As Sure as the Dawn by Francine Rivers Read Free Book Online Page A

said coldly, cursing himself for offering any explanation. It was none of her business. “The child is mine, woman. Untie him and give him to me.”
    Rizpah tried to fight back the tears, but they overflowed her. “No.”
    “No?”
    “Please. We must talk.”
    Atretes was unmoved. Julia had used tears against him to get whatever she wanted, too. “Nothing you can say will make a difference.”
    “Perhaps there’s been a mistake. Caleb has dark hair and eyes. . . .” Her voice trailed off when his eyes darkened with an anger she did not understand.
    “His mother had dark hair and eyes,” he said curtly. He took a step closer, and she drew back an equal distance. “Though I may have doubted the word of his mother,” he said cynically, “I have no cause to doubt the word of her handmaiden, Hadassah. The child is mine!”
    “You speak of him as though he were a possession! He isn’t a horse to be traded or a villa to be sold.” She looked around. “This isn’t a home. It’s a fortress. What sort of life can you offer him?”
    “That doesn’t concern you.”
    “It concerns me greatly. He’s my son.”
    “He was never your son, woman. Just because a child is placed in your arms doesn’t make him yours.”
    “He became part of me the moment John placed him in my arms,” she said.
    “All women have the heart of a harlot, and I will not leave my son in the hands of one!”
    Tears filling her eyes again. “You’re wrong to judge all women because of what one did to you.”
    “Your opinion matters little when weighed against my legal right to him.” He nodded at the babe, and her back stiffened.
    “You speak of legal rights. What of love? Where were you when his mother was commanding that he be abandoned? Why didn’t she send him to you? You didn’t want him either, did you? You turned your back on him. And you speak of womankind? Where would Caleb be now had Hadassah not rescued him? Why do you want him back now when you cared nothing about him before?”
    He wanted to throttle her for such questions, for they roused guilt and pain. They also roused a fierce possessiveness. “He is flesh of my flesh,” he said coldly.
    “Just because you spent a few hours in a woman’s bed doesn’t make you his father!”
    A muscle locked in his jaw.
    “You’ve scarcely looked at him,” she said, struggling against anger and grief. “Why do you want him, Atretes? What do you intend to do with him?”
    “I intend to take him back with me to Germania.”
    She let out a soft gasp. “Germania!” she said in anguish. “How will you, a man alone, tend a four-month-old nursing baby on such a long and arduous journey? Have you no thought of his welfare? He won’t survive!”
    “He will survive,” he said with fierce determination. “Now, give him to me.”
    “He’s too young—”
    “Give him to me, or by the gods, I will take him from you by force!”
    Caleb awakened and began to cry softly. Rizpah felt his small fists pressing against her breasts. Eyes filled with tears, she looked up at Atretes and knew he would do exactly as he threatened. She could not risk Caleb being harmed. Loosening her shawl, she held Caleb out to him. The baby cried harder, his small arms flailing. Her milk came, increasing her anguish. “He’s hungry.”
    Atretes hesitated. His son looked small and fragile. He looked at Rizpah and saw her anguish. Tears poured silently down her cheeks. Face rigid, he reached out and took his son. The infant cried harder.
    Rizpah crossed her arms over her heart. She looked up at him. “Please, Atretes, don’t do this.” Never had he seen such a look of anguish on a woman’s face.
    “Get out,” he said hoarsely.
    “Please—”
    “Get out!” he shouted, and the baby began to scream.
    Uttering a sob, Rizpah turned away.
    “Don’t forget this,” he said and kicked the pouch of money after her.
    She swung around at the door. Picking up the pouch, she flung it into the fountain, glaring