SIN and HONEY: Seven Years of Longing

Chapter 12: Leah

Leah's body stuttered into life. Had it been a day, or a week? Her arms felt heavy, and when she tried using them to prop herself up, she remembered the bees clouding the sky with their fury. Each sting felt like a lick of fire. Her swollen eyes adjusted to the light and she tried to sit up, but her whole body felt like it did when one limb fell asleep: pinpricks at every turn. Paralyzed, all she could do was look around and try not to panic.

"Leah, do not move. You must rest."

A familiar voice, but not a welcome one. Leah turned to see Amit in the flickering lamplight of the tent, wetting a cloth in a basin of water. Leah obeyed, lying down on her sleeping mat and gratefully taking a sip when Amit brought over a mug of watered wine. The old woman rested the cup on the dirt floor before gently pressing the damp cloth onto Leah's swollen chest.

Realizing she was in her shared tent with Rachel, Leah swallowed and tried to find her voice. "What happened?" she croaked.

"Your father brought you back here. You've been confined until your wedding in the morning."She dipped the cloth into the water again and Leah felt her throat spasm when she saw blood swirling in the water. "You foolish child, what were you thinking?"

Leah looked up at the tent ceiling. When she was young, her mother would open the top tent flap so they could stargaze, but then one night it rained and Laban took away their dinner for a week because the rugs and blankets had gotten wet. She would give anything to feel the cool pressure of rain on her skin instead of this burning fire.

"I thought he was going to kill me anyway. I wanted to have a choice."

Amit sighed, wrapping Leah's hand in the cloth and sitting back. "You have always wanted things you couldn't have. Remember when you asked your mother about learning numbers with the boys? She felt terrible when she had to tell you your father wouldn't allow it. You tried to work out numbers for yourself with river pebbles, putting them in little piles and taking some away."

Leah felt her eyes fill with tears, but she refused to let them fall.Of course she remembered. The Birds had tried to make fun for her when they could. Double the recipe for a feast. Halve the recipe during a drought. That was all she had known. But the boys in camp learned to calculate how many goats and sheep a pasture could sustain based on its size. The average numbers of ewes and kids born each spring, and the number that would be lost to illness and predators. The chances of a ewe being born black or white, brown or speckled. How she had envied them this knowledge. To her it had seemed like magic. Unattainable magic. She learned quickly that it was not expected of her to know, or to do, or to be special in any way.

"May I have more to drink, please?" she asked.Amit tilted the mug up to her dry lips. Some tears fell as she drank with relief. "Thank you." Looking around again, her chest tightened. "Where is Rachel?"

Amit's wrinkles grew even deeper as her face contorted into a mask of concern. She removed the cloth and dipped it again in the water. Of course. She is probably married already, her reward for betraying me.

"You did the right thing, Leah. Keeping the truth from her all these years. And now she is trying to do the right thing, by you." She chuckled, shaking her head. "And against my better judgment, I am helping her."

Confused, Leah opened her mouth to speak just as Rachel and Levi entered the tent.

"Leah, thanks be to Baal that you're alright," Levi said, walking to the side of her mat and sliding a bag off his back.

Amit stood. "These old bones make music," she croaked, patting Rachel's hands. "One hour. That's all I can promise. I don't want Laban's wrath to fall on my grandchildren."

"One hour," Rachel said, her cheeks flushed. She leaned in to embrace Amit as Leah looked on with surprise.

The old woman smiled and walked to the opening of the tent, taking one look back at Leah and Rachel.

"I helped your mother this way once, and it led to her death. I've been paying for it ever since. Be careful, children." She slid out of the flap and was gone.

"You don't have much time, so let me explain," Rachel said, sitting down next to Leah's mat. "Abī brought us back here and kept Achan posted outside so we couldn't leave. But I just ...I couldn't face you again after what I did ..."

"Rachel, what have you done? How ..." Leah could barely finish her sentence for joy that Levi was there. She didn't want to break the spell.

Her eyes bright, manic with energy, Rachel bit her lip before speaking. "I may have flirted with Achan a bit. He let me leave and I found Levi. Eli is going to get Father drunk, and if he tries to come to our tent Amit is going to say we are making wedding offerings to the goddesses who will strike him dead if he sees," she said.

"So ..."Leah looked between them and dared to hope. "What does this mean?"

Rachel's smile faded. "It means ...you have an hour. To say goodbye. If you don't marry tomorrow, Father is going to kill us, Leah. I can't let that happen."

Despite the choice she made at the hives, Leah realized she couldn't let it happen either. What had she been thinking? If she had died, Laban would have taken his rage out on Rachel. Her sister may have betrayed her, but she didn't deserve that.

"About what happened in the grove with Levi, Rachel-" It hurt to speak, it hurt to even breathe, but Leah had to tell her.

Rachel stood. "Don't. You don't have time. Please, accept this as my apology. I wish-I wish I could do more." Rachel walked to the doorway of the tent and peeked her head outside. Leah heard Achan's voice.

"One hour," Rachel reminded them, turning back and speaking in a whisper. "I'll be in Amit's tent next door, and she'll bring me back when the coast is clear."

*****

Check back in next week for Leah and Levi's emotional- and yes, romantic- goodbye.

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