Not Under the Law
© 2012 by Grace Livingston Hill
Print ISBN 978-1-61626-654-7
eBook Editions:
Adobe Digital Edition (.epub) 978-1-62029-560-1
Kindle and MobiPocket Edition (.prc) 978-1-62029-559-5
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted for commercial purposes, except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without written permission of the publisher.
All scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any similarity to actual people, organizations, and/or events is purely coincidental.
Cover design: Faceout Studio, www.faceoutstudio.com
Published by Barbour Publishing, Inc., P.O. Box 719, Uhrichsville, Ohio 44683, www.barbourbooks.com
Our mission is to publish and distribute inspirational products offering exceptional value and biblical encouragement to the masses.
Printed in the United States of America.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
About the Author
Chapter 1
1920s Northeastern United States
The kitchen door stood open wide, and the breath from the meadow blew freshly across Joyce Radway’s hot cheeks and forehead as she passed hurriedly back and forth from the kitchen stove to the dining room table preparing the evening meal.
It had been a long, hard day, and she was very tired. The tears seemed to have been scorching her eyelids since early morning, and because her spirit would not let them out, they seemed to have been flowing back into her heart till its beating was almost stopped by the deluge. Somehow it had been the hardest day in all the two weeks since her aunt died; the culmination of all the hard times since Aunt Mary had been taken sick and her son, Eugene Massey, brought his wife and two children home to live.
To begin with, at the breakfast table Eugene had snarled at Joyce for keeping her light burning so long the night before. He told her he couldn’t afford to pay electric bills for her to sit up and read novels. This was most unjust since he knew that Joyce never had any novels to read, but that she was studying for an examination that would finish her last year of normal schoolwork and fit her for a teacher. But then her cousin was seldom just. He took great delight in tormenting her. Sometimes it seemed incredible that he could possibly be Aunt Mary’s son, he was so utterly unlike her in every way. But he resembled markedly the framed picture of his father, Hiram Massey, which hung in the parlor, whom Joyce could but dimly remember as an uncle who never smiled at her.
She had controlled the tears then that sprang to her eyes and tried to answer in a steady voice. “I’m sorry, Gene. I was studying; I wasn’t reading a novel. You know last night was the last chance I had to study. The examination is today. Maybe when I get a school, I’ll be able to pay those electric light bills and some other things, too.”
“Bosh!” said Eugene discourteously. “You’ll pay them a big lot, won’t you? That’s all rubbish, your trying to get a school, after a whole year out of school yourself. Much chance you’ll stand! And you may as well understand right now that I’m not going to undertake the expense of you lying around here idling and pretending to go to school for another whole year, so you better begin to make other plans.”
Joyce swallowed hard and tried to smile. “Well,” she said pleasantly, “wait till after the examinations. I may pass, and then there won’t be any more trouble about it. The mathematics test is this morning. If I pass that, I’m not in the least afraid of the rest. It is all clear sailing.”
“What’s that?” broke in Nannette’s voice sharply. “Are you expecting to go off this morning? Because if you are, you’ve missed your calculation. I have an appointment with the dressmaker in town this morning, and I don’t intend to miss it. She’s promised to get my new dress done by the day after tomorrow, and you’ll have to stay home and see that the children get their lunch and get back to school. Besides, it’s time the cellar was cleaned, and you’d better get right at it. I thought I heard a rat down there last night.”
Joyce looked up, aghast.
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