Her jaw hardened. “He took me to his private rooms for ‘prayer.’ Only…”
“Only…” Rachel watched Martha carefully, trying to figure out who’d she’d been then and who she was now. She’d actively participated in the cult’s sexual practices. That was clear. But it was just as clear that she’d thought she was living a “higher law” when she did.
“He did more than pray. He tied me down. Then he…he did some…other stuff.”
“Can you tell us what?” Rachel asked.
She stared at her smoldering cigarette. “No. It was too painful. I—I can’t even think about it. I tried to confess so he’d stop, but it didn’t help.”
Was Ethan sadistic? Or just ruthless in administering “punishment”?
Nate took over the questioning. “What happened next?”
“He decreed that I’d have to wear a chastity belt and be shunned until I could prove myself worthy by obeying God’s commandments.” Tears slipped down her cheeks. “But I couldn’t bear a punishment like that. I knew then that he hated me, that he’d keep me in that belt forever, which meant I’d have to live as an outcast. I wouldn’t be able to participate in the rituals, couldn’t bear any more children. In a commune where a woman’s main purpose is to give pleasure and raise up seed unto the Lord, that would be worse than death.”
“So you refused,” Rachel said.
“That’s right. I thought my husband would support me, that we’d leave. Especially once I told him what Ethan did to me, how badly he hurt me and the joy he got out of it. But…” Her hand was shaking again when she lifted the cigarette to her lips. “But Todd accused me of lying to pull him away from the truth. He told me I was speaking with the voice of Satan. And when Ethan and the Guides came for me and dragged me out into the public square, it was Todd who threw the first stone. Ethan even had my s-son join in.”
Of course, such a young child wouldn’t realize that throwing rocks at Mommy was anything more than a game. But the image Martha’s words created brought bile to the back of Rachel’s throat. What had her husband been thinking? “Have you talked to Todd since?”
“No.”
“I’m guessing he eventually helped you or…how’d you escape?”
“I—I started picking up rocks and throwing them back. I was hurting, throwing blindly. I had to defend myself. That was all I could think. I could not let Ethan take my life, or take my son and my husband from me.” Her cigarette dangled from her lips as she gazed past them, obviously experiencing the stoning again. “I accidentally hit Ethan. Then everyone panicked. They cried out that I’d attacked the Holy One and swarmed over to see if he was hurt. In the middle of the uproar, I felt a pair of hands yanking me away, sheltering me behind a body no bigger than my own. I have a feeling it was Sarah Myers, a widow from my tent, who’s a burn victim and often ignored by the men because of her scars. While Ethan was tending to his daughter and calling for Dominic, the closest thing we—they—” she corrected as if still not quite sure that she didn’t belong “—have to a doctor, Sarah or whoever it was shoved me toward the fence, and I ran and ran and ran. I don’t know how I got through the gate. I just know I stumbled in front of a car on the first road I encountered, and an older gentleman and his wife picked me up in their RV.” She took another long drag. “It was freak luck,” she finished. “If that couple hadn’t been there, Ethan would’ve come after me. And I wouldn’t be around today.”
“I’m sorry,” Rachel said. As misguided as Martha had been to get involved with such a group, no one deserved to be treated so cruelly.
“What made you join the Covenanters in the first place?” Nate asked.
Martha continued to smoke without answering, but Rachel could tell she was considering the question. It was one she’d no doubt asked herself many times. Apparently, she was still searching for the answer. “I think it started out as awe—Ethan moved me when he spoke, filled me with rapture. And then it was fear. If Todd and I went with him and the others, we wouldn’t have to be responsible for ourselves anymore. Todd had just lost his job, and he had no idea what he was going to do. What I was earning wouldn’t support us. With the Covenanters, we’d have a guaranteed home, food, friends. Even salvation. I wanted to live a better life than what we’d known.”
“You didn’t mind sleeping with other men during the rituals?”
“Mind? I considered it a spiritual experience to connect on such a primal level with so many. It made us one as a group. That’s powerful.”
And perfect for the spread of infectious disease, Rachel thought, but remained silent as Nate spoke.
“What if you were caught having sex with someone other than your husband outside of a religious ritual?”
“That’s out of bounds. You’d be punished.”
“Like you were punished.”
She tapped the ash from her cigarette onto the floor. “You’d be restricted and then, if you wouldn’t quit, shunned.”
Nate rubbed his right fist in an absent manner, his body language speaking volumes beyond what he actually said. “Three weeks ago, a girl from the Portal area went missing. Courtney Sinclair. Are you familiar with her?”
“No.”
“You’re sure? She was only seventeen.” He pulled out the flyer they’d been given at the restaurant. “This is her.”
Martha accepted the flyer with a frown. “I don’t recognize her. Is there a reason I should?”
“She had some contact with the Covenanters before she disappeared.”
“She wasn’t around when I was there.”
“This is more recent.” Nate took back the flyer. “Is it conceivable that Ethan might have abducted her?”
“Anything’s possible with Ethan.”
“So how do we get in and get accepted?” Rachel asked.
Martha’s cigarette had burned down to the filter. She stubbed it out in the same pizza she’d used before. “You’ll have to go to an Introduction Meeting like I did, I guess.”
“Where are these Introduction Meetings?”
“At the compound.”
Rachel scooted forward. “When are they held?”
“It depends on what Ethan has planned that particular week. What kind of mood he’s in. The Covenanters’ entire world revolves around him and the other Spiritual Guides.”