“Surely, you’ve seen a tape player before,” she said blithely. “This is just smaller than most.”
“Of course. Really, Miss Perkins, I do not have time for this nonsense.”
Anna Louise had grown tired of the insulting refusal to address her with her well-earned title. “It’s Pastor Perkins and I think you’d better make the time,” she said, hitting the play button.
This message was no worse than the others, but it was enough to turn Orville’s expression ashen. “Billy Joe,” he murmured.
Now it was Anna Louise’s turn to gape. “Billy Joe Hunt? You recognize the voice?” Even though Orville didn’t reply, by listening carefully, she could tell that he was right. It was Billy Joe Hunt. Dear Heaven, if Richard ever found out, he’d string the man up in the town square. Why on earth had he agreed to help build the recreation hall? That was something she’d have to ponder later.
“Do his arguments sound at all familiar?” she inquired.
“Well, I....” Orville sucked in a breath, his expression clearly shaken. “I suppose it’s possible that someone could take what I’ve said and twist it, but I never intended for anyone to threaten you with harm.”
“Oh, I’m sure your intentions were exactly the same as the caller’s. In the long run, all you both want is for me to leave. I’m not going, Orville.” She used his first name deliberately, refusing to use the title he’d denied her. “We can rip this valley apart with a fight or we can find some way to mend fences and agree to disagree. There’s no need for you to dictate that your beliefs be imposed on my congregation.”
She stood. “I will play this tape at the council meeting, if it becomes necessary. I can’t imagine that many of the pastors in the valley would side with anyone who sounds this irrational and filled with hatred.” She met his gaze evenly. “And it won’t help your position that I’ll be able to point out that you know exactly who made these calls.”
An instant’s shock spread over his face. “But that sounds very much like blackmail.”
She managed a faint smile. “Why, yes, Orville, I believe it does.”
With that, she walked out, leaving him to face the fact that she was willing to take him on in any type of fight he chose to wage—fair or otherwise. She just wished she felt a little better about her tactics.
* * *
It was another week before Richard found out about the upcoming council meeting. He heard about it not from Anna Louise, but straight from Orville Patterson. He should have suspected something the minute he walked into Patterson’s for a quick cup of coffee and the whole place went quiet.
He spotted Orville sitting in a booth with Billy Joe Hunt and a couple of men he didn’t recognize. The men suddenly seemed fascinated with their cups of coffee and cherry colas from the fountain. Orville regarded him warily. There was an anticipatory gleam in Billy Joe Hunt’s eyes that made Richard’s heart pump a little faster.
Ignoring the lack of welcome, Richard pulled up a chair next to Orville and signaled to Tucker to bring over some coffee. “You all must be talking about Anna Louise,” he said in a deceptively calm voice.
Orville remained tight-lipped, but Billy Joe wasn’t smart enough to keep his mouth closed. “Yeah, I guess the preachers hereabouts will teach her a thing or two come next week.”
“Meaning?”
“A woman don’t belong behind the pulpit. Everybody knows that,” Billy Joe said smugly.
Coming from anyone else, Richard would have dismissed Billy Joe’s comment as yet another example of the small-minded stupidity one could expect to find in Kiley. He wouldn’t have seen it as something worth fighting about. But this was Billy Joe, and years of fury at the man’s ignorance and cruel, senseless acts came bubbling to the surface.
He kept a tight rein on his temper, though. “You have something against the way Anna Louise has done her job?” he asked, his gaze pinned on Billy Joe. “You were there when we worked on the recreation hall. You saw how hard she worked.”
“It’s not personal,” he declared staunchly, ignoring Orville’s warning look. “And that didn’t have nothing to do with the Church. She’s just got no business standing up there on Sunday mornings preaching about sin and such. The Good Book says that’s a man’s job. What she’s doing is blasphemy. Isn’t that right?” He looked to Orville and the others for confirmation.
Something about his voice, his choice of words, caught Richard’s attention. “Say that again.”
“What’s the matter, boy, can’t you hear? The woman is defiling the church. Every word she speaks there is blasphemy, pure and simple.” He again glanced toward Orville for approval. “Ain’t that right?” Orville avoided Billy Joe’s question and Richard’s increasingly furious gaze.
With every fiber of his being, Richard wanted to reach into that booth and grab Billy Joe by his fat neck and strangle him, not for what he’d said just now to him, but for all the times he’d said the same thing to Anna Louise’s answering machine.
He warned himself that Anna Louise wouldn’t thank him for getting into a brawl on her behalf. He even tried to tell himself that it wasn’t really his fight. And a few months ago it might not have been.
But that was before he’d gotten to know Anna Louise, before he’d realized just how much her career meant to her and what it had already cost her to follow her calling. It was before he’d seen her take a whole community into her heart. It was before he’d listened to her preach, speaking the Word of God with an accuracy and a passion that touched the very souls of her congregation.
And it was before she’d opened her arms to one wayward, jaded journalist, expecting nothing in return, just welcoming him, believing in him and slowly filling his heart with hope.
It might not be his fight, but it was Anna Louise’s and
