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Back Sisters of Gold
Chapters (64)
  1. Cover
  2. Title page
  3. Dedication page
  4. A Week’s Work in Birmingham
  5. I
  6. One
  7. Two
  8. Three
  9. Four
  10. Five
  11. Six
  12. Seven
  13. Eight
  14. Nine
  15. Ten
  16. Eleven
  17. Twelve
  18. Thirteen
  19. Fourteen
  20. Fifteen
  21. Sixteen
  22. Seventeen
  23. Eighteen
  24. Nineteen
  25. Twenty
  26. Twenty-One
  27. Twenty-Two
  28. Twenty-Three
  29. Twenty-Four
  30. II
  31. Twenty-Five
  32. Twenty-Six
  33. Twenty-Seven
  34. Twenty-Eight
  35. Twenty-Nine
  36. Thirty
  37. Thirty-One
  38. Thirty-Two
  39. Thirty-Three
  40. Thirty-Four
  41. Thirty-Five
  42. Thirty-Six
  43. Thirty-Seven
  44. Thirty-Eight
  45. Thirty-Nine
  46. III
  47. Forty
  48. Forty-One
  49. Forty-Two
  50. Forty-Three
  51. Forty-Four
  52. Forty-Five
  53. Forty-Six
  54. Forty-Seven
  55. Forty-Eight
  56. Forty-Nine
  57. Fifty
  58. Fifty-One
  59. Fifty-Two
  60. Fifty-Three
  61. Acknowledgements
  62. Further Reading
  63. About the Author
  64. By the Same Author

To her astonishment, her father did something he had never done before. He reached across and took her hand in his huge, warm one. It was a while before he said anything. She heard him swallow several times and she had the awe-inspiring realization that he was trying not to weep himself.

‘My dear,’ he managed eventually, in a choked voice. ‘My own life has not run smoothly in the ways I thought the Lord wanted for me. That is how I came to be in this . . . in this place, doing the Lord’s work among simple country people.’ He added swiftly, ‘People who, of course, are God’s children as much as any other.’

Margaret realized then the extent of her father’s disappointment; that the word he had managed not to say was probably ‘backwater’. He had regarded himself as destined for the great city missions, but he had not the constitution for it. Something in him, as a younger man, had broken down and the Church authorities had never thought him strong enough to be moved again.

‘I know your sister is likely to be destined for the missions.’ He gave a faint chuckle. ‘I had hopes for John, of course . . .’ He looked down for a moment, but then raised his head, his mouth turning up. ‘Annie seems to have the constitution of an ox and is full of certainty.’ He looked into her eyes and she was moved by the emotion in them. Never in her life had she loved her poor father so much or felt so close to him. ‘Perhaps some of us have to walk the quieter paths, where the trumpets of glory are heard but dimly.’

She still could not see him as having failed as he seemed to feel he had. She lay looking at him, this tall man who loomed so central in her life, and her eyes were full of love.

Her father laid his free hand on her forehead. ‘I pray hourly for your healing,’ he said. ‘Try and believe that all shall be well, my dear child. The Lord loves you abundantly and so do I.’

As he left the room, she let the tears run down her cheeks.

Soon after her eighteenth birthday, she began to feel a little improved. Having been shut away for so long in the house, she was frail, nervous of going out and uncertain of everything.

Annie, now sixteen, had completed her schooling and was busy in the village – Sunday school, running a Bible class, visiting and helping. She was already chafing to get away, a free spirit who argued with their father over almost every point, and seemed sure that some great mission awaited her.