I am Rebecca Read Online Free

matter concerns somebody else, why do you need to speak of it? You know the Rule. I am disappointed in you both. Call the family and we will pray for you.’
    We had failed. I turned to leave, but Rachel, her voice desperate, said, ‘Father, it concerns us too. And our good name among the Fellowship. We know it is a serious thing to ask to go against the Rule.’
    I gave her hand a squeeze. Father was very conscious of the good name of the Pilgrim family. I reached for some courage. ‘It is a serious reason, Father. Truly.’
    He closed his eyes and we knew he was asking the Lord for guidance. Finally, he looked at us. ‘Very well. You have my permission to break the Rule.’
    ‘Thank you, Father.’
    He did not tell us to sit.
    ‘We began getting low on change after about an hour,’ I said. ‘Usually it takes longer, but today everybody seemed to want to buy our eggs.’
    Rachel took up the story. ‘Ira went away as soon as we got to the market. He took the extra change with him. Rebecca went to look for him but could not find him. Five minutes later, I tried.’
    Me again. ‘We did not try again. It was not comfortable being alone among the people. But we had to turn several customers away who could not give us the correct money.’
    Here was where the story got sticky. Our father would not approve of us accepting assistance from a worldly person. It couldn’t be helped. It must be told. Rachel said, ‘The lady from the sweet stall saw what was happening. She offered to lend us some change and we accepted. We are sorry if that was wrong. We still had over half the eggs to sell and people were waiting.’
    We stood, holding each other’s hand tight. Father sat with his eyes closed, praying again, but in the end he said, ‘Continue.’
    ‘We sold all the eggs and returned the change to Mrs Lipscombe, the sweet-stall lady.’ I pulled a business card from my pocket. ‘She gave us this.’
    Father set it on his desk without looking at it. ‘You did right to speak of this. Ira cannot have understood that he was to escort you all day.’ Hiseyes narrowed. ‘Do you have the same complaints from when Gideon was your escort?’
    It would go badly for us if we did. Gideon had been our escort for several months.
    I shook my head. ‘No, Father. Brother Gideon never left us alone. When one of us needed to go to the bathroom, he asked Mrs Lipscombe to make sure the other was safe. Then he would wait and we would walk back together.’
    ‘He always thanked Mrs Lipscombe for her care,’ Rachel added.
    We couldn’t tell Father of Gideon’s kindness in helping us become accustomed to dealing with worldly strangers. He would question us closely to make sure we’d never broken the Rule when we spoke to our customers.
    ‘I will pray about this. Go and help your mother now.’
    ‘But that is not all, Father,’ Rachel said. She was shaking, and so was I.
    ‘We did not speak to Ira about his absence. But on the way home he threatened us. He called us an evil name and he told us not to speak about what had happened.’ I could not go on.
    Rachel finished the telling. ‘He said he would deny it. He said we would not be believed because we were girls and we were Pilgrims.’
    There. It was done. We had done our best to stop Ira’s mischief, but there was no escape from the fact that we had broken the Rule in speaking of it.
    Father’s expression was severe, or perhaps it was full of sorrow at being reminded of the shame of having a son, a daughter and a niece banished and deemed to be dead. Their expulsion from the Children of the Faith had brought the godliness of our family into question.
    But it seemed he had not been thinking of them. ‘You are telling me that
Ira
threatened you? That he used foul language against you? I cannot believe it of Ira. He is most strict in upholding the Rule. Are you certain of what you say? Is this a story to cover up your dealings with a worldly woman?’
    I stared at him, my chest