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placed a groom’s crown upon Uriah’s head, there could be no comparison between them. There was a nobility about David that proclaimed his place among men. No one was more handsome and graceful. No one could surpass his gifts of music and dance. No one held a position of greater power, nor had a more humble, tender heart. David asked for no special treatment, but everyone deferred to him out of love and respect. God had blessed David in every way.
    The wedding feast proceeded with Bathsheba in a haze. She was relieved when Uriah left her side to greet David. They laughed together and shared a goblet of wine while she sat on the dais and watched. It was David who drew her husband back to her side. It was David who took up a pitcher and replenished Uriah’s cup and then filled hers. She brushed his fingers with her own as she took the goblet, sensing his surprise. Did he think she was bold?
    “May the Lord bless your house with many children, Uriah,” David said grandly, and in a voice loud enough to carry. He raised his cup high. Bathsheba raised her eyes and looked into his, and for an infinitesimal moment, she felt something change between them. Heat spread over her skin. “And,” he continued, “may all your sons and daughters look like your wife and not like you.” He looked into her eyes as he sipped, his own strangely dark and perplexed.
    The men around them laughed, Uriah loudest of all. David blinked and then laughed as well, slapping Uriah on the back and saying something to him that was lost in the din surrounding her. Uriah nodded and looked at her proudly, his eyes glowing. David’s eyes met hers again, and her stomach fluttered strangely. The moment was both enticing and terrifying. When Uriah looked at her, she felt nothing. But David’s look made her cheeks burn and her heart hammer. She lowered her eyes, startled by the powerful feelings surging inside her. She glanced around cautiously, wondering if anyone had noticed the effect David had upon her. She was trembling. Afraid, she looked at her mother, but she was dancing and laughing with the other women, and her father and grandfather were drinking with the men.
    Turning her head shyly, she encountered David’s stare. It shook her deeply, for she instinctively understood its meaning. Exultation was overwhelmed by despair.
    Why does he look at me as a woman now, when it’s too late? Why couldn’t he have noticed me a new moon ago?
    Uriah came and sat with her upon the dais. He took her hand and kissed it, his eyes bright from admiration and too much wine. “I am blessed among men,” he said thickly. “There is not a man here, including our king, who does not envy me such a beautiful young wife.”
    She smiled back tremulously, embarrassed by his impassioned compliment.
    The wedding feast wore on until she was emotionally exhausted. She forced a smile until her cheeks ached. She pretended to be happy, pretended she wasn’t drowning in a sea of sorrow. Twice more, David looked at her. And twice, she looked back at him, fighting against the tears. He always looked away quickly, as though caught doing something that made him ashamed. And that made her suffer all the more.
    Oh, David, David, what a wretched woman I am. I love you! I’ll always love you the same way I have since I was a little girl. Do you remember how I followed you to the stream of En-gedi and watched you pray? I was just a child, but love caught me and held me tight in its grip. Nothing can kill it. And now I’m married to a man I can never love because I gave my heart to you years ago!
    When David rose and left, she was almost relieved.

    Uriah was a man hardened by years of fighting the Philistines, Amalekites, and King Saul, but Bathsheba found him surprisingly kind as well. “I don’t know anything about women, Bathsheba. I’ve spent my entire life training for battle and fighting alongside David. And that won’t change. My allegiance will always be to David first, for