My father had told me he’d come to bring Eli. The boy was his gift and I was to keep him safe. A gift in what way? Where was he? What if he would be the undoing of all that was sacred in Haven Valley? What if he’d been sent to save us?

I felt like I was walking on thin ice, and it was already cracking.

My father had called Eli my brother. Brother. I’d brought it up to Jamie the night before as we sat silently for dinner, and again he’d cut me off. But I pushed.

“Do you know where they’re keeping him?”

“In the deepest hole, where he belongs,” he snapped.

“Really? Where’s that?”

“For all I know, they’ve already sent him packing. Forget him, Grace. You’re in dangerous waters already.”

And with that, he’d pushed away his plate and left.

Mother had said nothing, though I suspected she wanted to support me. She just couldn’t bring herself to upset Jamie.

The news that Rose needed me to watch the children for a couple of hours that afternoon had come as a relief. She’d welcomed me into her home ten minutes earlier. Now I stood in their kitchen as Levi worked on his daily reading at the table and Stephen finished his lunch.

Rose was attending to Evelyn upstairs, where she’d been sequestered. The poor girl’s rash was continuing to spread, and cooling ointment had to be applied several times a day to give her relief. Rose was terribly concerned that the rash would spread to others in the community.

Strange, I thought, how Evelyn had contracted the rash even though she hadn’t left the approved path, while Stephen, who had, showed no sign of it. I hoped Dr. Charles would be able to identify what might have caused such a mysterious outbreak and the way to cure it before it spread.

Footsteps sounded behind me, and I turned to see Rose descending the last few steps to the main floor. She walked past me and placed Evelyn’s dirty lunch dishes in the kitchen sink before staring out the small window above the sink.

“I shouldn’t be gone long,” she eventually said, turning. “Keep the children inside.”

“Of course.”

Rose held my eyes, offering nothing but a flat face. Something was eating at her mind. The children picked up on her heaviness and remained stone still.

She crossed to a small side table along one of the kitchen walls and picked up a piece of paper. “I made a list of required vitamins you should be taking now that you’re expecting. They’re important for the baby’s development and overall health as much as yours.”

I took the list from her hand and scanned the items.