The Door by Lorilyn Roberts

Author:Lorilyn Roberts [Roberts, Lorilyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781626200753
Publisher: Lorilyn Roberts
Published: 2012-10-14T04:30:00+00:00

Daniel murmured, “I don’t know.”

Chapter Twenty

Dark Light of the Moon

Spring crept into summer and fall arrived. Before I realized, a year had passed. I grew taller and filled out a little, feeling more like a young woman than a gawky teenager.

My application to attend school was sent off, but even that wasn’t without conflict. Scylla and my father didn’t agree, and the one quick trip he made home from Jerusalem during that time to deal with it was disappointing. I barely saw him. My father did win out on the choice of schools, but the delayed documents had yet to arrive. Scylla wouldn’t tell me more. I wondered if she just didn’t bother to follow through.

I settled into my new routine—doing my chores, avoiding Judd and my stepmother, spending quiet time with the animals, and enjoying long talks with Daniel when he wasn’t taking care of Nathan. That was his main duty, but often when he was in the field watching the sheep, I’d join him.

It had now been a long time since my father had been home. Did he love me? If so, how could he stay away for so many months that now stretched into more than a year?

It was evening time and I had just returned with water from the well. Scylla called me into her private quarters. I set down the pail and walked past Nathan, who sat alone on the bench rocking and crying.

Scylla’s voice was sharp. “Sit over there.”

I grabbed the bench and plopped down on the edge. What was percolating in that dark mind of hers?

“How dare you dishonor your father’s name, after all he’s done for you?”

“What are you talking about?” I looked around, embarrassed for anyone to hear.

Scylla held a drink in her hand and swayed as she addressed me. Her eyes were bloodshot. “You know what you did. I thought you were a lady. You’re a tramp of the worst kind.”

“What?”

“Judd told me about you and Daniel.”

I stared at her. “What about Daniel? What are you talking about?”

“All the time you spend in the cave, sneaking in when no one is around. He said Daniel has made you crazy. He hears you talking in there, nonsense stuff, as if you could talk to the animals. We know Daniel came from the asylum, and he needs to go back there. I dismissed him this morning.”

“You what?”

“I told him to pack up his stuff and get out of here. We don’t need a lunatic like that around here.”

“I thought you liked Daniel.”

She ignored me. “Do you know what they do to a woman with loose morals?”

She didn’t wait for me to answer. “I know you’re from a distant country, but here they stone girls. Is that what you want?”

I shook my head.

“Word is out about you. I’d hate to see your splattered body sprawled out on the road. It would destroy your father’s reputation, cost him his job, and my inheritance—unless Judd gets it first. If I have my way, that won’t happen.

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