Page 1 of Wife Number One

1

KARA

Iwas never without my veil.

The heavy mesh scratched across my nose and cheeks, suffocating and hot in the crowded church. I’d worn it so long I could barely remember what it felt like not to squint through the material so I didn’t trip or stumble over the altar steps.

“May the Lord bless your womb. May he grant you good health to bring forth new life this month. May you carry his seed and nurture it into his disciple.”

I nodded at the woman kneeling at my feet, accepting her blessing.

She took the small head bob as her dismissal, and the next in line dropped into the position.

“May the Lord bless your womb. May he grant you good health to bring forth new life this month. May you carry his seed…”

I tuned out, nodding automatically as each new woman took her turn at my feet, before moving on to the next of Josiah’s wives and repeating the familiar words.

The other wives didn’t wear the same black veil I did.

Their faces were unmasked for all the congregation to see. They breathed freely, the air touching their summer-tanned skin.

They were the fertile.

The blessed.

The women chosen by Josiah, through the Lord’s word.

They had each provided the Lord and Josiah with an heir. Some more than one. Josiah’s second wife, Camilla, who sat to my left, had provided him four children within the past five years. Laurie, wife three, had delivered two healthy baby boys who were both toddlers now. And Scarlett, the newest and youngest of his wives, a baby daughter just last year.

I had provided none.

Despite being wife number one.

Shame washed over me, as it always did each weekend when this ritual was performed. I lowered my gaze to my lap and prayed silently, hoping that this month, the blessings would finally work. That this would be the month I didn’t bleed. That Josiah’s seed would take hold and bring forth new life.

That I would finally make him happy.

When that happened, I would be freed of the veil prison I’d lived in the past five years. I would sit like the other wives, honored by the community Josiah had built around his connection to the one true God.

Instead of hidden away behind layers of thick cloth, a disappointment and embarrassment to all.

I just had to pray harder. Be quieter. Sweeter. Love Josiah and the Lord we served harder.

Josiah’s other wives had proved over and over again that if you were the perfect wife, you would conceive an heir. It was my fault I had not been blessed. Every person here knew no baby grew in my womb because the Lord had deemed I wasn’t worthy.

As Josiah told me every night, I just wasn’t trying hard enough.

People filed in, wearing their best clothes, their faces scrubbed clean of dirt and grime that came with the hard work they did here throughout the week. When they had finished paying their respects at our feet, they took seats in the rows of hard, wooden pews, talking quietly amongst themselves while they waited for the sermon to begin.

The church had been extended last year to meet the needs of the growing community, and there were so many people here now I could barely keep track of all the new faces. What had been a small group just five years ago when I’d returned from the outside world, had more than tripled in size, people flocking to join when Josiah and his inner circle had begun actively recruiting new members with a podcast about the Lord and our community here at Ethereal Eden.

My interest snagged on my mother and younger sisters entering with my father, all of them joining the line quietly.

Alice, the eldest of my siblings in attendance and the closest to me in age, stood tall, her head high, and a smile offered up easily for me.

Until my mother poked her sharply in the back. Alice rolled her eyes for my benefit before lowering them obediently.

I didn’t bother stifling my smile of amusement, because nobody could see it through the veil anyway.

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