The covenant - James A. Michener [81]
'And I will make thee swear by the Lord, the God of heaven, and the God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife ... of the daughters of the Canaanites . . . but thou shalt go unto my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife . . .'
Slowly the captain turned the pages till he came to the next passage marked by a frond. Placing his two hands over the pages, he said ominously, 'And when Isaac was an old man, having obeyed his father Abraham, what did he say when his son Jacob wanted a wife?' Dramatically he lifted his hands and with a stubby finger pointed to the revealing verse:
And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said unto him, Neemt geene vrowe van de dochteren Canaans.
Willem, seeing the words spelled out so strictly, felt constrained to assure the captain that he meant nothing serious with the Malaccan girl, but the older man was not to be diverted: 'It's always been the problem in Java and it will soon become the problem at the Cape. Where can a Dutch gentleman find himself a wife?'
'Where?' Willem echoed.
'God has foreseen this problem, as He foresees everything.' With a flourish he swung the parchment pages back to the first text, indicating it with his left forefinger. 'Go back to your own country and be patient. Don't throw yourself away on local women, the way those idiots in Java do.' Pointing to the deck below, he added, 'Nor on slaves.'
'Am I to wait perpetually?'
'No, because when you debark with your slaves at the Cape, this fleet continues to Holland. And when we reach Amsterdam, I'll speak to your brother Karel and commission him to find you a wife from among the women of Holland, the way Isaac and Jacob found their wives in their native country. I'll bring her back to you.'
When Willem drew back in obvious distaste over having his life arranged by others, the captain closed the great book and rested his open hands upon it. 'It tells you what to do right here. Obey the word of the Lord.'
The visit to the captain changed nothing. Willem continued to keep his slave girl in his quarters, and it was she who obeyed the Bible, for like the original Deborah, she continued to sing, twisting herself ever more tightly about his heart.
Then abruptly everything changed. One afternoon as the east coast of Africa neared, Deborah sat on the lower deck whispering an old song to herself, but as Willem approached she stopped midway and told him, 'I shall have a baby.'
With great tenderness he drew her to her feet, embraced her, and asked in Javanese, 'Are you sure?'
'Not sure,' she said softly, 'but I think.'
She was correct. Early one morning, as she rose from Willem's bed, she felt faint and dropped to the deck, sitting there with her arms clasped about her ankles. She was about to inform Willem that she was certain of her pregnancy, when the mast-top lookout started shouting, 'Table Mountain!' and all hands turned out to see the marvelous sight.
Willem was overcome when he saw the great flat mountain standing clear in the sunlight, for it symbolized his longing. Years had elapsed since he left it, and he could imagine the vast changes that must have occurred at its base, and he was thinking of them when Deborah came to stand beside him.
Aware of the hold this mountain had on him, she said nothing, just hummed softly, whispering the words now and then, and when he took notice of her she placed her left hand, very small and brown, on his right arm and said, 'We will have a baby.' The mountain, the waiting cave and the indiscernible future blended into a kind of golden haze, and he could not even begin to guess what he must do.
When he was rowed ashore, leaving Deborah behind, for she must wait till an owner was assigned, he found a settlement much smaller than expected; only a hundred and twenty-two people inhabited the