'Good,' said Lucy and, chewing, put her hand over her mouth. She swallowed, crossed her knife and fork on her plate like swords and said, looking at Jennifer, 'I might not come home next weekend.'

Jennifer took a drink of red wine and considered this news. Lucy always came home at weekends. She said there was nothing to do.

Lucy's face went red all of a sudden and Matt pointed his fork at her accusingly and cried out through a mouthful of food, 'Hey, you've got a boyfriend, haven't you?'

Jennifer put the gla.s.s down, her interest quickened. If Matt was right, this was news good news. Her secret, unvoiced fear was that Lucy would never meet someone to love her.

'Well, I have met someone I like very much,' admitted Lucy, looking down at her hands, her narrow brow as smooth and white as an egg. 'And he likes me.'

Her quiet voice was so vulnerable, that Matt dropped his teasing tone immediately and said kindly, 'That's great, Lucy.'

Lucy looked directly at Matt. 'We've only been seeing each other properly for a couple of weeks but we both feel we're made for each other.'

They all stared at Lucy, dumbstruck, while the gravity of this announcement sank in. Her normally pale cheeks were pink-tinged, her lips were turned up in a secretive smile and when she blinked and brought her gaze to bear on Jennifer, her eyes sparkled like sun on moving water. She had never looked as pretty, even her skin was clear and radiant, the spots that had lingered for weeks on her chin, all gone.

'Ah, that's lovely, pet,' said Brian at last and Jennifer swallowed the lump that suddenly appeared in her throat. Lucy, so desperate for approval, was in love.

'Oh, Lucy, I'm so pleased for you.'

Matt, finding his voice, asked, 'What's his name, then?'

Lucy beamed. 'Oren Wilson. He's studying for a Theology degree.'

Jennifer thought of the burgundy Bible, with its well-leafed pages, and said, quickly, 'Did Oren give you the Bible?'

'What Bible?' said Matt, looking at Brian.

Lucy nodded. 'Yes. I've been studying it. It's the most amazing thing I've ever read.'

'Are you going to become a Christian?' said Matt in his direct way.

'Yes,' said Lucy and gave him an indulgent smile, 'I most certainly am.'

Matt's eyebrows knitted together momentarily and then his face brightened again. 'Cool,' he said, with a shrug.

'So, I take it this Oren is a Christian too, if he's studying Theology,' said Brian, carefully peeling the crust off the b.u.t.tered bread like orange peel.

'Yes and he's really, really clever,' effused Lucy, who had barely touched the food on her plate. 'He's already got a Law degree he got a two one, you know. After graduating he volunteered out in Peru, helping to build a church and teach the local kids, and then when he came back he worked for a law firm down in Enniskillen that's where he's from for a few years before deciding that it wasn't for him. He jacked it all in to study Theology. And I think that takes real guts, don't you think? To follow G.o.d's calling.'

Matt and Brian, his mouth full of bread, nodded in agreement.

She carried on a little breathlessly, 'He feels his calling might be to minister in some capacity.'

'What? Like become a minister with the dog caller an' all?' said Matt.

'Oh no, you don't have to be a pastor to minister,' she replied patiently. 'There's all sorts of ways to serve G.o.d.' She paused to deliver an aside, 'Ministry comes from the Greek word diakoneo, which means to serve. Every Christian should be in the ministry of helping others.'

Jennifer smiled faintly, weighed up this heavy information like the knife she held in her hot and sweaty hand. As a CV she couldn't fault it he sounded socially responsible, kind, giving and highly motivated. But he was clearly Lucy's senior by several years. Maybe she needed someone older, and wiser, to accompany her on life's great journey.

And yet, something niggled. Jennifer swallowed a big gulp of wine and tried very hard to hone in on what, exactly, bothered her. Was it that Lucy sounded so infatuated with him? So love-blinded that, Jennifer suspected, had Oren any fault at all, Lucy would be utterly incapable of seeing it?

'If you've found faith, Lucy, love,' said Brian, pressing his hand over his granddaughter's.

'I have, Grandpa.'

'Then you've found true happiness.'

'As well as a man, by the sounds of it,' said Matt rather coa.r.s.ely and Brian and Lucy laughed.

'You're not saying much, Mum?' said Lucy.

'I ... ahem ... I'm delighted that you've met someone, Lucy. Tell you what. Why don't you bring Oren down the weekend after next so we can all meet him? He's very welcome to stay over on Sat.u.r.day night,' she went on. 'That's if you don't mind him bunking in with you, Matt.'

Matt, easygoing as always, shrugged. 'So long as he doesn't mind sleeping on a roll-mat. Or you can both stay over at Dad's. He's got more room.'

'Sure, whatever suits,' said Jennifer smoothly, doing her best to hide the fact that this innocent suggestion irked. She wanted her home to be the centre of her children's lives (until they moved out at least), not David's.

'That's a brilliant idea, Mum!' said Lucy, her cheeks all aglow. 'I'll text him straight away.' She pulled her mobile out of a back pocket and busied herself pressing b.u.t.tons with her thumbs.

When the plates were cleared away, Matt took an ice-cream cake he'd made earlier out of the freezer. Standing up, he began to carve slices of the frozen dessert peppered with chunks of nuts, dried fruit and splinters of golden honeycomb. He handed a wedge to his grandfather and said, 'Where'd you go with Ben after the meeting last night, Mum? You didn't come in till nearly twelve.'

'We went for a meal at the Indian,' she said evenly, sc.r.a.ping the remains of Lucy's dinner into the bin.

'What meeting was that, love?' said Brian, as he regarded the dessert with a suspicious look over folded arms.

'It's only ice cream with bits in, Grandpa,' said Matt, pa.s.sing a plate to Lucy and setting one down at Jennifer's place.

'You'll like it,' said Lucy, laying the phone on the table, her eyes fixed on it with the same rapt attention a mother affords her newborn.

'Ballyfergus Small Business a.s.sociation,' said Jennifer, busying herself with handing out dessert forks and spoons.

Brian put the loaded spoon in his mouth, pulled it out and licked it. 'Mmm ... not bad, son.' Jennifer sat down at the table and Brian said, 'Have they sorted out what's happening with the Christmas lights yet, Jennifer?'

She opened her mouth to explain what had happened at the meeting but Lucy said, sharply, 'You don't mean Ben Crawford, Matt's new boss?'

'Uh-huh,' said Jennifer, closing her lips over a spoonful of the rapidly softening ice cream.

Lucy stared at her mother and the frown deepened. 'But why?'

Jennifer shrugged and rearranged the napkin on her knee, glad of the sickly sweet ice cream filling her mouth and giving her time to think. She swallowed and said, 'I thought it was the friendly thing to do. He's a stranger in town and I thought he might benefit from being part of the local business community.'

'So this meal out,' said Matt, with sudden, sharp interest and a hard stare. 'It was purely professional?'

Jennifer let her napkin slide to the floor and dived after it. 'Of course,' she said from under the table.

'What are you suggesting, Matt?' said Lucy, as Jennifer straightened up, her stomach twisted like a wet rope and her face hot and damp. 'That Mum has the hots for this guy?'

Brian chuckled, 'Sure the fella's only a pup, isn't he, Jennifer?'

'I don't know how old he is,' she lied, praying that everyone attributed the redness in her cheeks to her exertions under the table.

'He's twenty-eight,' said Matt flatly, sc.r.a.ping his plate.

Brian chuckled. 'Far too young for your mother, Lucy.'

'Oh, that's okay then,' said Lucy and she put a hand on her breast and, looking round at the others, giggled. 'I thought for one awful minute that you were more than friends. And no disrespect, but that would be a bit gross, wouldn't it?'

Jennifer looked at her blankly, a chill creeping up her spine.

'After all,' said Lucy, tilting her head to one side and emitting a little snort of derision, 'he is young enough to be your son, Mum.'

Jennifer tried to swallow but her mouth was suddenly dry. Lucy was right. Her happiness melted away like the remaining ice cream on her plate. Realising everyone was looking at her, she waved the napkin in front of her face like a fan. 'It's awful hot in here, isn't it? What with the cooking and all. I'll open a window.'

While she fiddled with the window handle, she silently admonished herself for fantasising about Ben Crawford. She was a middle-aged mother of two grown-up children, for heaven's sake. She'd had her chance at life, at happiness. It was time for the next generation. It was time to stand aside and let her daughter take centre stage romantically, and stop chasing ludicrous fantasies of her own.

Lucy's phone bleeped and she cried out, 'Oh, that'll be Oren!'

Grateful for the distraction, Jennifer leaned against the worksurface, with her back to the opened window, the cool night air on her back.

Lucy's eyes scanned the message and she beamed. 'Yes, he says he'd love to come.'

'Great.' Jennifer's tense shoulders relaxed a little it was a good sign that Oren was keen to meet Lucy's family. She'd be more worried if he wasn't.

'Fantastic,' said Brian, 'I look forward to meeting him, love.'

'Don't suppose he'll be up for a pint, then?' said Matt. 'What with him being Christian and all?'

Lucy gave her brother a withering look, though there was warmth in it too, and said sarcastically, 'Well, what do you think?'

'But he does like music, yeah?' said the ever-sanguine Matt.

'Of course.'

'In that case we'll get on just fine,' said Matt rea.s.suringly and Jennifer wished that she shared his sense of optimism. As a questioning liberal, she couldn't imagine finding much in common with a teetotal, Young Earth Creationist, Christian. But maybe Lucy was right maybe she was prejudiced after all. She ought not to judge Oren before giving him a chance. She would make him welcome in her home, and if he really was the one for Lucy, she would do everything in her power to love him.

Chapter 10.

Lucy heard Oren give his testimony for the first time the following weekend in a small, half-full lecture room in the university on Sat.u.r.day night. She sat in the middle of the brightly lit room, her eyes fixed on Oren, her emotions see-sawing with the inflections of his voice quiet and reflective one minute, hot tempered and pa.s.sionate the next. But it wasn't just his delivery that transfixed her and the rest of the audience. He told how he'd drunk and smoked and even dabbled in drugs. He described a life of wild parties and promiscuity, how he turned his back on his Christian upbringing and neglected his family. A life that Lucy could not reconcile with the G.o.dly man she loved.

He lowered his voice until it was little more than a whisper. 'I hated myself, I hated my life. When I wasn't being distracted by sinning, I was fearful. And then one night, lying in my own vomit in an alleyway outside a pub,' he paused and everyone gasped, 'I asked the Lord to come into my life. And in His wisdom and His mercy, He did. I heard a voice say, "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live."' He placed a flat palm gently on his breast. 'And I knew it was G.o.d calling to me, showing me the way.' He paused again and bowed his head. 'I was a sinner and I still am. We all are.' He raised his head and looked at the crowd and Lucy felt that he was looking only at her, straight into her unworthy heart. 'But from that moment, when I committed myself to Christ, my life was transformed. I pray, that with the grace of Jesus Christ, yours will too.'

Oren walked Lucy back to her digs, her arm linked in his. She barely noticed the smell of the musty air, the slippy mulch of leaves underfoot, or the damp chill that penetrated her bones. She tried to concentrate as he told her about his growing interest in missionary work, but all she could feel was the heat of him through her clothing and the rea.s.suring solidity of his arm.

'I was so proud of you tonight,' she said, sneaking a glance at his profile as they walked.

'I'm not proud of myself,' he said sharply. 'And you shouldn't be either, Lucy.'

'Oh,' she said, a little taken aback.

'The Lord hates pride.'

'I only meant I admire you for what you did tonight, standing up in front of all those people and sharing your testimony. It took a lot of guts.'

'Well,' he said, sounding mollified. 'If my witness brings someone to G.o.d, then praise the Lord. But I don't do it to attract praise to myself. Everyone that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord.' There was a pause and he added, 'Book?'

Lucy, desperate to please, bit her lip and tried to recall but could not.

'Proverbs. Chapter sixteen, verse five,' he supplied blithely.

'I don't think I've read that yet,' said Lucy despondently. The Bible, she had discovered, was over one thousand five hundred pages long, difficult to read and even harder to understand. She was following a Bible study programme recommended by Oren which, confusingly, involved reading a number of chapters every day from different parts of the Bible rather than reading it from start to finish like a traditional book. 'In fact, to be honest, I'm finding it hard. All those thees and thous. Wouldn't it be easier to use a modern translation? And parts of it, like Job for instance, well, there's whole chapters that are just questions. And there's no answers.'

Oren stopped dead in his tracks and turned to face her, taking both her hands in his. He looked at her levelly and said, 'G.o.d has the answers, Lucy. You have to open your heart to Him so that He can reveal them to you. The King James Bible is from the preserved Hebrew and Greek texts. It is the best and most accurate translation. Pray for guidance, Lucy, and remember that nothing really worth doing is ever easy.'

She nodded glumly, not having a clue what he was talking about, but unwilling to reveal her ignorance.

'You're not thinking of giving up, are you?'

'Oh, no,' said Lucy, eagerly. 'Of course not.'

'Good. Because the Lord would be so disappointed if you did. And so would I.'

Oren let go of her hands and they fell into walking side by side as before. 'But how do you know so much?' she said. 'I mean you can quote from the Bible on every subject, just like that, without a moment's hesitation.'

He laughed. 'I've been studying it a lot longer than you.'

'Most of your life,' she observed. 'You know I get quite cross when I think about my childhood and the fact that my parents didn't take me to church.'

As he quite often did, Oren answered this observation with a quotation. 'Provoke not your children ... but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord,' which Lucy took to mean that her parents had, as she suspected, failed her. Then he brightened and added, 'But isn't it fantastic that you've come to the Lord now?' He patted her arm with his free hand and added, making her glow with happiness, 'And you're making real progress with your scripture reading.'

Back at the empty house Lucy made instant coffee and they took refuge in her room. She sat primly on the old office chair she'd nabbed from Dad's surgery, nursing a mug. Oren sat opposite her on the bed, using the wall as a backrest. The bed sagged in the middle with the weight of him, his long, well-built legs stretched out across the grubby pink carpet.

'There's something I want to ask you, Lucy.'

'Go on,' she smiled.

'Have you ever had a boyfriend before?'

She shook her head and blushed, embarra.s.sed to admit to it. 'No.'

He set the mug down carefully on the carpet, got off the bed and knelt down in front of her, all this accomplished in one smooth movement, so small was the room. He put a hand on each arm of the chair, and stared at her very long and hard while her heart pounded against her chest and she struggled to hold the coffee cup steady in her hands.