Sarah Read Online Free PDF

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    â€œSarai . . . What are you talking about?”
    â€œHim. The man my father has chosen to be my husband. The man who’ll sleep with me in this big bed.”
    Sililli frowned and gave a deep sigh that shook her bosom. Mechanically, she picked up the fabric Sarai had dropped and carefully folded it.
    â€œHow should I know? Your father doesn’t confide things like that to a handmaid.”
    â€œBut is he already here?” Sarai asked, annoyed. “You must at least know that.”
    â€œIt isn’t customary for the bridegroom and his father to come to the bride’s house before she has taken part in the first meal for the guests. Didn’t Egime teach you anything in those seven days?”
    â€œOh, yes! She taught me how to sing, how to wash my linen, how to weave fine but solid-colored threads. She taught me what a wife must do to make sure her husband is never hungry. How he must be fed morning and night. What to say to him and what not to say to him. She taught me how to add color to my feet, how to wear a shawl, how to put pomade between my buttocks! My head is still spinning with all the things she taught me!” As Sarai’s voice rose, tears sprung into her eyes, tears she could not hide. “But she didn’t tell me who my husband would be.”
    â€œBecause she doesn’t know.”
    Sarai looked into Sililli’s eyes, hoping to catch her out in a lie, but all she saw in those eyes was a sad, slightly weary tenderness.
    â€œShe doesn’t know, Sarai,” repeated Sililli. “This is how it is, my child. A daughter belongs to her father, her father gives her to her husband. This is how things are!”
    â€œThat’s what you all say. But I’m going to ask my father.”
    â€œSarai! Sarai! Open your eyes! Tomorrow, the whole house will be celebrating. Your father will give the first banquet and show off your beauty to his guests. Your bridegroom will come to offer his nuptial platter and his silver ingots, and then you’ll know who he is. The day after tomorrow, he’ll put the bridal scent on you and you’ll be his. There! That’s what’s going to happen. Nothing can change that, for that is how the daughters of the lords of Ur are married. And you are Sarai, the daughter of Ichbi Sum-Usur. In two nights, your husband will come to sleep in this beautiful chamber, in this beautiful bed. For your greater happiness. I’m sure your father hasn’t made a bad choice . . .”
    Her hands over her ears so she couldn’t hear any more, Sarai rushed to the door, only to be brought up short by Kiddin, her elder brother, standing on the threshold.
    He was fifteen, but seemed two years older. Although his beard was still only a light down, he was as handsome as a young lord of Ur, eldest son of a great house, ought to be, with regular features and strong muscles, like a warrior’s. Kiddin loved fighting, and practiced every day. He was always well groomed, always very aware of the way he looked, the way his voice sounded. Sarai had long since noticed how careful he was to ensure that the cloth of his toga, against his bare right shoulder, emphasized the smoothness of his skin and made women want to stroke it. In the household, his chief concern was to make sure that everyone respected his rank as the firstborn. Even Sililli, although she seemed to fear nobody but Ichbi Sum-Usur, took care never to offend him.
    â€œGood morning, sister,” Kiddin said, in a cold voice. “Our father wants you to join him. He is about to sacrifice some sheep to learn your future as a wife. The
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is already in the temple, drinking and scenting himself.”
    Sarai opened her mouth to ask the question that was nagging at her, but nothing came out except “Good day, brother.”
    â€œGet ready,” Kiddin said, with a gleam in his eyes, and a mocking smile that gave a glimpse of the young boy that he