Akyas laughed at that. “Good night, Rebekah. I’m gaining so much more than a husband tomorrow. Will you . . . even though I wasn’t here to raise you, all these years you were growing up, will you let me pretend that I was? Will you let me think of you as my true daughter?”

“I hope I prove worthy of your thinking of me that way,” said Rebekah.

“And I hope I prove worthy of your thinking of me, someday, as your mother.”

Rebekah kissed her cheek, and in so doing realized for the first time that they were exactly the same height. How could she ever think of a woman who was never bigger than her as her mother? She remembered most of the women in the camp as being giants compared to her, when she was a child.

But that wasn’t really what Akyas wanted, was it? She wanted reassurance that she would be welcomed in her proper role in the household, and not be resented by the woman who had been the ruler of women before she came.

So she answered with the words that would reassure Akyas while still being truthful. “I don’t really know what it’s like to have a mother,” she said, “but with your help, perhaps now I can learn.”

Rebekah insisted on walking her to her tent. “I’ve walked these paths for years, in darkness and light. There’s not an insect here that I don’t already know by name just from the buzz.”

“Then I’m glad I have you for my guide.”

They said their good-nights at Akyas’s tent door and parted with another kiss and an embrace that surprised Rebekah by its intensity. She returned to her own tent, to her own bed, feeling glad that she had dared to go and visit Akyas.

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

There’d been many a servants’ wedding in Rebekah’s life, but those were simple affairs. Those that were wholly sworn to Father could not marry without his consent. He always gave it, with a prayer and a blessing, and the couple would move in together and that was that. The servants who were sworn for a set time could marry as they wanted—but still needed Father’s permission to set up a tent within his camp, so it amounted to the same thing. He usually gave them a good rug for the marriage bed. What the hirelings did was their own affair, because of course their families didn’t dwell in Bethuel’s camp. Still, there was always some kind of celebration among the servants, and the gift of a kid or a lamb for the feast.