The Girl Behind the Red Rope Page 12

  A collection of matching houses occupied the far south side of the town; a small white church with a tall cross steeple stood north, on a small mound that couldn’t really be classified as a hill.

  They’d built a wooden gate on the west side. Symbolic, by the looks of it. The rest of the town was open to the surrounding land, partitioned off by the red-roped perimeter.

  Hacking coughs shook his body again. Ben buckled under their intensity, chest aching. Gaining control, he straightened, spit blood to the side, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and forced a deep breath.

  A hand touched his arm and he turned to see Eli’s comforting gaze. “We can rest here,” the boy said.

  He returned Eli’s smile and ruffled the boy’s hair. “I made it this far. I’m not about to give up now.”

  Eli smiled.

  “Ready?” Ben asked.

  “Ready.”

  Ben pointed to the south. “We go in there where we won’t be seen. Sound good?”

  “Sure.” The boy started forward.

  Ben followed, taken aback by how weak he’d become. For a moment, he wondered if not driving up to the gate had been a mistake. What if he was too weak?

  Images of guards taking shots at an approaching truck washed away that concern. It was safer for the boy this way.

  They stopped twice before reaching the southern perimeter, both times so Ben could kneel and rest. He suppressed his coughs as much as possible, hoping they didn’t carry into town. But he was beyond even that now. His only purpose was to reach his family while he still could.

  They crossed the red rope and stepped into Haven Valley without so much as a lark announcing their arrival. So far so good. But they couldn’t go unnoticed for long.

  The first to see them was a young boy, maybe twelve, just as they stepped past the last of the homes and headed for the main street. The boy stared at them for a long time, then spun around and fled without a word.

  To announce the news, no doubt. There were strangers in town.

  “You good?” Ben asked Eli.

  Eli stared ahead, apparently curious but unconcerned. Ben let him be.

  Like mice emerging from their holes, people began to appear. Women in white, hair short; men in brown, hair mostly long. All walked carefully or stood rigid. All had their eyes on him and Eli. All looked like they were watching two ghosts walking through their town in broad daylight.

  For all Ben knew, they were the first strangers to set foot in the town in a decade.

  None of this mattered to him. His eyes were for one of three people. Julianna, Jamie, or Grace.

  A wave of nausea overtook him and he bent over, hacking into his fist. Eli stood beside him, studying the people. People who now knew that the one who’d violated their perimeter was ill.

  He spat blood in the dirt, ran his sleeve over his mouth, and slowly straightened. Many were backing away, eyes wide. Others were appearing around buildings, curious.

  Ben was about to take another step when he saw a young woman staring at him in disbelief, no more than twenty paces away. The world around him stilled. It had been ten years, but he knew her face—beautiful and grown, her eyes bluer than he remembered.

  Tears blurred his vision. The name he’d given her described her perfectly. Grace.

  Chapter

  Seventeen

  ONE OF MY DUTIES AS ANDREW’S WIFE WAS TO STOCK his pantry and refrigerator once every week, usually on Wednesday afternoons when I was mostly free. I was walking to his home the back way to see what was needed, doing my best to avoid drawing any attention, when I noticed Clair, Colin’s wife, hurrying toward the town center, clutching her long dress so she could move quickly.

  Strange, I thought. It isn’t like her. She’s baring her stockings!

  Then I noticed others heading the same direction and I knew something was happening. Too curious to mind my own business, I hurried around the Martins’ house and saw what they were seeing: a man and a boy walking along the main street toward the town center.

  Strangers.

  I nearly turned and ran, but the sight of the boy, so young and innocent, stopped me. Without knowing why, I found myself walking toward them.

  The man suddenly doubled over and began to cough, which concerned me. Others were pulling back, but I was pressing forward. The boy’s eyes were on me now, blue eyes that drew me.

  “Where are you going?”

  I twisted to see Bobbie standing to my right. My heart leaped. It was the first time she’d shown herself in public.

  “No one can see me. Where do you think you’re going?”

  “Who are they?” I asked.

  “Strangers,” said Lucy, who stood a few paces from me. She’d heard my question to Bobbie.

  “No need to use your voice in public, Grace. I can hear your thoughts. It doesn’t matter who they are, only that you don’t know who they are. It’s not safe. This is the kind of thing that will get you in trouble.”

  You don’t know who they are? I thought.

  She looked in their direction and frowned. “No, but that’s not the point. Your only concern is keeping your baby safe.”

  I looked back at the visitors and saw the man was straightening. Then looking at me with kind eyes.

  For a moment, he held my gaze as I took in his face. Something about it pulled at my curiosity. A distant memory, something I might have known once and had long forgotten. But it captured me. And then the old memory sharpened, and recognition surged through my mind.

  “You know him?” Bobbie asked.

  The round shape of his face, soft jawline and light brown eyes. The same shaggy hair. Wide shoulders, tall and thin, like Jamie. The man before me hadn’t always been a stranger.

  Ben. My father.

  But I didn’t really know my father because he’d abandoned us when I was young. What I did know of him was from my mother, who resented him for his drinking and faithlessness. I was a little surprised I even recognized him.

  Still, I did. And I had no idea what to think, much less feel. This was the monster whose name my mother forbade us from speaking in her house. I’d always assumed he was dead, taken by the Fury along with everyone else.

  His eyes grew wide and filled with tears, and I knew that he recognized me. After thirteen years he still knew my face. It was a simple thought, and it filled my heart with confusion. Should I like that he seemed to care about me? Part of me wanted to, especially now.

  The other part of me was angry at myself for wanting to like him.

  Then he was rushing toward me, leaving the boy to stand alone. His eyes were filled with only joy and love, palpable enough to reach out and touch me.

  I stood still, lost in confusion and anxiety. What was I supposed to do?

  Casting a glance to my right, I saw that Bobbie was gone. Which meant what?

  When I faced my father again, he was only a few paces away, wheezing and dropping to one knee, wide eyes on me, beaming with pride.

  “Grace,” he said. His voice was warm and full. “Honey, it’s me.”

  I didn’t know how to respond. The others were looking at me, connecting me with the stranger who’d come into town.

  He pushed himself up and stepped forward, still wheezing. A part of me wanted to back away if only to avoid his disease, but my legs wouldn’t move.

  He reached into his jeans pocket and pulled out a short braided band. Yellow, purple, and green, knotted at either end of the braid with extra strings dangling.

  “Do you remember this?” he asked.

  The memory of making it washed through my mind.

  “Do you remember?” he asked again.

  “It’s the bracelet I made,” I said.

  “You made two, actually,” he replied. “One for me and one for you. They matched. I always carry this one with me.”

  Strange, conflicting emotions crowded my throat.

  He held the colorful band out to me. “I want you to have this one. Something to reme
mber me by.” More tears slid down his cheeks.

  I said the only thing that came to mind. “You’re leaving?”

  The reality of our situation in Haven Valley suddenly broke through my confusion. Of course he was leaving. Rose would never permit him to stay.

  “I don’t have long,” he said. “I had to see you and your brother.” A beat passed. “How is your mother?”

  I inched back, unsure how I could have blindly exposed myself the way I just did. Jamie’s words softly echoed in my ears.

  Watch your heart, watch your neighbor, watch for the demon who appears as an angel.

  I glanced at the small clusters of people looking at us. He was an outsider, invading our way of life. In the wake of Jamie’s warnings, word would travel to Rose quickly. It wasn’t safe for me to be here.

  “You shouldn’t be here,” I said, shifting farther back.

  He nodded, undisturbed. “It’s okay, Grace. It’s okay that you’re afraid. But you don’t have to fear me. And mostly you don’t have to fear Eli.”

  Eli? My father was looking back at the boy who had started walking toward us.

  “He’s your brother,” my father said. “No harm must come to him. I beg you, keep him safe.”

  Brother? Lukas? He had the same hair and eyes and looked about the same age. But that was impossible. Another brother, then. The sight of him transfixed me. Such a beautiful boy!

  My father began to cough again, jarring me back to the present. Several deep, crackling hacks spawned a few more. He buckled at the waist, his shoulders shaking with each blow. Then he dropped to one knee.

  The boy reached us and knelt beside my father, hand on his shoulder, face filled with concern. But he said nothing.

  Another deep hack and my father sat hard, propping himself up with one arm as he coughed up blood. Murmurs ran through the onlookers at the sight, but I stood my ground, locked in indecision. Was I supposed to help him? Turn my back on him?

  He’d abandoned me, but I couldn’t turn away from him.

  “I have so much I want to say before . . .” he rasped, but then a terrible wheezing cut his words short. And I could see the truth in his eyes.

  He was dying, and he knew it.

  “Hey,” someone shouted from behind us.

  I turned to see three guardians headed our direction. Their eyes were fixed on my father, faces stricken with fear and confusion. “This is a private community! You’re trespassing.”

  When I turned back to my father, he was looking up at me. Reaching up, he took my hand, and for a moment the world around us faded.

  “My sweetest daughter,” he whispered, “in whom I see no fault, know the depths of love. A love that knows no fear. A love that formed you and named you and gave you to me. A blessing beyond my understanding.”

  His fingers trembled. “Eli is the gift I bring you. Hear him. Keep him safe. He knows the way out of this great deception.”

  He drew my hand to his face and kissed my knuckles. “I love you,” he said.

  And then the guardians were on us. Tanner, Morton, and Claude, who was leading them. Claude yanked my father away from me. The moment my father’s touch was gone, the momentary warmth I’d allowed myself to feel was gone as well, replaced by the fear of what would happen to him now.

  “Where did you come from?” Claude barked at my father. “What are you doing here?”

  Before my father could answer, he fell into another wave of vicious coughing, so heavy that all three guardians stepped back. They exchanged worried looks as my father collapsed. Blood dripped from the corner of his mouth. He couldn’t seem to get a breath.

  “He needs help,” I said, ignoring the voices in my head that warned me to stay out of it. “Please, he needs the doctor.”

  But Claude had stepped back, put off by whatever disease had ravaged my father, and he showed no sign that he’d even heard me.

  I made a move toward my father, but Claude stepped up and held out his arm, face red. “What do you think you’re doing? He could be contagious!”

  “He’s my father.”

  “Your father?”

  “He needs a doctor.”

  After a moment of hesitation, Claude told Morton to find Dr. Charles.

  My father lay on his side, wheezing heavily. I watched as his eyes rolled back into his skull. Then he went still. Either dead or unconscious.

  I stood trembling, torn by impossible conflict.

  “Move,” a voice boomed. I twisted to see Dr. Charles rushing forward, followed by his wife and nurse, Sherrie, and two more guardians, Marshall and Ralph. They hadn’t been far. Half the town seemed to have gathered.

  I backed away to give them space, praying my father would live.

  “We need to get him back to my clinic now.” Dr. Charles motioned for help from the guardians.

  “He’s not contagious?” Tanner asked.

  “Just don’t touch his blood. Hurry!”

  The guardians quickly lifted my father off the ground, one on each leg and one on each arm. He hung like a sack between them as they hurried his body toward the clinic.

  Claude jabbed a finger in my face. “You stay here.” He turned to Marshall, who’d remained by his side. “Take the boy to Harrison and bring them up to speed.”

  The boy!

  I glanced back over my shoulder. The blue-eyed boy stood a few feet away, tears trailing down his cheeks. Eli is the gift I bring you. Hear him. Keep him safe. He knows the way.

  Marshall grabbed the boy’s arm and led him away.

  A terrible urge to protect the child surged through me, but I knew there was nothing I could do for him in my position. I watched as he was escorted off. Nausea swelled in my stomach and I swallowed to keep it at bay.

  My thoughts turned to the life growing inside me. The life I had just endangered by interacting with my father. How many laws had I broken because I allowed myself to be swept up in my father’s drama?

  Be careful, Grace, Bobbie’s familiar voice warned. An echo in my mind alone. And then she was there, standing across the street, hidden in shadow, invisible to others because she was there only for me. To protect me, I thought. Against things coming. My father had come and brought the boy, Eli.

  Protect your heart.

  Even from the boy?

  From everything.

  Yes, I thought, protect my heart from everything.

  Chapter

  Eighteen

  “THE PATIENT FELL INTO A COMA SEVERAL MINUTES after we began to administer care,” Dr. Charles said. “His vitals are stable, but there’s no telling when or if he’ll wake.”

  I looked through the glass window that separated the clinic’s waiting room from one of three patient care rooms. My father lay alone and motionless on the white bed inside. Several monitors stood around him, reporting his steady vitals.

  My mother stood beside me. She was still in shock over seeing her husband for the first time after so many years. Her eyes were glazed, her body rigid. I was a little surprised she’d rushed to the clinic after hearing he’d come. Maybe he hadn’t been as bad a man as she’d insisted.

  Jamie lingered in the far corner of the waiting room, arms crossed, eyes pointed downward. He hadn’t said anything since arriving and had hardly looked at our father. I could only imagine the internal war taking shape in his mind. If Rose and Harrison hadn’t been in the room I may have asked him about it.

  “Do we know where he came from?” Harrison asked, staring through the glass.

  “We found his truck beyond the western border, recovered it and moved it to a secure spot inside the perimeter,” Claude answered. The first guardian on the scene, Claude was normally gentle and as loyal as they came. But when threats loomed, he knew his role. “The truck was clean. Mostly camping supplies and what you might expect from a long trip. Probably on the road for a while.”

  “And the boy?”

  “He’s under guard in my office,” Rose said. “Refuses to talk. Evidently, the only on
e to speak with either of them was Grace.” She cast me a suspicious glance.

  “I didn’t speak with the boy,” I said. “Only with my father.”

  “I would hardly say he is our father,” Jamie said from the corner. The room stilled for a long moment.

  Rose broke the silence. “What did Ben say to you, Grace?”

  Eli is the gift I bring you. Hear him. Keep him safe. He knows the way.

  Should I tell them? If I did, Rose would immediately see the boy as a threat. I couldn’t bear the thought of putting him in greater danger. I had to find out more. Evil would or had come to Haven Valley, but I didn’t yet know who was good and who was evil masquerading as good.

  Then again, who was I to declare any such thing?

  “Why did he come here?” Rose asked impatiently.

  “I don’t know why he came.”

  “You must know something. People saw the two of you interacting before he collapsed.”

  I searched through my muddled mind and pulled his words from the corners. “He said it was okay to be afraid. Something about a great deception.”

  I saw Jamie shift. He pushed himself off the wall and stepped forward. “He said that?”

  “And that the boy is our brother.”

  Jamie’s eyes flashed curiously, then darkened. “This is precisely the kind of trickery a monster would use. It’s obvious. He’s dangerous. So is the boy.”

  “He didn’t seem dangerous,” I said.

  “Then you’re blind. He’s a stranger among us, for heaven’s sake. Isn’t this exactly what Rose foretold?”

  “The same could be said of any of us,” I dared to say. “What if the boy is our brother?”

  Jamie considered this for a moment, but the cold expression on his face didn’t change. “I want nothing to do with either of them. They should both be thrown out.”

  Rose and Harrison exchanged a knowing look, and the room fell quiet again. My mother still said nothing as she continued to stare at her husband.

  Rose wasn’t done with me yet. “Please, Grace. Try to remember. Did Ben say anything else? Anything at all?”