"You heard me. Tell him to stay at home, where he belongs."
"I can't."
"You're the only one he might listen to. You don't want him to go, do you? Do you?" he repeated with more emphasis when she failed to answer.
"No!" she cried, wrenching her hand free of his. "But I can't stand between Hal and a mission he feels that God has called him to do."
"Does he love you?"
"Yes."
"And you love him."
"Yes."
"You want to marry him and have a house and babies and all the trimmings, right?"
"That's my business. Hal's and mine."
"Dammit, I'm not trying to interfere into your personal life. I'm trying to keep my kid brother from getting blown away. Now, whether anybody likes it or not, I'm still a member of this family and you're going to answer me."
She quelled beneath his anger, but felt ashamed, too, for shutting him out of family matters as his parents so often did. When it boiled down to it, she was the outsider, not Cage. She met his eyes levelly. "Of course that's what I want, Cage. I've waited years to get married."
"All right, then," he said more calmly, "put your foot down. Issue an ultimatum. Tell him you won't be here when he gets back. Let him know how you feel about this."
She was shaking her head. "This is something he feels led to do."
"Then lead him astray, Jenny. I'm thinking of him as much as you. Hell, if presidents and diplomats and mercenaries and God knows who else can't straighten out that mess down there in Central America, how the hell does Hal think he's going to? He's going into something he knows absolutely nothing about."
"God will protect him."
"You're only repeating what you've heard him say. I know my Bible, too, Jenny. It was drilled into me. At one time I actually studied the Hebrew war generals. Yes, they pulled off a few miraculous battles, but Hal hasn't got an army behind him. He doesn't even have the endorsement of the U.S. Government. God gave each of us a brain to reason with and what Hal's doing is unreasonable."
Jenny agreed with him wholeheartedly. But Cage was an expert at twisting words and truths to make them fit his own ends. Aligning herself with Cage's way of thinking was flirting with heresay. Besides, her loyalty had to be with Hal and the cause he had dedicated himself to.
"Good night, Cage."
"How long have you lived with us, Jenny?"
She paused again. "Since I was fourteen. Almost twelve years."
The Hendrens had taken her in when both her parents were killed. One day while she was at school, a gas heater had exploded in their house and it had burned to the ground. Later she remembered hearing the fire truck and ambulance sirens during Algebra class. She hadn't known then that it was already too late for her parents and a younger sister, who had stayed home that day with a sore throat. Her daddy had come home on his lunch hour to check on her. By nightfall, Jenny was left alone in the world, without a thing to her name except the clothes she had worn to school that day.
The Fletchers had been friendly with their pastor, Bob Hendren and his wife, Sarah. Since Jenny had no living relatives, there had been little discussion about her future.
"I remember coming home from college for Thanksgiving break and finding you here," Cage said. "Mother had converted her sewing room into a bedroom fit for a princess. She finally had the daughter she had always wanted. I was told to treat you like one of the family."
"Your parents have been very good to me," Jenny conceded in a small voice.
"Is that why you never stand up to them?"
She was offended and it showed. "I don't know what you're talking about!"
"Oh, yes, you do. It's been twelve years since you made a decision of your own. Are you afraid they'll kick you out if you disagree with them?"
"That's ridiculous," she exclaimed, flabbergasted.
"No, it isn't. It's sad," Cage said, jutting his hard, square chin into the air. "They decided who your friends could and could not be, the kind of clothes you wore, the college you went to, even who you were going to marry. And now it looks like they'll decide when the wedding will take place. Are you going to let them plan your kids, too?"