Alchemist by Peter James Read Free Book Online

eternal damnation?’ his father said.
    â€˜Spirit,’ the boy mouthed.
    â€˜Speak up, Daniel, I can’t hear you and your mother can’t hear you, and if we can’t hear you the Lord our Father cannot hear you.’
    â€˜Spirit,’ the boy said again, more loudly, choking on the tears that guttered down his cheeks.
    â€˜For if you live according to the sinful nature,’ his mother continued, ‘you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.’
    The father pressed his face close to his son’s. So close the son could feel the warmth of human breath, could see chin stubble.
    â€˜You do not want to commit any misdeeds of the body do you, boy? Assure your mother and I and, above all, assure our Lord.’
    â€˜No mm-mm-middeeds,’ the boy said in terror.
    â€˜For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the spirit of sonship. And by him we cry,
Abba, Father
. The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.’
    â€˜And you want to be one of God’s children, don’t you, boy? Not one of Satan’s?’
    â€˜God’s children,’ the boy mouthed.
    â€˜Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God. Like Christ. And if we share in His sufferings it is in order that we may also share in His glory.’
    His parents fell silent. Daniel watched their faces in turn; cold eyes raked him. He had let them down again, even in his sleep, in some way he did not comprehend.
    â€˜Do you want us to save you from the Lord’s wrath, boy?’
    Daniel stared at his father and nodded meekly. He saw his mother slip out of the room.
    His father asked again. ‘Are you sure you wouldn’t rather enjoin with Satan? Suffer the eternal fires of damnation in Hell?’
    The boy shook his head.
    â€˜Shall we say the Lord’s Prayer together, boy?’
    Daniel nodded.
    â€˜Our Father which art in Heaven,’ his father began.
    â€˜Our Father which art in Heaven,’ the boy repeated as his mother returned to the room with two long leather straps. As they continued to recite the Lord’s Prayer, she bound his left arm tightly by the wrist, then tugged it down the outside of the bed, looped the strap tightly around the outside of the metalframe and secured it. Then she did the same with his right arm so that he was lying on his back with his arms pinioned down the outside of the bed.
    â€˜It’s for your own good,’ his father said more gently when his mother had finished. ‘To save you from yourself in the eyes of the Lord. To save you from being tempted to touch your forbidden parts.’
    â€˜To save us all from the Lord’s wrath,’ his mother added in her sour, loveless voice. ‘To save us from your sins.’
    Then they turned the light off and closed the door.

7
    London
.
October
,
1993
    The Directors’ dining room on the forty-ninth floor of the Bendix Building felt so light and airy it seemed to Monty almost impossible to believe that it had no hidden windows with natural daylight streaming in.
    The décor was the same Regency grey and white colour scheme as the anteroom; it was furnished with a traditional oval mahogany dining table and matching chairs, and the walls were hung with Impressionist paintings, which was the school she loved most. There was a Degas still life on the wall behind her father, and she found herself unable to stop looking at it.
An original Degas. Not a print or a copy. She was eating her lunch in front of a real Degas!
She had never seen one outside a gallery before.
    The menu was superb: grilled scallops, followed by fillet steak, and an exotic fruit salad, along with fine white and red wines.
    At least her father had behaved himself so far. In fact, he had been remarkably good company,