Delilah by Eleanor De Jong

Author:Eleanor De Jong
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2011-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

Later that day, Delilah followed the directions Samson had given her, and turned into a narrow alley near the south of the city and pushed open a gate near the end. It opened into an orchard belonging to Onan, a wealthy Israelite who was happy to accommodate Samson and his followers in exchange for the promise of future freedom from Philistine trading restrictions. Just the sort of information Phicol would want, and Delilah was beginning to realise that by agreeing to bring down Samson, she was endangering a host of others. Was this Onan really such a bad man as to deserve Phicol’s wrath, or just another hard-working Israelite striving for a fairer life? Delilah felt the weight of the coming reckoning, and tried to shrug away her discomfort.

Caleb was training the men this afternoon and he gave Delilah a quick glance as she settled herself beneath a tree. Samson had apparently not noticed her at all.

She was intrigued by the group almost as much as she was by Samson. Caleb was quick and fast, good at assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the others; he preferred action over talking. Conversation was always limited and he spoke only when he had to, but she knew he was attentive; he often sat near to Samson, listening carefully to what his leader said. Ariel, on the other hand, was the diplomat of the group. Even though he’d openly questioned Delilah’s trustworthiness that night, she soon understood that he’d done so precisely because the others wouldn’t. She wasn’t certain that his doubts about her had really gone away, but his way was to talk aloud, not to whisper secretly, and he often accompanied Samson when he went among the Israelites, advocating a case or introducing to Samson the newcomers who wanted to join the fast-growing group of Israelite rebels.

Abidan and Jubal were Delilah’s favourites, though. Abidan was as perfect as Jubal was imperfect, one by far the most handsome of the group, the other a mismatch of outsized limbs and the twist of a broken nose. Their constant companionship meant that there was always noise in the group, and they had unofficial roles in sustaining morale, joking with everyone and always leaping up to help out with tasks. They had boundless energy, and with it a boyish immaturity in place of Samson’s charisma. They took the cause very seriously, indeed Delilah had been touched by Jubal’s defence of her in front of the others, but they did so without Ariel’s rhetoric. They seemed like lion cubs in Samson’s pride, and she wondered how they would cope after he was gone. And what did that make her – the turncoat lioness?

Her eye was caught by a staff spinning high into the air. Samson, his back to her, caught the staff easily, brandishing it this way and that, switching hands, spinning it, jumping over it, twisting it to and fro over his shoulders as he turned at the waist, his feet firmly planted in the grass.

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