Pearl in the Sand Read Online Free PDF Page A

simplicity rather than high style. She found that the curves of a woman’s body, when displayed with clever modesty, provided far more drama than any outrageous garment might. Unlike current fashion, which demanded that women curl their hair into elaborate tiny tendrils on top of their heads, Rahab preferred to leave her hair loose down her back. She wore long dangled earrings and matching armbands on her bare arms. She did not intend to stay long, but merely to make an impression.
    “Rahab!” her host exclaimed as he spotted her walking in, his long face wreathed in a smile.
    She removed his hand from her hip and made a graceful curtsy. “Your servant.”
    “I wish you were.”
    She smiled into his eyes. “Your villa sparkles this evening, my lord.”
    “Now that you are here, it certainly does.”
    She laughed. “The dangerous royal charm.” Any distant cousin of the king liked being referred to as
royal
, she knew. The royal hand was snaking too close to Rahab’s lower back and she stepped quickly away, bumping into a hard body. Turning around, she exclaimed, “Your pardon.”
    She knew the man by sight. He served as a high general in the army—one of Jericho’s leading men of war. What was his name? Debir, she remembered.
    “Evasive maneuvers,” he said straight-faced. “I understand.” Small laugh lines crinkled around his eyes. Rahab flushed and turned her head for a quick look. Her host had moved to another conversation.
    “A friendly skirmish,” she replied.
    He grinned. “I am Debir.”
    “I know. Your reputation precedes you, my lord. I am Rahab.”
    “I know. Your reputation also precedes you.”
    She inclined her head. “I suppose it makes for entertaining conversation.”
    “Alas, I find I do not enjoy empty chatter.”
    “Nor do I. I prefer intelligent conversation, but there is not much of it in my profession.”
    “Nor in mine” They both laughed. A mutual understanding bordering on respect sprung between them that night. Within the first hours of his acquaintance, Rahab decided to accept Debir as her lover.
    For his part, he was delighted to become her companion. Rahab knew that he came to her not out of lust or sentimental affection, but out of a simple desire to be relieved of responsibility for a few hours. Even a steady man like Debir needed a place where he wasn’t continuously pestered for decisions and judgments and wisdom. Everywhere Debir walked, he shouldered the weight of endless expectations. His three wives and numerous children relied on his guidance as heavily as his troops in the king’s army. So Debir came to Rahab simply to be.
    Unlike her other lovers, he appreciated Rahab’s wit and enjoyed conversing with her. As a result he would often speak to her about matters of state, something the average man of Jericho considered above a woman’s comprehension. He never shared state secrets. There was too much soldier in him for that. But he would talk to her about the wars that raged around them, and of the change that was settling over Canaan.
    “It seems the Hebrews have besieged Og,” he told her one night, the planes of his face smooth and curiously expressionless as if he hadn’t just proclaimed the most devastating news to reach Canaan in a hundred years.
    Rahab gasped. Og, the king of Bashan, was reputed to be a giant both in stature and in ability. His iron bed was considered one of the wonders of the world, so wide and long it was. No Canaanite could imagine anyone having the temerity to march against Bashan. “Now they’ll
certainly
be destroyed,” she said.
    Debir raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.
    “You don’t agree?”
    “Let’s say I don’t think it’s a foregone conclusion.”
    “You don’t think Og can beat them? You think they can overrun the city of Edrei?”
    “Edrei is a different matter. It’s protected by a gorge on the one side and a mountain on the other. Nestled right into the side of it. Militarily speaking, Edrei is