Read Sarai (Jill Eileen Smith) for Free Online Page A

you.” He pulled her toward him until her head rested on his shoulder and she was encased in his arms. “It will only be for those times when we enter a large city where a king resides, where the danger would be the greatest. As your brother, my life would not be in danger, and I would be in a better position to protect you.”
    His words sounded so convincing, but how would he truly stop a king’s men should they come for her? And how long would she be forced to sleep alone during such an arrangement? She wasn’t getting any younger. If she didn’t conceive Adonai’s promised one soon, she might lose her chance. She shivered against Abram’s chest.
    His hand trailed along her arm, then drew circles along her back. “Please do me this kindness, beloved. Do not make me beg you.”
    She almost laughed at the thought of her strong husband begging her for anything. She pulled back to look at him again, seeing the hint of defeat in his eyes. If she pouted or pushed him, she could get him to change his mind, to put away this ridiculous plan. But she couldn’t bear to disappoint him, despite the sacrifice to their marriage.
    “I will do this,” she whispered, hating her beauty that put her at such risk, hating the need that spurred him to ask, hating the wickedness of foreign kings who would kill a man for his wife. “But I will not like it.” She frowned, making sure he noted her displeasure.
    He cupped her face with his hand and smiled. “Thank you, dear one. I will not like it any more than you will. But whether you think so or not, you have just given me back my life.” He kissed her then, as though he didn’t care who could see. Heat poured into her face at the sound of voices coming closer, but he did not pull back or shorten his kiss. When he released her, leaving both of them breathless, she smoothed her robe and glanced quickly behind her. Lot strode toward them, leading a group of men, obviously seeking Abram to speak with him.
    “I should go, my lord.” She touched her mouth with the back of her hand, her lips still trembling from his ardent kiss. Would she feel such a kiss on their journey, or would every day be fraught with danger too great, relegating her back to the role of sister instead of wife?
    Abram stood and helped her to her feet, then left her to meet his nephew. Sarai hurried in the opposite direction, away from the scrutiny of the other men, away from her own traitorous thoughts. Lot would have no such need to ask Melah to lie about their relationship. Melah lacked the beauty that men would want and Lot would fear. Besides, Melah had one child and carried another—if, God willing, it lived. Another reason why Lot would not worry that men would take her.
    On the other hand, Sarai not only had no child, but apparently, for at least part of their journey into the future, she would have no husband as well.

4
    Sarai rose from the hard ground, her back aching and her limbs stiff and sore. The dark interior of the goat’s-hair tent let in little light, but the sounds of the stirring camp and the scent of flat bread baking told her it was time to rise and would soon be time to move on again. It had been only two weeks since they left their comfortable home in Ur, yet it felt as though they had been traveling forever.
    She stretched her arms overhead, surprised at the creak in her bones. She could not continue this ridiculous arrangement. At the very least, she must speak to Abram and insist upon a mat of feathers, not this prickly straw she’d been forced to lie upon. How to transport such a thing would be up to the servants to figure out. She simply could not sleep on the ground one more night!
    Voices grew louder outside the tent. Had she slept so long that the whole camp was already working without her? Feeling her way along the tent’s wall, she found the tunic and robe she had worn yesterday and the day before, and too many days to count before that. The faded red and gold made her look