“The doctor is coming back this afternoon,” said Sabina. “I heard my father talking to him on the telephone. If the cast is sound and your leg safe, I’m sure he will let you get out of bed. And Papa asked him to bring a wheelchair with him.”

“A wheelchair! Oh no!”

“I’ll be able to wheel you for walks outside.”

“A wheelchair!” groaned Matthew again.

“Perhaps you will be able to walk about on crutches too.”

“Good grief! You’re talking about me as if I was a full-fledged invalid!”

“You are!” laughed Sabina. “Now you just have to relax, let us take care of you… and enjoy it! Here, I will read to you from my book.”

She sat down in a chair near the bed and picked up the volume she had left there the evening before.

“What’s it called?” asked Matthew.

“Der Geheimnisvolle Raum,” she answered. “It’s all about a huge castle in England. There are adventures and romance and ghosts and secrets and mysteries!”

“Are you sure it’s not about your house?” said Matthew.

“Ours is a mere shack compared to the castle in this book!” laughed Sabina. “Listen.” She flipped through some pages to where she had been reading, found her place, then read, “‘To fulfill the very necessities of our being we must be God’s children. Then only is our creation fulfilled—then only shall we be what we were made for.’”

“I thought it was a mystery about a castle!”

“It is, but with many little truths about God sprinkled in too. I just love how he mixes it all in together.”

“Well, I need some excitement. I’m already tired of this bed. Read me something scary!”

“All right!” laughed Sabina. “I’ll see if I can find something—wait a minute!” she said.

She turned back through what she had already read, then settled on a passage and began. Thus they passed most of the morning.

True to his word, within a few hours Doctor Abrahams arrived, bringing the wheelchair with him.

“You may take him outside if you like, but keep him in the chair,” he said to Sabina. “Tomorrow perhaps, if he feels no pain to stand on the leg, he may try to get around with the crutches. But do not let him be too active.”

Sabina nodded, and the doctor turned to leave the room. He paused at the door and spoke in a low voice to Marion.

“Is Heinrich here?” he asked.

“He’s gone down to Finkenwalde for two days,” replied his wife.

“Hmm…” intoned Abrahams with a grave expression.

“Is something wrong?”

“I don’t know, Marion. There are developments, that much I will say, although if he is at the seminary no doubt he will soon be aware of them.”

“I do not want to bring danger on my husband or daughter. What should I do, Aaron?”