Until We Reach Home by Lynn Austin Read Free Book Online Page B

inside. Kissing him had been like tasting chocolate for the first time and longing for more.
    Had he only pretended to love her in return?
    Kirsten rolled over on the unyielding bench and hid her face in her folded arms. How was it possible to hate someone and still love him at the same time?

Chapter Six
    W HEN S OFIA AWOKE , she knew they had been sailing for many hours. Someone had dimmed the gaslights in the ship’s salon and people lay sleeping all around her, sprawled across benches and slouched in their seats. Rain no longer drummed against the cabin roof and the sea seemed much calmer, which was a good thing. Sofia’s stomach felt like a herd of cattle had trampled it, but she dared to believe that she might not die after all.
    She sat up and looked out of a window. The view outside had changed from dense gray storm clouds and churning seas to a blackness so complete it was as if the ship had sunk to the bottom of the ocean, where no light could reach it. The only thing visible in the darkened window frame was her own pale reflection.
    Kirsten was asleep on the bench across from her, her knees drawn up to her chest. She had been sick all afternoon, too, and her cheeks, which usually glowed from the sun, looked milky white. Her lips were as colorless as a dead person’s.
    Elin had fallen asleep sitting up, and her face wore a worried expression, even at rest. Sofia knew she had caused some of that worry by arguing with her. She had wanted to punish Elin for ripping them away from their home, but now she was sorry, especially when she saw how pale and weary Elin looked.
    Sofia pulled her satchel closer, careful not to disturb Elin. She dug through it until she found her mother’s Bible, wrapped in one of Mama’s nicest aprons for protection. The Bible was small enough for Sofia to hold in one hand and had a black velvet cover framed in brass, with a brass clasp to hold it closed. The swirling print was old-fashioned and very tiny. Papa had given it to Mama as a wedding present.
    Their mother had read aloud from her Bible every evening when she was alive, and it seemed as though thrilling words and promises had leaped off the pages like spawning fish, landing right in Sofia’s heart. But when Sofia tried to read the Bible herself, the words never seemed to make any sense. She couldn’t find any comforting promises, only big words and alarming warnings like every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
    Ever since Mama died, whenever Sofia had tried to pray in church or in her bed at night, her prayers seemed to fly around aimlessly like trapped pigeons beating their wings against the ceiling, unable to fly any higher. The only prayers that soared weightlessly toward heaven were the ones she murmured outside in the cemetery beside her mother’s grave. Now, thanks to Elin, Sofia could no longer go there to pray.
    The cabin gradually grew lighter as dawn approached. After sitting motionless for a very long time, Sofia made up her mind to close her eyes and open the little Bible at random and read whatever passage she pointed to first. She would not stop reading until she found words of comfort and assurance. She pried open the little book near the back, recalling that all of the stories about Jesus were near the end of the Bible. But when she opened her eyes, the alarming heading at the top of the page read Paul Suffers Shipwreck. She read the first sentence: When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved.
    Sofia slapped the Bible shut. Where was the comfort in that?
    Gradually, the view out of the porthole changed from black to gray. The other passengers began to stir. Sofia was still sitting with the closed Bible on her lap when Elin and Kirsten woke up.
    “What a night!” Kirsten said as she stretched and yawned. “It’s a miracle we didn’t sink to the bottom of the North Sea in that