Page 26 of Bride in Blue
“A pugilist?”
“A bare-knuckle fighter. It is how he earned money to bring his mother and sister over from Scotland.”
“How fascinating,” Cassie said. “That he could do that and become the reverend here in Creede. My father would probably like him immensely.”
Max heard Reverend Bing’s brogue carry over the conversation.
"Good morning," he began. "I'm going to do something a little different this morning. I'm going to teach on a book that not many preachers speak about. In fact, many preachers skip over this book entirely. I think it is because not many folks fully understand what the book is about.
"The book is the Song of Solomon." He paused and murmurs were heard from the pews. "This book of course, is a collection of love poems, and it is timely, given the growth of Creede over the past year. How do you prepare yourself for marriage?"
"Isn't that rather scandalous?" Cassie leaned over and whispered to him.
Max wasn't sure. He had to admit that this wasn't one of the books he read.
"Solomon wrote these verses to reflect the love between a young man and a young woman," Reverend Bing continued. "The young man and woman seemed to have lived somewhere in the country, maybe apart, but they are eventually together. So, let's begin.
"As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love."
Reverend Bing looked out among the congregation. "This young woman is obviously overwhelmed with thoughts of this young man. She appeals to her friends to stay with her and feed her.Stay me with flagons, which are small cakes, comfort me with apples: for I am sick of love.Or in the instance, lovesick." The congregation laughed.
"I guess when you are love sick the best thing to do is eat something?" Cassie asked.
"I suppose so. I guess pastries are right for any occasion," Max concurred. Cassie gave a light laugh and turned her attention back to the Reverend. She would glance over at him occasionally, but then her gaze would shift back to the front immediately.
"My beloved is like a roe or a young hart: behold, he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, shewing himself through the lattice,” the reverend read from the bible in his hands. “I'd be surprised if there wasn't at least one young man in here trying to hide himself from the one that he secretly loves."
As he heard the words Reverend Bing spoke, he felt stirrings like he had never felt before. Feelings of being in love and hiding it from someone. Thoughts of how he couldn’t see himself married, yet it was expected from God. But he could see himself with someone like Cassie. Those thoughts turned into feelings of shame, that he would think of something so wicked in a church of all places.
He opened and closed the hymnal repeatedly. The sound of the pages clacking together allowed him to focus on something other than his thoughts of the woman sitting next to him. Cassie must have realized that he was bothered, as she simply placed her hand over his, and he felt the tension dissipate immediately.
Reverend Bing quickly recited the rest of the verses, before concluding. "In Scotland, we have a sayin'. In spring, a young man's fancy turns to love. And so, it appears the same is happening here. I want to turn this to thoughts of matrimony. How do you go about preparing yourself for the possibility of giving yourselves to one person for the rest of your lives?” Max felt as though the Reverend was speaking directly to him. “Read the verse again, where the young woman is talking to friends of hers. It appears at both the middle and the end of the passage. The way we prepare ourselves to spend our lives with someone else is that we must trust in the provision of Almighty God. Anything else would be playing with fire. You do not play with love, you let it grow, naturally and of its own volition. Let us sing from the hymnal.”
Cassie stood and grabbed Max’s hand pulling him up next to her. She opened the hymnal and offered Max to hold the other. As they sang the closing hymn, Max caught sight of a woman dressed in black towards the side of the church.
Mrs. Pennyworth!
She stood there singing, with her hands clasped in front of her chest.
“What did you think of the sermon?” Cassie asked.
Mrs. Pennyworth looked over and gave him a wink.He thought he might be playing with fire.
Chapter 8
“Don’t touch that,” Max said, taking a cravat from Cassie’s hands.
“How am I supposed to help if you keep taking things away from me?” She gave him a pout and picked up another tie. “Where should this one go?”
Max took a deep breath. This was more difficult than he thought. He went from being alone and doing things the way he wanted them, to having not one, but two employees that were pushing the limits of his patience. Not to mention another woman in the house, since Mrs. Brown moved in. After hearing Reverend Bing’s sermon, he wanted as minimal temptation as possible when it came to Cassie.
Max had really tried to practice patience these last two weeks, but every time he organized something, Cassie reorganized.
He put the spools of ribbon along the wall according to color, she did it according to width. When she left to check up on her father who was working from the house on the latest shipment of trousers, he rearranged it back to the way he liked. If Cassie noticed, she didn’t say a word.
She even had him bring one of the empty wardrobes down to the store to create a display for the extra jackets that were taking up space in the store room.
She handed him the cravat in her hand. “What would you think of putting the tie display against that wall over there? That way they are with the display of pocket watches and chains.”
