“We have no choice, my lady,” said Ezra, no more sure of his creation than she was. “We just have to take our chances and pray a lot!”
Between the four of them they pushed and dragged it down the beach and into the foaming surf. The ocean was a clear transparent blue enticing them into danger like a siren. Ezra put the enthusiastic children on the raft and he and Angela worked against the tide until they were waist deep.
“Get on!” he shouted, helping her when she floundered weakly. Only when the water was over his head did he slither aboard sopping wet but with a huge grin splitting his face. “It floats!”
Lorna and Robert clapped and Angela just sat there with a half smile on her face and tears slipping down her cheeks.
Then she resolutely turned her eyes toward the future—toward the vast, blue, beckoning ocean. The horror and degradation of the night were over, and a new day had just been born. Somewhere she would find Scott. Someday they would meet their destiny together.
Like a phoenix rising from the ashes of her own destruction she would spring forth—fresh and new and eternally beautiful—to find her one true love.
Across Captive Seas Page 32
