Something Borrowed

Chapter 8

Josh

Reverend Jacob Peters was a horse's ass.

He had a smug face, oily hair, sharp teeth, and he seemed to have only read the parts of the Bible that talked about sin and suffering. If the good reverend was to be believed, Christ was a rampaging tormenter of sinful souls, and the most sinful souls of all were beautiful women. Vile temptresses, the reverend called them. Whores. Succubi. Witches. She-devils. Surely there were other sins than lust, but Peters never talked about them. Women, it seemed, were a railroad straight to Hell. The only true route to damnation.

Josh shifted on the hard wooden pew and kept his eyes on the dirt-strewn floor as the reverend ranted and raved about sinister curves and evil temptation. He knew the reverend's wife, Katherine. Everyone did. She'd never missed a Sunday service, sitting in the front row with her head down and her hands clasped in her lap. Josh had known her since youth. She was the previous preacher's daughter, and just about the kindest, gentlest woman he'd ever met. He had a hard time imagining her inspiring the reverend's half-crazed sermons.

"So men, beware," Peters cried in the background of Josh's scattered thoughts. "If you see a lovely woman, avert your gaze. They are treacherous and cruel, and their wanton lust is a sure path to damnation. Their siren song will claim you the moment you meet their eyes, and your soul will fall prey to the devil's desires."

Josh had met a lot of beautiful women. Hell, every woman he'd ever met was beautiful in some way shape or form. He knew the siren song the preacher spoke of-- the way a man's mind could turn in an instant to lewd and lascivious thoughts. They'd plagued him enough in his youth, and still rose unbidden now and again. Even so, he'd never felt near so helpless as the preacher always said he ought to be. He'd had a thousand and one lustful thoughts, but he'd never looked into a woman's eyes and seen a demon come to claw his soul out and drag it to hell. His evil thoughts were his, not theirs, and it never took much doing to stow the thought away and go about his day. It seemed, to him, a bit cowardly and pointless for a man to blame his desires and actions on a woman's body. That would be like robbing a store and calling the shopkeeper evil for stocking merchandise worth stealing.

It was senseless. Josh didn't care for Reverend Peters, and he didn't care to spend a perfectly fine day sitting indoors. But here he was, because attending Sunday service mattered more to his father than anything. More than the ranch, more than obedience, more than looking after Melissa and Brent. He'd be disowned entirely if he didn't attend.

"Your soul is damned, boy," his father had said once, long ago, the first and only time Josh had asked to stay home. "I'd just as soon see you rot in hell, but your mother wouldn't want it. Church is not an option. If you turn your back on Christ, you turn your back on this family, and you'll follow God as long as you live under my roof." 

That was the last time Josh had attempted to avoid it. He might argue with his father, but he'd never speak against his mother's memory.

The service usually lasted two hours, but the reverend was in high form, dragging on and on. Josh's stomach twisted when Peters lit upon a variation of his favorite subject, shifting gracefully from vile temptresses to wanton whores with fatherless children.

"I have spoken enough to the menfolk," he said, frowning down at his audience. "To the women, I urge you to know the evil living in your womb. Your lustful nature and treacherous form are a test, thrust upon you by a strict but merciful Father. You mustn't fail. You must protect the innocent men around you from the devil inside you. Cover yourselves to protect them from temptation. Resist the urge to lay with any man who is not your husband, for it is not only his soul that will suffer for your carelessness. The word of God is clear. 'No one born out of wedlock may be included among the Lord's people.' Bastard children are Satan's spawn-- a punishment inflicted upon their parents for the evil of their deeds. Ask yourself if this is a curse you are willing to live with. A curse that is worth a few moments of carnal pleasure."