Lux by Elizabeth Cook

Author:Elizabeth Cook
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FIC019000, FIC014030, FIC010000, FIC042030
Publisher: Scribe Publications Pty Ltd
Published: 2019-04-02T00:00:00+00:00

17

The women of the household, including the other wives, acted as if the baby were their common property, bustling in and out of Bathsheba’s apartment with presents and suggestions. They would pick him up without asking for permission, leading Bathsheba to carry the child close to her more often than she might have otherwise. Michal alone lacked this sense of entitlement. After the gift of the almonds and the brief conversation in the garden, she had not been near Bathsheba or the baby, but Bathsheba could not put out of her mind the awkward humility with which the older, childless woman had held the baby. The very fact that Michal was disregarded in the household made Bathsheba wish to know her more.

She found Michal outside among the orange trees. She was about to twist one from its branch when Bathsheba arrived. She turned with a look of apology, as if she’d been caught stealing.

‘Not quite ready on this one.’

Bathsheba looked at the cloth on the ground which already held several fruit of varying size.

‘Could you spare one? I love the smell of them when they’re just off the tree.’

Michal nodded and, with the swaddled baby Avi securely against her left shoulder, Bathsheba helped herself to an orange and perched on a low wall while she peeled it and tugged it into segments.

‘Here. Please have some.’

Michal joined her on the wall and the two women ate companionably.

‘When my first husband was alive we had just two orange trees. Imagine that. Two oranges, one apricot, and a fig tree. They all did well. We worked hard to make sure they did. And now — all this,’ Bathsheba’s gaze took in the extent of the orange grove, ‘It’s hard to get used to.’

Michal nodded. ‘My father’s house wasn’t like this, even though he was king. As long as he had food he didn’t care about how it came to be there. He thought farming and cultivating were for others, though of course he’d done that kind of work when he was young.’

Now that Michal had opened the subject of her childhood another thought came to Bathsheba.

‘Your brother Jonathan. Was he like your father? I know our husband loved him very much.’

Michal answered by bowing her head, unknotting her hair, and raking her juice-stained fingers through it, shaking it free. She growled with rage as she did so.

‘Loved him! A strange way of showing it! He very nearly killed him. All those wonderful words he spoke can’t change that.’

Bathsheba had heard that David, in his outlaw years, pursued by Saul, had had the chance to kill Saul and not taken it. But Jonathan? When did he nearly kill Jonathan? Who was this man, her husband, who had been instrumental in changing her life so entirely? Was he capable of killing his friend? She pulled her baby more closely in to her body.

‘I expect you’ve heard about Ziklag,’ said Michal. ‘Ahinoam and Abigail are always talking about it — David left them there, the two of them, more or less in charge, while he and his men were away.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.