preview of the book Around Smoldering Coals
"You have to be awful careful about what you say, Stephen,” Tayletha cautioned. “The sentry walks by
every half hour or so, and if he even suspects that we might be out after dark because we are …” she glanced furtively about and her voice lowered, “or because our parents are
-you-know-what- we will be in deep trouble.”
Her five-year-old brother nodded soberly. He knew very well how the “enemy” raged against the Christians and would use any excuse
to throw them to the lions. Stephen shivered a little at the thought,
and clutched the loaf of bread closer to his thin chest.
Tayletha crouched even lower than she had been and inched her way
over to the balustrade bordering the flat roof. Every so often, she flattened herself against the rough surface and listened.
Far in the distance, the clomp-clomp-clomp of hobnailed Roman
sandals on cobblestone streets sounded loud in the stillness. Soon the eerie flickering of the patrollers’ smoldering torch briefly revealed some ragged beggar boys darting back into the shadows. Tayletha sensed that the boys knew they were in danger of being clouted with a brawny fist if they were caught slinking around. Scavenging in the garbage strewn in the corners could most definitely wait for a safer time.
Talitha slunk down until she was barely eye-level with the top row of bricks, and saw the boys conceal themselves in the deeper shadows. She wondered briefly how children could survive as beggars, but her own concerns snuffed out the thought.
Just then, the sentries’ flame flashed high against the black night sky
