The Bishop’s Wife (Linda Wallheim Mystery, #1)(49)

“As long as you give her a hug afterward so she knows that you still love her, even if she makes mistakes,” I said.

“Giving love too soon after correction can lead children to forget the correction,” said Alex Helm. “And little girls in particular have a tendency to believe that they can avoid the consequences of anything by sweet-talking the men around them.”

Little girls? I’d met plenty of Mormons who thought girls were less capable than boys at doing certain tasks, and that girls—and women—should be restricted to a certain sphere. But this sexism was so blatant and unapologetic that it shook me.

“I’m sure both little girls and little boys feel that way,” said Kurt, who seemed to have recovered more quickly than I had. Why shouldn’t he? His entire sex wasn’t being attacked.

“Little girls face a harsh world,” I said. Kurt must have heard the danger in my voice, though Alex Helm might not have. “They need to know that there is someone always on their side.”

“So long as they do right, there is someone always on their side,” said Alex Helm. “But if they do wrong, then they will be dragged down to hell and become servants of the devil, who will use their pretty looks and their manipulating ways for his own work.” He made a strangling motion with his hands and jerked an invisible woman to the floor. Quite the performance, I had to admit. He would be an excellent Lucifer in the temple film. Very real.

I tried for a moment to dial back my revulsion for Alex Helm, to feel sympathy for him. Maybe his childhood had been terrible. Maybe his mother had been manipulative and selfish, as he seemed to think all women were. But here he was now, a grown man, a father and a grandfather. And he was looking at me like I was dancing with seven veils in front of him, ready to seduce him and then suffocate him while he struggled to escape from the hell of my clutches.

“With her mother gone, Kelly needs more love than ever,” I said. “Or she will grow up thinking that her mother left because she herself wasn’t good enough.”

“Her mother left because she is one of the whores of the earth,” said Alex Helm bluntly. Scripture or not, his tone chilled me. I looked to Kurt. Let him be diplomatic about that.

“I’m sure all of us have an equal chance at repentance,” said Kurt, putting out an arm in an attempt to guide Alex Helm toward the front door. “God always wants us to come to Him, and the Atonement is available to any who want it.”

Alex Helm didn’t budge. I saw a smile spread across his face. “Except those who are sons and daughters of perdition, who have known the full truth of the gospel, have had the Holy Ghost testify to them, and have rejected it. Those who reject Christ in His fullness have no second chance,” said Alex Helm. His voice boomed authoritatively, though his words were not precisely authoritative.

The doctrine of the sons of perdition I knew, although I had never heard of daughters of perdition. Mormon scriptures said there were those who would not end up in any of the three kingdoms of glory that were Mormon heaven, but the number was supposed to be tiny. Fewer than a dozen was what I had always thought, because there were so very few who truly had the full knowledge of Christ in their hearts and then rejected it.

All the rest ended up in one of the three degrees of glory: the telestial kingdom, where murderers went; the terrestrial kingdom, where the honest people of the world who denied Christ went; and the celestial kingdom, where only those who were righteous and had had all necessary Mormon temple ordinances could go.

But as I stared at Alex Helm, I rather hoped that if I went to a heaven, it was one of the two he wasn’t in. Or maybe he would be one of the sons of perdition himself.

“We can’t condemn others. Only God judges us, at the end of our lives,” said Kurt. He had stopped trying to push Alex Helm to the door and instead was blocking my path to the man. I’d always told the boys that they should avoid physical violence at all costs, but Alex Helm was the kind of man who inspired extraordinary measures.

“That doesn’t mean we are absolved of the responsibility of calling evil evil.” Alex Helm shook his head. “If Kelly isn’t taught her place now, before she grows too old to learn properly, there will be no hope that she will turn out differently than her mother. And I won’t be the grandfather to a little whore.”

That was all I could bear to hear. I raised a hand and slapped him hard across the face.

Kurt flinched at the sound, then sighed and shook his head. “Now, Linda, I think you need to apologize for that.”

Alex Helm had a hand to his cheek, and he seemed to be gloating. “I think that you have some work to do in your own house,” he said to Kurt. “You might have your own whore of the earth, Bishop.”

Strangely, this had no effect on my anger, because I didn’t care what he called me.

But Kurt did. He put a hand directly on the smaller man’s shoulder and pushed him toward the door. “Please tell Jared that he is welcome to come to me for counseling whenever he feels in need of it. And that he and Kelly are both in our prayers.”

The door opened and closed, and then we were free of Alex Helm. God, what a noxious man! I hated the thought that he and I shared the same religion, at least ostensibly.

“Do you need to scream now?” asked Kurt. “Or hit someone else? You can hit me if you want.” He pointed to his cheek.

I was plenty angry, but Kurt wasn’t going to get out of this with just a punch to the jaw. “How dare you?” I said to him. “How dare you agree with him like that?”