“It was no choice, at all. It was what I had to do,” she said with quiet simplicity.
The answer brought him no real satisfaction. He needed something specific that would help him to understand the woman who had come to mean more and more to him with each day that passed. At his prodding, she finally tried to elaborate.
“I felt I had a calling to share my faith with others. I believed I was living proof that miracles can happen and I had an obligation to repay that miracle that God granted me by letting me live against all the odds.”
“Wasn’t there another way you could have demonstrated your gratitude?”
“You’re accusing me of being ambitious, of not knowing my place.”
Richard shook his head. “I’m not accusing you of anything. I’m just trying to understand you.”
“Why?”
“Because...” His words faltered. “Because you matter to Maisey,” he said finally, because he wasn’t ready to admit just how much she had come to mean to him. If he admitted what he knew in his heart was true—that he was falling in love with her—then he’d have to find a way to reconcile his lifestyle and hers. He wasn’t ready to do that just yet.
What he was ready to admit was that he wanted to find the same kind of peace inside himself that radiated from her, that he was almost ready to stop running from a past that had eaten at him every day of the past nine years.
While they waited out the minutes until they could go to see Maisey, Richard held Anna Louise in his arms, drawing comfort from her nearness. He wondered as that increasingly familiar contentment stole through him, if he wasn’t starting to experience that miracle Anna Louis believed in, after all.
He heard her sharp intake of breath, then felt her pulling away.
“What is it?” he asked, looking down into her troubled eyes.
“Millicent,” she said curtly, nodding toward the open doorway.
“Millicent Rawlings? Why is that so terrible? She’s probably heard about Maisey and come to check on her.”
“And found me in your arms.”
“Is comforting a member of your flock off-limits?”
“That won’t be the interpretation she puts on it,” Anna Louise said.
Richard heard the genuine concern in her voice. He wanted to contradict her, but she, better than anyone, knew the likelihood that she was right.
One thing at a time, he warned himself. See that Maisey got well and then he could take on all the people of Kiley, if he had to, to see that Anna Louise’s happiness there was assured.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Millicent Rawlings had a lot to say to Anna Louise, all in the guise of gentle advice, of course. She had dressed for the occasion in a puritanical black dress, a black felt hat with a feather in it and a black winter coat. If Anna Louise hadn’t known better, she would have thought someone in town had died.
“I do hate to bring this up, Anna Louise,” she began with a prim little smile that didn’t show much evidence of regret. If anything, she looked suspiciously gleeful.
Anna Louise braced herself. She had seen Millicent’s startled expression when she had spotted Anna Louise in Richard’s arms outside Maisey’s hospital room the day before. She’d been expecting a confrontation ever since, despite Richard’s reassurances that there was nothing to be upset about. Finding Millicent on her doorstep at 9:00 a.m. hadn’t surprised Anna Louise in the slightest. If anything, she’d expected her sooner.
“What is it, Millicent?”
The older woman pushed past her, oblivious to the fact that Anna Louise hadn’t invited her inside. “Well, I’m not one to gossip...” She paused expectantly.
“No, of course not,” Anna Louise said dutifully.
“It’s just that you have been spending a great deal of time lately with a certain young man...”
“Richard Walton,” Anna Louise supplied helpfully, determined to hang on to her temper as long as she possibly could. Unfortunately, it was already simmering. And Millicent’s coy approach to the issue wasn’t helping. Why couldn’t she just say whatever was on her mind and be done with it? “That is who you mean, isn’t it?”
“Yes. Richard Walton,” she said grimly.
Millicent drew herself up until she reminded Anna Louise of a puffed-up, self-important hen.
“This has been a matter of concern for some time now, but after yesterday morning, well, I just knew the time had come when I had to say something.”
“What happened yesterday morning?” Anna Louise inquired. A saint couldn’t have sounded more innocent, she decided proudly.
“It was what I saw with my own eyes at the hospital. I can’t begin to tell you how upsetting I found it.”
“What exactly do you think you saw?” Anna Louise asked coldly, finally recognizing that she was going to have to pry every word out of the woman.
This time apparently Millicent heard the warning note in her voice. She regarded Anna Louise closely. “Why, I saw you in that man’s arms, right out where all the world could see you. With Maisey Walton on her deathbed not more than a few feet away. I have to admit I was stunned that you would pick such a time to engage in something like that,” she said, giving the word an emphasis that managed to make it sound like Anna Louise and Richard had been making love in plain view. She paused and studied Anna Louise thoughtfully. “Perhaps you, being an outsider and all...”
“I’ve lived here for five years,” Anna Louise reminded her, then recalled that the people of Kiley had treated Janie Walton as an outsider even after she’d been there for fifteen years.
“That’s not very long in a town like Kiley,” Millicent said as if she’d read her mind. “And you are in a unique position, one that should be above reproach.”
Anna Louise leveled
