Abigail's Story Read Online Free PDF

the table, his breathing choppy as he gripped the edge. “Bring me wine and go to bed.”
    â€œYou are sitting in my bedroom, and I think you have had enough to drink.” I brought him water instead. “Who did this to you? Were you robbed?”
    â€œThat is it. Yes.” He sipped from the cup. “I was robbed by Maon scum.” Absently he wiped his nose with the back of his hand. The sight of the blood seemed to surprise him. “I should bathe.” He tried to rise, but his face paled and he abruptly dropped down again. “Maybe later.”
    I saw fresh blood trickle from his nostrils and brought a damp cloth for him. “Is your nose broken?”
    He used the cloth gingerly. “Almost. Cowards. They ganged up on me, you know. Four on one.” He felt the middle part of his nose. “Or maybe it was five.”
    â€œI shall wake Father.” We Carmelites generally avoided people from the nearby town of Maon, and they did the same with us. If they were coming here to rob our men, then Father would notify the shofet. Choab would take quick action and ban the wretches from entering our gates.
    Before I could go to my parents’ room, Rivai reached out and seized my wrist. “Do not wake him, Abi. I was not robbed.” He grimaced. “Not exactly.”
    â€œWhat happened to you, then, exactly?”
    He shrugged. “I went to Maon with Nefat, and we stopped at a gaming hall.”
    Maon was a settlement built on a high hill a mile to the south of our town. It was a rough place frequented by sheepherders and shearers from Ziph andJuttah. Maon was where they spent their wages on drink, gaming, and the Adonai knew what else.
    To my knowledge, my brother had never been there before. “Father does not permit you to go there.”
    â€œI am a man now, Abi. Father does not own me.” He felt his nose again. “It is almost broken, those dogs. A debt is no reason to beat a man. I told them I would pay it.”
    â€œYou have a debt?” My brother had never gambled outside our town or wagered more than he carried. We were too poor to merit credit from anyone. At least, I had thought we were.
    â€œI was cheated.” Rivai sat up and gave me an indignant glare. “The dice were switched, and the last were weighted, I swear it.”
    I still could not get past the fact that my brother had gambled beyond his means to pay and had been beaten for it. “How much do you owe?”
    â€œA debt is a matter for men,” he said, all haughty male now. “You would not understand.”
    Would I not? Who did he think managed the household income? Our mother? “Then I shall wake Father,” I said, “and you two men can discuss it.”
    Again my brother moved to stop me. “No, please, Abi.” His manly arrogance vanished, leaving behind only a frightened boy. “You cannot speak of this to him.”
    â€œI promise, I shall not.” Why is he so afraid? I braced myself even as I reached out to take his hand in mine. “How much did you lose, Rivai?”
    He looked at the table. “Eight.”
    â€œEight pots or eight measures of emmer?” The pots we could begin making tonight and, if we worked late, have finished in two days. It would be harder to put together so much grain. I had earned two sacks of millet from today’s trading; perhaps Cetura would exchange—
    â€œEight maneh of gold,” Rivai said.

CHAPTER
4
    E ight maneh of gold.
    Rivai’s words rang in my ears, and I felt as if my blood turned to clay. I barely felt his hand slip from my numb fingers.
    â€œGold.” I could barely shape the word with my lips. “You gambled with gold ?”
    His head drooped before he nodded.
    No, it could not be. We had no gold. We had never had any gold. There was a little silver, saved from the very best years, but no one was permitted to touch it. My father had put the silver aside to serve as