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He didn’t seem to realize how vulgar that statement was, especially at the dinner table. “Goes with living in a small community, I suppose.”
“I suppose. Anyway, I think you’re going to like it here.”
She straightened her silverware. “I hope so.”
“It’s got to be better than living with that bastard who busted your lip, right?” he said with a lame chuckle.
Rachel took exception to his superior tone. He’d joined in when his wife was being stoned. But she nodded. “True.”
He thrust hands that were still freckled in the pockets of his jeans, which were far too tight to be stylish. “I saw your husband when you came here yesterday.”
“You did?”
“Yeah. Looks strong.”
She pretended to test her jaw. “He is.”
“But he must be stupid.”
“Excuse me?”
“He’d have to be stupid to lose a woman as beautiful as you.”
Uncomfortable with his frank admiration, she cleared her throat. “Your wife’s the one who left the commune, claiming you tried to kill her, isn’t she?”
He rocked back, instantly defensive. “Yes, but I didn’t. That’s a lie.”
“People will say anything to justify their own behavior,” she said with her own lame chuckle.
“Exactly. She knows she was in the wrong.”
“She does?”
“Deep down.”
“What’d she do?”
“She broke her covenants. And there’s nothing worse than that.”
Rachel feigned confusion. “Which covenant is that?”
“She disobeyed a prophet of God.”
Didn’t Todd participate when she disregarded Ethan’s mandate that they not sleep together? “Do you have to do everything Ethan says?”
“Of course. You can’t pick and choose. What kind of follower would that make you?”
“But…Ethan’s only human. Maybe he made a mistake. You two are married, after all.”
“He didn’t make a mistake. Prophets don’t make mistakes. God would never allow it.”
From her recollection, the Bible warned of false prophets, but no one here seemed to question whether Ethan might be false. “I see. So…if he told you to jump off a cliff, you’d do it?”
“Sure. There could be no greater test of my conviction.”
“My father has faith like yours,” she said.
He took it as a compliment. “You can develop it, too. I’ll help you learn, if you like.”
Fortunately, the woman he’d been sitting with sauntered over and slipped her hand in the crook of his arm. “Come back,” she whined. “Before you miss dessert.”
“I’m just saying hello to our newest member.”
Penny’s eyes weren’t nearly as friendly as Todd’s. “Hi. Sorry to hear what your husband did to you. He’s so handsome. I never would’ve expected it from a man like that.”
“He’s not that handsome,” Todd muttered, but Rachel ignored him. Evidently, Penny had seen Nate last night, too. “Sometimes it’s the people we trust the most who surprise us.”
“True.” Penny dragged Todd away. “Talk to you later,” she called back.
“I heard there was a child involved,” Rachel said to Cori after they were gone. “Where is he?”
“With a family who takes good care of him.”
“Todd hasn’t tried to get him back?”
“He can see him whenever he wants, but he knows it’s better for James to be raised by both a mother and a father.”
Which James had before everyone turned on Martha. “Maybe James will have a new mother soon,” she said, once again eyeing Todd and Penny.
“Looks that way,” Cori grumbled. “But I think Todd’s going to realize Martha wasn’t such a bad wife.”
“Penny can’t measure up to her?”
“I’ve always found her a bit vain and silly. But Ethan’s given them his blessing to see each other. So who am I to say they shouldn’t?”
Rachel had the impression that Ethan wasn’t paying as much attention to business as he used to. “I met someone else at the party that I don’t see here tonight.”
“Who’s that?”
“Sarah.” Did anyone else know she’d gone to Willcox to find Martha? If Ethan and Bart knew, or even suspected, that she’d been the one who’d helped Martha escape…
Cori half stood to see over the heads of everyone at the tables. “That’s odd,” she said. “I don’t see her, either.”
“She usually comes to dinner? I mean, she’s not working in the kitchen or anything?” Rachel asked.
“No, she works at the cheese factory, like I do, and she’s usually here.” With a frown, Cori settled back in her seat. “Maybe she’s not feeling well.”
Or maybe she was dead.
Ethan was on top of the world. C.J. hadn’t been able to crack the password on Nate Mott’s computer, not yet, but that seemed less and less important. They had too many other things going for them. Courtney could never threaten him again. Martha was back. Sarah, the only person who could link Martha’s abduction to him, would never see the light of day. And the woman he’d named as the Vessel was in the compound of her own free will and planning to join them. All those terrible feelings of foreboding he’d had over the past several weeks had been wrong. Life couldn’t be better. It was as if every problem had disappeared in one day. Not only that, the clandestine nature of his relationship with Bart was more titillating than anything he’d experienced thus far. They couldn’t keep their hands off each other. After Bart had returned with Martha and Sarah, they’d had the raunchiest sex imaginable—in his office, of all places. Ethan could still smell Bart’s cologne on his jalabiya.
He was in love for the first time. And the person he loved felt just as strongly about him. It was so different to have that bond, to respect the person he was sleeping with and to care what that person felt or thought afterward. In some ways it seemed to Ethan that he hadn’t truly lived until he and Bart had come together.
Seeing Bartholomew from across the crowded assembly hall, he curved his lips into a faint smile to tell his lover that he was thinking about the passion they’d shared. Then he focused on the crowd waiting to hear him speak. It was showtime. Rachel sat in a place of honor in the front row. She looked a bit uncomfortable, but he wasn’t worried that she’d back out. The welcome ritual was powerful and moving and would make her feel instantly connected. He’d seen it work time and again.
