“I’d call it possessive,” Robyn said. “And frankly, it’s been driving me crazy. Hard enough coming in as the new kid, dealing with people who want an older priest.”

“Not to mention a male priest,” I put in.

“Yes,” she said. “But I seem to have gotten off on a particularly wrong foot with Riddick, and nothing I’ve done seems to have made any difference. Well, at least the end is in sight.”

“‘End’?” I didn’t like the sound of this. “What do you mean, ‘end’?”

“He’s retiring,” she said. “Theoretically. It was supposed to be end of the year, but now he’s pushed it back to the end of January. And it’s his decision, not mine. Retiring and moving to someplace warmer. He asked me not to announce it until he could tell people himself—though I think with only a month to go it’s about time we said something to the congregation. I mean, people will want to throw him a good-bye party, won’t they?”

We both thought about that for a few moments.

“We’ll all feel bad if we don’t,” I said. “It’s the right thing to do.”

Robyn shook her head sadly.

“So much for my New Year’s resolution to find a way for us to get along better,” she said. “I’ve been talking to Reverend Trask over at the Methodist Church. He has some wonderful wisdom on how to get along with difficult people.”

With Mrs. Dahlgren to deal with, no doubt he did. Reverend Trask must be a saint.

“I confess,” Robyn went on. “I resented Riddick at first—he had it within his power to make my arrival at Trinity so much easier, and instead he seemed to be putting up obstacles at every turn. But then I took a step away and looked at the situation. He’s served the parish for twenty years—all of them under Father Rufus. I’m sure my arrival can’t have been easy for him.”

No, I suspected it hadn’t—particularly since Dr. Rufus J. Womble had been a mild-mannered, easygoing sort, perfectly content to leave all the practical matters to Riddick’s marginally more capable hands. The three of them—Riddick, Father Rufus, and Trinity—had quietly moldered away until Father Rufus, while walking around the rectory, as usual, with his nose in a book, had fallen down a flight of stairs and broken both legs, prompting the bishop to decide that he was overdue for retirement. And along came Robyn, with her huge supply of enthusiasm and energy. Even those of us who adored her sometimes felt a little tired. How must it have been for Riddick?

“There’s so much I could have learned from him,” Robyn said.