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woman looked at the program list and understood what was written there. But
that was impossible, wasn't it?
For the first time in the four years she had lived beneath Ephraim's
roof, Judith doubted that she understood how things worked.
"Come away, Judith," Dinah ordered, her fingers tapping the tabs for the
shut-down sequence.
These were standard, the same as for every appliance in the house, so
Judith shouldn't have been surprised, but something stirred within her, an
inkling of an emotion so alien that she had all but forgotten what it felt
like.
Hope.
Afraid to feed that strange emotion, Judith bent her head and dutifully
trailed Dinah to the private chamber that, as senior wife, Dinah claimed as
her right. The other wives slept in dormitories, an arrangement meant to
prevent something vaguely referred to as Vice.
Judith had an idea that Vice might involve sex, but nothing in her
experiences with Ephraim gave her any idea why this might be something to
pursue. She'd filed this away as a piece of useless information, devoting her
energy instead into devising ruses for leaving the dormitory unquestioned.
During the two years she had resided with the other wives, she had come up
with a large number of these and was careful never to use any one too often.
Dinah motioned Judith to a chair, then closed the door.
"Power surge following transit into N-space," Dinah said. "How useful is
that?"
Judith actually started to answer, so matter-of-factly was the question
put to her. Then she realized what this meant.
"You can read!"
"My father was very elderly when I was born," Dinah said levelly, "and
his eyesight was failing. He never cared for the restrictions of recordings,
and had me taught to read so that I could read scripture to him. Later, when
my meekness and piety caught Ephraim's eye, my father commanded me to forget
what I had learned, for it was well-known that the Templetons saw no use for
women's education. I, of course, obeyed, never disabusing my lord and master
of his assumptions regarding me."
Judith knew that Dinah's family had been poor and not well-placed within
the Masadan hierarchy. An alliance with the ambitious Templetons, especially
one that also disposed of a useless daughter would have been worth a little
lie.
"Did you know that I . . ." Judith asked, feeling every bit the child,
all the confidence of her fourteen years fleeing.
"Could read?" Dinah set an audio recording of chanted scripture playing
on her room's system. "I guessed. You were very careful, even when there were
no men present. I commend you for that. Even so, there were times your gaze
would rest overlong on some printed label or other bit of text. I was certain
the day you saved little Uriel from harming himself."
Judith remembered the day quite clearly. Uriel had been a toddler when
first she came to Ephraim's house. His mother, Raphaela, was great with child
once more and chasing after the boy had been one of the many tasks bestowed on
the Grayson captive.
Not able to transfer her hatred of Ephraim to any of his children,
Judith's secret and her honor had warred against each other on the day that
Uriel had reached for a brightly colored plug that superficially looked like
any number of toys scattered about the nursery.
What it was, however, was a partially installed electrical system that a
careless technician had not finished sealing.
For a moment that seemed far longer than it had been, Judith had stared
at the chubby hand and the plug. Only the writing on the wiring revealed it
for the danger it was. If she stopped Uriel, she might give away her secret.
The little hand had barely moved toward the apparent toy when Judith
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scooped Uriel away. Once she had soothed the screaming child, distracting him
with an even more fascinating toy, Judith had returned to put the wires out of
reach. Now that she thought back, Dinah had been present, but as the senior
wife had made no comment, Judith had thought her too distracted by her own
duties.
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