Christ the Lord - Anne Rice [44]
“Shemayah, Shemayah!” men chanted, even as the crowd broke open to disgorge the Rabbi and Hananel of Cana and two of the elders at their side.
Astonished, the Rabbi looked at us, his eyes moving over every detail of the scene he beheld. I stepped forward, all but shoving James out of my path.
“I tell you, nothing has happened here, but words, words spoken together in quiet there in the grove where I come, where everyone knows that I come!”
“Avigail, do you accuse this man!” cried the Rabbi, his face white with shock.
She shook her head violently. She gasped. “No,” she cried. “No, he's innocent. No, he did nothing.”
“Then what is this madness!” cried the Rabbi. He turned on the crowd which was now tripling in size, and full of gawking necks and raucous demands to see and to know. “I tell you stop this now and go back down to your homes.”
“Go back at once, all of you,” cried Jason. “There is nothing to see here. Get away from this place. You're drunken, all of you, with your celebrations! Go home.”
But murmurs and grumbling ran rampant in all directions. “Alone, in the grove together, Yeshua and Avigail.” I caught it in bits and fragments. I saw Joseph hurrying up the slope. Menachim was all but carrying him. More and more women were running towards us. Avigail had broken into helpless gasping cries.
“Bring her home, now, bring her,” I said. But suddenly my brother Joses had his arms around me from the back, and my brother Joseph did too.
“Don't! Stop this,” I said.
“Shemayah,” Joses said, and there the man was, striding up the hill, parting the crowd, shoving people out of his path.
At the sight of him, Avigail buckled. My aunt Esther tried to hold her, but Avigail doubled over and stumbled backwards and slipped out of Esther's hands.
The Rabbi stepped into Shemayah's path. Shemayah went to strike him, and the farmhands caught his upraised arm. Men seized Jason before he could strike Shemayah, and others grabbed hold of Reuben. It seemed all strove one with the other.
Shemayah threw off those who held him. He glared at his daughter and at me.
He ran at me.
“You'll drink from that broken cup for the rest of your life, you will!” Shemayah cursed. “You filthy cheating liar, you damnable thief.”
Avigail shrieked. “No, stop it, he didn't . . . he did nothing!” She stood up, arms out to him. “Father, he did nothing.”
“A curse on you,” Shemayah shouted at me. My brothers rose up in front of him, blocking him and pushing me backwards. I felt my aunt Salome's arms around me and then the arms of my cousins Silas and Levi.
“Let me go, stop,” I declared, but there were too many of them.
“You think my daughter is a harlot that you can do this to her?” Shemayah shouted, straining against the men who held him, his face red.
Over the arms that held me, I could just make out his advancing on Avigail, and grabbing her by the shoulders and shaking her so that her head fell back and her veil fell off.
A huge huzzah rose from the crowd, so loud it brought everyone to silence.
Avigail's dark mantle had fallen open. All could see the white gauze of her gold-trimmed gown. Shemayah saw it. Shemayah ripped the mantle from her and flung it to the side.
The shock of the crowd found one huge wordless voice.
Avigail stood horrified, unable to grasp what had happened. Then she looked down at herself, saw for herself what they saw: the frail, gauzy white wedding tunic, embroidered at the sleeves and hem in gold.
Silent Hannah and Shabi grabbed at Avigail's mantle and tried to give it back to her. Shemayah knocked Shabi flat on his back on the grass with his fist.
Avigail stared up at her father. She clutched at the neck of her gown, at the loose strings of gold that had been untied when she came to me, and then suddenly, she let out a low terrible cry.
“Harlot, am I?” she screamed. “Harlot! In my mother's wedding tunic, I am a harlot!”
“Stop her, get her!” I called out. “Rabbi, this is a child.”
“Harlot!” she screamed again and then she tore at the neck of her gown. “I am a harlot, yes, I am a harlot, I am your harlot,” she