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“I don’t deal in rumors,” Father Benjie said with a warm smile. “And people here know that. No one comes to me with gossip because I’ll remind them of Ephesians 4:29,Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.I find that to be a deterrent to hearing such things.”
“This isn’t gossip,” Cleo asserted. “It’s important. There is a question about Ronnie’s paternity. It can impact her options for custody of Sammy down the road along with other complications it might cause.”
Father Benjie didn’t flinch. “I can see how that might be something that needs some attention. But perhaps some tact would be appropriate. Mariena is clearly not interested in opening that door she’s closed in her mind. Infidelity is a plague, and her marriage was certainly poisoned by it.”
“Life is messy,” Cleo agreed. “And hers has been. But the product of that mess is my business.”
“Why is that?”
“Protecting the Munson daughters and Sammy is a priority. The failures of their parents should not cost them their chance at prosperity and happiness.”
“I agree.” Father Benjie’s words didn’t match his expression. “However, my role here is to protect Mariena, and our priorities seem to be at odds with each other.”
Cleo hummed. “They don’t have to be at odds. There is no reason we can’t work together toward some kind of resolution that brings everyone some peace.”
“That’s admirable. But I have a feeling you’ll continue to try to open that door, and she’ll do everything she can to keep it closed. I’m not sure we’ll find any kind of solution.”
Nick chuckled. “I’ve never liked my odds when I’m up against the church. In my experience, you have a secret weapon I can’t compete with.”
“We don’t like to think of it as a weapon.” Father Benjie laughed hardily. “I understand your position, and I do want to help in any way I can, but—”
Cleo cut him off. “Then give us any information you have so we don’t have to try to get it from Mariena. I don’t want to go back there and try to get her to tell us who the man was. It’s obviously upsetting to her. If your goal is to protect her, save her that pain. Whatever you can tell us will get us out of here faster.”
“Clever,” Father Benji said, wiggling his nose in a funny way. “I suppose you are right. The information I can provide might save Mariena from any more upsetting conversations on the matter. But wouldn’t it be easier to just forget all of this and move forward?”
Cleo sighed. “I don’t know any Bible verses, but there must be something in there about putting off difficult things for the sake of pretending they don’t exist. Ronnie deserves to know the truth about who she is. It’s important.”
“I can see you won’t be swayed on this,” Father Benjie said, not admonishing them. Rather he looked a bit impressed. “Ask me what you came to ask, and I’ll give you any information I have.”
Nick leaned forward. “Thank you. We won’t take up much more of your time. You may have heard the story of the blizzard that kept Mariena snowed in here decades ago.”
“It wasn’t the snow that kept her,” Father Benjie said, looking sour suddenly. “It was her husband who left her here. I was visiting an ill parishioner, and she was here organizing the food that was delivered for the can drive. She was a faithful servant always trying to help the community.”
This had been the most recent lesson of Nick’s life. People were multifaceted. There was rarely a consensus among everyone they knew about what they were like. A teacher with a warm, welcoming heart in the classroom might be described as miserable by her husband. A man with unshakable integrity at work might be a philandering spouse with a terrible track record of cheating. Charismatic to one person might be manipulative to another. Father Benjie saw Mariena as a victim. She was a faithful woman who helped people around her and was crushed by the weight of a terrible marriage.
Maybe Father Benjie never heard the story of Carmen’s abuse and her parent’s indifference. The way Nora was beaten down to keep the farm afloat. If you didn’t know those things, maybe you could pity Mariena. But Nick did know, so as he pressed on with his questions, he tried to sound empathetic.
“There was a man who was here at the same time. A groundskeeper, I think. What we heard was that he was only in town to visit some family.”
“I don’t remember a man being snowed in here too. He certainly wasn’t here when I came to dig Mariena out days later. She was alone. And we never had a groundskeeper back then,” Father Benjie reported. “I’ve always done all that myself. It’s not until the last ten years or so I’ve gotten some help with it.”
Cleo twisted her mouth up as she seemed to work out her next question. “There was another man here who she was snowed in with. Maybe he wasn’t a groundskeeper, but he did some work around here? What kind of jobs did you outsource back then?”
“Anything I couldn’t do myself, I’d usually ask someone in the community to help with. I’m handy. I can make repairs. I can do a bit of electrical.” Father Benjie lit with a thought. “I’m hopeless at plumbing, though. In the dead of winter, we used to have pipes freeze, and it was catastrophic. We did have people come in from time to time to make sure that didn’t happen. The forecast was wrong about the weather. We got far more snow than we thought we would, but if the temperatures were supposed to be very low, I’d have asked someone to stay to tend to the pipes.”
“But you don’t remember who?” Nick asked.
“It was always whoever was available.”
“This would have been a young man who was only in town visiting. Probably the family member of a parishioner.”
“Right,” Father Benjie said, squinting to try to remember. “I know Mrs. Olivia Brown had a nephew in town around that time. She was worried about him terribly. Kept trying to get me to talk with him. He was up from New York. There was talk that he had some problems with the law.”
“Gossip?” Cleo asked playfully.
“Concern,” Father Benjie corrected. “I didn’t hear the details, but there is a chance he would have been at the church at the same time. Mrs. Olivia had volunteered him for quite a few jobs around here, hoping I could get his ear. Talk some sense into him.”
“Did you?” Nick asked, remembering how often this was his own mother’s strategy for her boys. There would often be some chance meeting with their priest in the most unlikely of places and some less than spontaneous lessons from the Bible.
