuse me a minute, Jonathan.” Ed was obviously nervous, but he stepped toward the microphone anyway.

  Jonathan, taken off guard, sputtered but could do nothing but move to the side. Anything else would look petty, and he was going for the high road of principle, at least in his words.

  “Good evening, folks,” Ed said. “I want you to know that Jerome, Frank and I appreciate your caring enough about Seaside Chapel to come to this meeting tonight.” Ed indicated the two men who had come to stand beside him. “I also want you to know that we’re going to adjourn in just a couple of minutes.”