“He will be a wonderful grandfather.” There was that look again. What was going on with Devin?
He cleared his throat. “I think so too. Anyway, the tutoring keeps him busy enough, but also allows him to get more rest. Which he knows he needs. He didn’t marry my mother until he was thirty-four, and then I didn’t come along until he wasforty. So he’s led a long and full life. Hard to believe he’ll be seventy years old in a couple years.”
What a blessing to have had these two men in her life. “I’m so very thankful for both of you. I don’t know where I’d be without you.”
“Oh, you’d still be digging in the dirt, of that I’m certain.” He smiled and took a sip of his lemonade.
After they devoured their lunch, she packed up the dishes and the cloth and stuffed it all back in the bag. “Let’s go stash this in one of the tents and we can explore some more.”
“Wait a second...” He narrowed his gaze at her, but his eyes twinkled with merriment. “You mean to tell me that I didn’t need to haul that thing around with us for the entire morning? We could have left it up here?”
She set the bag down and giggled, running away.
“You did that on purpose!” He gave chase.
“Well, I missed the old times!” She dashed around in a large circle and then came to an abrupt halt when she spied a group of ladies watching them. Frowns covered their faces. Eliza put a hand to her chest and sobered, using her best tour-guide voice. “I’m sorry, the monument isn’t open for any guided tours today.”
The woman in front looked all too familiar as she stepped closer. “We didn’t come for a tour. We came to speak to you.” Her words were cold.
“Oh. I’m sorry.” And then it hit her. The woman was from that church she visited. Several of the others looked like her little group. What were they doing here?
Eliza braced herself. “Mrs. Manning, is it?” If she remembered correctly, there were four of them in the woman’s group on that awful Sunday morning. Now there were seven.
Mrs. Manning crossed her hands at the wrist, her mouth pinched as if she’d tasted the juice of a lemon. “After meeting you a couple weeks ago, we spoke to our reverend about howwe could bring you back into the flock.” Her voice took on a snide edge. “He suggested we hadn’t learned enough about you yet. But now...”
“What do you mean, bring mebackinto the flock?” Whowasthis woman to think she could speak to Eliza in this manner? She straightened and all of grandmother’s training came to bear in her posture and expression.
The woman huffed. “Seeing you dressed like this”—she waved a hand at Eliza’s pants—“and running around like a child. With a man chasing after you.” Mrs. Manning put a hand to her throat and shook her head.
All the women with her did the same.
“It’sungodly.That’s what it is.” A woman from the side spat the words.
Mrs. Manning lifted her chin a little higher. “Yes, it’s ungodly. Disrespectful. Unladylike. Indecent.” She cleared her throat. “We came out here to offer to mentor you—as it says in Titus. To lead you back onto the path of righteousness. You stated you believed in the Creator and His Son Jesus as Savior ... well, instead of finding you here as a wandering sheep, we can see with our own eyes that you are just as heathen and lost as the rest of those awful evolutionists.”
Eliza’s mouth dropped open. A heathen? Lost? Fury burned in her chest, but before she could respond, Devin spoke up.
“Doesn’t Scripture tell us not to judge one another?” His calm but firm voice came from behind her. Then he stepped up to stand beside her. “Matthew chapter seven says, ‘Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam outof thine own eye: and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.’”
“Are you implying that we arehypocrites?” The leader of the pack screeched the last word and sneered at Devin and then back at Eliza. “Andthisis the quality of man with whom you choose to keep company? He clearly has no morality in him. How dare you!”
This had gone far enough. “How dareyou!” Eliza stepped closer. “This is the godliest man I’ve ever met. And he knows the Word of God better than y—”
Devin’s hand on her arm calmed her a bit. “There’s no need for us to argue like this. If we are all believers, then we are brothers and sisters in Christ.” His touch grew firmer as she tried to inch forward. “This is not how we should be speaking to one another. Shall we start over?” He reached out his right hand in greeting.
“No. We shall not start over.” Red-faced and shouting, the woman gripped her handbag. “We shall report back to our reverend and call a prayer meeting for the salvation of your wicked souls.” She turned on her heel and marched away.
“Disgusting,” one of the women threw at Eliza.
“Heathen,” another threw out.
“Ungodly.” Another clucked her tongue at her.
As Eliza watched the little passel of women storm away, the anger inside her swelled. “Can you believe that?” She pressed a hand to her forehead. “Because I’m wearing pants?”
“Oh, there was much more to it than that.” Devin gripped her arm. “You need to ignore them. Somehow shake their hateful words from your mind.”
Wellthatwas easier said than done. She pulled her arm from Devin’s grasp. “All I wanted to do was go to church! Find a good congregation to worship with. But then...” She started pacing, allowing every ugly and hateful thought to surface. “Those awful women, their hateful attitudes, are why somepeople don’t want to go to church. Who could stand that kind of unfair and untrue judgment?”
