“Now, Cole,” Lev interrupted, his tone teasing as if Connolly were a tiger without the teeth. “We’re just joshing around here.”
“Religion is nothing to play around with,” Connolly countered, the veins standing out in his neck. “You, young lady, you don’t play with people’s lives! We’re talking about salvation here. Life and death!”
Tessa said, “Cole, come on,” trying to defuse the situation. Sara could certainly take care of herself, but she was glad to have her sister’s support, especially considering she had no idea what Connolly was capable of.
“We have a guest, Cole.” Lev’s tone was still polite, but there was a definite edge to it- not exactly threatening but asserting whatever authority he had in this place. “A guest who is entitled to her own opinions, much as you are.”
Thomas Ward spoke, but Sara could only make out a few words. She gathered he said something about God blessing man with the freedom to choose.
Connolly was visibly biting back his anger when he said, “I should go see if Rachel needs help.” He stormed away, his fists clenched at his sides. Sara noticed his broad shoulders and muscular back. She found herself thinking that despite his age, Cole Connolly could easily take on half the men in this room without breaking a sweat.
Lev watched him go. She didn’t know the preacher well enough to tell if he was amused or irritated, but he seemed genuine when he told her, “I do apologize for that.”
Tessa asked, “What on earth was that all about? I’ve never seen him so upset.”
“Abby has been a great loss to us,” Lev answered. “We all deal with grief in our own way.”
Sara took a second to find her voice. “I’m sorry I upset him.”
“You have no need to apologize,” Lev told Sara, and from his chair, Thomas made a noise of agreement.
Lev continued, “Cole’s from a different generation. He’s not one for introspection.” He gave an open smile. “‘Old age should burn and rave at close of day… ’ ”
Tessa finished, “‘Rage, rage against the dying of the light.’ ”
Sara didn’t know what shocked her more, Connolly’s flash of anger or Tessa quoting Dylan Thomas. Her sister had a twinkle in her eye, and Sara finally understood Tessa’s sudden religious conversion. She had a crush on the pastor.
Lev told Sara, “I’m sorry he upset you.”
“I’m not upset,” Sara lied. She tried to sound convincing, but Lev looked troubled that his guest had been insulted.
“The problem with religion,” Lev began, “is that you always get to that point where the questions can’t be answered.”
“Faith,” Sara heard herself saying.
“Yes.” He smiled, and she didn’t know if he was agreeing with her or not. “Faith.” He raised an eyebrow at his father. “Faith is a tricky proposition.”
Sara must have looked as angry as she felt, because Paul said, “Brother, it’s a wonder you never managed to marry a second time, the way you have with women.”
Thomas was laughing again, a trail of spittle dribbling down his chin, which Mary quickly wiped off. He spoke, an obvious effort as what he had to say was not brief, but again Sara couldn’t make out a word of it.
Instead of translating, Mary chastised, “Papa.”
Lev told Sara, “He said if you were a foot shorter and a hair more annoyed, you’d be the spitting image of your mother.”
Tessa laughed with him. “It’s nice to have that put on somebody else for a change.” She told Thomas, “People are always saying I look like my mama and Sara looks like the milkman.”
Sara wasn’t certain, but she thought there was something reserved about Thomas’s smile.
Lev said, “Unfortunately, the only thing I inherited from Papa is his bullheadedness.”
The family laughed good-naturedly.
Lev glanced at his watch. “We’ll be starting in a few minutes. Sara, do you mind joining me out front?”
“Of course not,” she said, hoping he didn’t want to finish their discussion.
Lev held open the door to the sanctuary for her, closing it softly behind them. He kept his hand on the knob as if he wanted to make sure no one followed them.
“Listen,” he said, “I’m sorry if I pushed your buttons in there.”
“You didn’t,” she replied.
“I miss my theological debates with my father,” he explained. “He can’t talk very well, as you can see, and I just… well, I might have gotten a little carried away in there. I want to apologize.”
“I’m not offended,” she told him.
“Cole can get a little prickly,” he continued. “He sees things in black and white.”
“I gathered.”
“There are just certain kinds of people.” Lev showed his teeth as he smiled. “I was in the academic world for a few years. Psychology.” He seemed almost embarrassed. “There’s a trend among the highly educated to assume anyone who believes in God is either stupid or deluded.”
“It was never my intention to give you that impression.”
He got the dig, and put in one of his own. “I understand Cathy is a very religious person.”
“She is,” Sara said, thinking she never wanted this man to even think about her mother, let alone mention her name. “She’s one of the most intelligent people I know.”
“My own mother passed away shortly after I was born. I never had the pleasure of knowing her.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Sara told him.
Lev was staring at her, then he nodded as if he had made up his mind about something. If they hadn’t been in a church and if he hadn’t had a gold cross pinned to his lapel, she could have sworn he was flirting with her. He said, “Your husband is a very lucky man.”
Instead of correcting him, Sara told him, “Thank you.”
Jeffrey was lying in bed reading Andersonville when Sara got home. She was so glad to have him there that for a moment she didn’t trust herself to speak.
He closed the book, using his finger to mark his place. “How’d it go?”
She shrugged, unbuttoning her blouse. “Tessa was happy.”
“That’s good,” he said. “She needs to be happy.”
She unzipped her skirt. Her panty hose were on the floor of the car, where she had taken them off on the way home.
“Did you see the moon?” he asked, and she had to think a minute to understand what he meant.
“Oh.” She looked out the bedroom windows, where the lake was reflecting the full moon almost perfectly. “It’s gorgeous.”
“Still no word on Rebecca Bennett.”
“I talked to her mother tonight,” Sara said. “She’s very worried.”
“I am, too.”
“Do you think she’s in danger?”
“I think I’m not going to sleep well until we find out where she is.”
“Nothing on the search in the woods?”
“Nothing,” he confirmed. “Frank didn’t find anything at the jewelry stores. We still haven’t heard back from the lab on blood typing from the second box.”
“Ron must have gotten tied up,” she said, thinking it was odd for the pathologist not to do something he had promised to do. “They could’ve gotten in a rush or something.”
He gave her a careful look. “Anything happen tonight?”
“In particular?” she asked. The confrontation with Cole Connolly came to mind, but Sara was still upset about the discussion. She didn’t quite know how to articulate her feelings to Jeffrey, and the more she thought about it, the more she thought Lev’s interpretation of Connolly’s behavior might be correct. She was also a little embarrassed by her own behavior and wasn’t completely sure she hadn’t baited the old man into the altercation.
She told Jeffrey, “The brother Paul asked me for a copy of Abby’s death certificate.”
“That’s odd,” Jeffrey commented. “I wonder why?”
“Maybe there’s a will or a trust?” Sara unfastened her bra as she walked into the bathroom.