Secret of the Shroud by Pamela Binnings Ewen

Author:Pamela Binnings Ewen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: B&H Publishing Group
Published: 2010-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

His eyes sweep the walls of Jerusalem, then to the top of the hill where only two men and three women remain with the crucified prisoners. Dead. The word is heavy in his mind. He holds back, hidden as he waits; he knows these people well. Although he worries they’ll spot him, he remains where he is, watching. He’s seeking a sign of life, a signal that the prisoner has defeated death, as he had promised.

Suddenly a quick, small movement to the right and below him on the hill catches his eye. He turns his head just in time to see Hanna rising from behind a small brown bush. Hanna! He’d forgotten the child. He sucks in his breath and follows her gaze. She’s staring at a pack of dogs that he’d not noticed before. She backs slowly away from them, then suddenly bolts toward the top of the hill, running. He starts forward, then seeing that the dogs have not moved, checks himself, realizing that he’ll be seen.

He cannot be seen.

Hanna has almost reached the women when she halts and drops down behind a bank of rocks and bushes once again. She’s hiding, too, he realizes. One of the women standing at the foot of the cross turns in his direction, searching the fields below. Even from this distance he can see her face shining in the fading light, and he shrinks back. His heart races while he waits. When at last she turns away, he releases his breath with a sigh of relief.

The sky has cleared, and the rain and strange winds have finally died. He glances up. For the first time he notices that the sky is growing dark. It’s late. Joanna will kill me, he thinks. Suddenly he frowns, annoyed at Hanna and this new responsibility. He’s hungry, wet and cold from the storm, and his muscles have grown tight and stiff as he hunches, shivering, watching.

Two men at the top of the hill are lifting the prisoner’s body between them, almost sinking under the weight, while the women stand back. Yeshua was not a small man. The women follow as they slowly begin making their way down the hill toward the city walls, stumbling as they traverse the rocky terrain. When they veer off to the left, he realizes that they’re avoiding the gates. Where can they be going?

The child’s head pops up behind the rock. After a moment she stands. A glance back at the dogs sends her scurrying after the sad procession, keeping close. He waits until she is well down the hill before following. As he rounds the other side, he sees the mourners below, followed by Hanna.

Hanging back, Hanna fixes her eyes on the little group of men and women descending with the prisoner’s body, refusing to look at the two still hanging on the crosses at the top of the hill. She wards off images of what she would see if she should look, of the dogs, of what

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