Father, watching her, saw that she spoke without writing, and demanded of Laban and Pillel, “What? What did she say?”

But Rebekah made no move to reassure him, for she now understood that she was in a dialogue with God. And then, having realized this, she realized that she had been in this conversation all day. Each time her last reason for refusing Ezbaal was taken away, a new one came with even more certainty, and yet she had never once thought, till now, that this very certainty was part of the answer. When God speaks in a woman’s heart, she realized, he fills her with courage to do his will. That is why I have been in such torment today. God is trying to lead me in a path that neither my family nor Ezbaal’s family can see.

Lord God of Abraham, she said silently, tell my father what you are telling me! Let me not be alone in this!

She looked into her father’s eyes, seeing his expression of concern for her, and saw that there was something else as well. He was as torn as she.

God had already spoken to him and showed him what was right.

She knew it with utter certainty, and so she boldly wrote, “You already know what God wants me to do. Why do you try to persuade me to choose between God’s will and yours?”

Pillel reached out a hand and took the writing stick from her. She looked at his face—as passionless as ever—but knew that he was angry, or he would not have, in effect, forbidden her to speak more to her father.

Laban was not so restrained. He laughed. “What, you think you’re a prophet now? Able to see into the mind of God, and Father’s mind as well?”

But Rebekah turned away from them and faced her father, staring into his eyes and daring him to deny what she knew he knew.

At first he was defiant, meeting her gaze angrily—but he said nothing, even though he opened his mouth as if to speak. And after a long silence he looked down at the ground where she had written her challenge.

“Yes,” Father said. “I know that you can’t marry Ezbaal. Even though I will never find you a better marriage than this one, I have known from the moment he arrived that you could not be happy in his house.”

Pillel and Laban both recoiled from his words. “What’s going on with you two?” said Laban in a whisper.

Pillel also whispered, but he meant her to hear. “I see now that you do control him.”

Control him? What could Pillel possibly mean by that? Had there been some rumor that somehow she ruled over her father? But of all people Pillel had to know such an idea was absurd. She didn’t have time to deal with him now, though.