She didn’t look around to see who was coming even when his footfalls clicked loudly across the polished wooden floor.
“Hannah!” he barked.
She jumped up and spun around. “Oh, my goodness! Father Diviner.” An object flew out of her hand and clattered to the floor.
Abraham bent down to pick it up. It was some sort of doll. About four inches long and carved out of a solid piece of wood. The figure of a woman in a long straight gown. Her arms were pressed stiffly against her body. An attempt had been made to give the carving some life with a layer of paint. The hair was yellow, and the lips pink against a cream face. The eyes and the dress were both painted blue though the color had been chipped and rubbed away in many places. The face itself was expressionless and discomfiting. Like a sphinx. The diviner found the entire effect grotesque. He turned it over in his hands. “What is this thing?”
“Oh, it’s nothing,” the girl said hurriedly, snatching it out of his palm. “I…uh…I’ve had it for as long as I can remember.” She slipped it back into her apron pocket with shaky fingers.
He attempted a light tone. “Soon you’ll have babies of your own and no need to play with dolls.”
“Yes, sir,” she agreed dutifully.
“Be seated,” he instructed her.
She obeyed and flounced down on the bed.
He stood over her in silence for several seconds. He hadn’t spent much time noticing her before. Too many other people around and too many distractions. She wore her thick blond hair braided and coiled around her head in the prescribed manner of a married woman, but her skin was far from matronly. It glowed with the freshness of a rose petal. Her body was far from matronly too. The girl’s shapeless grey shift somehow managed to reveal graceful feminine curves. Her eyes were green, a curious almond shape. Almost like a cat’s. Abraham didn’t much care for cats. They were sinuous and slippery and had minds of their own. Willful, unruly creatures. Small wonder they were so often associated with Lucifer, that most insubordinate of God’s angels. Still, the shape of her eyes held an exotic appeal. They were wide open in alarm at the moment.
“Calm yourself, child.” He sat down on the bed next to her. “I had a few questions for you, but you weren’t in your quarters. What are you doing here?”
She eyed him anxiously. “This is where I slept before I was married, Father. With all the other girls.”
He gave a thin smile in an attempt to put her at ease. “But surely you must prefer to have a nice room all to yourself and your husband?”
She didn’t meet his gaze. “It felt lonely there, so I thought I would sit here for a while.”
“Of course,” he patted her hand reassuringly. She recoiled from his touch and clasped her hands together in her lap.
Ignoring the gesture, he observed, “It’s understandable. You miss your husband. I know he had to depart on his journey very soon after you were joined in marriage.”
“That’s not it,” she said tremulously, her eyes misting with tears. “I don’t think he likes me very much.”
Abraham was taken aback by the comment. He drew himself up. “What do you mean he doesn’t like you?”
“After we were married...” She hesitated. “He didn’t stay with me on our wedding night.”
The old man waited for her to elaborate but she offered nothing further. The girl sat silently on the edge of the bed, swinging her feet to and fro since her legs were too short to reach the floor.
“Can I please go now, Father?”
“Not quite yet, my child. I have a few more questions to put to you.” Abraham was at a loss as to how to interpret this story. He was wary of accepting her words at face value. Women were liars by nature. What else could one expect from the daughters of Eve? Daniel’s other wives had certainly lied about their relations with his son. They had all failed to produce numerous offspring, and now they wanted to lay their own inadequacies at their husband’s doorstep. Could they have persuaded Hannah to join their conspiracy by fabricating this outrageous tale? The diviner scrutinized her face closely but couldn’t detect any evidence of guilt in her expression. Just a pretty confusion. He tried another approach. “The day a girl becomes a woman is a very big day in her life, don’t you agree? A very busy day.”
She nodded uncertainly.
“You must have been very tired by the time evening came.”
“I was sleepy,” she admitted simply.
He placed a hand on her knee to still her swinging legs. She became dead calm. He squeezed her thigh lightly before letting go.
“When a person is tired, the mind can sometimes play tricks.”
It was her turn to stare at him. “Play tricks?”
He smiled again. “Perhaps you don’t remember everything that happened that evening. If you were very, very tired…” he trailed off.
She knit her brows in concentration. “I think I remember what happened and what didn’t.”
He pressed the point. “I’m sure everything happened just as it ought to have done.”
The girl shook her head vehemently. “No, Father, it didn’t.”
He rose and stood over her. “Are you suggesting that I am in error?”
She gazed up at him in shock. Her mouth gaped open, but she said nothing.
“Answer me!” he commanded.
“No, Father. You’re never supposed to be wrong.”
“That is correct!” he asserted. “The diviner is given the gift of discernment in all things. You will believe me when I tell you that you are mistaken. Satan is deceiving you and has caused you to forget the events of that night.”
Rather than hastily agreeing as
