“I liked you because you were so awful to everybody. And that wasn’t why I didn’t think you should be with Ezbaal. I simply . . . I know the kind of man Ezbaal is. He will have many children. In fact, he already does have many children. No wife, mind you.” Her mind made a sudden turning. “I’ve heard that Bethuel has been chaste ever since your mother . . .”

Rebekah blushed. She had never thought about that aspect of her father’s life. It was rather as if all the flirting and affection she saw between women and men were something for ordinary beings, while Father was above all that.

“Of course you wouldn’t monitor what he does in his travels,” said Akyas.

“In all my life,” said Rebekah, “he has never done anything to cause dissension in the camp.”

Akyas blinked twice, and then apparently understood how obliquely but fully Rebekah had answered her question. “So there is no woman in the camp who will especially resent my coming.”

“They will all be equally delighted,” said Rebekah. “And I suppose they’ll be glad not to take their instructions from a mere girl.”

“You’re hardly a mere girl any more. You’re old enough to marry, after all!”

“I’ll always be a child in this camp. No one doubted my authority, mind you, but most of them had seen me as a naked baby and they didn’t . . . well, they didn’t ever come to me for counsel, if you see what I mean. Orders, but not advice. Everyone was my teacher. And that was good. I think I know every kind of work done in our camp.”

“Which guarantees that when you do marry, it will probably be to a town man, where almost nothing you learned will be useful,” said Akyas wryly.

“Was that a joke or a curse?” asked Rebekah.

“A memory,” said Akyas.

“Ah. Your first husband was a man of the city?”

Akyas looked off into the distance for a moment. Rebekah knew the look. Akyas did not want to talk about her unhappy marriage. She could hint about it, so that people would know that she was not a woman who had reached this age without a husband, but what made the marriage so awful was not to be discussed.

“Rebekah,” said Akyas. “Tomorrow, will you stand with me? To write my words for him? Since he can’t hear my voice.”

“But that’s Ezbaal’s place,” said Rebekah.

“It’s whoever’s place I say it is,” said Akyas. “Ezbaal is my brother. Do you think Laban would dare thwart you if you wanted me to stand beside you at your wedding?”

“But my father is still alive, so that wouldn’t be Laban’s place.”

“I need an interpreter,” said Akyas. “Someone we both love and trust, to stand between him and me.”