Jacob sighed again. “Well, this should be interesting.”
The squeak of a hinge reverberated through the quiet sanctuary. A short, heavyset older woman bustled out from a room to the right of the platform. She stopped, blinking owlishly at him from behind her thick tortoiseshell glasses.
Her lined face broke into a wide smile. “You must be Pastor Durand! You look just like Ben. At least, how he looked as a young man.”
She hurried over and touched his arm. “I say, it will be nice to have some new blood here in Hope. Don’t get me wrong, old Pastor Anders was a good man. Just rough around the edges and well, old. Like me.”
She laughed, a trilling sound that echoed in the church. She gave his arm a pat. “Here now, I’m doing all the talking and I’ve yet to let you get in a word. My husband Ed tells me all the time I talk too much. If I do, then it’s just a gift the good Lord has seen fit to give me.” She took a breath.
Amused, Jacob interjected. “I am Pastor Durand.” He liked that sound of that, but quickly amended, “I’m only here temporarily. And you are?”
She beamed. “Grace Stephens. I’m the church secretary.”
A dry laugh escaped as he compared Grace to his grandfather’s secretary, Carol. There would be no stiff and formal greetings from Grace. “That’s wonderful. Can you show me my office?”
Little creases appeared between her gray eyebrows. “Your office isn’t here in the church. It’s next door in the cottage.”
“Cottage?”
“Where you’ll be staying and where you’ll have your office. Pastor Anders didn’t like traipsing over here every day, so he moved his office into the front bedroom of the cottage. It’s set up real nice.”
Jacob vaguely remembered seeing a small house set off to one side of the church property. He pointed in the direction from which she’d emerged. “Then what’s back there?”
“Why, my office. If you want to call it that. And Sunday School rooms and the restroom. Would you like a tour?”
Not yet ready to orient himself with this new, unplanned life, he shook his head. “Later. For now I’ll just head over to the cottage. When would it be a convenient time to meet with you and go over the services and other information I need before Sunday?”
Her brows rose nearly to her hairline. “You want to meet with me?”
“Well, you are the secretary.”
She grinned. “I’m the church secretary. I keep attendance, handle the finances, make sure that we have greeters and ushers for services. I attend all the baptisms, birthing and weddings to record everything for prosperity. I distributed the sermon notes that Pastor Anders gave me on Sunday morning. I take all the calls for the church and direct the calls to where they need to go. I—”
Jacob held up a hand, cutting her off. “What about the associate pastors? And helping to organize the sermons?”
“Oh.” She waved a hand. “You want to talk with Mara.” She tapped her index finger against her lips. “Let me think. Hmm. I don’t know when she’ll be back in. She’s already been here this week. I could look up her number. I’m sure I have it. If not, I could tell you where she lives. It’s not far, just a few blocks.”
“Why don’t you look up her number and get back to me?”
She brightened. “I’ll do that. And I’ll arrange for a church council potluck at my house on Saturday evening.” She clapped her hands. “What a wonderful excuse to have my house cleaned.”
She beamed at him. “Your uncle Ben is on the council along with my Ed and Dr. Hanlin. And there’s Luke Bryer—he’s a teacher over at the high school—and Martin Lessing—he owns the drugstore downtown. And I know I’m forgetting someone….”
“That’s fine. I’m sure you’ll work it out,” he said. “I’m going to head over to the cottage right now.”
“Good, good. I’ll start making arrangements.”
Jacob watched her disappear back from where she came. He shook his head in bemusement. Yep, this sure wasn’t anything like his grandfather’s church.
He went back to his car and grabbed his cases then headed the short distance to the cottage. The small country-style house was quaint in a storybook kind of way.
Yellow with white trim. Empty flower boxes sat beneath the windowsills. Sheer curtains covered the double-hung windows.
He pulled out the key he’d received in the mail, but realized the door was slightly ajar. He pushed it open and stepped across the threshold into the entryway.
The smell of cleaning products burned his nostrils. A rhythmic noise came from down the hall. He set his stuff by the antique sideboard. An old fedora with a red feather sticking out of the band sat on the scarred top as if waiting for its owner to swing by and pick it up on the way out the door.
The living room of the cottage was homey with mission-style furniture. The light taupe-colored walls were covered with photographs. Several were reprints of old photos, probably from Pastor Anders’s past. There were three beautiful Ansel Adams landscapes dominating the living room wall above the worn leather sofa.
The strangeness of stepping into someone else’s life squeezed the air from Jacob’s lungs. Thankfully, he’d only be filling this role on a temporary basis, then he could start his own life on staff at Shepherd’s Way.
As Jacob followed the sound toward the open doorway of the bathroom, he glimpsed the bedroom to his right and the kitchen to his left. The brief glance gave the impression of a clean and tidy house.
He stopped abruptly in the doorway of the small green-and-white-tiled bathroom. A petite woman, wearing worn, baggy jeans and a red plaid shirt with the sleeves rolled to her elbows, bent over the rim of the claw-foot tub. Her whole body moved with the force of her arms as she scrubbed the inside of the tub. Short brown hair curled around her head in disarray.
Jacob cleared his throat. “Hello.”
The woman screamed, the sound echoing painfully in his ears. She jumped into the tub and whirled around to face him, her legs braced apart and her cleanser-covered scrub brush pointed at him like a rapier.
Her wide, gold-colored eyes glared at him with a mixture of anger and panic.
She wasn’t a classical beauty, but it was kind of cute the way she held her weapon out as if ready to do battle.
“Who are you!” she demanded.
Even with the added height of the tub, she barely reached his shoulders. The oversize work shirt and shapeless jeans emphasized her small stature. She reminded Jacob of a hobbit from Tolkien’s tales.
Jacob coughed into his fist to hide a smile. It was a minute before he could speak. “I’m Pastor Durand. And who are you?”
Her weapon wavered a bit. “You…you can’t be our new pastor.”
He leaned against the doorjamb and crossed his arms over his chest. “And why not?”
“You’re…” She emphasized her words with a sharp jab of her brush in the air, spraying the walls with cleanser-loaded water. “You’re too…too…young.”
“I didn’t realize there was an age requirement. I’m twenty-six, by the way.”
That wild hair curled into her face and she pushed it back with an impatient swipe of her forearm, leaving a smudge of green cleanser on her face. “I don’t believe you.”
He raised