“You’ve got a calling as a missionary, and I don’t have that calling.”
“I can’t help that, John,” Jeanine said. “I don’t have any shame left. I love you whether you love me or not. I have to say it.”
John pulled her close and kissed her. Her lips were soft and gentle and he kissed her cheek, then he stroked her hair. “Maybe God is giving me another calling. To be a husband of a missionary.”
“I’d like that very much,” she said.
“Do you know what, Jeanine? I think that you and I could spare two people a lot of misery.”
She looked up. “What do you mean by that, John? What two people?”
“The two other people we might marry if we don’t marry each other.” He held her tightly then and said, “We’re both strong-willed. So perhaps we ought to marry just to save those other two people a lot of misery.”
“John Winslow, what a thing to say!”
“Just a thought.” Then Winslow grew more serious. “I’m going to stay in Africa. I love this place. I could never be happy in any other setting.”
“I’m so glad.”
“You were leaving, Jeanine. I take it that’s out now.”
“Don’t remind me. I was harsh and so wrong.”
“Well, let’s not put ourselves down. We’ve both been wrong.” He held her tightly and then said, “You’re stubborn and I’m stubborn, but do you know what I think about that?”
“What?”
“Think what stubborn kids we’ll have.”
“Oh, John, don’t say that!”
He laughed, then kissed her, saying, “Come along, Jeanine. I’ve got things to talk to you about. We’ve got a life to plan here. I’ve got ideas about working for the Geographical Society. That way I can stand behind you and Annie at the mission station, and we’ll just see what God’s going to do.”
GILBERT MORRIS spent ten years as a pastor before becoming Professor of English at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkansas and earning a Ph.D. at the University of Arkansas. During the summers of 1984 and 1985, he did postgraduate work at the University of London. A prolific writer, he has had over 25 scholarly articles and 200 poems published in various periodicals, and over the past years has had more than 70 novels published. His family includes three grown children, and he and his wife live in Alabama.
The White Hunter Page 35