Mandas' jaw tightened as Norlan plucked a goblet from the tray. The servant turned to him, but he shook his head. "You continue to play the part of th... sophisticate, but we both know you are no better than a peasant."Norlan took a slow sip of his wine. "Really, Mandas, you must get new material. The whole peasant insult is getting old. Besides, is that any way to talk to your partner?"Mandas refused to be baited. Too many times he had let his hatred of this pretender get the better of him.. I would have gone along with whatever you wanted to do anyway, but how could I reject your child and mine?"She clung to me and broke down and wept. I picked her up and sat her on my lap. "Beloved, we'll pray, and we'll do everything the doctor says, and we'll make sure you eat all the right things and you'll be very careful. If Abraham's wife Sarah could have a child in her old age, why wouldn't God give you the child you long for in your middle-age? I never thought I'd be a father again, but. We parted ways and since then I had found nothing to change my mind.I didn't object to others having faith and practicing it, but in my opinion you were either in business or not. If you were, then you needed to do it like everyone else, or expect them to find someone more suited to their needs. If I had my boiler go out in the middle of the night, I would expect someone to come fix it. Sure they would charge me like hell, but whoever came out would get my business from that point on.In my mind. Doggy man was trying to talk again as I told him to shut up for the last time. Bart had covered the woman with a robe by this time, I approached the man in the chair to remove the hood. With the hood removed I could see his eyes were very swollen and red, he had been crying long before we had entered the room. I removed the ball gag and told him not to speak yet, he nodded in understanding and stayed silent. ‘Where you gonna start, Will?’ ‘With the woman, she’s the one making all of the noise..