“That’s what the Covenant of Brotherly Love involves?”
“No, but you’re required to have taken the Covenant to participate. Only a select few are chosen.”
Sarah had been weeks away from making the initial commitment. Did that mean she would eventually have been invited down here? “So Ethan locks up men and women and then—”
“Just women,” Martha interrupted. “Once a month, he puts a virgin in here who is then offered to him on the altar as restitution for Eve’s sin. That kicks off the so-called celebration. And then the rest of the Guides take a turn with her, too.”
Bile rose in the back of Sarah’s throat. “But where would he get a virgin? Any virgin in this compound is just a girl. She hasn’t taken the Covenant.”
“Well, everyone except her has. He takes whoever’s the oldest.”
Sarah tried to calculate how many unmarried women lived in Paradise. “But there aren’t more than a handful over eighteen. Does that mean he takes young girls?”
Martha sagged against the bars. “Don’t worry. The girls don’t even know what’s happening. They’re drugged before they’re brought down here and are no worse for wear afterward.”
That made it okay? Sarah was shocked by how the religion she’d embraced had been twisted into something sordid and wrong and frightening.
“I can’t agree with that,” Sarah said. “It’s not right. The girls don’t have a say in what’s happening to them. Even their parents aren’t included in the decision.” But the parents she knew probably wouldn’t disagree. Not believing as they did. She’d been like that, too, hadn’t she? To a point, anyway.
Martha laughed again. “You don’t get it, do you? Ethan is the Holy One. What does it matter what some girl’s parents have to say? Any decision he makes overrides all other considerations, or he’ll simply claim that whoever’s opposing him has lost the faith.”
But Ethan’s word alone wasn’t enough for Sarah. Not anymore. The potential for abuse was too great. No man should have so much power, not when power corrupted human hearts the way it did. “And you don’t have a problem with rituals like this?”
Martha’s laughter suddenly switched to tears. “Not until he turned on me.”
Sarah had never felt so much contempt for another woman. And yet, could she really judge Martha? If more time had passed, and she hadn’t learned what she’d learned, would she have followed along as Martha had and gotten swept away by it all?
“What will he do to us?” she asked dully. She was thinking about her father and his admonishments to stay away from the Covenanters. In her efforts to find God, to rise above the violence and decay of normal society, she’d turned a blind eye to danger signs she should’ve heeded. But Ethan pressured them to sacrifice reason and common sense to faith and obedience; he made them feel they weren’t worthy to be chosen if they relied on their own thinking. Every time she was inclined to trust her judgment she suffered guilt. Choosing between the two had been a constant tug-of-war, which was partly why she’d put off taking the Covenant of Brotherly Love.
“He’s going to kill us,” Martha said. “Why else would he risk bringing me back here? If the police find out, it’ll put an end to the church.”
“Then why hasn’t he done it? Bart could’ve killed us both.”
“They plan to have a little fun first.”
Fun… Sarah studied the phallic symbol above the altar, wondering if that would be the last sight she ever saw. Then she remembered Courtney. Had her friend been brought down here?
Hoping to find the girl in the cage that appeared to be unoccupied, she strained to see past Martha, but could make out nothing. “Do you think he murdered Courtney Sinclair?”
“The girl who disappeared after I left?” Martha asked.
“Yes.”
“If she’s not down here, there’s no question.”
25
She’d found Todd. At her request, the woman sitting across from her pointed him out to Rachel while they were eating in the dining hall.
“I feel so bad for him,” Rachel murmured as a way to explain her interest. “He must be heartbroken over losing his wife.”
“Don’t worry,” the woman, who’d identified herself as Cori, responded wryly. “Around here, one woman is as good as the next.”
When Rachel allowed her confusion to show, Cori lowered her voice. “As long as we cook and clean and spread our legs, what does a man have to complain about?”
“You’re unhappy here?”
She sighed. “I don’t know. Sometimes I am. Other times I realize the outside world isn’t any better. Anyway, Todd’s okay. He’s already seeing Penny Platting.” She nodded toward the buxom woman with thick black hair sitting beside him.
“Doesn’t he have to wait until he’s divorced before he starts seeing another woman?” she asked.
“Martha’s been shunned. That means she no longer exists. He can’t be married to someone who doesn’t exist, right?”
“I guess not.” Rachel feared Martha’s lack of existence had become more real than everyone thought. In the few hours they’d left her to “nap,” she hadn’t been able to discover anything new about Martha. She’d wandered around the compound, hoping to get a sense of any impending action, but so far she hadn’t heard or seen anything to indicate that Martha was back.
Maybe she wasn’t back. Maybe she’d been killed en route, and Bart and Ethan, noticeably absent all afternoon, were out burying her. Anything was possible….
Wishing she could talk to Nate, she stole another glance at Todd. Did Martha’s husband know she’d been seized? He certainly didn’t act as if he’d just learned that his wife was in Paradise—or dead, for that matter.
Catching sight of her, he smiled. She quickly dropped her gaze, but he got up to make his way over.
“Hello.”
She tried to smile despite her swollen lip. “Hi.”
“I hear you’ve come to stay.”
“Word travels fast in Paradise.”
With strawberry-blond hair, golden lashes and skin so pale she could tell he’d once had a face full of freckles, he wasn’t the most attractive man in the world. “That’s true,” he said. “You can’t take a dump around here without someone knowing about it.”