The Bronze Bow - Elizabeth George Speare [79]
"I wouldn't know how to behave," Daniel protested.
"Think it over. It would please Thacia. Now, the other thing is about Leah. Thacia and I want you to know that you never need to be worried about leaving her, because we will take care of her. When the day comes, if you ever have to go away, Thacia will come—or even better, we would like to have Leah safe in our own house."
He hurried on, while Daniel groped for words to thank him. "Thacia is very fond of Leah. She'll miss her. Thace is going to be lonely, I'm afraid."
Daniel looked down at his hands.
"Father regrets now that he's allowed her so much freedom to go about with me. Thace is spoiled. She isn't used to staying at home the way most girls do."
It will be like caging a wild bird from the mountain, Daniel thought.
Joel looked away then, into a far corner of the shop. "Father wants to arrange a marriage for her," he said.
Daniel was not even aware that his hands reached out or that his knuckles whitened around a hammer handle.
"There is an old friend of the family," Joel went on. "But Thacia won't hear of it. It puts Father in a hard position, because, no matter how he regrets it, he is bound by his own promise. You see, it's different with our family. When our mother was only eight years old she was betrothed. But when she was fifteen my father, who was a poor student, came to do some work in her father's library, and they fell in love. It caused a terrible uproar. Her father was furious. He had to get divorce papers from the boy she had never even laid eyes on. She and Father promised each other then that they would never arrange marriages for their children against their will. that they would let us choose for ourselves."
Daniel did not dare to look at his friend.
"The trouble is," Joel said. "Thacia is sixteen years old, and she refuses to choose."
Still Daniel could not look up. He knew that Joel had spoken straight from his heart, with the impulsive frankness that would always be Joel's way. But he knew too that his friend's loyalty had always blinded him to the truth.
"She must choose," he burst out now, too harshly. "Someone of her own kind. Your father is right. And you will have to choose too, before long."
"And you?" Joel asked quietly.
"I have no choice. How can a man who is sworn to vengeance and death take a wife?"
The angry words echoed in a silence that neither of them could seem to break.
"One more thing," Joel said finally, with an effort. "It is Jesus. Somehow he must be warned. He has enemies everywhere."
"You mean Herod's men?" asked Daniel, relieved that Joel had turned to a safe subject.
"He knows about those. I mean the elders of the synagogue. The rabbis and the scribes. They can't understand him. They're furious at the things he says and does. He is too free with the Law. They say he is trying to destroy all the authority of the Temple. Some of them even say he is in league with the devil."
"Does it matter what they say? Jesus pays no attention."
"He must pay attention now. Some of them hate him so much—I think they would kill him if they could. Will you try to warn him?"
"Simon says he has been warned, time and time again."
"Go to see him, Daniel. I wish—but it's too late for me now. Perhaps we made a mistake. Maybe Jesus is really the leader we're waiting for."
Then he straightened his shoulders and held out his hand. "Don't forget the festival, anyway," he said. "Thace will be looking for you."
The two clasped hands. "For God's Victory," They said. Then Joel drew his cloak about his face and went out into the darkness.
It is the end of everything, Daniel thought, looking at the closed door. The end of everything we worked for. For the first time he despaired that the day would ever come.
21
IT WAS GOOD of you to come, Daniel. But do you think Jesus does not know all this?"
Annoyed, Daniel looked back at Simon. He had walked all the way from the village at the end of a long day's work. Twice a slanting rush of rain had drenched