Dazzle The Complete Unabridged Trilogy by Judith Gould Read Free Book Online Page A

trampled to death under the iron-shod hooves of their horses. Senda shut her eyes. She had recognized Hannah Jaffe, who lived in the cottage next door and was so proud of her cooking. She always brought her neighbours a piece of cake when she baked one, or brought over steaming pots of chicken soup if someone was ill. She would never cook and bake again. The Cossacks had seen to that.
    Senda watched, heartbroken, as Solomon, the husband she did not love, made a valiant attempt to rescue the sacred Torah from the synagogue. When he ran out of the temple with the scrolls tucked under his arm, a Cossack's whip expertly lashed out, coiling itself around him and the scrolls. Totally immobi lized, Solomon stood stock-still, eyes lifted skyward, as a band of Cossacks hacked his body and the scrolls into bloody bits. Senda grieved terribly for that one instant. So he had not been a coward. He had died bravely, and she now felt shame for the way she had treated him.
    But soon that fragmented emotion was replaced by another, for the most terrible sight of all now greeted her eyes. Her beloved Grandmother Goldie, white-blond hair tied back, still shod in the mules she wore indoors, socks too big for her sagging around her ankles, came marching through ragged clouds of smoke down the one road which bisected the village, her eyes narrowed in grim determination. All around Goldie, the slaughter took place with furious speed and brutal efficiency, but her pace never flagged. She was not one to suffer death without a fight. Twice, once with her heart, and another time with her liver, she had cheated the grim reaper, and she wasn't about to stand still and wait for the Cossacks to finish the job. Not if she could help it. She held her boning knife poised high in the air and headed straight for the nearest mounted Cossack, her stride never breaking. Before she could reach him, he threw back his head and laughed, then reined in his horse, forcing its front legs high, and when they swiftly descended, the hooves crushed Grandmother Goldie to the ground as easily as other horses had crushed Hannah Jaffe.
    Senda could bear no more. She was sickened by the viol ence, the needless slaughter; repulsed by the devilish joy the Cossacks seemed to derive from it. And then, miraculously, she saw an opportunity to try to help one person.
    Despite her size, Aunt Sophie had avoided the slashing sabres on three occasions in as many minutes, and she was racing as fast as her plump legs could carry her toward the very bushes behind which Senda and Schmarya were hidden. She was running breathlessly, her thick arms stretched out in front of her, as though waiting for invisible hands to pull her. When she caught sight of Senda parting the bushes and reach ing out to her, hope gleamed in Sophie's eyes.
    'Hurry!' Senda called encouragingly, her heart hammering wildly. 'Hurry, Aunt Sophie!' And she prayed as the gap between the two of them narrowed. ' Hurry!'
    At that moment, a Cossack cut Aunt Sophie off and aimed his rifle. Senda screamed as she heard the report. Aunt Sophie's body seemed to jump into the air; her head snapped backward. Her face was shattered, spraying everything around her with fragments of tissue, bone, and blood. Senda could feel warm drops of it raining down on her face and arms.
    She squeezed her eyes shut, too shocked to scream any longer. Numbly she allowed Schmarya to pull her back into the shielding safety of the bushes. For several minutes she lay there in white-faced shock. Then she heard Schmarya curse.
    She turned to him and opened her eyes. 'What is it?' she asked tremulously, afraid of the reply. She was afraid of so many things suddenly.
    Schmarya's face seemed to have undergone a metamorphosis. Whereas anguish had contorted it earlier, a silent, seething rage was now burning.
    'Schmarya . . .'
    'They're not all Cossacks,' he muttered grimly. 'At least one of them isn't.'
    'What!'
    'Look for yourself,' Schmarya whispered. 'It's the