This Place is Death by Denise Grover Swank

Author:Denise Grover Swank [Swank, Denise Grover]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: BluA
Published: 2014-02-18T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOUR

Manteo had been missing from the village for the entire day. The colony had noticed his absence and decreed him a coward and a traitor. Ananias knew the truth—Manteo was preparing for the ceremony he planned to perform later that night. The ceremony to steal the Roanoke tribe’s power by binding their spirits behind the gates of hell. What the native planned to do was far more dangerous than running away or staring down death at the end of a spear point, but Manteo had sworn him to secrecy.

Elinor nursed the baby as Ananias sat on the bed next to her, his arm wrapped around her back. He’d spent the day begging her to take the baby and go to Manteo’s people, but she refused to consider it, and truth be told, Ananias couldn’t bear for her to leave. What if she and the baby were kidnapped or murdered on the way? Or worse.

He couldn’t entertain the thought of Ellie or the baby dying or being tortured. Each time his mind strayed there, his heart strangled and his lungs refused to fill. He forced his chest to expand, his fingers digging into the small of his wife’s back. He’d kill them himself before he allowed anything vile to happen to his small family.

She looked up at him with tired eyes. “We will be fine, Ananias. You shall see.”

He’d always loved her optimism, and he definitely needed it now. “Ellie, I swear upon my life that I will do everything in my power to save you and Virginia.”

Elinor lifted her hand to his cheek, her thumb stroking the coarse stubble. “I know you will. That’s who you are, my husband. That’s why I love you.” Her eyelids fluttered in her attempt to stay awake. She looked down at the child cooing at her breast, forcing her eyes to widen.

Ananias lifted the baby from her arms. “Let me take her. You need sleep.”

She kissed him, smiling against his lips. “You are much too good to me. If anything happens…”

He kissed her back to stop her words. “I love you, Elinor. I’ve loved you since the moment I first saw you, remember? When your bonnet flew off your head, and I retrieved it from the street.”

“I seem to recall there was much more teasing involved than you remember. And you still had an eye for that witch Mary Ann.” Laughing softly, she pushed on his chest, letting her fingers linger there. His hand covered hers, pressing her palm over his heart. Virginia reached up and joined her hand with theirs.

A lump filled his throat and he coughed to clear it. “There is only you, Elinor. Forever and always, only you and Virginia.”

Tears shimmered in her eyes and her chin quivered. “We shall be with each other until the end of eternity, Ananias, no matter what happens.”

A tear slid down her cheek, and he kissed it, the saltiness lingering on his tongue. “Get some rest, my love. I will take care of the babe until she falls asleep.

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