Rebecca Page 41

  “Lady Mariel!”

  “Good morning, Reverend. I hope I haven’t interrupted you. I drove in for the Ladies’ Aid meeting at the schoolhouse, but I am a bit early. If you have time, I thought we could discuss the matter you hinted at during your visit to the Cloister.”

  Mariel had not discovered the proper phrase to allude to her behavior of the day before, so she acted as if they had parted amicably. Guessing the reverend was a gentleman, she assumed he would not correct her outrageous statement.

  He offered her his hand as she stepped lightly from the strange vehicle. “What is it?”

  With a laugh, she realized he was so astounded by her automobile that he had heard nothing she’d said. “This is the latest form of transportation. It is an electric automobile.”

  “Electric?”

  “Yes. I have a generator in the stable to recharge it. We have no electricity in the Cloister, so it was easiest to put the generator in an unused building. Every night, I connect the cables to the batteries behind the seat. In about ten hours, they charge enough so I can get a day’s driving out of it.”

  “An automobile,” he repeated in awe. He ran his hand along the chrome decorating the outside of the blue machine.

  Outwardly, it looked little different from a normal buggy. The four wheels could have been exchanged for the ones on his carriage. The seat was positioned slightly farther back. Instead of reins, a lever sprouted up next to the driver’s seat. Pedals on the floor must deal with starting or stopping it, but he did not have enough knowledge about these new automobiles to guess which. On the floor in front of the driver, gauges had been inserted into the dashboard. All of it was as alien to him as if it had been brought from the moon.

  Stretching to look closer at the interior of the vehicle, whose top was lowered, he asked, “How far can you travel?”

  She shrugged, watching his eager examination of the automobile. “I am not exactly sure. I use it only around Foxbridge. I can drive myself without tying up the time of one of the workers in the stables. The man who sold it to me told me it has a top speed of nearly fourteen miles per hour, and it can go for thirteen hours before it must be recharged. Of course, on these twisting roads, I must travel much slower.”

  “Amazing.” He glanced at her and saw her knowing smile at his boyish awe. “I am sure you get this reaction wherever you go.”

  “All the time.” She looked with affection across the green to the small, white church and the two storied schoolhouse. Grouped around them were small houses much like the parsonage. “Fortunately, the people here in the village are accustomed to ‘Lady Mariel’s contraption.’”

  When he stepped closer, he gazed at her with the same intensity he had used to appraise the automobile. She did not back down before his regard. Her eyes appraised his reaction to his inability to intimidate her this way. Slowly, her gaze traced the uncompromising line of his jaw and the firm planes of his face. He was an undeniably handsome man. His clerical collar and the subdued color of his white shirt and black vest flattered his masculinity.

  Softly, he asked, “You came to speak with me, Lady Mariel?”

  “Although I hate to admit it, I came to apologize.” The words were not as difficult to say as she had feared. “Reverend, I can only hope you will excuse my intolerable actions yesterday.”

  “You were bereaved by your loss.”

  “Yes,” she whispered, astounded by his ability to discern what she tried to hide. She shook herself mentally. Compelling green eyes could not be allowed to make her forget herself. “Yes, I was,” she continued in a normal voice, “but that was no excuse to act as I did. If you want to learn about the community groups I am involved with, I would be glad to answer your questions.”

  “Won’t you come inside, my lady?” He offered his arm. For a second, she hesitated, then tossed her hat and driving goggles onto the passenger seat. Her fingers touched the fine linen of his shirt sleeve to rest on the strong muscles beneath. Instantly, she had to fight the desire to pull away. A tingle, like a low electric shock, raced through her. Only her desire to hide her reaction kept her hand on his bent arm. As if they had talked of nothing more personal than the automobile, he asked, “You like being different, don’t you?”

  “Yes,” she answered hastily. She was pleased he had not noted how his nearness disconcerted her.

  She did not understand why she reacted this way. Reverend Beckwith-Carter did not like her particularly, and she expected he would cause her trouble. She should not be so thrilled by the warmth of his skin, separated from her by only a single layer of fabric.

  Mrs. Reed, the parsonage’s housekeeper, came forward to greet her as they entered the front hall of the small house. The silver-haired woman had kept the parsonage for Reverend Tanner before he retired. Mariel smiled. She had worked on church projects with this lady, who was as thin as her name suggested. She respected the older woman’s common sense and ability to deal with pettiness, which exasperated Mariel to distraction.

  “Good morning, Lady Mariel. I just took biscuits from the oven. You will have some?”

  Unbuttoning the heavy mackintosh she wore to protect her clothes from the dust blown up by the wheels of the automobile, Mariel nodded with a smile. She smoothed her simple skirt and the wide sleeves of her cream, voile shirt. “You know I can’t resist your biscuits.”

  “Jam? Strawberry is your favorite, if I recall correctly.”

  “If it is no trouble.”

  “Certainly not. Reverend?”

  He had been watching the young woman hanging her coat on a hook as if she was as at home here as he was. Aloud he told Mrs. Reed that whatever she had would be fine. He admitted to himself it should be no surprise Lady Mariel was familiar with the parsonage. She had lived in Foxbridge all her life. He had been here only a few weeks.

  When he motioned toward the study, she smiled coolly. His lips tightened. The open friendship she showed Mrs. Reed would not be wasted on him. He had hoped Lady Mariel would not be an adversary, but it appeared she did not share his feelings.

  He waited while Mrs. Reed brought in the tray, and he listened to the two women talk about people he barely knew. When the housekeeper excused herself, he rose to close the door. He met Lady Mariel’s wide blue eyes. Secretly, he was pleased to see she was astonished at being alone with him unchaperoned. Perhaps she was not as immune to the pressures of society as she pretended.

  “Will you pour, Lady Mariel?”

  “Of course, Reverend.”

  “My name is Ian,” he said as he took one of the warm biscuits from the plate on the painted tray.

  She glanced up in surprise before returning her attention to her task. “I am aware of that. Sugar, Reverend?”

  When he did not answer, she found her eyes captured by his again. With the sugar tongs in her hand, she sat motionless as a warmth she could not halt sifted through her, bringing a rose tint to her cheeks. His smile teased a similar reaction from her lips.

  Breaking the bewitchment, she said far more serenely than she felt, “Sugar, Ian?”

  “Two, Mariel. I trust I may call you that.”

  “I am sure I have little choice,” she retorted with a touch of sarcasm. When he disdained the offer of cream, she handed him his cup. “You are incredibly difficult to deal with.”

  He smiled as she poured her own tea. “That is odd. I was thinking exactly the same thing about you.”

  With a laugh, she leaned back against the prickly horsehair upholstery. She raised her cup to her lips, but grimaced as the steam from the hot liquid billowed in her face. “You have the advantage over me. You must have heard of my recalcitrant nature.”

  “Recalcitrant was not the word your adversaries used. Stubborn is the one I heard most.” He picked up a biscuit, lathered it with strawberry jam, and offered it to her. When she accepted it graciously, he continued, “The people around Foxbridge admire you very much, Mariel.”

  “I know what they think of me, but I only
want to help. With Uncle Wilford gone so much, it behooves me to assume those duties normally done by Lord Foxbridge.”

  “And those are?”

  “Helping out in the community, making sure that there is food for the hungry and shelter for the poor.” When she saw the twinkle in his eyes, she retorted, “It is important work!”

  He smiled. “Undoubtedly. But I find it strange a woman with your remarkable temperament would be satisfied with such tame organizations.”

  Mariel started to reply, then wondered if his words were meant to offend. “Remarkable temperament” could mean almost anything. She had come to beg his forgiveness, and he threw derogatory, incomprehensible comments in her face. When she rose, he did the same. He asked her what was wrong, but she ignored him as she walked toward the door. His hand on her arm kept her from reaching for the knob.

  “Reverend Beckwith-Carter,” she stated with icy hauteur, “do not presume that your backward collar allows you to forget the manners of a gentleman.”

  She gasped as he spun her to look at him. Her black skirt belled out in the movement. Anger transformed his face. She tried to pull her arm out of his grip, but he refused to release it.

  “Reverend!”

  Auburn brows accented the anger in his eyes. “I will act as a gentleman should when you show me you can be a lady.”

  “How dare you?” She raised her hand, but halted it before it could strike his face. She could not imagine striking a minister. That was what she told herself, not wanting to admit his green gaze daunted her.

  “Why are you trying to make everyone dislike you, Mariel?”

  She swallowed harshly. Why could this man with a few words, cut to the quick of her soul? He did not know her, but revealed the secrets she could not admit to herself.

  Slowly Ian released her arm. Viewing the bare emotion on her face, he could not ask more of her. More than anyone he had met in his life, Mariel needed to heal the pain within herself. He might not be the one to help her, for she did not fail to show him on every opportunity how little she wanted him to play a part in her life.

  When she had arrived this afternoon, he had thought … He erased the intriguing image from his mind. As if a sudden lassitude had dropped on him, he sat again. He looked at her confused features.

  “Forgive me, Mariel. I had no cause to speak to you like that.” His mouth tilted in a wry grin. “Sometimes I have this yearning to solve all the problems of the world. An egotism shared by too many clergymen.”

  She stood uneasily by the door, torn between the urge to spit out angry words and leave, and the urge to stay and learn more about this surprising man. Her feet seemed nailed to the floor and her voice frozen in her throat. She knew there must be something she could say, but her normally facile mind could think of nothing. As each moment passed, her embarrassment grew. The hot flush along her face warned her she could not hide it.

  The door opened abruptly into her back. She was jolted forward several steps. With a hurried apology, Mrs. Reed peeked into the room. When she saw Lady Mariel’s reddened cheeks and the reverend’s tight lips, she knew she had interrupted something important.

  “Reverend, I knocked, but no one—”

  He rose with the aid of his cane and waved aside her apology. “What is it, Mrs. Reed?”

  “It is Mrs. Albion. She wants to talk to you about the new altar cloth she is making.”

  “Have her wait in the parlor. I will be there shortly.” When the housekeeper nodded and closed the door, he looked at Mariel. “Will you stay while I deal with this?”

  Unwilling to lose her chance to flee from this uncomfortable situation, she said quickly, “You are busy. I can return at a later date.”

  “I won’t be long. Five minutes.”

  “I can come back.”

  He stepped closer to her. When he took her fingers in his hand, she looked from them to his mysterious eyes. The gentle stroke of his thumb across her palm sent strange sensations through her. He lifted her hand and sandwiched it tenderly between his own.

  “Mariel, don’t leave when we are unsettled with one another. That happened yesterday. We are going to be working together while I am in Foxbridge. Must we argue all the time?”

  “Probably.” She dimpled as her sense of humor reasserted itself. “I argue with everyone else I work with.”

  “So I have heard.” He became serious as he asked again, “You will wait?”

  “Yes.”

  He squeezed her fingers gently. His face mirrored his reluctance as he released them. “It will take no longer than five minutes. Make yourself at home.”

  “Thank you.”

  Mariel watched as he walked to the door. He moved so smoothly with his cane, she could forget it except for times when it hit the door with a hollow sound or when it brushed her skirt. She whirled about to look out the window past the sofa. Wrapping her arms around herself, she regarded the activities on the green.

  Children chased a hoop and played with a ball. Two women with baskets of laundry resting on their hips talked soundlessly. A man staggered from the direction of the village pub, which bore the odd name of “Three Georges.” In front of the parsonage, she could see her automobile and a carriage she assumed belonged to Mrs. Albion.

  She did not know the woman, although she was well acquainted with her husband, for he served with her on the school board. Mr. Albion fought every idea she expressed. He denounced her outlandish plans, as he was fond of calling them. To her thinking, he disliked everything she said simply because she was a woman. He made no effort to hide his opinion that women should stay in their homes and serve their husbands and raise children.

  Thinking of the intractable Mr. Albion always brightened her spirits. She so enjoyed baiting him at the meetings, just the anticipation of the next time brought a wicked smile.

  She wandered around the study, noting the changes Ian had made: only small things which evaded the casual eye. Photos of people she did not recognize rested on the fireplace mantel. New pieces of bric-a-brac shared the cluttered spaces on the few tables between the chairs.

  By the desk, her dress brushed against pages hanging over the edge. She did not utter her curse, which would have been out of place in a parsonage. Bending, she scooped up the papers, which had fluttered in every direction, and sat in the nearest chair as she tried to put them in order.

  Her eyes widened as her attention was caught by a phrase in the bold handwriting. Flipping the page, she saw a date on the top of it. This must be Ian’s sermon for the coming Sunday. She glanced at the crossed-out words and the insertions. Never had she thought about the work necessary to lecture a congregation on the need for a sinless life.

  Although she knew she should not be reading it, his words captured her imagination. That he would be preaching a lesson from the Book of Ruth about the special love of a parent for a child deepened her interest. Since her early adolescence, she had been delighted by the romantic tale of a poor widow who finds, through her mother-in-law’s intervention, the man of her dreams.

  Leaning back in the chair, she read through the first page. She smiled at a sally she knew would be enjoyed by the members of the church. Reverend Tanner never would have thought to lighten his dolorous lessons with levity. She put the first page on the table in front of her and searched for the next one. Concentrating on following the arrows moving sentences from one part of the page to the other, she paid no attention to the passing of time.

  “Enjoying it?”

  She whirled as if she had been caught in a crime. “Ian! I—I—” She tried to choke out a few coherent words. “The pages fell. I picked them up, and—and—”

  With a laugh, he sat in the chair next to hers. “So what do you think?”

  “What do I think?” she repeated witlessly.

  “About my sermon?” He pointed to the pages. “What do you think of it?”

  Lowering the page she had been reading, she met his eyes for the first time without rage or trepida
tion. In a serene voice, she said, “I think it is wonderful.”

  “Do you?”

  “Fishing for compliments, Ian? I wouldn’t have told that if I didn’t mean it!”

  He leaned forward to fold his arms on the back of her chair. “You wouldn’t, would you?” Pointing to one of the most rewritten areas, he asked, “What did you think of this part?”

  “You want my opinion on your sermon?”

  In the exact tone she had used with him, he retorted, “I would not have asked you, if I did not want to know.” He smiled when she chuckled. “You are an intelligent woman, Mariel. You must be if you like my sermons.”

  While they laughed together, she did not think about the harsh words they had traded less than a quarter of an hour before. They discussed the sermon with the ease of longtime friends. If she startled him with her Biblical knowledge, or if she was surprised by his liberal attitudes to many things Reverend Tanner thought should never be changed, neither spoke of it.

  Their heads bent closely together over the pages. Taking a pen from the desk, Ian marked her comments next to his words. When they were finished, he folded the crumpled papers and placed the sermon back on the blotter. The letter opener secured it, so it would not fly away again.

  When he offered her another cup of tea to replace the one she had not tasted, she accepted happily. From the discussion of his sermon, it was an easy transition to her work in Foxbridge. He seemed very interested in her position on the school board and her ideas to better the school.

  “It is not easy,” she concluded. “Many people resist anything that is new. Unfortunately, the other members share their opinion.”

  “Nothing good comes easily. I—” He paused as he heard shouts from across the green. “School is out.”

  “Already?” She looked at the small watch pinned to the bodice of her blouse. “Look at the time. Ian, I have taken your whole afternoon.”