Delilah

Chapter 9

As I sat on the edge of the bed sobbing, Samson came and put his arms around me. "Do not weep, my love," he said. "I do love you, but what if some of your former customers had happened by while I was bound and I had really told you the secret of my strength. I would have been unable to protect you."

Sniffling, I replied, "I have not had customers since I took you in as a boarder, Samson. I told Helez to spread the word that I would be unavailable as long as you are here. They think you are paying me handsomely for my services."

"And are they such gentlemen that they would rather have you in another man's bed growing rich than fulfilling their own lusts? I think not, Delilah. Eventually they will come back and demand your services or your home."

"Not as long as you are the man who resides in my home. You know you are feared throughout the land. So, tell me, Samson, please tell me what you may be bound with?" I cajoled.

With a sigh, Samson reached out his gigantic hands and began to massage my tight shoulders.

"Why is it so important to you, Delilah? I am here, am I not? I love you. Though I do not pay you for bedding me, I gladly pay for my lodging and food. If you are losing money because I am here, I will gladly pay more."

"It is not a matter of money," I responded scornfully, rising from the bed and putting my hands on my hips. With Samson seated, I was about eye level with him. Leaning toward him so that my face was only inches from his, I hissed, "I resent the implication that I am allowing you to stay only so long as you make up for my lost wages. I thought you truly believed that I love you. I have not been making enough off of lodging to keep myself in the manner to which I had become accustomed. I was willing to settle for less and supplement the money you paid from what I had saved for the day when I am no longer comely and men will not pay such high prices for my services. You have sullied our relationship with your insinuations."

Slumping down in apparent defeat, Samson said, "I did not mean to make you feel cheap or used Delilah. Please be patient with me." Looking desperate, he pulled me onto his lap and whispered into my hair. "If I tell you, will you cease to question my sincerity and believe without further proof?"

"Yes, Samson," I said breathlessly. "Yes. If you tell me, I will take you at your word."

And so he told me that if he were bound securely with new ropes that had never been used, he would become weak and have the strength of an ordinary man.

For seven days I pretended I had believed Samson. Although I got the necessary ropes the next day, I explained to the merchant that I had to bide my time so Samson would not suspect anything. I hid the ropes in the wine room, a room Samson had never entered. While I was prepared to continue sleeping in the lust chamber, Samson refused, saying that he thought the memories I faced in that room had led me to bind him. 

Part of the reason I delayed was that I feared that he would sleep less soundly in my presence, since I had tested him once. Several times in the nights following, I waited until he slept and then started and cried out in my sleep as though suffering from a nightmare. Each time Samson would awaken quickly as he had when I told him the Philistines were there. Each time he held me and soothed me until he thought I was asleep and then slept again. Finally, I told Samson that I thought the nightmares would only be banished if we slept again in the other room. I still could not bring myself to betray him in my own bedchamber. 

Finally Samson acquiesced. The first night in the lust chamber, Samson refused to have sex with me. He told me that the room held too many bad memories of sexual encounters and that they could best be banished by doing something else in the room. When we finally slept, Samson was restless in his sleep, never seeming to fall into a deep sleep. The second night, was the same. Finally on the third night, Samson gave in to his physical desire for me. After we had intercourse, he fell into a deep slumber. Immediately I put out the signal and then bound Samson with the ropes. I could only presume the Philistine men had a watchman outside my door every night. I had told the merchant I could not predict when Samson would be lulled once again into complacency so I could bind him.