“Abigail is missing,” Andrew replied. “Have you seen her?”
Laertus shook his head, face pinched in concern. “She has not come to our house. I am to see if I could be of service here, though.”
Dinah sighed. “There is no one here. We had to move our mistress, and we cannot find Abigail.”
“How is your lady?”
Andrew shrugged. “Unchanged. But Drusus has hope that a change of scenes will see her improving.”
“If Abigail comes to you, tell her to find us. We left a note with directions.” Dinah’s anxiety laced every word.
Laertus nodded, but he was obviously concerned as well.
They followed him out the door. “We will look where we can think to,” Andrew muttered to his friend, “but if we do not find her by midday, we will have no choice. Drusus said we should not tarry long.”
“Where could she be?” Dinah looked around as if expecting an answer to sprout up. “She knew so few people in the city. Only the general’s family, Vetimus. I am worried, Andrew. Why would she not come home? What if something happened to her?”
Andrew had no response.
*
“I have news.”
Abigail looked up when Titus burst into the small house and headed straight for where she sat with Tabitha.
His face was alight, and he took a seat among them with a smile. “He is risen! They are saying his followers stole his body, but I know it cannot be. I posted the guard myself, and they were our best men. But this morning, the tomb was found empty, the stone rolled away.”
Abigail exchanged a glance with Tabitha, then looked back to Titus. She did not need to ask about whom he was speaking.
“But, how?” Tabitha asked. “How could the stone be rolled away if there was a guard?”
Titus shook his head but still smiled. “I spoke with Subrius and Marcus, the men on watch. They said that as dawn broke this morning, they were seized by a terrible fright and were unable to move. The said that they saw a figure clothed in light walk out of the tomb, straight through the rock. He looked at them and smiled, then another man came up and rolled the stone away. Only then could they move again, and they ran to tell the general. Of course, they were not believed, and they were told rather sternly that they had been drunk, had passed out, and that it was during their disgraceful stupor that the followers did their evil deed. But I know those men. They do not drink excessively, and certainly not on duty. He is risen, my friends. Our Christ is alive!”
Abigail stared for a moment as the words sank in.
Tabitha rubbed at her temple. “He said he would rebuild the temple in three days. The temple of his body. Today is the third day.” Her eyes lit up. “The prophesies have come true. There is no question now, if ever there was. Jesus is Savior, Christ, Messiah!” She reached over with a joyous laugh and caught up each of their hands. “We serve a risen savior, my friends! Christ is Lord!”
Abigail embraced her friends, laughing all the while as the miraculous truth flowed through her veins. Already she had seen the graves opened, one who was dead walking among them. It was not so hard to grasp the Son of God capable of resurrecting himself.
“No matter what else happens,” Abigail said fervently, looking at the others, “there will always be hope for us. As I watched him die, I knew it was for our sins. I knew he was paying the price I should pay. But now he has triumphed over death, over sin. Now we can all live, free and saved and new.”
They all smiled at one another, and all looked over to the basket in the corner when the newest life set up a cry.
It was Titus who stood, went over to the baby, and gently picked him up. “Little one, you chose a miraculous day to be born. And as you grow, you will be fed on the stories of this man whose blood has cleansed us all.”
Abigail smiled and accepted the babe when he brought him to her. As she did so, she remembered the shouts her people had made when Jesus was being tried. Let his blood be on us and our children. Suddenly, what had seemed to her a threat was now a promise. On them his blood rested, indeed, and as the centuries of sacrifices that had come before him, it washed them clean of sin. Only this time, it would remain enough, she knew. He was not just a pure and spotless lamb to be offered anew each year; he was the pure and spotless Son of God, whose sacrifice would serve forever.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
His vessel was scheduled to sail in two days’ time–it was late as it was, but Titus was beginning to wish it had been even later to port. He was not ready to leave for Rome.
In his hand was a missive that inspired many thoughts, none of them particularly well defined. He would have to speak to Abigail. But first, he had to stop at the general’s house and pay his last visit.