A Covenant with Death: The Peacock Trilogy - Book 3 Read Free

spoke. In a gentle, voice he asked, “What were you doing when I appeared?”
    “Praying.”
    “Question answered.”
    “Arthur won’t listen.”
    “God doesn’t hold you accountable for the result. He asks that you obey.”
    She gulped, hardly able to breathe. According to her journal, she’d delivered four messages to her husband. Each time he’d ignored her. Each time God’s message proved correct.
    “I’ll do as you wish.” She paused. “Arthur’s a good man. Stubborn, but he loves God.”
    The angel’s head tilted slightly left. “Your husband accepted Jesus. That he loves God is for God to judge. Still he is rebellious and that detracts from his effectiveness.”
    “Will I live long enough to see our Lord’s return?”
    The figure vaporized and blew away as if a wind carried him. But there was no wind. Laverna fell on her bed face first. Tears rushed forth, and she did not wipe them away. Rahab a prostitute, Ruth a Moabite, and Tamar a seductress, all won salivation and the honor to be included in the lineage of Christ, yet she couldn’t picture herself in the same light.
    I obey your precepts and your statutes for all my ways are known to you.
    A knock at the door startled Laverna. “Lovey, we leave in five minutes.”
    “I’ll be right there.” Wiping her eyes, she rushed into the bathroom and stared into the mirror. Combat scars and dark blotches marred the beauty she still possessed. She applied her makeup, careful not to look like a manikin. Her figure, curved and alluring, remained her greatest asset. Her husband craved her body. For some reason, she held the same power over him now as she had when they first met. Ignoring the fact she’d turned fifty-three, Arthur saw her as twenty-five and not a day older.
    The pathway to her id remained express-train fast, lucky for Arthur. She smirked, remembering Doctor Beatrice Kolb, the fiend who implanted mind-control devices in her brain—the affects now proven irreversible. One of those devices over stimulated her libido. An advantage to her ever since.
    She changed into her Global Realm business suit stored in her closet, joined her husband in the hall, and grasped his hand. “Lead on, noble prince.”
    “ King Arthur, Darling,” he said and winked.
    “Hardly,” Hans Van Meer poked Pendleton in his ego. “His royal pain in the arse is more appropriate.”
    “I’ll call him whatever he asks me to.”
    Van Meer huffed. “Yes, you and the other five billion citizens of the Realm.”
    Next to Van Meer stood Laverna’s best friend, Felicia Lange-Van Meer, looking drop-dead gorgeous. Van Meer picked Felicia to marry, because she hadn’t minded his earlier indiscretions. One look at Felicia’s beauty and jealousy rose inside Peacock. She quickly quoted a scripture she used to keep perspective. Thou Shalt Not Covet.
    All the southwestern block of rooms in Balmoral Castle had been converted into residences for the Pendleton family and their administrative staff. The rest of the castle housed conference rooms and executive offices. Laverna loved Balmoral and the Scottish countryside. When Arthur traveled, she’d hike up the hillside to a glen he’d shown her on their honeymoon. Though the European Ice Age froze the ground six months of the year, the rest of the time life flourished, plant and animal alike.
    The decision to move Global Realm Headquarters to the Isles came after the eruption of five volcanos in Iceland and Italy. The ash and debris dropped temperatures in Europe an average of twenty degrees and caused snowfall from Norway to Turkey to leap up fifty-five percent. That happened eight years earlier and hadn’t improved much since. The Isles experienced a lesser cooling of seven degrees on average, so Pendleton moved locations. Laverna didn’t understand the science, but while Europe froze, the rest of the earth continued to warm. North American winters were a balmy 65 on average. Summers reached 118, as far north as