Delilah. Eleanor Jong De

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      Foxes!

      It was unusual to see them so early in the evening, for sunset must be at least an hour away still. Delilah crawled out and stood up. Now she could see a haze hanging over the rows of vines nearer the bottom of the hill, and her nose wrinkled at the faint but distinctively sweet smell of burning vines.

      ‘Achish! David!’ she shouted. ‘Come quick! Fire!’

      Delilah raced up the hill towards the house, desperate to get someone’s attention before it was too late. The latest crop of grapes was just weeks from harvest and to lose them now would be devastating.

      ‘Fire! Get water!’

      Ekron was the first to hear her shouts and came running down into the courtyard. ‘The bell!’

      Delilah hopped up on the bench in the corner and began swinging the rope to sound the alarm. The bell had hung there in the courtyard as long as she could remember, the portent of fire or flood, but she’d never once heard it rung. But in moments, Achish had appeared from the house, followed by servants, stable boys, Ariadnh and Beulah.

      Ekron was grabbing buckets from a nook and handing them out to all the men and boys. ‘I saw the smoke from upstairs,’ he said breathlessly. ‘I was watching the fields to see if Samson was going to come back and I thought I saw him at the bottom of the hill. Then Delilah appeared over there and started screaming.’

      ‘Did Samson do this?’ asked Achish. ‘Are you sure?’

      ‘He is capable of it,’ said Ekron. ‘You heard him threaten us as he left.’

      Molech, thought Delilah. This is all my fault. I mentioned the Fire God and now look what’s happened.

      She snatched a bucket from Ekron’s hands and ran out to the well.

      ‘Delilah!’ called Achish, running after her. ‘You must stay here where it’s safe.’

      ‘Fire does not care what it burns,’ she shouted, hauling the pail up from the dark well. ‘But Samson has chosen us to fight it.’

      They were lucky. That was all they could say about it. The lower half of four rows were lost to the blaze, but they had reached the flames before they could do serious damage to the roots of the plants. Shouts and screams of panic had given way to a determined, silent routine: a chain of women and men, boys and girls, Delilah among them, had quickly formed lines from the two wells to the burning vines. They had managed to put out the fire by the time the sun’s rim touched the horizon. The smoke from the blaze was now a dark stain drifting west on a light breeze, masking the stars.

      When it was all over, and Achish was sadly pruning back the blackened wood by lamplight, Delilah slipped away from the crowd and went back to the house. Her hair was thick with the sickly smoke. Her beautiful orange dress was filthy, the hem heavy with wet earth, the bodice smudged with soot and water. It would perhaps wash out. She couldn’t wait to clean herself up. There was a small well round the back of the house, near the stable block, and she could rinse her hair there and wash her face before she went into the house.

      She pulled up a bucket of fresh cold water, then plunged her head down into it, swirling her hair around in the water with her hands. Then she twisted it against itself into a thick coil and raised her head, blinking the water away and drawing the wet tresses over her shoulder. She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and opened them to find Joshua right in front of her, leaning against the well.

      ‘I think you’re the bravest person I know, Delilah.’

      ‘We had to be,’ she said, deflecting the compliment. ‘The vineyard means everything to all of us.’

      As he nodded silently she looked him over. The lamplight from the stable walls fell across the yard, glinting on Joshua’s damp skin, outlining his muscular arms against his grubby tunic.

      ‘I’m a mess,’ she said quietly.

      ‘So am I. We should clean up.’

      Delilah held his gaze for a moment, then took a step towards him. She could smell the smoke and sweat on his skin, hear his breathing. ‘Then do you want to help me get out of these wet things?’

      Joshua pulled her against him, and as her breasts pressed against his taut chest, she was sure she could feel his heart thudding. His cheek brushed hers, then his tongue began to lick drops of water from her neck, his breath drying her skin.

      She heard her own soft moans, but she couldn’t quite relax. Her eyes searched the dark corners near the house, expecting someone – another slave, perhaps, or even Ariadnh, to step out. She eased Joshua’s lips away.

      ‘What’s the matter?’ he asked.

      ‘Not here,’ she said. ‘If Achish finds you …’

      ‘I’ll be banished to the salt mines,’ he smiled.

      Taking her hand, he led her to a patch of ground behind the house, overlooked by no window. ‘Is this all right?’ he asked.

      Her throat felt dry, and she nodded. As Joshua wrapped his arms around her once more, Delilah closed her eyes and tried to give herself to the moment. To her surprise, it was Samson’s face she saw, and his hands she imagined moving down her back. Why did he have to appear again now? She let her own hands touch Joshua’s shoulders, and saw the gooseflesh rise across them. At his waist, she felt his hardness press against her. Suddenly, the laughter with Beulah, speaking and laughing of Qadeshtu, seemed childish and hollow.

      He kissed her softly on the lips, unclipping the shoulder clips of her dress. The material dropped over her skin, revealing the soft swelling of her breasts and stomach. Joshua backed away a little, his eyes travelling down her body. Her hands automatically went to cover her chest, but Joshua took her wrists gently and placed them on his own chest. In the light of the half moon she suddenly felt shy – she realised she’d been thinking about this moment quite often over the last two weeks, but now that it was here she wasn’t entirely sure what she was supposed to do.

      ‘There’s nothing to be afraid of,’ Joshua whispered.

      He unbuckled his belt and drew his tunic off over his head, then laid it down on the floor. Shadows and light played over his smooth body, taut with muscle, and the only marking was a streak of fine hairs leading from his belly to the nest of hair from which his manhood stood proud but vulnerable against the patch of almost white flesh.

      ‘I’ve never seen …’ she said, letting her fingers trail across his chest and down. He groaned, and now kissed her deeply, giving way to his lust. She pulled him down beside her, and they lay side by side, his hand stroking softly at her buttocks, then gripping her flesh harder. The heat between their bodies spread across her skin. She arched her back as his lips moved to her throat once more and then to her breasts. She ran her fingers through his hair as his teeth plucked lightly at her nipple. Sensation fizzed across her skin, as if every tiny hair on her body were lifting as one.

      Then his hands look the place of his mouth, and he moved lower still. His hot breath tingled on her hip-bone and she let her legs part for him. She gasped in surprise as his tongue found her sex. No one had told her of this. Their bodies seemed intertwined. The day had been one of endless thinking and shouting, and she was grateful to give way to touch and sensation.

      ‘Come СКАЧАТЬ