The Secret Chord by Geraldine Brooks

Author:Geraldine Brooks [Brooks, Geraldine]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780698411487
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

XI

It became clear soon enough that he would need to seek a new capital if we were truly to forge the tribes into one nation. The Israelites made it plain that they felt slighted by the king’s location in Hevron, in the center of Yudah. But to move to Shaul’s old capital in Geba was out of the question, since it would affront David’s own tribe. And relations in that direction were unsettled enough. Inevitably, some of his most loyal men had been demoted, or felt as if they had been, as he incorporated the men of Benyamin into positions of authority.

David’s mind became much occupied with the problem, but he had little time to act on it, amid the press of urgent affairs. These were years of bloodshed as all our enemies came against us, hoping to disrupt the new kingdom even as we strove to forge it. Yet they were also fruitful years, when David’s family grew and expanded as befit a king. Avigail’s son, Daniel, arrived soon after the anointing, another cause for feasting and rejoicing. Then Maacah, before a full year in the household, gave birth to a striking baby boy named Avshalom. Later, she bore David his first and only daughter, the radiant child Tamar. There were new wives, too: Hagit, who gave him a son named Adoniyah; Eglah, whose first child was named Yitraam; and Avital, whose boy was called Shefatiah.

I did not have occasion to get to know these later wives, who were acquired to bind the tribes. David made it clear enough that they were honored, and would be made in all ways comfortable, but once he had got an heir on them it seemed to me he paid them little mind. If he wanted a woman’s company, it was still Avigail he sought out, even as her illness took her ever more firmly into its grip. He also spent time in Maacah’s separate house, but it wasn’t clear whether the attraction there was the beautiful Geshurite princess or her infants, or both.

I did go to the women’s quarters, of course, when I had cause to. I went, as always, to visit and consult with Avigail, as far as her waning strength allowed it. And I went reluctantly, at David’s request, about two months after the anointing, to speak on his behalf to Mikhal. He had invited her to his bed on a few occasions in that time, and was most unsatisfied with the outcome.

“She’s changed, Natan,” he confided, the morning after one such encounter. He had called me early, and his face was drawn as if he hadn’t slept. The servants were still bustling about performing their morning duties. Before I replied, I tilted my head in their direction and gave David a look. He came to himself and dismissed them wearily.

“How not?” I said. “It’s been ten years since you were man and wife. And she has been through a great deal—”

He cut me off with a sweep of his

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