Avenger of Blood by John Hagee Read Free Book Online

she’d gone this far, she decided she might as well take things a step further.
    â€œHave you talked to your father about it?” she asked. According to custom, Galen’s father should be the one to approach her father about the union.
    Galen’s smile vanished. “I’ve talked to him about it.”
    â€œIs he opposed to it?”
    â€œNo. But he’s not enthusiastic about it, either. He doesn’t think your father would find me suitable.”
    â€œBecause your family is not as wealthy as ours?” That was the obstacle he had implied earlier, when he talked to her in the garden.
    â€œWe’re not even close. No family is as wealthy as yours.”
    â€œThat’s beside the point,” she said. “If you follow that line of thinking, then there would never be a suitable husband for me.”
    â€œThen I guess the question is, would your father approve?”
    â€œMy father wants what’s best for me,” she said confidently. “And you’re what’s best for me, Galen.” Her voice wavered with the emotion of saying the words out loud. “I’ve loved you for a long time.”
    â€œI’ve loved you longer.”
    The statement surprised Rebecca into complete silence.
    â€œYou didn’t know that?” he asked. “And here I thought you always knew what I was thinking.”
    She looked at him in amazement as he continued, “I’ve been in love with you since almost the first day I met you.”
    â€œBut that would have been . . .” She finally found her voice, but her mind wasn’t quite working yet. “I was just eight years old when your family started coming to our house for church.”
    â€œAnd I was ten, and not the least bit interested in girls at the time. But then I’d never seen a girl as beautiful as you. And then I discovered you were as sweet as you were beautiful. I think it took me two years just to work up the courage to speak to you. And when I did, and you smiled at me, I thought my life had ended—or that it had just begun. I was so confused, I wasn’t sure which; I just knew my life would never be the same.” He reached for her hand, bringing it to his lips. “And it hasn’t.”
    Rebecca left her hand in his after he kissed it. She couldn’t remember when Galen had said so many words at once. And what sweet words they were.
    â€œI’ll speak to my father again,” he told her.
    When she was seventeen, Rebecca and Galen had received their parents’ blessing. But by then the Tenth Legion had arrived in Ephesus. That autumn had been a time of great uncertainty, but Rebecca and Galen continued to make plans for a wedding the following spring. They promised that nothing, not even the threat of persecution, would ever separate them. Of the two of them, Rebecca had thought it would be Galen who faced the greater danger; his shop was in the crowded marketplace that lined the main avenue of the commercial district, and soldiers were often in the area asking questions.
    Of course, it turned out that she was the one who became a prisoner for her faith.
    On Devil’s Island her dream of marrying and raising a family with Galen had been utterly destroyed, and she had had to come to terms with the grievous loss of that dream.
    But then a miracle happened. Almost one year into her life sentence, Rebecca had been released.
    As she sailed home to Ephesus, Rebecca had dared to let God rekindle her dream. She couldn’t wait to see Galen.
    When she got home and got a good look at herself in the mirror, however, she was horrified. Her well-proportioned curves had turned into bony angles. She was thin and gaunt, her eyes sunken. Her once lovely hair was lackluster, her hands were callused and rough.
    But it wasn’t just the changes in her appearance that concerned her. Rebecca also had a baby, and she didn’t know how her fiancé would react. Could he