A Sounding Brass Read Free

mind on Christ while you work in the office. It’s a way to reach the soul on the other side of the cube divider
     who doesn’t know which way to turn in a life that looks like a maze.”
    The crowd was utterly silent.
    “God gives us all our talents, my friends. And what have we been doing with them? Have we been burying them in the backyard
     of our own little group? Or have we been lending them out to others?”
    “Backyard,” Claire heard someone say. Six months ago, no one would have agreed with such a thing unless Phinehas himself had
     decreed a change in doctrine. Just a few months ago, the Elect had been sure of themselves and sure of what they believed.
     Things were different now. They were all shaken and a little uncertain about what exactly was right.
    “Nonsense,” snapped Elizabeth McNeill, Julia’s mother, and then blushed scarlet at having actually spoken aloud in a Gathering,
     where it was forbidden for women to raise their voices except in song.
    Luke Fisher smiled, and Claire lost her ability to breathe.
    If only someone would smile at me like that
.
    * * *
    AFTER GATHERING WAS OVER, Claire hung at the fringes of the little group that had gathered around Luke and Owen. It was hard not to watch the newcomer,
     what with that smile and that charismatic presence.
    “Don’t go making eyes at that worldly preacher.” Alma Woods shook Claire’s hand in her abrupt way. “Enough of you young women
     have lost your salvation by chasing ungodly men.”
    Claire choked down a defensive retort. Not by any stretch of the imagination could Ross Malcolm or Matthew Nicholas be called
     ungodly. And she’d never chased anyone in her life. “I’m not making eyes at him,” she said with dignity. “I’m waiting to speak
     with Owen.”
    Alma ran a critical eye down her dress and coat. “Been ordering from catalogs again, have we?”
    “Yes, as a matter of fact. There are some pretty things in—”
    “Vanity, all is vanity.” Alma looked her in the eye. “You should be a better example to your mother. I saw her in Pitchford,
     you know, traipsing around in a pair of pants, worldly as you please when she thought no one was looking.”
    Shame flogged hot color into Claire’s cheeks. “My mother’s choices are her own,” she said. “Excuse me, Alma. I need to speak
     to Owen.”
    Please let him help
, she begged the Lord.
I have to get out of this town
.
    Owen broke away from the little group at last and she stopped him with a hand on his arm as he glanced around for his kids.
     “Owen, could I speak to you a minute?”
    His smile was open and warm, and she took heart. “Sure. What’s up?”
    “I—I wondered if you’d heard anything from any of the Shepherds about whether I could move or not.”
    His smile faded. “Claire, we’ve been over this. Your place is in Hamilton Falls. Besides, you did move. To Rebecca’s.”
    That didn’t count as a move. More like an aborted flight that crash-landed. She’d received notice that she’d gotten the position
     she’d interviewed for at one of the bank’s branches in Seattle. She’d given her notice, packed her things, and was practically
     on the highway when Phinehas had stepped in to ask her what she thought she was doing.
    “There are plenty of young people in Seattle, Claire,” he’d said with that gentle smile of a man who controlled people’s lives
     with absolute authority. “And not so many here in Hamilton Falls. I need you to be an example to the younger girls.”
    The younger girls hardly looked at her—why should they? Nobody needed her, really, with the exception of her manager at the
     bank, who’d been delighted she was staying and had offered her the new accounts position. She hadn’t wanted it. She’d have
     been a mail clerk in the Seattle branch if that’s what it took to get out of Hamilton Falls.
    But no. Even that had been denied her. So, when Dinah had declined it, she’d rented Rebecca’s suite and put the best