“And after he became deaf?”

“I took my place as head of the women. He needed that more, since even my presence made him unhappy then.”

“You write to him, so he can understand you.”

“Yes. Laban and I tried to invent how to do it but we got it all wrong. He taught us the writing of the holy books.”

“I can’t write, you know,” said Akyas.

“But of course I’ll teach you.”

“Isn’t it a holy language? I serve Asherah. You know that, don’t you?”

“If I didn’t before, I do now,” said Rebekah. “But no, the language is just . . . the common speech of every day. The letters aren’t holy, only the books.”

“Ah. Religious things can be so complicated. You never know what a man will get prickly about.”

“And Father will let you worship Asherah?”

“In private. That was worked out in advance.”

“And what about your children?” asked Rebekah, thinking of the problem she had faced.

To her consternation, Akyas laughed aloud, catching herself at once, but continuing to laugh silently, as if this were the most amusing question in the world. Finally she spoke. “I think it is safe to say that any children I have with Bethuel will grow up loyal to his god.”

His god. Well, there was one person, at least, who didn’t call him the God of Abraham. But hearing it said that way made it sound as if God were just one god among many. He wasn’t the god of Bethuel, he was God. But of course he wouldn’t seem that way to Akyas. This was going to be complicated. To have someone in the camp who didn’t speak of the Lord as if he were the only living God.

“And that doesn’t bother you? That your children will not serve Asherah?”

“I made my peace with Asherah long ago. If a woman has to choose between her children and her god, I think the children are the better choice.”

Rebekah looked away. It was not the choice she had made. Or . . . no, it rather was the choice she made, wasn’t it? Not to marry a man at all if he might make her face such an awful choice.

Akyas touched her arm. “My dear child, I didn’t mean to hurt you. Ezbaal will make some girl a wonderful husband, and he will have strong and mighty sons. But I saw that night at supper that you were not the one for him.”

“Oh,” said Rebekah. “I thought you had decided I was for him.”

“I did. I did decide that, because I wanted you with me. But it was selfish of me. I was thinking that perhaps I could help you to be happy in spite of the problems that might arise.”

“So you liked me, even though I was so awful to everybody?”