Searching for Anna, Jenifer Carll-Tong [cheapest way to read ebooks TXT] 📗

Grant jumped to his feet. "You can't be serious! I've done nothing wrong!"

"This college cannot be associated with a disgrace such as yours."

"Disgrace? What have I done?"

"You've led a young woman down the path of unrighteousness. It cannot be tolerated by this college."

"No, you can't fire Professor Foley! I kissed him. He holds no fault in this!"

Grant looked at the girl. The twitching lips were gone, replaced with a look of horror.

"I'm sorry, but you have made your bed. Now you both shall lie in it." The dean grabbed his coat and left Grant and his student staring after him.

A piercing throb began to beat in his temples. Was he dreaming? He couldn't possibly have just been fired, could he? Somewhere deep in his mind, he knew he should say something to the girl, offer her some sort of comfort, but he couldn't move. A coldness swept down his spine, making him certain he was frozen in this moment in time. Miss Albright's voice finally broke through the icy silence.

"It wasn't supposed to happen this way. They were only supposed to send me home."

Grant slowly turned to look at her. "What did you just say?"

She jumped, as if she had forgotten he was there. "I – I'm sorry. I didn't mean for this to...I never thought they would fire you."

Realization broke through the ice that had gathered in his brain. Swift heat flooded his system as her words sank in. "You planned this?"

"No! I mean, I didn't plan for you to get fired."

"But, you did plan this! You deliberately set out to ruin me!"

"It wasn't supposed to happen like this."

"Then how was it supposed to happen, Miss Albright? A reprimand? A campus-wide shaming? Is that it? Was your intent to publicly humiliate me?"

Perfectly arched eyebrows knitted above her green eyes. "I admit that I acted rashly, but you have to believe me when I say that I never intended to injure you."

"What I believe, Miss Albright, is that you are a spoiled little girl that thinks of no one but herself. You are a disgrace and an embarrassment to yourself and your parents. You should be ashamed of yourself."

The girl bit her bottom lip and squared her shoulders. "Trust me, I am well aware of that fact. I've known it my entire life." She pushed past him and ran out the door.

Grant stood staring at the empty doorway for several moments before numbly heading to his classroom, or what used to be his classroom.

The room was dark, save for the moonlight that filtered through the tall windows. But even in the dim light, Grant could make out every corner of the room. The large, scratched blackboard that spanned the front wall still displayed the notes from the day's classes. It was in desperate need of repair, maybe even replacement, but Grant's maintenance repair requests had gone unanswered for weeks. The rows of desks, half of which wobbled underneath the students that occupied them daily, sat askew, begging to be straightened. The small, chipped teacher's desk, much too small for a man of Grant's stature, sat in the corner, his Bible and notes still scattered across it where he had left them. All in all, it was a miserable excuse for a classroom, but as a first year professor, he hadn't expected grand accommodations. Still, it had been his classroom, an answer to not only his dreams, but also his prayers. And now it was all gone...his dreams and his future. No other Christian college would employ a man fired for misconduct with a female student.

Grant returned to his desk and began gathering his notes. As he did, his eyes fell on the last thing he had written... "God is God, no matter what your circumstances. If he is God in the good times, he has to be God in the bad."

He dropped into the chair and cradled his head in his hands. "I know you're still God, but it doesn't feel like you're here right now." A breeze blew through the open window, cooling the tears that coursed down his cheeks. Never in all his life had he felt so rejected. But he knew the truth of the lesson he had just prepared. God was still God, even though Grant's life was falling apart around him.

He wiped his eyes with the back of his sleeve. He stood and stuffed the contents of his desk into his attache. Then he walked up and down the rows of desks, slowly straightening each one as he went. Finally, he picked up the large, tufted felt eraser and began the work of cleaning the blackboard. He started with the terms for his Homiletics class and moved across the board, clearing each class's notes one subject at a time. He was just wiping the notes from Systematic Theology, Miss Albright's class, and his hands stopped. His face grew hot at the memory of the conniving blonde. She had ruined him and his future with her impulsive behavior, and she had deserved every harsh word he had spat at her. He knew she deserved it. He pushed back the guilty twisting that rumbled in his stomach.

When the room was sufficiently cleaned and prepped for the next day and for whomever took over his classes, he grabbed his case and left the classroom, and his dreams, behind.

A Message from Jen

Here it is. Finally. The story that launched my writing journey.

Years ago, when I first decided that it was time to finally commit to writing a novel, this is the novel I began writing. At the time, I thought God was giving me this one story, so I threw myself totally into the writing of Phoebe and Will’s tale. The problem was, I jumped in without any thought to story structure or plot. 130,000 words in, and I had a mess on my hands. It didn’t help that I put this novel aside to write Anna and Esther’s books first. But, after a lot of editing and prayer and work…A Calling for Phoebe is finally finished.

As you may already know, my youngest daughter’s name is Phoebe. However, the heroine of this story is not named after my daughter and is in no way patterned after her. But the origins of Phoebe Albright did begin during my pregnancy. When trying to agree on a name, both my husband and I quickly agreed on Phoebe. We liked it, and I knew it was a Biblical name (as are my other two daughters’ names) but I knew nothing about Phoebe in the Bible. So, I did a little research.

Not much is said about Phoebe, but what is said tells us a lot. You will find her account in the Book of Romans, chapter 16 verses 1 and 2. There is so much that I could unpack right now about these two verses, but in favor of brevity, I will just point out two words that are important: diakonos and prostatis. With these two words, along with the fact that Paul trusted her enough to give her the responsibility of delivering his letter to Rome on his behalf, we can see that not only was Phoebe a well-respected benefactor, but she was also a minister as well! (If you are interested in reading more on this, I wrote an entire blog post on it that you can read here…)

Much later, I came across an article that shared the statistics of female pastors over the years within the denomination of which I am a member. In the statistics, I discovered that there were several hundred women pastors around the time of World War 1, but by World War 2, there were less than fifty. What had changed? I still don’t know, but I was intrigued. What would it be like to be a woman in the ministry during the time following The Great War? What kind of woman would choose the life of a pastor? These questions led me to the Phoebe of this novel.

But you can’t have a romance without the handsome hero, right? So, what kind of man would be the perfect foil for my confident, independent pastor? Exactly what she thinks she doesn’t need…someone obsessed with protecting her. Thus, Will Caffey was born. The name William means “protector” and Will certainly fits that description…to a fault, because you can’t have a hero who is perfect, right?

I truly hope you enjoyed reading Phoebe and Will’s love story. They are two of my favorite characters, and to be honest, I’m kind of sad to be finished with their romance. Maybe I should write a sequel that follows their romance into marriage…

But first, Sarah gets her love story!