Leah asks Daniel if children come to see Jesus. When he affirms that they sometimes do, she asks, "Do they hurt the children...Jesus wouldn't let them hurt the children, would he?" Traumatized as a very small child by seeing the crucifixion of her father, Leah has been afraid to venture out of her house through all the years of her growing up. Since Thacia has been coming to visit her, she has had a glimpse of "a whole new world". Leah has heard about Jesus, and longs to see him, but she is too afraid. She is just beginning to entertain thoughts about the possibility of challenging her fears to go out and see him, however, and her questions to Daniel about Jesus and the children are her first attempts to palliate her own fears towards this frightening new action.
It is hearing Daniel tell about how Jesus cured the little girl who almost died that instigates Leah's questioning. Jesus made the girl well when everyone thought she was dead, and most likely, Leah is wondering if he can make her well too. With her newfound awareness of her own prettiness and the budding friendships she has found with both Thacia and especially the young Roman soldier, Leah has a reason to truly want to be able to go out of her house and live without fear like everyone else, and she grasps at the hope that perhaps Jesus can free her of her paralyzing fears. Daniel, sensing the longing behind her questions, asks his sister if she will go with him to see Jesus if he should come to their village again. Leah, however, is not yet ready to commit herself; she does not answer, but "only lower(s) her head and (hides) her face behind her veil" (Chapter 15).
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