Rebekah tried to put a good face on it. “If he came with so many in his group, I’m glad he brought enough animals to help feed them!”

“Ishmael would never want to use up any animals that are part of my inheritance,” said Isaac.

There was no obvious tone of sarcasm, but Rebekah had not lived with this man all these years without knowing that this was about as openly nasty as he usually got. And if he was this snide—for Isaac—upon first seeing that Ishmael had come for the circumcision, what would happen through the rest of the day?

“I wonder if he brought his wife, or any of his sons.”

“I’m sure he did,” said Isaac, “since I don’t have any.”

It was the first time Isaac had ever reproached her for her barrenness, and it stung. “You have a wife,” said Rebekah, a little acidly.

“That’s where I’ll have the victory,” said Isaac, and he turned to her and smiled. It was a warm smile, but there was sadness in his eyes. Then he walked on down the path, and Rebekah followed him.

Thank you for trying to make me feel better, she said to him silently. But today I would rather have a face like a locust if it would put one child in my arms.

Once they got to camp, things were worse than Rebekah had anticipated. What was roasting over the fires was not kid or lamb or calf, but deer—Ishmael had gone hunting and brought venison for the feast. She would have known it by the smell even if she hadn’t seen the spitted carcasses, and she thought of offering to cook the lambs they brought for the feast in the way she had learned as a child, so that it would smell and taste like venison. But she thought better of it at once. It was not Isaac’s way to try to match his brother; rather he would declare himself the loser immediately and praise Ishmael’s gifts without giving a sign that it even troubled him that his own were small by comparison. And the worst thing would be to make it look as though Isaac were trying to imitate Ishmael.

Besides, Isaac would immediately tell everyone that the reason his lambs tasted like venison was because Rebekah was so clever, deflecting all praise to her. There was nothing she could do to help. This would play out however it played out, with Ishmael doing whatever he came to do, and then they would go home to Lahai-roi and forget about it.