For the Love of God (13 page)

Just when they entered the fenced yard, a small woman in loose-fitting pants and a flowered blouse came around the corner of the house. The slight stoop to her shoulders was the only visible concession to advanced age. Her short hair was still carrot-red, the result of a regularly applied henna dye. Her sun-leathered complexion was liberally dotted with youthful freckles. She was carrying a five-gallon bucket, loaded full of sweet corn ears, and showing no indication that it was too heavy.

“Hello, Grandmother.” Abbie called the greeting.

The woman stopped and waited for them to come to her, but she didn’t bother to set the bucket down. Sharp, green eyes made a thorough
inspection of Seth, not leaving out a single detail.

“I thought you were probably in the garden,” Abbie said. “I wish you wouldn’t work out there during the heat of the day.”

“I’ve gotta keep moving at my age,” her grandmother insisted, and turned her gaze once more to Seth. “So, you’ve finally brought a man for me to meet. It’s about time.” She didn’t give either of them a chance to speak as her glance went past them to the dark green sports car. “Is that your car? I always wanted to go tearing down the road in one of those racy convertibles—with my hair flying in the wind. I used to wear it longer, when I was young.”

“I’ll take you for a ride in it anytime you say, Mrs. Klein,” Seth offered with an engaging half-smile. “I’m Seth Talbot.”

“I’m pleased to meet you, Seth Talbot,” her grandmother replied and looked at Abbie. “You’ve picked out a strong, virile man. I’ll wager he’ll have you pregnant a week after you’re married.”

“Grandmother!” Abbie was aghast. She’d never said things like that before. There had always been the urgings to get married and start a family. Being a farmer’s wife, she had always been very casual about the mating habits of animals. Despite this, her grandmother’s remark probably wouldn’t have struck her as being so scandalous except that—“Seth is a minister.”

“So? He’s a man, isn’t he?” It didn’t seem to
make any difference to her grandmother. “He might as well know that I’d like to have a great-grandchild before I die.”

“There’s plenty of time. You aren’t that old,” Abbie protested as she sought a tactful way to explain that her grandmother was misreading the situation.

“Considering how long it’s taken you to find a suitable man, I wouldn’t say there’s plenty of time. I was married at seventeen, and had my first baby in my arms when I was eighteen. You’re twenty-three years old already, Abbie. You’ve taken your own sweet time about becoming engaged, let alone married.”

“Seth and I aren’t engaged, Grandmother,” she corrected.

“I thought that’s why you brought him out here with you.” Her grandmother looked taken aback, and perhaps a little bit embarrassed. “You haven’t ever brought a man with you when you’ve visited me before.”

“I was the one who suggested we come here this afternoon,” Seth stated, taking the responsibility for the decision. “Abbie had mentioned that she usually visited you on the weekends. Since we had picnicked not far from here, it seemed logical to stop by.” He took a step forward, apparently untroubled by the initial conclusion the older woman had reached. “Would you let me carry that sweet corn for you?”

“I can manage it.” Her grandmother was a little flustered by her mistake, not liking to appear old and foolish.

“I’m sure you can,” Seth agreed easily. “But my father would have my hide if I didn’t carry it for you, the way a gentleman should.”

Abbie was amazed to see her grandmother surrender the pail of corn to him. Any time she had offered to carry something heavy, her grandmother had impatiently waved her off, insisting she didn’t like being fussed over.

“You can set it on the back porch,” her grandmother instructed. “Then we’ll all go in the house for some cold lemonade.”

“These are good-looking roasting ears, Mrs. Klein.” Seth complimented her on her garden produce.

“It isn’t easy staying one step ahead of the raccoons. Between them and the deer, they play havoc with my garden.” She always claimed to have an ongoing battle with the wildlife in the area. “I’ll get you a sack, Abbie,” she said as they started toward the back door. “So you can take a couple dozen ears of this corn home for you and your folks. You can take some home with you, too, Mr. Talbot. Or should I call you Reverend.”

He slid a dryly amused glance at Abbie. “‘Seth’ will do fine, Mrs. Klein.”

When Seth and Abbie walked out of the house more than an hour later, they were each laden with sacks of goods. In addition to the sweet corn, Grandmother Klein had sent along jars of her freshly made tomato preserves and peach butter. She followed them out to the car to bid them good-bye.

“Alice said she was coming out Tuesday to help me put up the corn,” Grandmother Klein remarked as Abbie settled into the passenger seat. “Tell her to bring some jar lids.”

“I will,” Abbie promised.

“Don’t forget, Seth, you promised to take me for a ride in this car sometime,” her grandmother reminded him.

“How about next Saturday?” Seth suggested, setting a definite time. “You and I can go for a spin while Abbie fixes lunch.”

“It sounds like a terrific idea,” she agreed in youthful vernacular.

“It’s a date.” He started the engine and revved it up a few times for the old lady’s benefit, then turned the car in a circle in the farmyard to head down the lane. “Your grandmother is quite a woman,” he said to Abbie, raising his voice to make himself heard above the noise of the motor.

Abbie responded with an affirmative nod, not attempting to compete with the car or the whipping wind. The noise increased with the acceleration of the engine as they turned onto the state highway and headed for Eureka Springs.

It seemed an exceedingly short ride—and a short day, too, but it was already after five when Seth stopped the car in the driveway. Abbie climbed out of the car and reached for the sack stowed behind the seat.

“I’ll carry that up for you,” Seth volunteered.

“Thanks, but I’m going to divvy it up with my
parents first,” Abbie explained and stood awkwardly, holding the sack in her arms. “And I had a wonderful time, and the picnic was delicious.” She remembered the last time he’d taken her home and threatened to kiss her in full view of anyone looking. But she hadn’t any excuse for going to her apartment, then coming directly down with the sack. It would be just as obvious to anyone watching.

“I’ll see you in church tomorrow,” he said and bent his head, lightly brushing her lips with his and drawing away before she could react.

It was only after he’d backed out of the drive that Abbie noticed her laundry still sitting in Mabel’s backseat. She could have had Seth carry it upstairs for her. It would have been the perfect excuse. She sighed over the lack of foresight.

Her father came out the back door, carrying the kitchen wastebasket. “That was the reverend that just left, wasn’t it?”

“Yes. We were out to Grandmother Klein’s.” She waited near the back door while he emptied the wastebasket into the garbage can. “There’s a bunch of sweet corn here for you and Mom.”

“Have you been with the reverend all day?” He took the sack out of her arms. “I thought you were in your apartment typing all this time.”

“We went for a picnic, then to Grandmother’s,” she explained.

“Are those bells I hear?” he teased.

“Dad, you’re impossible.”

“Why?” he countered lightly. “Is the reverend the type that fools around? I’ve heard Bible salesmen are notorious philanderers. Maybe ministers are too.”

“That isn’t funny.” She didn’t want to think that Seth might just be toying with her.

The menu lay unopened on the table in front of her. Abbie took another sip from her water glass and glanced at her watch. With the advent of September and the start of school, there was a lull in the tourist trade. She hadn’t taken it into account when she left the office early to stop at the post office before meeting Seth for lunch. They had agreed to meet at twelve noon, and it was still five minutes before the hour.

In the last month, she’d seen him on a fairly regular basis. They usually lunched together twice a week and went out to dinner or a local show one evening a week. Unless he was working on his sermon, they usually spent part of Saturday together, too, sometimes visiting her grandmother, who was positively mad about his car.

“George, isn’t that the young Reverend Talbot talking to the judge by the door over there?”

Abbie perked up visibly when she heard the woman in the next booth mention Seth sotto
voce. She looked around, but she couldn’t see him from where she was sitting.

“I think it is,” the man in the next booth, obviously George, responded to the woman’s low question.

“He isn’t wearing his collar again,” the woman said in disapproval, and Abbie hid a smile, reaching for the water glass. “His behavior isn’t at all proper for a minister.”

“You can’t very well condemn the man just because he takes his collar off once in a while,” George defended him carefully. “It’s probably like wearing a tie. When I’m not working, I don’t want one around my neck.”

“It isn’t only that, George,” the woman insisted. “It’s the way he’s carrying on with that Scott girl.”

Once she had started eavesdropping, it was impossible for Abbie to stop. She knew the gossip was running rampant because of the frequency of her dates with Seth. It was to be expected.

“Both of them are single. I don’t see that there’s anything wrong in him dating her,” the man said. And Abbie thought, Hooray for George. At least he was sticking up for them against the malicious intonations of his wife, assuming the woman was his wife.

“She doesn’t live with her parents, you know, although a lot of people think she does,” the woman went on. “She fixed up an apartment for herself in the loft above the garage. It’s completely private from the house.” The woman’s
voice lowered to a conspiratorial whisper that Abbie was just barely able to catch.
“They say
the reverend has been in her apartment.”

“Really.” George’s voice was dry with disinterest.

“Don’t you think it’s strange the way she came back so suddenly from Kansas City? Supposedly she gave up a good job.” The remarks were full of malicious innuendos that had Abbie bristling. “If you ask me, there has to be a reason why someone as attractive as the Scott girl hasn’t gotten married. I’ll bet she’s hiding something.”

“You have a remarkable talent, Maude, for seeing sin in other people,” George muttered.

“I still think he should be dating a nice girl instead…. Don’t look now, George, but he’s coming this way.” In a louder voice, the woman issued a sweetly bright greeting. “Hello, Reverend. How are you today?”

“Fine, thank you,” Seth’s voice replied.

In the next second, he entered Abbie’s side vision. She glanced at him briefly, her smile a little stiff. He slid onto the opposite booth seat, a warm light gleaming in his blue eyes for her.

“Hello, Abbie. You’re early,” he observed. “I thought I’d have to wait for you.”

“I had a couple of errands to run.” She opened her menu, willing herself not to pay any attention to the idle gossip she’d overheard.

But Seth was too well acquainted with her moods, too able to read her mind. “Is something wrong?” He tipped his head to one side, the thickness of his dark bronze hair showing signs
of having been ruffled by the wind and then tamed with combing fingers.

Abbie started to deny that there was anything the matter, then she thought about the woman in the next booth, who must have realized she’d been sitting there all the time. When Abbie spoke, her voice was a little louder than it needed to be.

“I was just thinking about ‘sticks and stones,’” she replied. Seth drew back, his gaze narrowing slightly to study her with a considering look. Abbie turned her attention on the menu, missing his glance at the booth behind her. “Meat loaf is the luncheon special today. It sounds good. I think that’s what I’ll have.”

When the waitress came to take their order, Seth echoed her choice. “Might as well make it two luncheon specials.” He waited until the waitress had left to ask, “How have you been?” As if it had been awhile since he’d seen her when it was only two days ago.

“Fine. By the way, I finished typing the manuscript,” Abbie informed him. “It’s safely delivered into the writers’ hands already.” Abbie was careful not to mention the Coltrain sisters by name, not with the possibility of a big set of ears listening.

“That’s good timing,” he replied.

It seemed a curious response. “Why is that?” She laughed shortly.

“Because I could use some help typing up some church notices I want to mail out next
week. It shouldn’t take you more than one evening.”

“That sounds as if I’ve already volunteered,” Abbie retorted in amusement.

“I knew you’d agree.” Seth mockingly pretended she had. “Is there anything wrong with doing it tonight?”

“I suppose not,” she replied, acknowledging that she would do it.

“Why don’t you stop by the parsonage a little before seven?” he suggested. Abbie tensed, wondering what the woman in the next booth was making out of her going to the parsonage. “I have to be at the church shortly after seven for a wedding rehearsal,” Seth added, and she breathed a silent sigh of relief. “You can have the office all to yourself. I wouldn’t want to be accused of disturbing you while you were working.”

“I should hope not. Shall I bring my typewriter or do you have one?” she asked.

“A manual.”

“I’ll bring my portable electric,” Abbie stated. Halfway through their lunch, a member of the church board stopped by the booth and sat down to chat a moment with Seth. Abbie heard the couple in the adjoining booth leave and relaxed a little.

Inevitably the conversation between Seth and the director turned to church matters, which fairly well left Abbie out of it. From church business, there was a natural transition to a
discussion of the Bible, and a pointed, but amicable, difference of opinion about the correct interpretation of a particular passage of the Scriptures.