Redeeming-Love-By-Francine-Rivers

R E D E E M I N G L O V E
Angel knew what Duke was doing, but knowing didn’t help.
Her nightmares returned.
She was running, night closing around her. Heavy footsteps echoed in
the alley behind her. Before her were the docks, ships’ masts filling the horizon.
She ran from one to another, pleading that they would let her come
aboard. “Sorry, ma’am. All filled up,” the sailors said, one after another.
She ran down the last pier and saw below her a garbage scow. The ropes
were being untied. Looking back, she saw Duke. He was calling to her, his
dark voice pulling at her.
Rats crawled over the refuse in the scow below her, feasting on rotting
meat and vegetables. The foul smell assaulted her senses, but she jumped
anyway and landed hard. Her hands sank into an oozing mass as rats
squealed and scurried in all directions. She almost fainted from the foul
stench but clung tightly as the scow began to move. It pulled away from the
dock just as Duke reached the end.
“You can’t get away. You can’t get away, Angel.”
Then he was gone, and she was in the middle of a storm-tossed sea.
Waves crashed around her, splashing over the sides of the scow. She tried to
climb to a safer haven, but there was none. She pulled herself higher to get
away from the cold spray. When she reached the top, she saw Rab lying on
his back. The black cord was still around his neck, and rats were tearing
away his dead flesh. Crying out in fear, she slid down the heap again, huddling
in the farthest corner of the scow away from him.
Shivering with cold, she covered her head. “I wish I was dead. I wish I
was dead.…”
“Darling, where is it?”
Angel looked up and saw her mother standing before her, shimmering in
white. “Where is it, darling? Where’s my rosary?”
Angel scrambled over the heap, searching frantically. “I’ll find it, Mama!
I’ll find it!” She saw something glimmer brightly and reached for it. “It’s here!
Oh, it’s here, Mama.” The scow lurched violently and rose at one end,
dumping garbage into the sea. Angel cried out, trying to reach her mother’s
rosary as she tumbled. Her fingertips just brushed the crucifix and beads
before it slipped away, spilling over the side into the turbulent sea. Angel felt
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