He was as good as his word. The next day, Mevrouw Ter Bane had been confronted, confused, and then angry. In no uncertain terms, Sterling paid off her mother’s debt and hers and forbade her to ever enter his house again under threat of exposure.
Their lives had become, more or less, a paradise of sorts. Well, except for Mr. Montgomery.
After the altercation between father and son, Sterling’s father ceased to have dinner with them. He took his meals either in his study or elsewhere. Moira wondered if she would ever have a relationship with her father-in-law that held no hostility. She had no answer to that question and it seemed as if she would never know.
There were times she would catch a speculative gleam in his eyes, or something wistful. What was it that he longed for?
“Mevrouw, Juffrouw and Ouderling Collingsworth are here,” Gijs announced from the doorway.
“Dank u,” she told him. Handing over the pie into Mevrouw Van Dijk’s capable hands, she smooth her hands over her apron and then went to greet their guests.
Lavinia accepted on their behalf, looking beautiful as ever. Elder Collingsworth stood behind her, an older gentleman but not as frail as she’d supposed he’d be. He grinned at her and then took it upon himself to sit down at the table while they waited for the Montgomery men to return.
“Every happiness, Mrs. Montgomery,” the elder told her. “You’re perfect for Sterling.”
She opened her mouth to answer this when both her husband and father-in-law came home. Sterling made a beeline to her and kissed her rather briefly and chastely on the cheek. Feeling upset, she glanced up at his face to see the particular gleam in his blue eyes which promised a more proper salutation later.
Mr. Montgomery stopped short at the sight of the elder and his daughter, his eyes darting back and forth between father and daughter. “Hello, Elder. Miss Collingsworth.”
“You don’t look so happy to see us, Clyford,” Elder Collingsworth leaned forward. “Aren’t you glad we’re here?”
“You both know you are always welcomed in my home.” Yet, Moira detected something underneath his words. She met Sterling’s eyes and saw he had the same thoughtful expression on his face.
Jasper came after that and soon, they were all sitting together, breaking bread at the table. Lavinia sat between her father and Mr. Montgomery. Jasper between herself and Sterling. As the meal progressed, and the air became more jubilant, Moira saw her father-in-law’s disposition grow darker and murkier.
When the meal had been eaten, and she went to clear things up, Mr. Montgomery stood and said, “May I have a word with you, Moira, Sterling, and Elder Collingsworth? I need to see you in my study.”
Thoroughly mystified since her father-in-law seldom invited her within his presence, she followed Sterling and the elder down the hall and into his study. Once the door was closed and she sat on the settee, she waited for Mr. Montgomery to speak.
“I’ve called you all in here because I wanted to let you know that I am going away. I am leaving Holland.”
Moira froze, in complete and utter surprise. She could think of nothing to say. But Sterling asked. “Is it because of Moira and me, Father?”
Mr. Montgomery glanced at her but she could detect no hostility in his gaze. “No, although I can see why and how you would think that way. But, for reasons I cannot express plainly, it’s time for me to leave.”
“Clyford, what about the church? I thought you wanted to be my successor?”
An odd, cynical amusement hardened his features. “For a long time, I thought that’s what I wanted too. But circumstances have forced me to realize that being the successor is not as important as I once thought.”
Moira followed his gait across the room as he went over to the hearth and stared into its depths. The firelight danced shadows along his face as he brooded. “I have been forced to review my actions over the past weeks. Actions I have had toward my son and his wife. Without loving kindness, I have forced my hopes and desires onto him. This has caused a rift between us that only distance will heal.”
He glanced up and his blue eyes, the same ones that his son shared with him, pierced hers. “I am sorry for the way I treated you and my son. I hope one day you can both forgive me.”
“Is that why you want to leave, Mr. Montgomery?” she asked, her heart aching for a man who had enormous pride.
“That, and for…other reasons,” he answered evasively. “I know that Van Vonderen is your choice to succeed you, Elder Collingsworth. When you make the announcement official I will then—”
“That is enough, Clyford.”
Sterling glanced up and saw Lavinia at the entrance of the doorway of the study. She looked radiant in a way he had never seen her before. Self-assured as she had always been but also determined.
“Lavinia, what are you doing in here?” A deep frown etched Clyford’s brow.
“I weary of pretense.” She came into the room. Sterling wordlessly offered his seat to her but she shook her head. Strolling forward, she came toward them until she stood before his father.
“My father needs to know the truth, Clyford. And it is time you told him.”
Clyford sniffed. “What truth is that?” Though he had spoken with his characteristic pomposity, apprehension darkened his face.
With a shake of her head, Lavinia turned toward him. “Sterling, your father is in love with me.”
“Lavinia!” both Elder Collingsworth and Clyford exclaimed.
Moira and he shared a glance, the same shock in his mind reflected in his wife’s face. Lavinia slowly turned her head back to his father. “I am in love with your father, Sterling. And I wish to be his wife. I will not settle for less, not even his son.”
Sterling felt as if he’d been struck by a frying pan. It was truly the last thing he expected to hear. Lavinia…in love with his father? Clyford was twenty years her senior.
He turned to look at his father. The frown had simply deepened, bringing the anguish of his face into sharp relief. And it was anguish.
“Daughter, do you have any idea what you are saying?” Elder Collingsworth stared with amazement at his only child.
“I do, Father. And I would shout it on the mountaintops and declare it to anyone who would hear me.”
Her voice was so sure, so bold in its certainty for her love for…his father.
“You don’t know what you’re saying, Lavinia,” Clyford tugged at the collar of his shirt.
“Clyford has known of my love for some time now, Father,” Lavinia went on as if he’d not spoken. “It was his idea to push a marriage between myself and Sterling. He did so in an effort to subdue his equal desire for me.”
“I do not desire you, Lavinia,” Clyford clipped out. “Don’t be so foolish as all that.”
“Everyone knows that whoever married me, for certain, would be the successor to my father’s church. If you truly only wanted the pulpit for yourself, you would have married me. Or, at least tried. Yet, you kept insisting that your son court me.”
A soft smile made her radiant. “That’s how I knew.”
“You don’t know anything,” Clyford retorted in a ragged voice.
“If you simply desired me, Clyford Montgomery, then that would have at least been acceptable for me.” An arrogant lift of her brow. “I am not so aloof that I do not know when a man burns for me. Am I not beautiful, Sterling?”
“You are exquisite,” Sterling said perfunctorily.
She laughed. “Oh, Sterling, you lie so well. No one is as beautiful as Moira, are they?”
“No one else can ever be as beautiful as my wife,” he affirmed.
“Of course not. I have been aware of making men burn with desire for me. I am my mother’s daughter, aren’t I, Father?”
A sad look came into Elder Collingsworth’s eyes. “That you are. Men come from miles to court her. They come to my church to see her. They long to woo her away from a lowly cleric such as myself. You are almost her image, Daughter.”
> Clyford strode away to stand before the bookshelf. “I will not hear any more of this…nonsense.”
Lavinia stared toward his father’s rigid back but she directed her question to Elder Collingsworth. “Father, isn’t it true that the apostle Paul made the statement, ‘It is better to marry than to burn’?”
“That is so.”
Still looking toward Clyford she said, “Why do you believe he said such a thing?”
“He was teaching the advantages of marriage as God’s way of satisfying the delights of the flesh.”
“In fact, and I quote in full: I say therefore to the unmarried,” Lavinia stretched the word out deliberately, her face still turned toward his father, “…and widows, it is good for them if they abide even as I. But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn.’”
“What is your purpose in saying these things, Daughter?”
“That if Clyford Montgomery simply desired me, if all he longed for was the delights of the flesh, then he would have married me before now and have satisfied his passions.”
Lavinia started to take slow steps toward his father. “But Clyford Montgomery doesn’t just desire me. It’s not just a burn which needs to be extinguished. No, it is more than that.”
Sterling couldn’t tear his eyes from the spectacle that was playing out before him. With each step she took, his father’s feet inched about, turning at a slow, slow degree.
“The apostle Paul also said, ‘Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it.’” Her voice intensified. “Clyford was willing to sacrifice his happiness because of his love for me. He was willing to set aside his own wishes to be my husband and seek a substitute in some misguided notion that he was not perfect for me.”
“Lavinia,” Clyford whispered in a ragged breath. “Please…I am not made of stone.”
“And I am not made of piety!” She blew out an exasperated breath. “You are the husband that I want. That I have always wanted.”
By this time, she had come next to Clyford. “Do you remember that night in the gardens last month? When I asked you to come?”
Clyford lifted his hand as if to touch her but then brought it back down to his side, “I do.”
“Did you not comfort me in my moments of turmoil? Did you not hold me against your heart as I wept?”
“You were in anguish. I truly just wanted to console you.”
“I know you thought that’s what you wanted,” she corrected him. “That I simply needed a reverend’s sound counsel and listening ear to my troubles. But it was a man’s desperate need to give comfort to a woman he loves that held me to you that night.”
“Lavinia.” Clyford turned away. “Please…,”
“When you kissed my forehead, and held me in your arms as my tears wet your clothes, did you not wish for more? My hand against your heart felt its thundered beating. My ears heard your labored breath as you sought to fight against the tide of feeling which swelled between us that night. Did not your lips ache for the press of mine?”
“Daughter! Really, must you speak so…unseemly?”
Lavinia spared her father a quick glance. “Father, I have read mother’s dairy and her thoughts of you. Need I say more?”
An embarrassed look came over the elder.
Sterling’s previous perceptions of all the occupants in the room smashed to the ground.
“You were beautiful in your sorrow, Lavinia.” The words whooshed out of his father. “I don’t believe I had ever seen you look lovelier. Gone was the daughter of my mentor. In her place was a woman who stirred me as no one had in a long time.”
He swallowed audibly. “Moonlight made your skin look like the whitest snow. Red roses paled in comparison to the lush beauty of your mouth. The most precious crystal dimmed in contrast to the tears which made your eyes sparkle like the stars. I admitted what I had fought for so long that night to myself. That I had fallen in love with you.”
A mournful sound erupted from his lips.
“I’m not certain when it happened, Lavinia. The Almighty knows how hard I tried to suppress my feelings for you. I thought surely if you and my son were to marry, then you would be relegated to your proper place. Yet, that never happened.”
He looked at Sterling. “When you married Moira, I couldn’t have been more dismayed. How was I to cool this yearning for a young girl who had grown up beside you? My anger against you waxed hot, my son. I thought Satan himself had possessed you to wed outside my will.”
“Father, I—I don’t know what to say.”
He really didn’t.
“Elder Collingsworth, this is the real reason I must go. I am in love with your daughter and have been for some time.” He turned to face Lavinia, allowing at least the love which had been hidden behind a mask of contempt to peek through. “But I am your father.”
Lavinia stepped forward until there was only an inch of space between Clyford and her. “I do not wish to lie with my father.”
Clyford seemed to stop breathing.
“Daughter!” Elder Collingsworth exclaimed. “Must you be so forthcoming?”
“Yes, I must,” Lavinia said unapologetically. “Reverend Montgomery needs to understand that I love him. That I will be his wife. That I will bear his children should God so will it. That I will be his helpmeet in ministry. That I will grow old with him. That one day, many, many years from now, I will be buried by his side.”
“I cannot wed you. You have been as my daughter for so long. It would be wrong to—”
“Do you wish me to be with another man, then, Reverend Montgomery?” A hard look came into her face. “Bernard van Vonderen, perhaps. He’s approached my father for my hand. Maybe I should accept his suit and you can marry us, Reverend. And then, in a year or so, you can bless our child.”
Clyford reached out and gripped her upper arms. His eyes blazed with fury. “That is enough, Lavinia.”
“Is it? Are you jealous, Clyford?”
“Yes,” he snarled, “And that is what you wanted, you vixen, wasn’t it? You wished for me to be tormented by the idea of that sniveling nincompoop Bernard being your husband?”
“Does it torment you?” she asked with an arrogant lift of her eyebrow.
“Yes! Yes! Yes!” He shook her each time he said it, his lips drawing back from his teeth.
“Then what are you going to do about it?”
In one movement, Clyford dragged Lavinia into his arms. “If your father gives his permission, I will wed you.”
“And you will be mine,” she said with a heated possession which threatened to overpower the flames in the fireplace.
“And I will be yours.” He drew back and caressed Lavinia’s cheeks. A deep, intent expression came to his face. “You will be the bone of my bone. The flesh of my flesh. I will never let you go.”
They stared at each other for a long time. Sterling shared a look with the elder who shook his head. “Young people,” the elder said, “Why must they always be so theatrical?”
“Sterling.”
He turned his attention back to his father…and his soon to be stepmother. “Yes, Father?”
Clyford’s eyes met his own. “I need you to understand that I loved your mother. It was a soft, gentle thing which came upon us softly. I had married her for advancement but she was a kind woman and a good one at that.”
“I know, Father.”
“I thought I was doing the right thing by forcing you to court Lavinia. My own feelings for her are unlike what I felt for your mother. I could not understand them. It shamed me at first but now, I realize there’s nothing to be ashamed of. My treatment of you and Moira is inexcusable. I realized it that day you struck me. My eyes opened then.”
“Father, I hope you forgive me for striking you. ‘Be ye angry, and sin not,’” Sterling felt his lips twist. “What I did was not honoring one’s parents.”
Clyford gave a dry laugh. “Maybe, but I suspect
I deserved it.”
“Mr. Montgomery, do you still intend to leave?” Moira had come to stand beside Sterling. “I would like for us to begin again. And each day, let us put the past behind us and make new memories.”
“You may visit my husband at my father’s house,” Lavinia said. “You will both be welcomed.”
Elder Collingsworth gave a crusty laugh. “I don’t know what you’ve gotten yourself into, Clyford.”
“Heaven,” his father murmured, a silly look on his face. “Heaven.”
Two weeks later
“Moira, hurry! We’ll be late for Father’s wedding!” Sterling called up the stairs.
Snow had blanketed the city of Holland, just in time for the Yuletide holiday. Sterling glanced out the window and saw the snowflakes falling down softly to the ground. “You know you have to be there as the bridesmaid. Van Vonderen’s going to take as long as possible marrying them since he’s taken over as the head of the church.”
“Coming!”
A moment later her footsteps dashed down the stairs. She stood before him, dressed in a new gown she and several of the women had created. It was white with dainty flowers and beading on it. “You look beautiful, Mrs. Montgomery.”
She grinned. “You always say that.”
“And I always will,” he promised her.
She hummed a little as she smoothed her clothes once more. The sound of her music filled his heart with so much love, he wasn’t sure if he could contain it. For some reason, out of all the women in the world, God had chosen this angel to become Sterling’s bride.
THE END
DUTCH GLOSSARY
Mijnheer—Mister
Natuurlijk – Naturally; Of course!
Goede nacht – Good night; Good evening
Moeder - Mother
Mevrouw – Mrs.
Goeden middag – Good afternoon
Juffrouw – Miss
Ja - Yes
Echt – Marriage; matrimony
Lieveling – darling
Nee – No
Begrijp U – Do you understand?
Dat is juist – That is correct
A Bride for Sterling Page 9