The revival in Cincinnati had been nationally televised, and before dinner their little group had watched a video of the event over cocktails in Gus’s study. During the viewing, their guests would steal sidelong glances in Amanda’s direction, amazed that this slender, calm woman had turned an audience of thousands into a swaying, arm-waving, weeping, praying mass of humanity.

Of course, Amanda had learned her craft at the knee of a master. She was, after all, the daughter of Mary Millicent Tutt. And the granddaughter of Preacher Marvin Tutt. Evangelism flowed in her veins.

According to the stories Gus had heard about his and Amanda’s grandfather, Preacher Tutt had been a disgusting old man who loved drinking and whoring as much as he loved the Lord. But put a revival tent over his head and a Bible in his hand, and Preacher Tutt could quote entire chapters of Scripture. And he could speak in tongues, heal the sick, save souls, and even tame poisonous serpents-except for that last one, which had bitten him on the nose then disappeared under the side of the tent, never to be seen again. Gus regretted never having known the infamous old reprobate, but that serpent had ended his life long before Mary Millicent had married Jason Hartmann and brought their two children into the world.

With her father dead, Mary Millicent sold the tent and enrolled at a small Bible college in southeastern Oklahoma for a year or so-long enough to be ordained as a minister of the Pentecostal Church of the Brethren. During this period, she also wrote a book about her life as the daughter of a colorful, itinerate preacher who loved the Lord but sometimes strayed from the path of righteousness, with his loving daughter always helping him find his way back. In Hell Bent for Glory she chronicled their life on the road, going from one small town to the next throughout Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana. She wrote about her mother, who had slipped away one night when Mary Millicent was only eight years old. Her father had not only raised her, he was her only teacher, with her only textbook the Bible.

Their arrival in a community generated a great deal of excitement since they went places where not even a shabby, one-ring circus with scrawny, mistreated elephants and tigers would go. People began to gather before the tent was even up. If her father was “indisposed,” Mary Millicent did the preaching, delivering her first sermon at the age of twelve.

Mary Millicent had included some of her father’s sermons in the book. Gus found them to be a wonderful hodgepodge of bullshit, Bible stories, visions, dreams, and vivid portrayals of the fate that awaited those who did not repent and accept the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal savior. After his sermon, Preacher Tutt would invite those assembled to come forward to confess their sins and get their souls saved. And he asked the town folk to “dig deep into their pockets and help this old country preacher keep on savin’ sinners from eternal damnation.”

Mary Millicent wrote that before her father died in her arms, he told her, “Sister, you’ve got the call. You’re the reason I was born.”

When no publisher would buy her book, Mary Millicent took it to Hollywood, where it was made into a movie starring Loretta Young, with Burl Ives memorable in the role of Preacher Tutt. When the movie became a box-office success, publishing companies came begging. With the money Mary Millicent received for the film and publishing rights, she bought a decaying old movie palace in downtown Dallas, and she enticed a local television station to broadcast her weekly services. Soon an Oklahoma City station also began to carry the services. Then other stations. By this time, she had written her second book, The Road to Heaven.

Mary Millicent had been a statuesque, handsome woman with an orator’s voice. Her daughter was willowy and soft-spoken. Even so, Mary Millicent had realized early on that her daughter had the call and trained Amanda to follow in her footsteps.

In the beginning, Amanda tried to imitate her mother, but over the years, she developed her own style and tempered her mother’s message. Like Preacher Tutt before her and in spite of her own transgressions, Mary Millicent had evoked a sense of fear in people, convincing them that if they didn’t change their lives, they would suffer eternal hellfire and damnation. Amanda took quite another tack. She urged her followers to live better lives and help make the world a better place, a world that God could look down upon and smile. On the rare occasions when Gus challenged any of his sister’s beliefs, Amanda would smile benignly at him and assure him that God had told her it was so.

Gus had asked her what God thought of her decision to imprison their mother at the ranch rather than commit her to some posh sanitarium for lunatic elders who had developed a penchant for calling out obscenities and disrobing in public. Amanda said that God would expect them to hide his longtime faithful servant away from prying eyes and protect her reputation. And perhaps Amanda and God were right. Still, it did seem like a mean thing to do to one’s own mother.

Amanda had always known that she would bear a child to carry on the Tutt family’s high calling into the fourth generation. She claimed to have known from the minute Sonny was born that he was blessed of God and that he, too, carried “the call.” Gus had been more interested in the Hartmann side of Sonny’s heritage. Someday the boy would inherit the oil company founded by his great-grandfather and the vast Hartmann Ranch.

Now the Tutt-Hartmann bloodline would die. This child that his sister planned to bring into the world would be the child of a gigolo and a hired surrogate.

Or would it?

Toby had joined the group for cocktails and to watch the video, then excused himself, saying he had “pressing business” to take care off, which meant Amanda had suggested beforehand that he might be bored by the dinner conversation. Gus had to give the man credit; he did understand his place in Amanda’s life. He was her masseur, personal trainer, gofer, prayer partner, and lover, which left him plenty of time to pump iron, swim laps, and be fitted for the custom-made clothing and shoes of which he had grown so fond. Gus had never seen him overstep his carefully assigned boundaries, and he did seem to genuinely care for and respect Amanda. In fact, he seemed genuinely in awe of her, as well he should be.

At first Gus tried to tell himself that Toby was gay, but there was too much touching and sexual innuendo that passed between him and Amanda for that to be the case. Gus didn’t like the thought of his sister having sex with anyone, but it was something he had to live with. And having Toby take care of her sexually meant she was less likely to engage in unseemly liaisons with lowlife men.

Sex was one thing, however. Raising Toby’s child was quite another.

Gus realized that his sister was a pro at delusional thinking, but surely she didn’t believe that the child of Toby Travis and a girl who answered Bentley Abernathy’s newspaper ad could take Sonny’s place as the family’s heir apparent.

Amanda had eaten little of her meal, mentioning that she had been bothered by a queasy stomach of late. And while she never drank wine in public, in private she enjoyed it with her meals, yet she had drunk no wine this evening. And she was either a bit pale or had used a lighter shade of makeup than usual.

Gus knew that if she was planning what he thought she was planning, Amanda did not begin to understand the ramifications. But he would not stop her. If this was how she had come to terms with what happened to Sonny, if this was what it was going to take for her to let that dear boy finally die, then so be it. It was Gus’s job in life to look after his sister and remove pitfalls from her path.