“Sometimes the things we do out of fear help to bring about the very things we dreaded. But what’s done is done, and like every man and woman, Ishmael has to do the best he can with the errors of his parents. As your children will become the men and women they choose to be, either because of or in spite of what you and Isaac do well or badly in raising them.”

These words filled her with confidence, even though she also heard them as a warning and was sure Abraham meant them partly that way as well. It was good to remember that the children were themselves first and eternally, and sons and daughters only second.

“Be good to your husband, Rebekah,” said Abraham. “You are the fire in his hearth. He wasn’t complete until you came to him.” He laughed, a papery dry laugh that made her think of locusts on a dry desert wind. “What man is complete, without a woman who completes him and needs him as much in her turn?”

“I’ll try to make you proud of me,” said Rebekah. “All my life, I only wanted to serve the God of Abraham.”

“The God of Abraham and Isaac,” said Abraham. “And Esau, if God is willing.”

Or if Esau is, Rebekah said silently.

“I never even hoped that I might be blessed to spend so many years in your household, learning from you. God has been kind to me.”

He smiled then, and did not remind her of how much she had resisted living in his household and learning from him. He didn’t need to.

“Send my boy to me now,” he said. “Send me Isaac. I need to hold him to my heart again before I die.” He sighed, and his breath caught with emotion. “God sent us such a good and pure spirit to be our son. We couldn’t bear to think of the world soiling him or hurting him, and we protected him too much. We should have known that his goodness was strong enough to stand anything.”

Those were the words she had longed to hear. The words she hoped he would also say to Isaac, for if there was any shadow in Isaac’s life, it was his hunger to know his father loved and honored him. Why couldn’t he have said them before, to Isaac’s face, or to others in Isaac’s presence?

She leaned over and kissed Abraham’s brow, and thanked him, and bade him farewell, and then went out to fetch her husband.

Isaac went in to his father and remained alone with him until he died.

Chapter 14

Chapter 14