SIN and HONEY: Seven Years of Longing

Chapter 21: Rachel

            "Oh Rachel, thanks be to Inanna!"

            For the first time in hours, Rachel looked up from where she sat on the brightly colored rugs of the wedding tent. A figure emerged through the open flap.

Leah.

 Before Rachel could find her voice, Leah broke away from Achan's grip and ran to her, pulling her up from the floor. She saw Levi, Jacob, and Eli enter the tent behind her sister. Eli was gripping Levi's arm. Leah cried into Rachel's hair, stroking her back.

 "I thought he would have—I was afraid he—"

Rachel clung tighter. "I'm fine, sister. Did they not tell you what happened?"

 Leah broke apart and Rachel looked into her eyes. They were puffy and red from crying. She glanced behind her to where Jacob stood, his face red with shame, his jaw resolute.

 "No, they did not. I thought when Jacob showed up it meant all was lost, Rachel. I thought you might have been killed!"Then her face contorted into a grimace, tilting  Rachel's face to the light and exposing a raised mark on her cheek. "Did Laban do this?"

 Rachel's hand went to her face, tenderly touching the swollen spot. She didn't want to remember. But how could she forget?

 It had happened quickly, mere moments after she walked into the wedding tent on Laban's arm. Dimly, through her veil, she had seen the outline of his intended choice for Leah: a man at least twice Leah's age hunched over a cane, his body wracked with the fermented stench of gout. Laban put the man's hand in hers and the wrinkled texture of the old skin shocked her, like the pearlescent flesh of a snake.

 Any moment now, Rachel thought, waiting to reveal herself at the very last moment. She needed to give Leah as much time as possible. The man, whose name she did not know, seemed to smile at her. Rachel was grateful for the barrier of the thick veil between them—if she had to look at his face without it, seeing the wrinkles and rotten stumps of teeth she knew must be there, she wasn't sure she could continue.

 "Mirah, no!"

 A figure stormed into the tent and another stood behind them. Mirah and Amit, Rachel realized, from the former's defiant stance and Amit's hunched over posture.

 "Mirah, this is a mistake!" Amit cried.

 "No it isn't. I'm undoing yours,"Mirah spat, looking at her grandmother before approaching Laban. "That isn't Leah. It's Rachel!"

 Rachel tried to back away, but Laban was faster—he grabbed the edge of the veil and tore it off her head. The crowd rippled with gasps.

 Rachel tried to back away, but Laban was faster—he grabbed the edge of the veil and tore it off her head. The crowd rippled with gasps.

 The fresh air was welcome in her lungs, but the sight was not. Now that she could see him, she realized that the man next to her, the groom, was even older and uglier than she had imagined through the veil. Rachel pulled back, but Laban grabbed her arm, his fingers digging in so deeply they bruised her.

 "What is the meaning of this?" he roared, looking to Rachel for an explanation. She was silent, struck dumb from fear.

 "I overheard her plotting with Leah to help her escape, but I couldn't get here in time,"Mirah said, glowering at her grandmother. Amit looked to the ground guiltily; she must have done something to try and stop her granddaughter. Rachel felt a sudden burst of affection for the old woman. All this time, she'd made fun of her, but she'd helped Rachel twice that night, at her own peril.

 "What have you done?"Laban hissed. Suddenly, his palm connected with her cheek.  The sound crackled in the silence. The crowd stirred as men tried to prevent their wives from looking; somewhere, a baby started to cry. Rachel fell to the floor, her flesh ringing. "Where is she, Rachel?"

 "Gone, by now,"Rachel said, not looking up. "Do whatever you want to me, I'll suffer the consequences."

 "No!"Jacob rushed through the tent and went to Rachel, leaning over her protectively. "Laban, she was just trying to help her sister."

 "Did you know about this?"Laban asked Jacob, grabbing him by the neck of his robe and pulling. The neckline ripped in Laban's hands. Rachel could see her own hand-stitched embroidery with red thread torn at the seams—now ruined like everything else Laban touched.

 "No one knew,"Rachel shouted. Laban let Jacob go, shoving him away. Jacob stumbled backwards. "It was just me, Abī. Don't punish Jacob or Amit. No one knew anything, I swear it."

 Laban drew in a breath."Jacob, you will ride now. Find Leah and her lover—they can't have gotten far, they don't have anything to survive on. They will have to stop somewhere."

 "Jacob, please don't!"Rachel shook her head, watching him deliberate.

 "If you don't, I have no use for her anymore."He motioned to Rachel. "She has been betrothed to another man for seven years. I cannot sell her to a husband—no one would want her now. Except, perhaps, the slave master."

 Jacob swallowed hard. "I'll go."

 "Jacob!" He didn't understand. She was making a sacrifice for Leah—it was what her mother would have wanted.

 "Stop it, Rachel,"he said through tight lips. "I am trying to save your life."

****

What will Laban do to Levi and Leah when they return home after being captured by Jacob? 

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