A Truth Like Wine
By Ellen Whitman Bynum
Book Two in The Eagle and the Stone Series
SYNOPSIS:
This book begins where Book I leaves off. It introduces the point of view of Paronius, the centurion who crucified Jesus. Now a believer, Paronius is assigned by Pilate to guard Claudia—and he gets caught in the middle of a husband-wife power struggle. This situation results in a love triangle, setting the stage for later books in the series
EXCERPT:
Chapter 1—I Met a Man
I’m so happy!
My husband thinks it’s because we’re on our way home, but that isn’t the main reason. I met a man in Jerusalem, the most wonderful man in the world. It was love at first sight. When our eyes met, I knew he loved me better than anyone had ever loved me before, just as I am, with all my imperfections. So how could I help but love him in return?
And when he promised to give me a baby, something my husband has never been able to do in ten years of marriage…!
I can’t tell my husband the truth now, better to let him go on believing the story I fed him back in Jerusalem the day it happened, when I just had to tell him we were going to have a son a year from that day. Although he laughed at that part, he swallowed the rest of it. But a few months from now, when he sees me pregnant, he will change his tune.
Then I’ll tell Pilate the truth about the one who promised to give me the baby. The man’s name is Jesus.
So far as my husband knows, the man is dead, crucified according to his orders. Yet in spite of what Pilate and those around him say, I KNOW Jesus has come to life again! If I tell Pilate the truth now, he will have me locked up as a lunatic somewhere, and I won’t have a chance to get pregnant. Better to let him go on believing the tale I told him—or rather, the one he told himself on the basis of the false assumptions he made about a cultish priest—which of course I didn’t contradict.
Yes, some day I’ll tell my husband about this wonderful man and what he has done for me. I hope he will be able to understand that I can love Jesus and still love him too.
