Read Online On This Foundation by Lynn Austin - Free Book Online

longed for a baby of her own to hold in her arms.
    â€œYes, I do want to get married,” she told her father.
    â€œThe sad truth is that men your age want to marry younger women, like Yudit and Sarah, who can bear them many children. I fear you’ll soon be left with very old men—widowers or men no one else wanted.”
    â€œYou’re trying to scare me, aren’t you? You want me to court your friend Malkijah from the council.”
    â€œI’ll be honest, my angel. I do wish you would give Malkijah a chance. He is still very interested in you. What would it hurt to take time to get to know him? That’s all I ask. If you find he’s not to your liking, I won’t force you to marry him.”
    Sarah was right—Malkijah had been charming and pleasant. And not bad-looking, even with his crooked nose. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to try,” she said.
    â€œThat’s my girl! I’ll invite him to visit again. Perhaps for Sabbath dinner this time? In fact, how about this Sabbath?”
    Chana wanted to say no, that Abba was moving too fast. But she remembered how Yudit had preened in front of the mirror, longing to look pretty for Alon ben Harim, and she relented. “Fine. This Sabbath. For dinner.”
    The following Friday morning, Sarah and Yudit dove into the dinner preparations with Chana as if the two of them were the ones who needed to impress Malkijah ben Recab. Sarah set the table with their finest cloth, Yudit arranged their best dishes, and the three of them planned a menu of soup and fresh vegetables and roasted fish. There was much discussion about what each one should wear and how they should fix their hair, and Sarah was especially critical of Chana’s hair. “Don’t pull it back so tightly away from your face. It makes you look old and sad.”
    I am old and sad , she wanted to say. Malkijah may as well know the truth. “How should I wear it, then?” she asked instead. Her sister took over, pulling a few tendrils free to curl around her face. Chana didn’t even bother to look in the mirror at the result.
    Malkijah arrived just before sunset with wine for Abba and a present for each of the sisters. “Just a little something for going to all the bother of cooking for me,” he said. Chana’s present was a beautifully woven basket of fresh figs; Yudit’s a lovely pottery jar filled with honey; for Sarah, a plate of sweet pastries made from dates; and for Abba, a sample of some of his best wines. Chana wondered if her father would feel obligatedto Malkijah after so much kindness. Would she be unable to refuse a marriage proposal?
    They sat down to eat the leisurely dinner in the courtyard beneath a starry sky. Malkijah was an attentive dinner guest, never letting the conversation falter and making sure that everyone seated around the table had a chance to speak and to be heard. When the dinner ended hours later, he led Chana outside the courtyard gate and stood beside her as they gazed up at the star-studded sky together. Her home was built close to the wall that had once encircled Jerusalem, but they could easily peer over the stubby remnant of it and see the rubble of demolished homes on the western hill. “I often wonder what that section of the city looked like before it was destroyed,” she said. “It always looks so eerie in the moonlight, the haunt of jackals.” And thieves and criminals , she added to herself. Evil men like the ones who had murdered Yitzhak.
    â€œI want you to know how sorry I am about what happened to Yitzhak,” Malkijah said, as if reading her thoughts. “He was a fine man. I didn’t know him as well as I would have liked, but I never heard a bad word spoken about him, and that says a lot. You must miss him very much.”
    â€œYes . . . I do.” Chana blinked away unwanted tears.
    â€œI won’t talk about him if it’s too painful, but I