Righteous04 - The Blessed and the Damned Read Online Free Page B

that right?” she demanded. “Then where is Brother Abraham? He can tell me himself.”
    “He sent me instead.”
    “Don’t lie to me, Jacob Christianson. I’m a pathetic old lady, but I’m not an idiot. He didn’t send you—he’d never do that. But I’ll tell you what, if your father wants my help, I’ll do it. How about that? I’ll tell you how to find Taylor Junior and his camp. I’ll even come back to Blister Creek if Abraham speaks as a prophet and tells me that’s the Lord’s will. But until then, my responsibility is to obey my husband.”
    Jacob hardened his voice. “Tell me how to find Taylor Junior.”
    “No.” She thrust out her chin. “You can beat me if you like, threaten to kill me. I don’t care, I’m not telling you anything.”
    “Then you leave me no choice.” Slowly, reluctantly, he turned and gave Eliza a nod. His sister’s eyes widened almost imperceptibly.
    “What are you talking about?”
    “She doesn’t understand,” Eliza said.
    Charity turned with a frown and cocked her head. “Understand what, Eliza?”
    “Or maybe she does,” Jacob said, “but she’s hardened her heart.”
    “No, I can’t believe that,” Eliza said. “She may be stubborn, but if she knew you’d been called by the Lord, she’d help. Sister Charity has always listened to the Spirit.”
    Charity snorted. “Oh, that’s what we need, another self-proclaimed prophet.” But a hint of doubt scratched through in her voice.
    “You see,” Jacob said. “She has hardened her heart. I have no choice.”
    He turned without warning and grabbed Charity by the shoulders. He dragged her to her feet and kicked away the chair. She felt light, frail. Her wrist bones creaked beneath his grip. A twist and they would snap like dead branches. She cried out and struggled, but he gave her a savage shake. She moaned in terror.
    “Charity Kimball! In the name of Jesus Christ, thou art rebuked before God, angels, and these witnesses.”
    “No, please! Don’t do it, please, no!”
    Is this what Father does?
    Did he bully people? Threaten them with damnation, lord his priesthood over his followers when they didn’t obey their prophet? Did his blood pulse with righteous anger as his enemies cowered before him?
    Charity’s feet collapsed and he gripped the fabric of her dress with his left hand to hold her upright. He raised the other hand to the square and she let out a whimper, eyes widening in dread.
    “The Lord is displeased, Charity. Thou hast hardened thy heart against his servants.”
    “I’m sorry. Please!”
    “Thy soul is at the edge of a precipice. One wrong word, one misstep, one note of defiance and thou shalt spend eternity in outer darkness with Lucifer and his angels. I shall condemn thee and cast thee down to hell.”
    “Have mercy!”
    “Obey me, Charity Kimball. Obey me and thou shalt live.”
    She was trembling violently and her voice shook as she said, “Thou sayest. Thou sayest!”
    Her concession left him feeling ill, stomaching roiling with guilt. He’d bullied her into compliance with spiritual threats—penetrating, he knew, where a threat of physical violence would have failed. It was the same disgusting tactic that forced teenage girls to marry old men, that drove surplus boys from the community. The same tactic that had destroyed one of his brothers and left the other a drug-addicted husk.
    Jacob relaxed his grip and lowered his voice. “Now tell me. Where is Taylor Junior hiding?”
    “Dark Canyon.”
    “By Blanding?”
    “Yes, the wilderness area. They’ve got a secret camp high in the mountains.”
    He’d driven past, but never entered. Just one of dozens of places to hide in the vast swath of land in southeastern Utah—he didn’t have time to search them all. It was an official wilderness area, maybe a hundred square miles without towns or roads. Hundreds more square miles of desolation surrounded the area. It was a good place to hide, and it fit with several other