The Rescued by Marta Perry

Author:Marta Perry
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2015-05-19T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Isaac felt as if he were frozen to the spot, staring at his wife and his brother. He wasn’t sure how he’d even gotten the words out.

“You see?” Joseph’s voice rose, breaking a little. “I was right. I told you he wouldn’t listen.”

“Don’t, Joseph.” Judith stepped between them, her eyes pleading with him. “Isaac, just listen.”

Listen. Anger, hot and fierce, chased the ice away. How could he listen when it was so plain that they had been keeping secrets from him? Betraying him.

Judith looked from him to Joseph, her face taut with pain. “Isaac just wants what’s best for you. If only the two of you would talk—”

“There’s nothing to talk about.” He ground out the words, fighting to keep his anger under control. He glared at his brother. “Our father wanted you to have the farm. I have sacrificed to keep it going for you.”

“I don’t want it! Can’t you understand?” Joseph’s fists clenched, and the muscles in his neck stood out like cords. “I don’t want this life.”

Isaac shook his head, dismissing the words. “You don’t know. You’re only fourteen.”

“You knew when you were only a little older than me,” Joseph flared out at him.

The words flicked like a blow on a fresh burn. “I knew because I had to. Because I had to grow up then, didn’t I? Grow up and try to be the man my father expected me to be.”

Joseph’s face twisted. “You expect me to sacrifice everything I want to make you feel better.”

“You are—”

“Isaac, don’t.” Judith stood between them, holding a hand out to each of them, tears filling her eyes. “Anger isn’t the way.”

Isaac stopped. Took a grip on himself. He was angry, all right, but wasn’t it justified? “Don’t you know how many boys would love to be in your position, with a thriving business to take over?”

“Sure, lots of boys would. Levi would. But not me!”

Fresh pain assaulted Isaac. Levi, his Levi, who wanted the thing Joseph was so eager to throw away. He had to do something for Levi, too. The pressure built from every side, pressing on him.

Right now he had to deal with Joseph. He had to concentrate on him, had to end this foolishness before it got any worse.

“Just put these ideas out of your head. Whatever Fred Yoder has been promising you is nonsense.” A separate little flare of anger lit at the thought of Fred.

“I can’t forget it. It’s not nonsense. Fred appreciates what I can do even if you don’t.”

Isaac’s jaw hardened until he thought it would shatter. “Fred is interfering in what doesn’t concern him.”

“Why don’t you tell the truth?” Joseph’s face went from flushed to white. “You wish you hadn’t saved me that night. You wish I had died and the others had lived.”

He ran for the door, slamming it behind him, leaving stunned silence in the kitchen.

Tears spilled onto Judith’s cheeks. “Isaac, go after him. Tell him it’s not so. That’s a terrible thing for a boy to believe. Tell him.

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