The Royal Handmaid Read Online Free PDF Page B

at them. That young Albert Gibson may be an able scholar, but he’s frailer than any girl I ever saw. He wouldn’t last a week on a mission station.”
    Rena swallowed hard, for she had almost come to the same conclusion. “I think you may be right about him, Dad, but what about Miss Johnson?”
    “She’s a loudmouthed, overbearing woman. You’d go crazy in a week.”
    “Dad, we have to have someone. ”
    “Not those two. Either one of them would be nothing but a handicap. You’ll have to find someone else.”
    “All right, Dad. I’ll try.”
    “And you may consider going with only eleven. The number twelve is just an arbitrary number anyhow, a rather foolish idea, I always thought. Now Caleb tells me we should leave soon to take advantage of the good weather. There’ll be a chance of some bad storms if we wait too long.” Caleb Barkley was the captain of the Mary Anne, a man in whom Rena’s father had complete confidence.
    “All right, Dad, I’ll go over my list again,” Rena said with resignation in her voice. She turned and left the room, and as she shut the door, she muttered, “I’ve got to find somebody else. We’ve got to have twelve. That’s what we’ll be famous as—The Twelve.”
    ****
    “I just thought I’d see if you were available, Helen. I didn’t know you’d already taken a position in Chicago with the Institute.”
    Rena listened, then said, “We all appreciate your prayers. I wish it would have worked out.”
    She hung up the phone, and then grimly took a pencil and crossed out Helen Dailey’s name from the list. She’d started with a list of eight people to contact and now there were only two, neither of them particularly good choices in Rena’s opinion. Getting up from the desk, she paced backand forth, racking her brain for other candidates to consider. She had slept little since beginning her search for the final member of The Twelve. She had called the group together, and they had talked for hours over other possibilities; this list represented their corporate choices. She realized it was too late to be asking people to make such a major life decision, but stubbornly she had kept at it.
    Rena moved over to the window and stared out at the emerald lawn. The sprinklers were going, and the dancing sprays made little rainbows in the sunshine. Rather than finding it a cheery sight, Rena sighed disconsolately, her mind filled with worries of how to fill the last vacancy on the team. As she watched, she saw a man walking along the road carrying a suitcase. It was not a widely traveled road, for the houses in their expensive neighborhood were few and far between, and many of them were fenced to keep out intruders and peddlers.
    “He must be lost,” Rena muttered. She expected him to pass by the house, but instead he turned in to the driveway of crushed oyster shells. What’s he coming here for? Rena wondered. The housekeeper was off for the day, and Rena considered letting the man think no one was home, but the cars were in the garage, and the garage doors were open, so he could plainly see them. “I’ll have to get rid of him. I don’t have time for a salesman or whatever he is.”
    She opened the door after the bell chimed and looked the man over. He was tall and lean and had the bluest eyes she had ever seen. He swept off his hat and nodded pleasantly.
    “Hello, miss. Is this the Matthews house?”
    “Yes, it is.”
    “I’d like to see Mr. Matthews, please.”
    Rena hesitated but decided perhaps her father had sent for the man. He was always hiring people for his business, and this man looked fit and was probably hardworking. “I’ll see if my father can see you.”
    “Thank you very much, miss.”
    Rena closed the front door, leaving him to wait outsidewhile she left the large foyer, turned right, and walked down to the end of the hall to her father’s study. She knocked on the door. “Daddy, are you there?”
    “Yes, what is it?”
    Rena opened the door and saw