Within an hour, with a water-stained map in hand, Baruch and I set off for Dothan, passing through the terraced hills of Samaria. Despite the dangers of thieves and bandits, I’d find Daniel. Was it coincidental that I had seen Dr. Luke on the way to Nazareth?
Baruch moseyed along at a comfortable pace. “Miss Shale, I don’t think Daniel will come back.”
“We’ll have to make him. Why are you so negative about it?”
“It doesn’t work to have two men in love with the same beautiful young lady.”
“What do you know about such things? Besides, I’m doing this for Nathan.”
“Of course,” Baruch continued, “I don’t think Judd is in love with you. He wants your father’s money. Daniel is another story.”
I remembered the words from Shakespeare’s play we had been studying in English.
“All the world’s a stage.
And all the men and women merely players
They have their exits and their entrances
And one man in his time plays many parts
His acts being seven ages.”
It was time to make a dramatic entrance and assume my part. I must woo Daniel back—I’d never let Judd marry me for my father’s money. I didn’t want to be just a player. I wanted to be a heroine.
We traveled for a while and at last came to Dothan. I glanced down at my dress and remembered the young woman, Martha, who picked it out for me. A couple of years had passed since we had last been here.
We approached the merchant’s bazaar, and I searched for Martha’s booth. I couldn’t remember where it was. If I used that as a landmark, though, I could find the inn more easily. I peered into the storefronts reminiscing as we crossed the street. Then I saw Daniel and started to rush over to him, but who was that woman he was talking to? Martha—was that her? Daniel’s mannerisms were flirtatious and too familiar.
Rage and jealousy consumed me. Hurt, anger, confusion, and disappointment overwhelmed me. What was I doing here? Was I here to help Nathan or to satisfy my own longings? The truth was painful. Martha laughed as he leaned over the counter. Then Daniel hugged her and stepped away, as if he were about to leave. I nudged Baruch before Daniel saw us—I was too embarrassed to approach him right now. My face would say it all.
Did Baruch notice? Should we turn around and go home? So Daniel had a girlfriend. Why wouldn’t he? After all, he was a good-looking dude. What was so wonderful about her? I made an ugly face towards them as we headed away from the area.
Would I give up now when we had traveled this far? “Keep going,” I ordered Baruch. I patted him on the back. If he saw Daniel and Martha, he wasn’t saying. Maybe I was a fool to be here, but even fools can help others, and I was here to help Nathan even if I had hoped for more.
A little later, we arrived at Jacob’s Inn. The same two men lay on mats as before—for the last year and a half to two years. There were also two new patients. Where was Dr. Luke? I’d pretend I hadn’t seen Daniel at all. Maybe Dr. Luke would inquire for me. I didn’t want to be embarrassed.
“Wait for me here, okay, Baruch?”
“I’m not going anywhere without you, Miss Shale.”
I tethered him to the post and patted him on the head. “I’ll be right back.”
Proper etiquette was tricky—who I could talk to, who I shouldn’t talk to. Manners back home were hard to remember, but here it was worse. Everybody hated somebody. The Jews hated the Samaritans, the Romans hated the Jews, and who did the Samaritans hate? Maybe it was the Jews and the Romans. Shoot—who cared? I walked up to an elderly man lying on a cot with a deformed leg.
“Excuse me, sir, but have you seen Doctor Luke today?”
The old man eyed me awkwardly, squinting in the sunlight. “Be back soon,” he said. “He went off with a young man—let’s see, his name was Daniel, I believe.”
“Thank you, sir.”
I headed back to Baruch. “Doctor Luke’s patient said he would be back soon.” I fidgeted with Baruch’s reins as we waited. Just act normal, I told myself. Dumb. I was good at that.
“I see Daniel now!” Baruch exclaimed.
“Where?” Then I spotted him also, conversing with Dr. Luke. Daniel and the doctor were gesturing with their hands and walking slowly. I waited impatiently.
A couple of minutes later, Daniel was within earshot, but before I could speak, he saw me.
“Shale?”
“Daniel.”
He stared at me in disbelief.
An awkward moment filled the air between us.
“I thought you were coming,” Daniel said at last, “but I dismissed it.”
Dr. Luke gazed at me, as if wondering if he should know who I was.
Daniel, realizing his lack of manners, spoke. “Doctor, this is my friend Shale from Brutus Snyder’s household, his daughter.”
He tipped his head. “Nice to meet you. How is Nathan?”
“Oh, Doctor Luke, he needs Daniel to return.”
“Is he sick?”
I couldn’t lie to this kind doctor. “No, but he misses Daniel.”
Dr. Luke glanced at Daniel.
Daniel shuffled his feet and slicked his curly hair back off his forehead. “I’m sorry to hear that,” Daniel mumbled, not making eye contact with me.
The doctor reached over and rubbed Daniel’s shoulder in a friendly gesture. “The young woman has traveled far on behalf of Mr. Snyder’s son, in a country full of bandits and thieves. You should accompany her back and check on Nathan for her father’s sake. The work here will wait until you can return.”
I perceived that Daniel felt trapped and angry I had not addressed him privately, but he was too much a gentleman to show it. Of course, he also had a girlfriend, and that meant he would have to leave her behind.
“Yes, Doctor Luke. Of course.”
Dr. Luke paused before walking over to his waiting patients. “Give my best to Mister Snyder when you see him.”
“Yes, sir. I sure will,” I replied.
When Dr. Luke was a respectable distance away, Daniel beseeched me for an answer to the unasked question.
“You can’t leave like that, Daniel. Nathan needs you.”
“I was fired. Doctor Luke doesn’t know it.”
“Who fired you?’
“Scylla.”
“She can’t fire you,” I said.
“She can do whatever she wants.”
“She’s not my mother.”
“She’s not my mother either, but that doesn’t mean I can do whatever I want,” Daniel snapped.
He stopped abruptly, glancing around. Our voices were too loud, and a couple of eavesdroppers were listening.
He pointed to a path leading to the back of the inn and motioned for me to go in front of him. “Come.”
“Keep going,” he prodded me. “There’s a table, and we can talk in private.”
A few minutes later, we sat face to face, though things weren’t the same as before. What was different? That other woman, I felt sure.
“You shouldn’t have come.” His reprimand was annoying. He looked away from me, refusing to make eye contact.
His elusiveness hurt. “You’re treating me…rudely.” Even if he was in love with Martha, he could still be nice.
I reached out for his arm, and he pulled it away.
“Don’t,” he said curtly.
“Fine. Be that way, while Nathan sits in Nazareth crying his heart out because you’re gone, and he has no one who understands him or that he can talk to.”
“I can’t do anything about him,” Daniel said tersely.
I shook my head. “Guys are all alike—jerks. I thought you were different. It must be that other woman.”
Daniel’s eyes grew wide. “What other woman?”
“The one I saw you with when I came into town. You know who I’m talking about.”
Daniel seemed perplexed. “No, I don’t.”
I patted my chest. “I bought this dress from her when I first arrived from the
garden. Martha, she sells feminine things—perfumes and such. She has her own booth in town.”
“You mean my sister?” Daniel asked.
“That’s your sister—Martha? The one you were having a lively conversation with earlier today—who you hugged?”
Daniel laughed. “That’s my sister. Back home in my dimension, she runs her own apparel business. She does the same thing here, though on a much smaller scale.”
“Martha is your sister?”
“Yes,” Daniel said. “Seriously.”
I stared at the ground. “I feel foolish.”
I detected a softening in his voice. “Shale, the real reason I left isn’t because I’m madly in love with another woman, as you’re supposing. Scylla demanded that I leave, and when I heard about the arrangement for you to marry Judd, it got complicated.”
“How so?”
Daniel crossed his arms pensively. “You don’t understand the rules here. You were given to Judd a long time ago. I didn’t know. Judd told Scylla it wasn’t right I was spending so much time with you, even though we were just friends.”
Daniel leaned over the table and whispered. “I don’t feel comfortable being around you now. At least not like before.”
“Are you crazy? I hate Judd, and he’s not even from my dimension.”
“When you’re with the Romans, you do as the Romans do.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means what it says. You abide by their rules.”
“Daniel—”
“What?”
“The real reason I came for you is different. It wasn’t because you left me.”
“Why did you come, then?”
I inhaled deeply. “After you left, I took the animals on a short day trip over the hills. We ran into a man who lived in the cemetery, half-naked, full of demons, and—”
“And?”
“Let me back up. The reason we went out for the day was because Judd wasn’t feeding the animals. Lowly said he was starving. He wanted to go to a farm some distance away to get food. There wasn’t any place close by with pigs.”
“There aren’t that many pigs in the area because only Gentiles keep them. Pigs are ceremonially unclean and disgusting to Jews.”
I sighed. “Later, after the first encounter that terrified me, the wild man darted in and out of the pigs on the hill and sent them scampering. At that moment, a fishing boat pulled up. As the fishermen approached, Cherios said one of the fishermen was the king that I told you about before.”
“The lunatic?”
“He’s not a lunatic,” I corrected.
“Keep going. Get to your point.” Daniel glanced behind me.
“You talk about me being impatient—I traveled on the back of a donkey for three hours to get here.”
Daniel refocused his eyes on me.
“The wild man ran straight towards the fishermen—the king. The king’s eyes stopped him. Demons left the man and went into the pigs. Then the pigs stampeded into the lake and drowned.”
“You expect me to believe that?” Daniel asked.
“Yes.”
Daniel shook his head. “Shale, I heard a similar story. Gossip travels fast here. You must be exaggerating.”
“No. It’s true. I wouldn’t lie about something like that.”
Daniel remained silent for a minute. “So what does that have to do with me, or us?”
I reached for Daniel’s arm again. This time he didn’t flinch. “I want to take Nathan to see the king. If he could heal that cemetery man, he could help Nathan speak.”
Daniel shook his head. “No.”
“Look,” I continued, “if the king healed Nathan, he could talk and be normal, right? He’s not stupid, is he?”
“No.” Daniel leaned on the table, propping his chin up on his hand. He gazed past me, as if perceiving something in another world. After a minute, he leaned back with uncharacteristic resignation. “Nothing can heal Nathan. He’s been that way since birth.”
“What makes you think the king can’t heal him?”
“How can I believe something so outlandish? Yes, you saw something that you can’t explain, but who knows. Maybe the man wasn’t crazy. It could have been staged.”
“He tried to attack me on the way over to the farm.”
“Maybe that was his practice run before the real thing.”
I bit my lower lip. “Why do you say such things?”
“Shale, that man you call the king—he’s no healer. He’s a charlatan. He’s—nothing. He’s certainly not a god.”
“Suppose you’re wrong? Are you going to abandon Nathan without at least trying?”
Daniel stood and began to pace. A couple of minutes passed in silence. I held my breath—and prayed.
Finally, Daniel stopped. “All right, Shale. I’ll go back with you and see if we can find this supposed healer, but there’s one condition.”
“What’s that?”
“No one else knows I’m back. And once we’ve finished our task, proving to you he’s a charlatan, I’m coming back here, where I belong.”
“Do you hate me for doing this?”
“Do I hate you—for goodness sake, Shale, I don’t hate you. You’re just—so persistent. And I want to honor the customs of the land in which we find ourselves.”
Daniel plopped down on the chair, sighed, and glanced away. “Even if Judd hadn’t been chosen for you, I needed to leave.”
“How do you think I felt when I found out you were gone without saying good-bye?”
“I wasn’t sure. This was arranged in the past before your father married Scylla. In the heat of the moment, I wanted to appease her. I was afraid to consider you—I might make the wrong decision. Perhaps I acted rashly, without considering Nathan’s needs. I wish I knew what to do for him.”
I fancied if I should confess my love to Daniel—but perhaps it was better to let him wonder. Anyway, he probably knew since he could read my mind. “You will come back with me?”
“Yes, but only with the conditions I gave you.”
“Where will you stay?”
“Out of sight.” Daniel laughed. “Seriously. You need to find out where that lunatic is hanging out. It won’t be easy.” He eyed me perceptibly. “How did you get here? I mean, what did you tell Scylla?”
“Nothing. I promised Judd a golden nugget for his help.”
“With gold?” Daniel’s eyes widened. “I won’t ask where that came from.”
“I thought you could read my mind,” I teased.
“I can, but I have to put effort into it.” Daniel leaned forward. “You didn’t steal it, did you?”
“Of course not,” I said indignantly.
Daniel tugged at his tunic, deep in thought.
I glanced away. I knew he was trying to read my mind.
“So you got it from the garden,” he stated.
“Yes.”
“Kol HaKavod. Well done.”
I laughed at his mind-reading ability. I had never told him anything about finding golden nuggets in the garden.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” he asked.
“Nothing. Judd was to tell Scylla I went to search for my father in Jerusalem. She won’t expect me back for a few days.”
“We’ll need to sneak Nathan out of the house. That won’t be easy. Nathan never goes anywhere.”
“We have time, before Judd wants his golden nugget or thinks I’ve betrayed him.”
“Don’t worry about Judd. We’ve enough to think about taking care of Nathan. Let’s go.”
We walked to the front of Jacob’s Inn to retrieve Baruch. Daniel led the way. Then he paused and touched my arm. “Wait here, Shale, for a second. I need to get something from Doctor Luke. I’ll be back in a minute.”
“Like what, what do you need?”
“Potion, so Scylla will sleep like a baby.” Daniel disappeared inside.
I felt anxious—suppose he meant to leave me here and not co
me back? Why did I have such doubts? I glanced around. Was there something evil lurking nearby? I sensed something that made me uneasy.
Chapter 26
THE ENCHANTER CASTS A SPELL