An Instrument in His Hands

Part 2 Chapter 5

Part 2  

Chapter 5

I met Daniel once again in the Central Marketplace. ‘Where are we going tonight?’ he inquired.

‘I have a friend who lost her husband and two children to the fever several months ago who bears a heavy burden trying to work and raise the rest of them. She weaves baskets to sell in the market. One night a week, I come to her house to take her place so that she can deliver her wares to the merchant. It gives her some much needed time to herself.’

‘I am all admiration! That is quite a sacrifice you are making.’

I laughed at him. ‘Not at all! I get to be a real mother for one evening a week. Perhaps that is all the opportunity I will get in this life to be a mother. I absolutely treasure borrowing her family.’

He looked at me peculiarly. ‘I’m not a family man myself. My work keeps me too unsettled to marry and raise children.’

‘Poor Andrew…’ I sighed. ‘I suspect you are his last hope for marrying off his sister.’ Then I laughed.

He glanced at me. ‘You really don’t plan to marry?’

We reached the home of my friend, so I said, ‘Possibly not. Perhaps someday I will tell you why. Right now I will tell you what to do for the children. Can you work on helping the older ones learn to read and write?’

‘I’ve never taught anyone before.’

‘Don’t worry, they will show you the routine and ask you questions. They are most eager to learn.’

‘If you say so, I’ll try.’

I squeezed his arm. ‘You will be wonderful, I know.’

And he was. The children took over and counted his fingers and toes, and when that wasn’t enough they added and subtracted all of theirs too. He pulled a marking stick and slate from his bag and taught them words by having them take turns drawing pictures of what he wrote. It was quite a rousing game.

I sat in the corner with the baby who was a bit ill and fussy. I wiped her nose and brow with a wet cloth and cuddled her to my chest singing every lullaby that I knew. She wrapped her little fingers around mine. I was in mother heaven.

Daniel thought so too, for he would steal glances at me every now and then.  ‘Are you having fun?’ I asked him midway through the evening.

He looked surprised and said, ‘Yes, I actually am!’

As we departed, I told him, ‘Daniel, you were wonderful with those children! I think you’d make a great family man. You might reconsider your career.’

‘That’s what all well-meaning women say,’ he sighed. ‘Before I give a response, I might ask you to explain why you never plan to marry.’

I eyed him carefully. How much could I tell him about Aaron? ‘Well, you see, I’m overly picky about whom I marry, perhaps to an extreme extent.’

‘Oh?’

I smiled a teasing smile. ‘You see, I actually turned down the most eligible bachelor in the whole kingdom. Who could top that? Alas, I am a hopeless case.’

‘You peak my curiosity. Who was it?’

I put my hands behind my back casually and looked up at the waning moon peeking between the tree branches. ‘Oh, a boy I grew up with. We knew each other a bit too well.’

‘Who?’

I glanced at him. ‘You really want to know?’

‘I’m curious to know who the rest of us mere males would never measure up to.’

I touched his shoulder. ‘It was he that did not measure up!’

Daniel folded his arms. ‘Now I insist that you tell me. Is it someone that I have heard of?’

‘Oh, yes!’ I laughed.

‘Is he a Muelikite?’

I shook my head. ‘Not a drop of Muelikite.’

His brows came down. ‘Does that mean that you are a Nephite? Or a Zoramite?’

‘I am a descendent of Nephi.’

One eyebrow went up. ‘Pureblood?’

‘Yes.’

Both of his eyebrows went up. ‘Oh, well. Was this man a believer?’

I looked back at the moon. ‘He became one.’

‘Hmmm…  Eligible, Nephite, became a believer…. This sounds like the current head of the church – not Alma the Younger?’ he joked.

‘So, Alma is head of the church also?  Humph!’ I wasn’t sure that I liked that. Did God really know what he was doing?

He looked at me. ‘You actually know Alma? He is also now the Chief Judge.’

I asked skeptically, ‘Was he actually elected by the people?’

‘Fair and square. It’s my job to make certain of that.’

I shook my head. ‘No, it was not Alma that I turned down. But if he had asked me, I certainly would have!’

‘You would have turned down the Chief Judge?’ he marveled.

I nodded.

‘Alright. I’ll  make a wilder guess. How about one of the sons of the King?’ he laughed as if that were absurd.

I nodded again.

Daniel stopped walking. ‘You what? You actually turned down one of the sons of the King?’

I shook my head faster.

‘Hemni?’

‘No,’ I whispered.

‘Omner?’

‘No,’ I said again.

‘Ammon?’

I shook my head no.

He hit his hand to his forehead. ‘You are the girl they were looking for! You are the girl who ran away from Aaron!’ His jaw fell open. ‘I, I found you!’

‘And you are not to tell anyone,’ I insisted, poking his arm again.

‘But,…’

‘You are not to meddle in this,’ I told him firmly. ‘It was God’s will.’

He looked in awe of me, then focused on my old worn robe. ‘How can it be that I am escorting a girl who could have been our queen? How is it possible that we are walking together through a group of huts in a poor section of town so far away from Zarahemla?’

‘I told you that it is the Lord’s will that I am here doing this work. God works in a peculiar way and will bring forth his wonders in due time. Until then, I will serve him.’

‘But, but I should tell someone in Zarahemla,’ he protested.

‘And who would that benefit? Is not Mosiah dead, as are my parents? Are not the sons of the king all in the land of Nephi, if they are still alive? Who but my brother would want to know my whereabouts?’

He wiped his hand on the back of his neck. ‘Perhaps you are right.’

I put my hand on his arm, placatingly. ‘If Aaron returns from the Land of Nephi, you have my permission to tell him where I am, if you happen to meet him.’ Then I sighed, ‘There are many times I wish him to find me.’

When we reached my brother’s home, he bowed, so I bowed too.

‘You could have been the princess,’ he mumbled as he went away. ‘How could anyone…’