The Christmas Sisters (34 page)

“Nic, we just wondered, do you know where baby Jesus is?”

“Baby Jesus?”
She cocked her head not thrown for an instant by the question. “Let's see. Willa brought Him to me the first day we got here.”

“In the kitchen.”

“That's right.
In the kitchen.”
Nic tapped her cheek with the aqua curler in her hand. “But I didn't leave him in there because I recall distinctly not wanting to risk getting food dripped on him.”

“Don't get distracted and leave this stuff on my hair too long and burn it to a frizz, young lady,” Aunt Bert called out unseen from the next room.

“I won't.” Nic put the tip of the curler to her lower lip and squinted in what Sam could only surmise was concentration. “So much has gone on since then, but it occurs to me that I probably put Jesus in a box and set it aside until we’d need him. Then everything got so hectic and haywire that I forgot all about him.”

“We're all guilty of that very thing from time to time.”

“Why do I think this will turn up in a sermon some day?” Nic put her hand to her hip.

“Sermon!”
Sam stood straight up. “Talk about getting distracted. I have to go over my notes and rehearse my sermon for tonight.”

“Want to practice it on us? We're a pretty receptive audience.”

“Unlike the one I'll be facing in my church this evening?” Sam's chuckle came out harder than he intended and did nothing to lighten the reality of his supposition. “Thanks, Nic, but—”

Bing, bong
. The doorbell cut him off.

“Don't you go running off, Nicolette, and leave me here to try to take these curlers out by myself.”

“Would you get that?” Nic stole a quick peek over her shoulder in Aunt Bert's direction.

“You know these old arms can lift up only so high,” the older woman went on. “Why, left to my own, the sides of my hair would be waves while the top part would be a fried mess of fuzz like some fancy clipped poodle dog.”

Bing, bong. Bing, bong.

“I've got my hands full.” Nic raised both her empty hands and shook her head before pivoting on her heel and heading back into the kitchen. “I'm not going anywhere. Probably
someone dropping
by with Christmas cookies anyway. Sam can get it.”

“If they got food, bring '
em
straight in here, Sam, honey,” Bert bellowed out.

“Will do.”
His laughter had not died when he pulled open the door.

“Hadn't counted on you being here, Reverend Moss.”
Big Hyde swept his black hat from his head. Holding it by the crown in one gnarled hand, he jabbed the air with it as he went on, “Thought you'd taken up residence with Miss Roberta for the time being.”

“I have. I just stopped over to drop off some gifts. I was just on my way back to the church, as a matter of fact.”

“Oh, I see. I see.”

“Won't you come on in?”

“That someone with baked goods, Sam?”

“Aunt Bert, sit still. I'll yank out half your hair in the process if you don't settle down.”

“A little home beauty parlor treatment.”
Sam motioned for the older man to come inside the house then took his hat and coat, draping them over one arm.

“Hi, Mr. Freeman.”
Willa all but danced up to the wiry old fellow, her hands held up. “My daddy's
gonna
teach me to read about snowbirds!”

“Is that so?” He took the child's pale hands in his weathered black ones and stuck out his wing tips.

Willa stepped on them light as an angel landing on a cloud, then tipped her head back. “Uh-huh. He found a book about them because he saw some by the big Christmas tree, and now he's
gonna
teach me to read about them, too.”

“So you saw the snowbirds?” Big Hyde did not skip a beat as he led the small girl in an impeccable box step.

What a picture in contrasts they made, old and young, black and white. Big Hyde in his customary dark pants and white
shirt,
today set off by a maroon-and-blue bow tie, dancing with Willa in her red overalls and green striped turtleneck. Though his glasses were black with silver trim and hers a little girl's pastel, both their eyes shone with a joy of the moment that made all the differences fade to insignificance.

“Thank you very much for this dance, my lady.” Big Hyde deftly lifted the child off his feet, then released her hands and gave a grand bow.

“Thank
you
.” Willa bowed in kind. Then she raised her hands over her head, leaped in the air, and spun around. “I'll go tell my mommy you're here.”

“She's really special, isn't she?” Sam watched the child fly.

“That she is...
Daddy
.” He flavored the title with that same disapproving tone he'd used on Sam's first day back in Persuasion.

Looking back now knowing that Big Hyde had helped bring him to town, he heard challenge in the old man's voice, not condemnation. “I want to take care of that child and love her for the rest of my life.”

“I'll add that to my prayer list then.”

“Thank you.”

“If I were the nosey sort, I'd find a sly way of asking what you intend to do about the child's mother.” Big Hyde gave him that slow, merciless once-over. “Of course, I'm not that sort.”

“Of course not.”
Sam folded his arms and hardened his expression. This man had helped bring him here and stood up for him in the church, but there came a point where even a preacher did not owe every detail of his private life to his supporters.

“Mr. Freeman, it's so good to see you.” Nic stuck her head through the arched doorway. “Come on back and have a cup of coffee, won't you?”

“Didn't come to pay a social call, Ms. Dorsey.”

“Oh?” She stepped fully into the room. “Is there something wrong?”

He gave Sam a low, sidelong look, heaved out a sigh, and then clasped his hands together. “Went by Miss Roberta's house first and saw the note tacked to her door saying to try for her here.”

Nic shook her head. “Why didn't you just add a
PS
.—robbers come on in and take whatever you please, Aunt Bert?”

“We
ain't
got robbers in Persuasion. And even if we did, what have I got that they'd want to take? If you came two blocks out of your way looking for me, Big Hyde, then come a few steps farther into this kitchen. I can't get myself in there without dripping on the carpet.”

“Well, now, Miss Roberta, I can't stay and I hadn't counted on the Reverend being here.”

“You want me to leave?” Without even thinking, Sam started to put on Big Hyde's hat, ready to hightail it out of there.

“No, no, son. This concerns you.” Big Hyde took his hat back and ran his thumb along one crease in the crown. “It's church business. I just thought the news might have come easier out of the mouth of a family member. That's why I came looking for Miss Roberta.”

He thought about reminding the old man that Bert was not really related to him but decided against it. He understood the motive and knew it did not bode well for the message Big Hyde had come to deliver. Forcing his biggest smile, Sam put his hand on his guest's back. “You sure you won't sit down and have some coffee while you tell me what's going on?”

“No, no. I can't stay.” He took his coat from Sam's arm. “I just wanted to stop in and let Miss Roberta—well, now to let
you
know—they've gone and put a petition up at
Dewi's
.”

“A petition?”
Nic placed her hands on her hips.
“What for?”

“That's what I say.” Bert hollered out. “That place is cut up enough with the way he's got all
them
racks and shelves in there. Why on earth would he need a partition, too?”

“Not
partition
, Aunt Bert.
Petition.”
Nic's eyes narrowed in her aunt's direction then she checked her watch.

“I reckon I can guess what it's about.” Sam thrust his hands in his pockets and studied the faded pattern on the carpet.

“They want church members to bypass the board and call for him to step down as minister of All Souls, right?” Nic folded her arms.

“What was that?” Bert's chair legs scraped on the floor, and Sam could picture her scooting it along trying to hear the conversation.

“Not just step down from All Soul's.” Big Hyde's face was grim. “They want him banned from the ministry altogether.”

The news hit Sam like a punch to the gut.

“They can't do that, can they?” Nic looked from Sam to Big Hyde and back again.

Sam shook his head.

“No.” Big Hyde waved the notion off. “I doubt they can even muster up enough bona fide church members to go along with this fool petition to make it worth the trouble of writing it up.”

“That doesn't mean it won't get ugly.” Sam rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. “And it could destroy everything I'd hoped to build here. Divide the church for a long time to come.”

“You know that's exactly the opposite reason of why we brought you here in the first place.”

“I know.” Sam nodded, thinking of that first day back in town. Big Hyde had told him about the people who delighted in picking clean the bones of what had once been a thriving small town. Sam now saw that he was the one the old man saw at risk of being ravaged by vultures.

“Willa, honey.”
Nic faced the arched doorway and spoke in a soft tone to her unseen child. “Be a darling and run upstairs and get Aunt
Petie
or Aunt Collier so they can rinse out Aunt Bert's hair.”

“Girl, I'm not so feeble I can't rinse my own hair if it's that time already. Don't send the child off on—”

“No, Aunt Bert.
I think you really need someone to help you, and Willa
really
needs to go get her.” Nic's jaw hardly moved as she tried to drive the point home. “Run along, Willa, and take your time.”

“Okay, Mommy.” Willa's footsteps thundered up the back stairs.

Nic hurried into the front room. Not wasting a precious moment to preface her thoughts, she grabbed Sam by the arm. “You have to tell them.”

“Yes, I do. I have to tell them, but not what you think.”

He stood on the steps of
Dewi's
as he had that first day in town. Like that first day, Big Hyde was there. He meandered over to the rocking chair and lowered himself slowly into the sagging seat. “You sure you know what you're doing?”

Sam looked at the single page he had laid aside while he spoke with Willa. The personally crafted poster probably wouldn't last the day posted at
Dewi's
as close to the petition as he could get them to put it. He didn't care. He had to do this.

“You told me that first day that Persuasion wasn't even a town anymore. I've looked around and seen that in some ways that is so. But it's still alive. There are still plenty of good folks here.”

“Indeed.”

“I won't be a party to tearing it apart any more than it already is.” The floorboards groaned as he strode up to the door. “But I was brought here to bring folks together. I promised that everyone would be welcome in my church.”

“Yes, you did.”

“After all my talk about living my faith, I forgot something else just as important.
Living up to my promises.”
He looked down again at the open invitation for everyone in town to attend the Christmas Eve services. “I said everyone was welcome, but I didn't personally invite them in. I hope this corrects that.”

“Corrects it or stirs up such a hornet's nest that whatever happens will come swift and hard.”

“I'm ready for it either way.” He nodded, then opened the door to
Dewi's
and went inside.

Tw
enty-Four

“
Tell them
? Nic's admonishment still rang in his ears.

Tell them what? That there was a slim chance Willa was not his child? Those who had issues with him were not interested in technicalities. They had fixed their attention on his actions. First his actions as a boy, then as a young man, and now as the minister they counted on to comfort and lead them. He would not buy his way out of this conflict by standing in the pulpit before the entire town and denying his daughter.

The entire town?
Sam peeked out through the door behind the organ and jangled his car keys against his open palm. From this vantage point it looked that way. He didn't know if they had come because of his poster or because they wanted to gawk at him, hoping he would confess to being a fallen pastor.

“Filling up awful early for a Christmas Eve service, Reverend.”
Shirleetha
pressed her back to the wall to get past him sideways in the narrow hall. When she got on the other side of him, she pushed her music books in his direction. Without even looking to see that he took them, she began wriggling out of her coat. “If you'll hang my coat up when you hang up your own, Reverend,