The Royal Handmaid by Gilbert Morris Read Free Book Online

addressed the professor, his tall, strong frame towering over the diminutive man. “I don’t see why you think that, Professor.” It was not like Pete to disagree with Dekker. He revered the professor but had never made more than a passing grade in his class. Now he stood tall and declared, “I think we at least ought to listen to the man.”
    “I think you’re right, Pete,” Lanie MacKay said, standing by Pete. The very tall redhead gave Rena a nervous glance. “Don’t you like him at all, Rena?”
    “It’s not a matter of whether I like him or not, Lanie. It’s just that he’s not qualified.”
    Jimmy and Abby Townsend were sitting holding hands unselfconsciously, like typical newlyweds. “But you say he’s done some missionary work?” Jimmy asked.
    “He just went down to Mexico on his own, then on to other countries in Central and South America.” Rena shook her head in disparagement. “He probably carried nothing with him but a Bible.”
    “Well, I must say that impresses me. ” The speaker was Meredith Wynne. Her curly black hair framed a narrow face, and her violet eyes shone with startling clarity. Unlike the others in the group, she was almost poorly dressed, not being a socialite or from a wealthy family. She was the only one on the team who had volunteered to come without being invited first, and Rena had willingly accepted her because of her skills as a linguist. Now she defended Travis Winslow, who had also arrived uninvited and volunteered to go. “I think I’d like to hear his testimony.”
    “Oh, really, Meredith, you can’t be serious!” Dalton said, rolling his eyes. “He’s some kind of a tramp according to what Rena says.”
    The argument became heated, and finally Karl Benson broke in. “Do I understand that your father is going to insist on this?”
    “Yes, he is, Karl.”
    “Then I think this meeting is over!” Benson laughed shortly. “We wouldn’t get very far without a ship to get us there—or without your father’s support.”
    “But if God wants us to go, we can go without Mr. Matthews’s support, can’t we?” Maggie Smith spoke up. At the age of twenty-eight, she was the oldest woman in the room,and she spoke confidently now, despite her usual reticence. “We could go on faith.”
    Professor Dekker laughed. “That went out with the apostles. Part of our mission is to prove that missionaries must be well prepared and well backed financially. It just happens that Mr. Matthews is furnishing all that.” He turned to face Rena and said, “I believe we have no choice.”
    “All right, then. We’ll take a vote,” Rena said. “All in favor of including Mr. Travis Winslow, raise your hand.” The vote was unanimous. Even she had voted yes when she realized the implications of refusing her father. “Let’s understand each other,” she said. “I’ll go tell my father that we’ve all agreed. It’s highly unlikely Mr. Winslow will be able to contribute much. On the other hand, he looks strong and fit, and he’ll be a great help in doing the donkey work.”
    “The what kind of work?” Meredith asked, her eyes intense as she studied Rena.
    “Oh, you know, the errands. The manual labor that has to be done. Let’s look at it this way,” she said with a smile, “we can let Mr. Winslow do the grunt work while we devote ourselves to the real ministry.”
    Meredith gave Rena a curious look, and a smile touched her lips. “I don’t think mission teams work that way, Rena.”
    Pete tried to add a positive note. “He’ll be a help to us, I’m sure, and we can use someone with experience on the mission field.”
    “I don’t believe we really need his kind of experience, Pete. He’s really a rather arrogant man, talking about God telling him to come with us when he’s only just heard of us. But, of course, we’ll all have to be nice to him.”
    Dalton laughed. “Of course we will. What did you think we were going to do—poke our thumbs in his