“Hannah?” a male voice called to her through the closed door. “Are you almost ready?” The diviner didn’t sound commanding the way he usually did. His tone was almost cajoling.
“I… uh… I’ll be out soon,” she stammered. She peered at her reflection in the mirror to see if she looked any older than she had done on her first wedding night, but nothing had changed. The same slightly dazed and troubled face looked back at her.
“It’s getting late, my dear,” the voice hinted.
She gave her reflection one more anxious glance before opening the door and switching off the bathroom light. Hannah didn’t meet her new husband’s eyes as she scurried to the bed and slipped noiselessly under the covers.
He rolled onto his side, leaning on his elbow for support. She could feel his eyes on her.
She steeled herself and looked back at him with a blank expression. It gave her a start to realize he wasn’t wearing a nightshirt. Loose skin hung slack over the muscles on his arms. The hair on his chest was white, and his arms were covered in liver spots. She guessed he was already naked below the waist and mentally cringed at the thought.
He regarded her for several more seconds with a doting expression. “You’re very comely.” He reached out to stroke her hair.
She lay still and said nothing.
He continued. “The Lord has great plans for you, Hannah. He commanded me to build up my celestial kingdom through you. As my progeny increases, so shall my heavenly estates increase. You will be the jewel in my crown and give me more children than any of your sister-wives. Do you know what that means?”
The girl shook her head slightly.
“As my fortune rises, so shall yours. You will be elevated to the rank of principal wife. Then you will have authority over all your sister-wives. I’m sure you’ll like that.” He beamed a sickening smile at her.
She noticed for the first time how yellow his teeth were and tried not to shudder at the sight of him.
“It is quite rare for a girl so young to attain so much,” he said. “You will be the model for all consecrated brides. A shining example of what they too might achieve if they are dutiful and please their husbands well.”
She knew he expected some sign of gratitude, but she simply couldn’t bear the thought of thanking him. He had torn her family apart and separated her from everyone she loved. It didn’t seem to occur to him that she might not want to help him reach a higher rank in heaven. It also didn’t seem to occur to him that she might want something for herself that had absolutely nothing to do with him. She smothered the rage beginning to churn in her stomach, turning her face to the opposite wall. “Please put out the light,” she whispered in a small voice.
“Very well.” He nodded and did as she asked, too caught up in his own grand scheme to notice her lack of enthusiasm.
The room went thankfully black. No moonlight slanted through the single window in her bed chamber to illuminate that grinning, skull-like face.
“I trust you’ll have no reason to complain about this wedding night,” he said as he bent over to kiss her.
She didn’t answer. As awkward as her first wedding night had been, she now wished Daniel were here instead of his father. Even though the room was pitch dark, she shut her eyes. She wished she could shut her nose to the leathery smell of his skin and shut her ears to the sound of his heavy breathing.
Her own breathing grew shallow and sharp. She couldn’t seem to draw enough air into her lungs.
He began fumbling with her nightgown.
Panic-stricken, she knew there was nowhere to run. The sense of entrapment made her dizzy with fear. He began to whisper things, but the words were drowned by a roaring in her ears that sounded like the ocean. She didn’t register anything he did to her after that because a funny thing happened to her mind. It flew to the ceiling and perched on top of the wardrobe in the corner, just like a bird. She became the bird, looking down on the room and the bed from a distance. Her mind perched and waited. The body experienced a brief stab of pain, but the bird took no notice. It perched and waited.
The other body wriggled and shuddered. It made a gasping sound, then rolled away and was still. The bird perched and waited. After a few more minutes, the other body fell asleep. Then the bird fluttered down and returned to its home.
Hannah lay on her back in a rigid posture, her arms pressed flat against her sides. She tried to take up as little space as possible on the bed. Abraham had turned away from her. He snored deeply like a man who had just gorged himself on a big dinner and needed to sleep it off.
She stared at the corner of the ceiling where the bird had been and thought about all the future nights that would follow this one. They would stretch into years, maybe decades, and this would be her life from now on. Hannah knew she was Abraham’s favorite meal. He would glut his appetite until he was sick or until he developed a taste for a different kind of dish. That didn’t seem likely to happen
