The Pastor’s Jezebel Lover (9 page)

She’d decided to give herself to Ramon, and not to hope for more than what he could give.

It would still be more than what any man had ever given her in the past.

She thought of Ramon, his tender hands roaming across her body, stirring a fever in her being that hadn’t abated, and in spite of her predicament, she fanned the flame and felt the familiar heat simmer between her thighs.

Ramon had been the first man she’d been with since her divorce from the rat Jack, and her body had been unaccustomed to being with a man.

It had been so long…

She just hoped that this time she wouldn’t have to wait as long.

Frank had said she could expect bail to be set at a reasonable price, since she was a native to this town, had family and friends here, and the risk of fleeing was minimal.

He said he thought she had a chance to walk free tomorrow, with a little luck.

She’d said luck had never been a commodity that agreed with her.

She wondered briefly whether she shouldn’t have hugged the attorney. She now felt ashamed she had. She didn’t want him that way, not the way she wanted Ramon, but the urge for survival had been strong, and so was the self-loathing that had been a part of her spiritual make-up for so long.

She vowed never to give the man the wrong impression again. After all, she loved Ramon, no matter if he reciprocated the sentiment or not. She belonged to the handsome young priest, and no other man would ever touch her again like that, nor would she throw herself at their mercy ever again.

She thought about her mother, who would be crying herself to sleep tonight. She’d phoned her briefly, and had explained the circumstances of her arrest. The woman had been devastated, the disgrace weighing her down just as much as knowing her daughter was in jail for a crime she didn’t commit.

She’d told her mother to get in touch with Father Ramon. He would see to it she was kept informed and would provide her with the emotional and spiritual sustenance if the cross became too much to bear.

She closed her eyes, then, and willed herself to sleep. The sooner the morrow came, the sooner she might be out of here. But no matter how hard she tried, sleep wouldn’t come. Finally she hugged herself, and imagined it were Ramon’s arms wrapped around her, his body firmly pressed against hers and sheltering her from the raging storm.

She cried herself to sleep, and when the morrow did come, was surprised to find that the sun had returned to dispel the cold, long night. She hadn’t thought such a feat was possible.

Ramon didn’t get much sleep either. First Mrs Stoker had dropped by, and they’d spent a long time talking things through, to the point the priest felt he knew as much about Eileen’s childhood as her own mother.

She’d been a happy child, her mother had assured him, until the moment her body had betrayed her by developing earlier than the other girls in her class.

That’s when the trouble had started. Barely twelve, boys and men had stared at her on the street, and girls and women had started to pour the filthy brand of gossip over her that had lasted to this day.

They’d often thought about a breast reduction, but the family could ill afford such a procedure. That, and her father hadn’t liked the idea, considering it a taboo subject around the home. He hadn’t even wanted to discuss it.

Moving away from Brookridge, like Ramon suggested, had never crossed their minds. Eileen’s father had held a decent position at the post office and uprooting his family to find employ in a different town would only have caused more financial trouble.

Besides, said the woman bitterly, the same type of gossip would have sprung up wherever they moved, people being the same everywhere.

Before Eileen’s mother had called, Ramon had joined Frank for a visit to the illustrious Mr Jack Rafter, only to find him absent from his home, the neighbors not being able to give them an indication where he might have gone off to.

Then Frank had said he had other sources to aid his investigation, and had left him to entertain Mrs Stoker by himself for the rest of the evening, urging the young priest to gather as much information from the old lady as he could.

Mrs Stoker—Francine to her pals—could only confirm what Eileen had already told him. Her marriage to Jack had been a failure from the start, the man having not a single faithful bone in his body, leaving his wife often for days at a time to go boozing and whoring with his buddies.

Finally Eileen had broken down and filed for divorce. When it came through, it had been the happiest day in Francine’s life, she said, especially when her little girl had moved back home, where she could take care of her.

The whole episode had left Eileen with even less self-confidence than she already had, and she had abstained from getting involved with any man since.

Then she directed an inquisitive stare at Ramon, and the priest had confessed to nurturing deeper feelings for her daughter than mere friendship, and that he’d even proposed marriage.

Mrs Stoker was over the moon when she learned this, and even when Ramon explained that matrimony was an impossibility because her daughter was still married to the other guy, she’d waved her hand and assured him that this was only a small legal matter that could be cleared up in no time.

Francine had left wishing him all the best, and vowing that he’d made her the happiest woman in the world, something which Ramon felt a little dubious about, seeing that Eileen was still a guest of the state, and that she was going to have to stand trial for murder.

“Father Ramon,” Francine had said, “you’re a man of God, and we all know that there’s no greater power in heaven or earth than the Lord. If you love my little girl, then everything will surely be all right, for you walk with the grace of God, and so does Eileen since you love her.” She’d smiled beatifically, and kissed him on both cheeks before bidding him a wonderful evening.

The whole conversation had uplifted him a great deal, but then his thoughts had drifted back to Eileen, alone in her cell, and his mood had plummeted once more.

Odd, he felt, that Eileen’s mother would have more faith in him than he did himself.

After tossing and turning for what seemed like hours, he’d arisen and set foot for the church to spend the witching hour with bowed head, kneeling in the front pew, lost in prayer to a Father who seemed to have abandoned him for the moment.

And when he thought he couldn’t slip deeper into depression, he’d felt an unexpected benediction washing over him, almost as if his prayer had been answered, and he’d returned home, exhausted, and had fallen into a deep, dreamless sleep until morning.

Somehow, during the night, a glimmer of hope had started to assert itself, and when sunlight tickled his eyelids and jerked him from the tendrils of sleep, he rose with a hopeful heart.

Things were going to be all right, he suddenly thought, and when he got a phone call from Suzie Parsley’s mother that her daughter had just awakened from her coma, he knew that his prayers had been answered.

Eileen sat in the courtroom, her back straight, and her face displaying nothing of the emotions raging through her as she sat facing the judge and the dozens of Brookridgeans who had shown up to catch a glimpse of the ‘murdering whore’.

Not that they spoke these words to her face when she was led into court, but when she caught sight of Mrs Cooper and Mrs Burke, she could read it on their faces as clear as if they’d spat it in her face.

Luckily Ramon was there, and the smile he directed at her did much to dispel the gloom from her mind.

And then there was Frank Ruffalo, looking dapper in a charcoal suit and welcoming her with a most unprofessional wink.

When the judge arrived, she felt her heart pound in her chest, and it was all she could do not to collapse. She stood firm, though, not wanting to show weakness in front of the predators who’d come to gloat, and when the judge set bail at five thousand dollars and Frank whispered she was free to go, she couldn’t believe her ears.

“But I don’t have five thousand, Frank. And neither does my mother.”

“Consider it taken care of,” he said, and gestured to the man walking up to her with a spring in his step.

Before she could react, he’d taken her in his arms, and claimed her mouth for his own. Too stunned to respond, she surrendered herself to him, slinging her arms around his neck and giving the kiss her all.

For a moment, there was only Ramon, and then the noise and the hubbub from the benches reminded her she was in court, and when she turned to look, she found herself gazing into a dozen hostile faces, dark eyes boring into hers, condemnation writ large.

Uncharacteristically, she gave them a wide smile, and hooked her arm through Ramon’s.

You know what? her smile said. I don’t give a damn about you or yours anymore. You can take your filthy minds and stuff them up your—

“Honey!”

Her mother had walked up to her and clasped her in a tight embrace.

“Mom…” she whispered.

“I knew it,” her mother whispered back. “The moment I laid eyes on that young man of yours, I knew that everything would be all right. He’s a man of God, after all, and no one or nothing can compete with the Lord.”

“I guess not,” Eileen laughed.

Mom took her face in her hands, and said, “It’s good to see you smile again, honey. It’s been far too long.”

Mom was right, she thought. It had been far too long since she’d let the sunshine in her heart. Leaning her head on Ramon’s shoulder, she waited for Frank to fulfill all the administrative requirements of bail, and then she was truly free.

As she walked from the courthouse, she could have whooped and hollered.

Ramon gazed upon the woman by his side with pride in his heart and love in his eyes. He might have fallen for her gorgeous body, but he knew now that there was far more to Eileen that had sparked his interest. He could hardly believe it, but she held his heart in her hands and she didn’t even know it. As he watched her smile turn into a thing of beauty and radiance, her auburn hair lit up by the sun as they walked from the courthouse steps, he suddenly knew—simply knew—that he loved this woman, and wanted to spend as much time with her as he possibly could.

Frank had had his doubts, he knew. The other man couldn’t fool him. Even though he’d professed to believe in her innocence, he’d seen it in his eyes. The skeptical look he always reserved for cases where he didn’t fully believe he was defending innocence.

Now he did. Eileen was innocent, he knew that in his heart to be the truth, and he would see to it that Frank knew it too.

Frank joined them, and it was just like the big guy to temper their happiness with a few penciled thoughts of his own.

“This is just temporary, you know that, right? There’s going to be a trial, and if we don’t prove Eileen’s innocence before then, twelve good people of this community are going to decide her fate.”

“Twelve good…” Eileen faltered.

He could see she didn’t hold much faith in the goodness of the people of this community, and her next words confirmed this. “They’ll send me back to prison in a heartbeat, Frank. No matter what you say, they’ve already drawn their conclusions a long time ago.” Bitterly, she added, “This is going to be their finest hour. The moment they’ve been waiting for.”

Frank laid his large hand on her shoulder. “We won’t give them the opportunity, Eileen. We’re going to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you didn’t commit murder or run that little girl over with Jack’s car.”

Her head jerked up at the mention of the Parsley girl. “Suzie. How is she? God, I totally forgot about her.”

“She’s fine,” Ramon was quick to assure her. “Her mother called me this morning. She’s finally regained consciousness and the doctors say she’ll make a full recovery.”

Eileen swayed for a moment, and both Ramon and Frank had to support her. “Poor girl,” she muttered. “To think that bastard ran her over just so he could get to me…”

Frank glanced over at Ramon, a question mark in his eyes. Ramon merely nodded.

“You think he did it on purpose?” Frank voiced the question.

“He did,” confirmed Eileen. “I don’t know why or how, but I’m sure that he tried to frame me for the accident. If that little girl had died…” Her voice broke off, and Ramon had to sit her down gently on a nearby bench.

“We’re going to get to the bottom of this, Eileen,” assured Frank, whom Ramon noticed was getting more and more caught up in this case.

It was a good thing, he knew. When Frank Ruffalo really got going, there was no way to stop him from getting to the truth.

Over Eileen’s head, the big guy mouthed to Ramon, “Jack Rafter.”

The young priest knew what he meant. Frank was going hunting again, and this time Jack Rafter would be found, no matter under which rock he’d decided to crawl.

“So what are you going to do next?”

“I’m going to try and find your ex-husband,” Frank announced. He gave them a wink. “If I’m not back in one hour, send in the cavalry.” And with those words, he took a swig from his beer, and left.

Eileen watched the big man exit the bar with a troubled heart. It was all well and good to make jokes about her ex, but if what they thought was true, the man was a murderer, and not to be trifled with.

They were seated in the Busy Badger, located around the corner from the courthouse. Even though Eileen had protested she really shouldn’t be seen around town, both Ramon and Frank had insisted she join them.

As Ramon explained it was time to put the past behind her and start clearing her name, not just from the framed accusations leveled against her by her ex, but from the weight of years of misperceptions and false impressions.

And to prove that not all was lost as far as her future in this town was concerned, the two men sat her in a booth near the window, where everyone who walked past would see her sitting free and unaffected by recent events.

Eileen didn’t know if this was such a good idea. She was, after all, a woman with a tainted past, and people in this town would not simply forgive and forget just because they saw her accompanied by Father Ramon.