Free The High Calling by Gilbert Morris Page A

didn’t know how to answer him. “I’ll . . . I’ll pray about it, Parker.”
    He grinned ruefully. “Well, there’s no way a man can argue with that. I’ll pray about it too. I think it would be a wonderful thing for us.”
    She saw him lean toward her, and she took his light kiss. He smiled and said good night, then got into the car and drove off.
    Kat went into the house and found the boys already in bed, but her father and Missouri Ann were waiting for her.
    “Did you work things out with Parker?” Lewis asked. “About the cattle, I mean?”
    “He wants me to go to England with him, Dad, to help with the cattle.”
    Lewis shot a quick glance at Missouri Ann. “Are you going to do it?”
    “I don’t know. I need to think about it and pray about it.”
    “Would you like to be Lady Braden someday?” her father asked.
    Kat stared at her parents. “No. The title would mean nothing to me.” She turned and hurried upstairs.
    “She’s troubled about this, Missouri.”
    “Yes, she is. I’m thinkin’ she’s in love with that Englishman.”
    “I hope not. I would hate to have my daughter living so far away.”
    “She wants to do God’s will, Lewis,” she said. “We’ll have to pray that she finds it.”

CHAPTER FIVE
    Yellow Light, Red Light
    The story on the front page of the newspaper fascinated Kat—as it did almost everyone in the western world. For weeks now she had been reading of the scandal concerning the former king of England, who had romanced and finally married an American divorcée. Last December, for the first time in English history a king had stepped down from the throne “for the sake of the woman I love,” as the article quoted.
    As she read the story curiously, Kat wondered what Parker thought of all this and decided to ask him. He had been persistent in his pleas for her to return to England with him, and she had been in agony over her indecision.
    Tossing the newspaper down, she rose to go check on the bread she was baking. Her parents and the boys had left for the day, so the house was unusually quiet. As she turned to go down the hall toward the kitchen, however, she heard a car pulling up in the driveway, and she went to the door. It was Brodie. Her lips tightened and she greeted him coolly.
    “Hello, Kat. Can I come in?”
    “I suppose so.” She reluctantly opened the door.
    He followed her into the kitchen. Bending over the stove, she tested the bread with a broom straw. Seeing it was still not done, she closed the door and turned to find Brodie twisting his hat in his hands.
    He blurted out, “Hey, Kat, I came to say I’m sorry—you know, for what happened the other night.”
    “You should be.”
    “Well, I really am. It was the first time I’d had a drink in six months. I don’t know what got into me.”
    “You shouldn’t drink, Brodie. It makes you into something you’re not.”
    “I know that. I won’t do it again.”
    “You’ll have to apologize to Parker.”
    “Sure,” he said quickly and stood a little straighter. “I’ll do that as soon as I find him. But I didn’t want you to be mad at me.”
    “I am upset with you. The story is all over town, and everywhere else in the county, for that matter.”
    Brodie gnawed his lower lip, looking subdued, and despite her anger, she felt compassion for him. She knew all about his abusive stepfather and how he’d been forced to leave home to get away from him. Kat sighed and said, “Sit down, Brodie.”
    “Sure. Could I have some coffee?”
    Kat poured him a cup, then poured one for herself. She sat down, and he began to speak easily, as if to put the incident behind him. “Maybe we could go out tonight,” he finally said, hope in his eyes.
    “Not tonight, Brodie.”
    His face fell, and he got to his feet. “I’m real sorry,” he said. “You won’t see that side of me again.”
    He looked so woebegone—almost the same way the triplets looked when they had gotten into trouble—that her heart