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his belt and began whipping me about the legs a few shook loose anyway. 
    When his arm grew tired he grabbed me by the long auburn braid which hung down my back.  “You will show respect for your king and husband now.” 
    I nodded weakly, crying out only a little when he grunted and pushed himself furiously inside my battered body. 

Chapter Five
     
    The next morning when we were in the car driving to Los Angeles, Winston’s courteous façade had returned.  But now I knew enough to recognize the lie.   The man who bought me a donut and carried my bag to the car for me was not the same man who brutalized me away from prying eyes. 
    Once on the road he chatted cordially about the weather and pointed out the peculiarities of the desert as we traveled away from Phoenix and into this brown wasteland which sat between the metropolitan area and the California border.  He asked me questions about midwifery and told me how eager the Jericho Valley women were for my help now that I had finished my schooling. 
    When his hand landed on my knee I had to battle my own will not to pull away.
    “Promise,” he said.  “I am so pleased that you and I are finally man and wife.”
    I nodded, trying to shift my body in such a way that my back didn’t graze the seat.  If my ribs had not been broken before last night, they most certainly were now.  “Yes,” I said in a small voice.  “So am I.” 
    And he returned to grinning and talking about things which didn’t matter at all.  When we were well into the shimmering desolation of the desert, Winston pulled off the road to a rest stop.  Fleetingly I glimpsed a plainly lettered sign indicating that we were in the town of Hope.  Winston ordered me to remain in the car as he filled up the vehicle with gas.   I didn’t object.  It was too painful to move anyway.
    A car pulled in next to ours and a laughing man emerged.  His little daughter, who couldn’t have been more than six, exited from the back and leapt into his arms.  She kissed him on the cheek and wrapped her small arms around his neck as a woman popped her head out from the passenger side and grinned at them. 
    The man kissed the little girl on the forehead and she looked at him with a perfect blend of love and trust.  “You’re the best daddy in the world,” she said with the sober sincerity only a child could muster. 
    The woman, a petite, older version of the little girl, looked at her family fondly as the man kissed the child on the head and sent her off with the woman.  They walked hand in hand toward the tiny convenience store attached to the gas station. 
    I closed my eyes and concentrate d on drawing shallow breaths.  I dearly hoped the little girl’s parents loved her as much as they seemed to. 
    When Winston closed the door the vibration bit into my tormented back and I winced.  At my small cry he I sensed him watching me but I kept my eyes closed and after a moment he turned the ignition. 
    When I felt the car beginning to accelerate towards the freeway again I opened my eyes.  A carefully painted billboard on the side of the road outside Hope, Arizona cleverly spelled out:  “You Are Now Beyond Hope.” 
    The words were agony. 
    I stared dully out at the parched ground.  The sky was an impossible dome of blue but I felt no pleasure in it.  And then a small gasp left my throat at the next road sign I saw. 
    Quartzsite: 37 miles.
    Winston glanced at me sharply but I gave him a small smile of reassurance and he faced back to the road, forgetting me and turning the dial to some classical music.
    When we reached the boundaries of Quartzsite, I stared hungrily out the window, searching for some sign of my beautiful cousin. 
    Rachel.  Rachel. 
    Even the voice inside my head sounded weak and plaintive.  Still I called to her silently, wanting her to know that I was here, that I knew now that she had been right.  And that if it weren’t for my fierce obligation to protect my