47
Once she arrived home, Rachel checked that Mum was settled in Esther’s room and said goodnight. It was still early enough to do some reading. She’d borrowed the Bible from Gran’s bookcase the night after she’d heard about Shadrach and company. A few books plugged the gap. No one seemed to have noticed.
Rachel lay down and snapped on the bedside light. She might be a biblical ignoramus, but she remembered John was in the New Testament. She found it and started reading.
The first paragraphs were dense. Was the whole book going to be this hard? She ploughed on, and the reading got easier towards the end of the first chapter and into the second.
The third chapter was more familiar, and she’d definitely had the verses in the middle quoted at her before. She slowed down and whispered them
