They sat at the dining table, which was lit by the glow of a stained-glass lamp overhead, and she began speaking. The story didn’t take long. Her husband had scribbled a handwritten will that was properly witnessed, but Gwen ignored it. Instead of giving her the house, Gwen wrote a substantial check to the mistress to encourage her to go away.

He couldn’t quite believe it. “In my world, if a wife learns her husband is stepping out on her, she sets his belongings on fire and gives his horse away. She doesn’t write the mistress a bank check.”

“I just wanted the problem to go away,” Gwen said. “Giving her this house would have been unthinkable. It’s the only place I truly love.”

He wanted to tear his hair out in frustration but gentled his voice anyway. “Gwen, why didn’t you get a lawyer to help with this?”

She twisted the sapphire ring on her finger, rotating the stone in a quick, practiced motion. “Lawyers mean headaches and conflict and persnickety haggling.” A little humor glinted in her eyes. “Present company excluded.”

If everything was as she described, the will had no legal weight because Jasper Kellerman didn’t own the property he sought to give away. The mistress had the power to embarrass Gwen, but that was all.

“Gwen, if you ever need a lawyer, come to me. I’ll keep your confidence, and I’m a good listener. You can tell me anything, and I won’t judge.”

Her eyes softened, and she looked at him curiously. “Why didn’t you become a priest? Father Doyle said you were one of his most promising students.”

It was a personal question, but Patrick didn’t hesitate to answer.

“There were lots of reasons, I suppose. When I was a young man, I felt myself going down a dangerous road, and I reached out to the church for salvation. The further I got into the seminary, the more I realized it was the wrong path for me. I’m best at helping the kind of people who never set foot in a church. The ones who’ve been beaten up by life and think they’re lost beyond redemption. I can help them navigate the legal system so they can start over with a clean slate. Sometimes their biggest problem is just believing they’re worthy of a second chance. Or a tenth or twentieth chance. Jesus never put a limit on the number of times a sinner can ask for forgiveness. Sometimes when a ne’er-do-well hears it coming from a person like me, they’re more likely to believe it than when it comes from the pulpit.”

“And you didn’t get in trouble for leaving the seminary?”