Paradise & More (Torres Family Saga) Read Online Free

Aaron.”
           “Go inside and sit down, both of you. I shall have the cook prepare a feast for starving men,” Serafina said, watching the silent interchange between father and son. They had quarreled much over the years. Aaron resembled his father physically, yet in other ways he was the exact opposite. Her gentle Benjamin was a skilled physician, quiet and bookish. Aaron was a soldier, impetuous and daring, a man of action, not introspection. Thank God Benjamin's patience was great. She walked along the gallery that encircled the interior of the house, then descended the stairs and crossed the courtyard toward the kitchens.
           Father and son settled wearily on piles of brocade cushions that covered a pair of long, low couches. Aaron knew the old man had not ridden all night only to see his wife and son a day sooner. “What is brewing that brings you from your patient at Malaga?”
           Benjamin chuckled grimly, “I never could dissemble with you. Isaac is in the city and would speak with us.”
           “Are you certain we dare risk being seen with your Jewish brother?” The moment he had asked the harsh question, Aaron cursed his own impetuosity. “I am sorry, Father.”
           “Isaac forgives me. The question is, my son, do you?” Benjamin asked with profound sorrow.
           “You know I have. I often speak before I think, then regret my words.” Aaron stood up and began to pace restlessly. “Where can we meet Uncle Isaac? We dare not go openly to his house.”
           “Under cover of darkness it can be done. Since today is neither Friday nor a Jewish feast day, the familiars of the Holy Office will be lax,” Benjamin said in a measured voice.
           “The eyes of the Inquisition are everywhere. You should have been in Granada after the triumphal procession into the city, Father. That fat old madman Torquemada, who is so in love with fire, set a great one, this time not for people, but for books—all the treasures of the Muslim libraries, thousands of volumes in Arabic and Hebrew, all destroyed! And worse, his power over the queen grows daily.”
           “Torquemada is only one madman,” Benjamin said quietly. “The monarchs need money and we, not he, can raise it for them. King Fernando still relies on many Jewish advisors such as your Uncle Isaac. Even the treasurer of the Civil Militia is Abraham Seneor—a Jew—in charge of the most powerful law enforcement body in all of Castile.”
           “If it is so secure to be a Jew, then why did we subject ourselves to conversion? Better to have stood with Uncle Isaac and refused.”
           “You know our agreement,” Benjamin said wearily. “One branch of the House of Torres had to convert in order to guarantee our survival if the worst befalls. Isaac agreed to the pact. So did Serafina and Ruth. You were too young…”
           “I was fourteen and Ana fifteen. Mateo was seventeen. We remember the old ways. We are neither Christian nor Jew now. Nor will we ever be accepted by the Old Christians. It does not work, this conversion at dagger's point. Families do it to save their lives and property, to keep from being dispossessed and sold into slavery in North Africa. But by becoming New Christians we are all under the Inquisitor General's power more surely than ever we were as Jews.”
           “We have often before had this argument, Aaron. That is why I want you to speak with Isaac. He brings news from court. He sent word to me in Malaga. Something of great import is afoot, and it concerns you.”
           “Colon must have his commission for the enterprise!” Aaron said excitedly.
           “Perhaps,” Benjamin replied with caution, then looked at his son with a shrewd, measuring eye. “You trust this Genoese sailor?”
           “Yes,” Aaron answered earnestly. “He is much as we are, a foreigner in every land where he has