Horror screamed through every inch of Gabrielle.“Nay!”She started to run, but the pirate caught her and plucked Matthew from her arms as easily as one would a sack of rice.Desperate, she clung to him tightly, tugging and pulling with all her might.“Let him go!Let him go!”But to no avail.She finally released him, for the man’s powerful wrenching would no doubt hurt her precious babe.Matthew screamed, flailing his chubby arms through the air.
Gabrielle’s heart plummeted to the rocks below, and she sank to her knees, sobbing.
The other pirate yanked her to her feet and violently pulled her down the cliff into the pool where Cadan remained, his expression mimicking her own horror.Her feet hurt, her legs ached, bruises and cuts marred her arms, but the greatest pain of all?Her broken heart.
“Now,” Damien said with a smirk and a wave of his jeweled fingers.“Into the cave you go.Both of you.”
“It will soon flood, Allard,” Cadan said.“You can’t be that heartless.”
“Oh, you have no idea,mon ami.Now inside, or I’ll be forced to shoot the lady.”He snapped his fingers, and a pirate next to him leveled his pistol at Gabrielle.
Matthew’s mournful howls joined the crash of the incoming tide as all hope fled her, leaving a numbness in its wake.
One of the pirates shoved his pistol in Cadan’s back.“In wit’ ye, ye bloated milksop.”
Bubbling water swirled around Gabrielle’s gown.Just a few feet away, the waves slammed Smity’s lifeless body against a boulder.She tore her gaze from the horrid sight.
Cadan grabbed her hand and gave her a nod as if to say,let’s do what they say.Was he serious?She’d rather be shot than slowly drown.But Matthew’s cries ripped holes in her heart.If there was a chance, even a small one they could survive….Lord?Hadn’t she just felt the Almighty’s presence?Scanning the top of the cliff, she searched for her angel.
There he was, looking down on her with confidence, sparking her hope.Yet…perhaps he merely waited to escort her to heaven.
Facing Cadan, she nodded back, turned, dropped to her knees, and crawled, sloshing through the water, into the dark cave.
Cadan splashed in after her.
Moments later, grunts and groans sounded from outside, and a boulder was shoved over the opening, covering it by half.
A darkness as thick and malevolent as the water clawing up their thighs surrounded them.All save for a shaft of light coming from a narrow opening at the top.
Squatting in the water, Cadan shouldered the massive boulder covering the opening.It didn’t move.Turning, he sat, raised his legs and kicked it with all his might.Nothing.Then, finally, he attempted to squeeze through the remaining opening.But to no avail.
’Twas too small even for a child.
Rising, he splashed back toward her and took her in his arms.She welcomed his embrace and leaned her head against his sodden shirt, listening to the beat of his heart.
More water gushed in through the opening.
“We are going to die, aren’t we?”
???
Pell leaned back against the cold iron bars of the tiny cage that had been his prison for over a week.He’d grown accustomed to the darkness as thick as tar and the stench that could wake the dead.He’d grown accustomed to the sound of Moses’ deep breathing and Soot’s nasally whine.He’d even grown accustomed to the rats that frequented their cell, skittering about their feet seeking scraps of food.
What he hadn’t grown accustomed to was the deep well of despair that had taken over his soul.Having been a man of God, a preacher, a missionary, he’d always embraced hope, for wasn’t hope a central theme of the Holy Scriptures?Hope, even in the direst of circumstances, hope in a faithful God who protected, provided, answered prayers, and who loved His children.Hope that there was an eternity beyond this world, a place where all would be made right, every justice resolved, every pain healed, every tear wiped away.A hope that enabled a man to face whatever came, whether poverty or riches, sickness or health, injustice or fairness, persecution or providence, all to be endured with perseverance, knowing that this life was but a vapor compared to the eternal bliss that awaited him.That hope came from belief in a Savior who gave up everything to die for mankind, thus opening the pathway to God and that blissful eternity.
A rat began to nibble on his boot, and he kicked it away.When had he lost that hope?Surely after his son died—a burst of raw pain clumped in his throat—it had begun to dwindle.Then after his wife succumbed to her grief, more had been burned away.But now, locked in this hold for days, his life in the hands of a vindictive madman, the last shred of hope had dissipated in the rank air.
Or had it?
I have never left you.
That voice, that tender, loving, yet powerful voice!Pell had once known that voice well, had heard it often, had relished the wisdom and love flowing through its words.
Moisture burned in his eyes.Why, Lord, why?
My plans are not your plans.All things work together for good.
Good?What good could come out of him losing his family?But then he remembered the vision he’d had of his wife and son in…heaven, was it?And her words,we are well, my love.Don’t give up,eased over him.
