Free Just Above a Whisper by Lori Wick Page B

to the store,” her aunt said.
    “I came straight here today.”
    The older woman was instantly on her feet.
    “Come on, Maddie. We need to pay a visit to your uncle.”

     
    “Reese?” Doc MacKay called as he stepped inside the front door of the Kingsley house. “Are you here?”
    “Hey, Doc,” Reese called, poking her head around the door frame of a small room at the back of the house before dropping her cloth into a bucket and going into the wide downstairs hallway to meet him.
    “How are you doing?” Doc MacKay questioned her, studying her face carefully.
    “I’m doing well.” Reese smiled. “It’s a wonderful house.”
    The doctor nodded in agreement, his head going back. He’d not been in here in years, but he remembered the layout well.
    “Things look great,” he complimented Reese.
    “Thank you. Do you think it’s to be sold?” she asked him.
    “You don’t know?”
    Reese’s mouth turned up at the corner. “Mr. Jenness doesn’t exactly confide in me.”
    Doc smiled back at her.
    “So who lived here?” Reese asked.
    “George and Nettie Kingsley. George came to open a bank, and they ended up liking the area so much they built this house and stayed.”
    “Did they move away or die?”
    “Both are dead. Nettie probably more than ten years ago by now, and George about five years before her.”
    “The family might be ready to sell,” Reese suggested.
    “I don’t know,” the doctor said thoughtfully, but in his heart he was doubtful. The Kingsley family was a large one. He could see someone from that family coming here to live someday.
    “Well, I’d better get back to work,” Reese finally observed.
    “Okay,” Doc agreed with a gentle touch to her arm. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
    “Sunday,” Reese said with a smile. “I can hardly wait.”

     
    “What type of voice can God hear in prayer?” Douglas asked the group gathered on Sunday morning. “Does He simply wait in heaven to hear the prayers of any man? And before we look at the answer to that, let me remind you what prayer is. It’s agreeing with God. For those of you who would have said it’s talking to God, that’s not enough of the picture.
    “Look at our verse in Proverbs 28. I’ll read it to you. ‘He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be an abomination.’” Douglas read this from his Bible and then looked at the folks gathered before him. “That’s pretty serious, isn’t it? But we need to hear those serious words to remind us how dire it is when we have unrepentant hearts toward God.
    “You might be tempted to say you’ve heard enough on repentance, that I preach about it too much, but think about your life this week. How did you do with keeping God in the center of your life? Or did you push Him out of the center for sinful, selfish pursuits?”
    Douglas smiled at the people before him, the folks he loved so well. He wanted nothing more than to see them be strong in Christ, repentant and changing. He kept his closing remarks brief.
    “Let me just read the verse for you one more time. God says it so much better than I do. ‘He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be an abomination.’
    “Let’s work on memorizing that this week, shall we? Let’s remember how delighted God is with ears, and ultimately hearts, that are attuned to hearing the law.”

     
    The cleaning was done. Reese had not needed help, but in the last day and half, her muscles had begun to ache. She felt she knew every inch of the Kingsley home and couldn’t think of a room, closet, or hallway that she didn’t like. It was the most wonderful house she’d ever seen. A small part of her hoped that a family would be coming, one that would be looking for help in a few years’ time, and she could come back each week and work here.
    Reese shook her fanciful head a little and stood closer to the kettle she was trying to boil in the preparation room off the buttery.