“Well, to be honest, everything isn’t quite all right, but I was hoping maybe you could help me understand what I was hearing today and set some things straight.”
Cora tilted her head to the side, confused. “What is it, Pa?”
“What I’m hearing is that you spent most of the day with Roy Burns. Is that true?”
Cora’s heart begun to race. She didn’t consider the implications of how it would
look if she were found to be walking through town with Roy, even if it were for perfectly innocent, even noble reasons. She was too preoccupied with the excitement of Roy agreeing to stay in town to repair the church that she hadn’t considered the optics.
“Who told you that?” Cora asked, stalling for time to come up with an explanation that would appease her father. She also needed to find out exactly what she was seen doing. If they only saw her standing outside the church with Roy, well, that was easily explained. However, if they saw her going into his home early this morning, coming up with an explanation would be a more difficult task. She didn’t think her father would accept the truthful answer that going to Pastor Burns house still comforted her and helped her process the grief of losing him.
“Alfred saw you walking to the old church building with him today. By the looks of it, you came directly from the pastor’s house to the church,” her father said, boring his eyes into hers. Cora’s blood immediately began to boil at the sound of Alfred’s name.
“So, what is he doing now, spying on me?” Cora asked, her voice getting shrill. “Was he hanging around the house, knowing that I have spent the past month there taking care of Pastor Burns? He doesn’t own me, yet he certainly seems to think he does!”
“Calm yourself, Cora,” Sheriff Williams scolded. “He was not ‘spying’ on you, he was taking care of his business and happened to see you walking with Roy, looking quite happy to be in his presence, he noticed.”
“Taking care of business near the church?” Cora sputtered in disbelief. “What kind of business did he have over there when there’s nothing on that strip of land other than the pastor’s house and the church—have you considered that, Pa? Isn’t that odd?”
Sheriff Williams just kept eating his dinner in silence, not responding, which Cora took as validation that her point was made well.
“And what does it matter to him if I were there, whether I was at the house or at the church?” Cora demanded, becoming increasingly defensive. “Why can’t I visit with the son of our pastor? Didn’t Christ say ‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted?’ Aren’t we supposed to comfort our neighbors during their time of grief? Or should we all just leave the son of the town pastor to suffer alone, as I’m sure many people in this town would be just fine doing!”
“Don’t quote Scripture at me, young lady, and don’t you dare take that tone, either,” her father said, his voice evolving from frustration to anger. “You are being disingenuous. You know it is not appropriate for a young woman to be alone in the home of a young man without a chaperone—anyyoung man, but especially not an ungodly man who has rejected our Christian faith.”
“I think there’s been a misunderstanding, Pa,” Cora said, trying to soothe her father’s anger. “I did spend time with Roy today, but it was strictly on church business. I told him about the state of disrepair the church has fallen into, and he has agreed to stay in town long enough to do the repairs on the church! Isn’t that a wonderful thing?”
Cora deliberately left out the part where, before they brought up church business, she was in the kitchen making coffee while Roy slept. But that had only been to feel closer to Pastor Burns, and she had fully expected to leave before Roy had woken up. She knew her father wouldn’t believe that, though, so it was best to leave out that part entirely.
Sheriff Williams sighed. His anger was subsiding, but his frustration was still evident. “Fixing up that church is a noble undertaking,” he admitted. “And it likely comes from his guilt for abandoning his father and community for five years. But Cora, we can’t forget that we don’t know anything about Roy anymore. He has spent the past five years living in Wheats Ridge—a place known for sinful behavior in every corner.
Trust me, during my time as a sheriff, I’ve had to travel to Wheats Ridge here and there when backup law enforcement was needed. It’s not a place where someone goes to raise a family. It’s filled with brothels and gambling dens, and saloon shootouts are not uncommon there. That’s why I didn’t want you going there in the first place.”
“I understand all of that, Pa, but Roy doesn’t live in Wheats Ridge for any of those reasons. He’s there because that is where his job is. He’s a ranch hand he enjoys his work.” Cora was surprised at how vigorously she was defending him, but now she was on a roll and couldn’t stop. “And he isn’t like those other men who live there. In fact, when I was resting in the ranch quarters while my ankle was hurt, I could hear the men outside talking about all sorts of sinful activity, but Roy never—”
“When you were restingwhere?” her father roared, and Cora felt the blood drain from her face. She hadn’t meant to tell him about that part; she just wanted him to understand how Roy was different.
“I stepped in a hole and hurt my ankle when I was at the ranch in Wheats Ridge,” Cora said in a small voice. “It was shortly after I got there. Roy made sure I had a safe place to rest, and he took care of my ankle until I could walk on it. He also made sure none of the other hands bothered me, and they didn’t. He’s a good man, Pa. Pastor Burns told me that Roy was good before he sent me to fetch him, and I didn’t believe him then, but now I see it.”
Sheriff Williams’ face was flustered, his eyes shut, and Cora could tell he was nursing a volcano of wrath that was threatening to erupt.
“Please, just give him a chance,” Cora begged, reaching across the table for her father’s hand. “Maybe try to get to know him while he’s working on the church. Stop by and ask him about his working, maybe even lend a helping hand—it’s a lot of work for one person to do by themselves. I think he might surprise you.”
Sheriff Williams shook his head but didn’t protest. He merely said, “We’re not talking about this anymore tonight. You’re excused to get ready for bed.”
She cleared her plate from the table and headed to her bedroom without argument. That night as Cora said her prayers, she asked that God would soften the heart of her father and the rest of the community who still harbored judgments against Roy. She also asked once again that God would repair Roy’s own heart while he worked on repairing the church. “Please open his heart to accept Your love and to let You back in,” Cora concluded her prayer. “I know that You never left his side even when he left Yours—please help Roy to see that, too.”
Later, after Cora had drifted to sleep, she had a vivid dream involving Roy. This was unusual because she didn’t usually dream in such detail or remember her dreams when she woke up. In her dream, she was standing in front of Pastor Burns’ church in Lakewood, and Roy was standing by her side. The church in her dream was not in its crumbling state, but had been restored to the church she remembered.
She looked up at Roy to thank him, and he smiled tenderly at her and reached for her hand. In her dream they didn’t speak, but stood side by side in front of the newly renovated church, their fingers laced.
When Cora woke up the next morning, every detail of the dream was fresh on her mind. Her heart was racing, not out of fear, but out of excitement. She was both confused and afraid, not about the dream, but about the strong feelings that came from it. Why had it felt so good to hold Roy’s hand in her dream?
After a while of ruminating on this, she decided she would allow herself to enjoy these happy feelings, even if she had no explanation for them. She pulled the covers up to her chin, staying in bed for a little bit longer to savor the memory of Roy’s hands in hers.
Chapter Fourteen
The afternoon sun beat down on Roy as he kneeled on the roof the church, wiping sweat from his brow. Once he had climbed to the top of the building, he realized that the damage was far more extensive than he had originally thought. The number of buckets arranged to catch water in the church did not align with the actual number of spots on the roof in dire need of repair. He would have his work cut out for him, but he also knew that it would feel good to be doing something useful again.
