Love’s Sacred Song Read Online Free PDF Page A

cheated themselves all these years?
    When they were finally beyond Shunem’s walls, the men released her. She rolled on her back, appreciating the softness of her woolen robe.
    The brothers positioned themselves at her hands and feet. “You take her wrists, Igal, and I’ll grab her ankles.”
    Arielah’s reaction was quick and instinctive. Like a crab beside the Great Sea, she pulled her hands and feet under her and tried to scoot away. But before she could escape, Igal’s meaty hands found her wrists again, and Kemmuel grabbed her ankles.
    “Let’s see how high our sister can fly, Igal!” The two swung Arielah from side to side, lifting her higher with each rhythmic sway. Finally, Kemmuel began the count. “One, and two, and threeeeee!”
    Arielah sailed into the air and hit the cold, unyielding ground with a sickening thud. She saw torchlight flash at the corners of her vision and then welcomed the sweet darkness that would spare her further torment.

    Arielah’s eyes opened slowly as from a dream, but her throbbing head reminded her of the nightmare she’d endured. Nervously glancing right and left to be sure her brothers were gone, she stood on wobbly legs. The blood rushing to her head pounded like a wooden spoon on Ima’s cooking pots. The fresh wounds on her right side and leg stung like a thousand bees. Her robe, shredded by the dragging, offered no protection from the cool night air.
    Arielah slowly regained her bearings. Outside the city gate, she saw torches amid the distant crowd gathered at the well. Moonlight surrounded her, casting an eerie glow on her torn robe and bloodstained mantle. Beneath her mantle, the headpiece binding her hair was soaked with blood, and she could feel a warm trickle seeping down the back of her neck. Touching a lump on the back of her head, she winced when her fingers found a small cut in its center.
    Not so bad this time , she thought, making her way toward the gate. She would slip quietly back to their home and wash her wounds using the water jar in the far corner of the courtyard. Hopefully Ima would be busy inside and wouldn’t notice her return. The cuts and scrapes from her dragging would be easy enough to clean up, but the head wound would require more care. She must hurry. When Abba presented his plan, she must be ready. Israel’s treaty bride could hardly appear to the northern officials looking like a tattered beggar.
    Arielah limped back toward the city, thankful their house was one of those nestled within the high protective walls surrounding Shunem. Entering the southern gate, she walked a few paces toward their courtyard, where a fenced garden lay just outside their home. Here Arielah could tend her wounds and still faintly hear some of the elders’ meeting. Pausing just a moment before entering the courtyard, she heard Abba’s raised voice wafting on the crisp night air.
    “My northern brothers, we have fought our Judean brothers and eyed them with suspicion for too long. We are too quick to condemn, too slow to listen.”
    Arielah hurried into the courtyard to retrieve the water jar and stool. Picking up an old rag, she began washing the wounds on her right leg and ribs, wondering all the while how she might slip into the house unnoticed for a fresh robe and headpiece.
    The sound of hoofbeats intruded. They were approaching the city, heavy and pounding. The lumbering gallop of a camel, not the clipped pace of a mule or horse. She stood and limped toward the city gate as quickly as her bruised leg would carry her. Just as she reached the gate, a camel and rider bearing King David’s banner passed in a flurry of dust.
    What is a royal messenger doing alone in Shunem—at night, on a camel? With the known tension between the king’s household and Shunem, sending a royal representative alone was unusual. “But to come at night . . . and on a camel rather than a horse.” She whispered her confusion to no one.
    The messenger and his rumbling mount raced