The enjoyment instantly fled Ethan’s face. “I’m aware of that, too, but I have no idea why anyone would make such an unfounded accusation.”
Once again, the “Guides” began to study their food as if they’d never seen steak and rice before.
“I talked to her mother a few hours ago,” Rachel said. “I was looking at the flyer they have at the grocery store, when she came up and asked if I’d ever seen her daughter.” She took a sip of wine. “When I told her I hadn’t, she said, ‘The Covenanters have her.’”
The encounter had never taken place. Nate knew that because Rachel hadn’t had a car until he’d returned, and they hadn’t gone to the grocery store before coming to Paradise. But she was selling the incident, making it believable—and making everyone uncomfortable.
“Did you tell her you were here for an Introductory?” Ethan asked.
“I did.”
“And did you also tell her we have nothing to hide?”
“I told her that everything seemed perfectly normal and that you treated me well.”
He raised his wineglass. “And what did she say to that?”
“She said things are not always as they appear.”
He chuckled. “What a hag.”
Rachel straightened in her seat. “Hag?”
“You’ll have to forgive me. I don’t care for the woman. She doesn’t even know me, yet she’s pointing her finger in my direction. If she was a better parent, her child would probably be at home.”
“I see.”
“Some people will believe the worst no matter what,” he added with a shrug.
“Maybe it would help if you allowed her to search Paradise,” Nate suggested.
“No.” Bartholomew shook his head. “We can’t. We know Courtney’s not here. Trying to prove it would only leave us vulnerable. What if Lynne Sinclair told the police that we mistreated her? Or that she saw some evidence she didn’t see? She hates us. The prejudice we face almost everywhere is enormous. Nobody’s willing to tolerate those who are different, who buck the status quo.” He held up his own wine and examined the color of it. “Religious wars are often the bloodiest, most bitterly fought wars of all. And they’ve occurred throughout history. In some countries, they’re happening today.”
“Not in this country,” Nate said quietly.
Bart put his wine back on the table. “This country isn’t as tolerant as you might think. Staying away from mainstream society is really the only way to avoid the kind of opposition that could ruin what we have established. That’s why there’s a fence around Paradise. That’s why we’ve chosen to live inside a cage in the middle of the desert. We don’t want to bother other people, and we don’t want them bothering us.”
Rachel turned to Ethan. “Have you run into opposition in previous locations?”
“Everywhere,” Ethan complained. “Opposition and persecution.”
Nate wiped his mouth with his napkin. “Have you ever met Courtney’s mother face-to-face?”
“Of course. She’s been at the gate several times, demanding that we let her daughter go.” He set down his fork. “Did you promise her you’d look for Courtney while you were here, Sister Rachel?”
Nate held his breath. Saying no wouldn’t be believable. Anyone would agree to look for a missing child. But yes came with its own risks.
“I said I would, yes.”
Waiting to see how “Alpha and Omega” would take this news, Nate held his next bite halfway to his mouth. But Ethan didn’t seem upset. His lips, which looked more like a young boy’s than a man’s, curved into a smile.
“Then you’ll have to live up to your word,” he said. “I’ll personally give you the grand tour as soon as we finish dinner.”
“But the celebration—” Bart started.
Ethan silenced him with a glare. “Will wait. We have to do what we can to reassure the community, Bart. We don’t want the poison to spread, do we?”
Bart didn’t respond, but Ethan didn’t seem to care.
“Now, are we ready for dessert?” With a clap of his hands, he signaled for the woman who’d been hovering near them to bring the final course.
Ethan watched his guests closely as he walked them through the compound. Because Bartholomew was ruining the illusion of openness he was trying to create, he’d sent him away to check on C.J.’s progress with Nate’s computer. It was just the three of them now, and he liked it that way. They’d already been through the business, church and personal sections of the Enlightenment Hall, the temporary school Ethan planned to replace, various tents that housed his people, the beehives and chicken coops, and the garden and livestock areas that made the commune as self-sufficient as possible.
Ostensibly, he was taking them on this tour to prove he had nothing to hide, so he introduced them to everyone they encountered. He figured it couldn’t hurt to generate some goodwill with the outside world, especially since that would undermine the support Courtney’s mother was hoping to achieve. Besides, it gave him the opportunity to show off a little. Here he was, a college dropout, running an entire city.
“How many people work here?” Rachel asked.
They were standing on the cement floor of the cheese factory. A cinder-block rectangle filled with cheese presses made from pans, plates, mason jars, PVC pipe, wooden dowels, bicycle inner tubes and flour sacks, it wasn’t exactly a state-of-the-art facility. But it was clean and well organized, and the people who worked here were getting very good at what they did. As of last month, the church had purchased a second refrigerated truck to bring in the milk they needed and to deliver their organic cheeses to distribution centers. “About forty.”
Nate touched a can of salt. “Mostly women?”
Ethan remembered Nate’s interest in those who’d exited this building at lunchtime yesterday. “All women, except the managers.”
Rachel had wandered over to the racks where sack after sack of cheese curd hung so the whey could drain into collection buckets below. But hearing those words, she pivoted. “Why aren’t there any women managers?”
It was the first time Ethan had felt irritated with her. Just because he was indulging her by showing her around didn’t mean he had to apologize for the way he ran things. This was his church, his commune. The women here did whatever he told them to. “It isn’t their place.”