Rafe grimaced. “They killed the escapees’ families?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know if they killed them with their own hands or let the animals have them, but they wouldn’t have just let them go.”

“No, I suppose not,” Rafe said, thinking as he noted everything she said in his notebook. “And so when Gideon disappeared? Did you think they’d kill you and your mother, too?”

She nodded grimly. “I did. I was so damn scared. Amos was scared, too. He thought we’d all be cast out. But then they took us with them. Mama was immediately taken from Amos and put in isolation. As soon as we were settled, Mama was given to Ephraim, compensation for Gideon killing Edward and stabbing Ephraim’s eye.”

Rafe’s gut roiled. She spoke of her mother’s fate so clinically, but he knew it was her coping mechanism and he wouldn’t deny her comfort in whatever form she chose to take it.

“And you?” he asked softly.

Her chin lifted, as if she was bracing herself. “I was allowed to stay with Amos until I was twelve.”

“When you were given to Ephraim,” Rafe finished heavily. “Why do you think they let you live?”

Another shrug. “They probably spared Amos because he was the community’s carpenter. But me and Mama? Maybe to make an example of us? To give Ephraim endless revenge? Because Ephraim was waiting until I was twelve? Everyone knew that Ephraim was ‘rough on his wives.’ That was the euphemism for sadistic brutalization.”

Rafe closed his eyes for a long moment, fighting back bile that burned his throat. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. He knew she’d returned to the sofa when it rocked slightly.

“I know,” she whispered back. After a few seconds, she said in a normal voice, “We should ask Gideon what he remembers. He was five when we arrived and I was barely a year old.”

He opened his eyes, startled to see she’d chosen the middle cushion, sitting much closer, but still not touching him. “We’ll do that,” he promised.

“What other kinds of things do you want to know?”

“Were any of the people who supposedly got devoured making waves in the community? Did any of them get cast out for questioning the rules?”

“Like marrying off twelve-year-old girls? I don’t know.” Her gaze went far away, her eyes narrowing in thought. “Maybe. After Gideon left, I was ostracized from the women and girls. I wasn’t allowed in school any longer and I wasn’t allowed to go on any more field trips to the forest or hang out with anyone.”

“That had to have been difficult,” Rafe murmured, earning him a surprised laugh.

“It was at first. But it was paradise compared to what happed after I turned twelve.”

His stomach twisted harder. At some point she might want to tell him what happened, and when she did, he’d listen. But not today, he thought, knowing he was being selfish. I’m not ready today. He still hadn’t processed the bombshell his mother had dropped on them the night before.