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Presently Gideon was sent for, and soon after he came in.

"Deliverance, Deliverance, hush, you are fine!" he said, a familiar rough hand laid firmly on my hair. "The doctor said you have not broken any bones."

But I only cried more, so hard the world was a blur, and Gideon's voice came to me as if above the surface of the waters, until I fell once again into an exhausted sleep.

When I awoke, my husband was still there.

"There was a leak somewhere," he said. "That entire wing has been sealed off for repairs."

I said nothing.

"I had not gone far," he said. "I came into the room as soon as I heard the crash, and at first I thought you were dead."

"I wish I was," I said. "Let me go. Just let me go back to my home village, I beg of you. I can find someone to stay with there."

"I will do no such thing," my husband said. "You belong here with me."

I said nothing else, drifting in and out of a dreamlike state, and Gideon eventually left. I heard him talking angrily to someone. Ada? One of the servants? I knew not.

He returned to force a clear savory broth down my throat, but still I stared at the wall, and so I remained, insensible to all attempts to rouse me until. . .one morning. . .

I felt a flutter in my belly.

Gasping for air, like I had just broken the surface of an icy river, I bolted up in my bed.

Surely, I was mistaken.

It had been a phantom, a mirage invented by my tortured brain.

But no, there it went again! That squirmy, fluttery feeling inside my belly.

I had not lost the baby after all!

"What? What is wrong?" Gideon asked irritably.

I wondered why he bothered to sit with me, but I could barely devote time to thinking about that.

My baby lived;Ilived!

I must find a way to escape Grayspires Manor! I had no idea how or when or where. And it would take more courage than I currently possessed to do it.

But I was going to escape!

CHAPTER 16

Deliverance

After what happened I am trembling so hard I can barely--speak! Let alone think if what I did was right.

I am sure some would say what I did was an affront against God. After all, is it not true that wives should obey their husbands? But?—

Is it truly a sin to disobey such vile wickedness?

It took me several days before I was able to make it downstairs after my fall, and when I did Gideon was beside me, his arm around my waist, helping me to the couch where he tucked blankets around me to guard against the chill.

There had been a subtle--shift in the atmosphere downstairs that I could not understand. Ada hovered on the outskirts of the room, her eyes hidden.

Had Gideon been angry with her?