Read Set Change: A Nina Bannister Mystery (The Nina Bannister Mysteries) for Free Online Page B

playing Captain von Trapp for his whole life, when one thought of it.
    Quiet, unassuming, brilliant, athletic—John had been the only football player in Bay St. Lucy’s history to get a Division One scholarship––       
    ––and single.
    Always something sad about that.
    “AND NOW FOR JOYS!”
    Thank heaven , thought Nina,
    “I have a joy!”
    She turned.
    And there, her head barely high enough to be seen over the back of the pew, stood Hope Reddington.
    She was farther in the back of the church than usual, and Nina had not even noticed her entrance.
    “Stand up!” exhorted Reverend Daniels.
    This was a joke of course, since Hope already was standing.
    She shook her fist at him a couple of times in mock outrage.
    A collective laugh.
    Finally it died down and the reverend asked:
    “What is your joy, Hope?”
    Silence for a second.
    And then, was Hope looking directly at Nina?
    Perhaps.   On the other hand the smile was of such a nature as to make everyone in the building think it directed only at him or her.
    “What is your joy?”
    “My great joy,” replied Hope, “is that my granddaughter—my beloved granddaughter Helen—is coming home.”

    There was a sermon after that but nobody listened to it.   They were all thinking of Hope’s announcement and the lovely time they were going to have gossiping about it while eating the potluck lunch.
    This happened at precisely twelve thirty, when the doors to the basement dining hall were opened and the congregation swarmed in.
    There were 53 Methodist women and they had cooked and brought with them 237 bowls or platters of food.
    Which they now tore into while talking only a little about the previous evening’s community theater performance and much more about the history of the Reddington family.
    “Wasn’t Alana Delafosse simply wicked as The Baroness?”
    “Oh I hated her!”
    “It was so funny how the audience all hissed when she came on!”
    “When she said, ‘It might be better for all concerned if the children are—sent away,’ somebody got up and shouted, “Go back to Vienna!”
    “Wasn’t that funny?   Now, what is this?”
    “Okra casserole, isn’t it?”
    “I don’t know, but there’s shrimp in it.”
    “How long has Helen been away?”
    “She hasn’t been back here in, oh, it must be five years now.   No, no, you take more of it.”
    “I’ve got enough.   Cranberry sauce?”
    “Just a bit.”  
    “Oh, I got some on your plate.”
    “It’s all right. Where was it she went away to school?”
    “Some art school in Michigan.”
    “Interlochen School of the Arts.”
    “Is that what it was?”
    “I think so. I just know it must have been so hard on Hope. Her husband died of cancer; then a year or so later there was that car wreck, and all she had left was her little granddaughter, Helen. And then about two years after that, there was this great offer to go and study acting. Helen was only seventeen.   It was exciting, but it meant Hope would be all alone.   Could you just hand me a piece of that chicken?”
    “Here; do you want a slice of ham to go with it?”
    “I shouldn’t.”
    “Oh, go ahead.   It’s the Potluck.”
    “All right; just one slice though. Now who did Helen marry?”
    “A big-name New York actor; I don’t know his name. It was in the paper though—it happened   last September. Here, I’ll give you a little bit of this dressing, too. Samantha Slaughter made it.”
    “She makes such good dressing.”
    “I know.”  
    And so on and so on and so on.
    Nina, her pancreas no longer bothering her, had made her way to a table where John Giusti was seated by himself.
    “May I,” she asked, “sit at the captain’s table?”
    He smiled, rose, smiled more broadly still, and gestured to one of the empty metal chairs:
    “Are you always so much trouble, Fraulein?”
    “Oh much more, Sir!” she said, setting the sixteen inch plate filled with indeterminate and multi-colored foods on the table