An Instrument in His Hands

Part 3 Chapter 6

Part 3

Chapter 6

‘No!’ I cried out and quickly knelt down beside Leahla. This exquisite and delicate creature could not die. I would not have it. I had come to heal her as I had healed others.

She held my hand in hers and smiled into my eyes. ‘The Lord has answered my prayer. I shall go to him happily.’

‘Happily?’ I glanced around at her three children. Then I looked down at her bulging belly. ‘Happily?’ I repeated. How could leaving these children, bereft of a mother’s care, be a happy thing? How could leaving Aaron alone, a widower, be a happy thing? ‘No,’ I repeated, ‘I have come to help you,’ I said firmly. ‘I have come to nurse you through this. Shame on you for thinking of leaving your lovely family alone without you!’ I chided her.

Alma chuckled. He saw that I had accepted my charge and turned to leave.

‘Alma,’ Leahla whispered to him. ‘I would like a blessing.’

He came back to her side and took out a vial of oil. The younger child fidgeted, so I picked him up and helped him outside. He was stocky like his father and had his father’s way of smiling with his eyebrows.

He could have been mine if I had married his father.

‘Stop that!’ I told myself. I had never coveted other women’s babies. I had not let myself. But I could love this boy for himself. ‘I am Auntie Abigail,’ I told him. ‘Come and show me what is hiding in the corner.’

After I set him to digging with a twig, I got to work searching out the cooking arrangements for the morning. By the time Alma came out, I’d found the wood pile, a bowl, a spoon, and the cooking stone.

‘I can see that I am no longer needed here, so I’ll be on my way,’ he said, raising his hand in a gesture of farewell.

‘I would offer to feed you, but I’m certain that you will be well provided for,’ I told him.

He chuckled, then paused at the gate.

‘Will she live?’ I asked, hesitantly. I had to know.

Alma hesitated, searching for words. Then he spoke slowly. ‘That will depend on several factors – your love, her love, her desire to sacrifice, and, of course, the will of the Lord. But your coming here has brought her great peace.’

I did not know how an old girlfriend of her husband could arrive and bring her peace.

‘As I said previously, Leahla is a woman of unusual faith.’

For several days I cared for Leahla and her three small children. I cooked, I cleaned, I bathed her head and I bathed the children. With her sisters, I took our dirty robes to the nearby stream and washed them in the water. I sent the children to play with their cousins. I sat and read the word of God to Leahla. I did not stop working day and night. I was tireless. If I were to stop working, I was afraid I would start to think. I did not want to think about Leahla dying. I did not want it to be my fault.

Leahla stayed in her bed. At times she had pain so great that drops of sweat would break out on her forehead. Then I would rub her bulging baby gently with herb oil. ‘You can do this,’ I encouraged her. ‘You are strong, and the Lord is on your side.’

‘Thank you,’ Leahla whispered. ‘I love you, Abigail,’ she confided.

I realized that I loved her too. One could not help loving gentle Leahla, even if she was beautiful and young and Aaron’s wife. I truly did not want her to die. I bit my lip and leaned down and kissed her on the forehead. I was crying.