Delilah. Eleanor Jong De

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      ‘At last,’ muttered Delilah.

      ‘Be kind to her today,’ he pleaded. ‘This is a big day for her, and for our family. It was significant enough that my father married your mother and accepted you both into our family, but for Hemin to marry Samson is a very important step in the relations between our two peoples.’

      ‘That sounds like a speech right out of Lord Phicol’s mouth.’

      Ekron blushed a little. ‘Well, he is right.’

      Delilah watched him leave, if only to avoid catching Ariadnh’s attention. Too late. She was bearing down like an angry whirlwind.

      ‘You were supposed to wear the orange dress, Delilah. You gave me your word yesterday.’

      Delilah was about to answer when she noticed movement inside the house. Hemin was pacing awkwardly in the half-covered hallway. Ariadnh’s daughter looked pretty enough, and something clever had been done with her hair, which had softened her angry mouth. But even though the betrothal gown was elegant, a pleated shift of flax-coloured linen, Hemin looked uncomfortable in her own skin, as ill at ease as ever. And as their eyes met, Delilah was delighted to see that her stepsister was unable to conceal her raw fear at being upstaged.

      Ariadnh leaned towards Delilah. ‘Go and change your dress immediately, before Hemin enters the courtyard,’ she hissed. ‘Another few minutes will not make any difference, and if you are too long we’ll simply start without you.’

      ‘Excuse me, madam—’

      ‘What is it?’ Ariadnh turned on the young man who had appeared at her elbow. ‘What do you want?’

      ‘The master wants to see Delilah in his study.’

      ‘What for?’

      ‘He didn’t say, madam.’

      ‘Then you can go to your room, Delilah, and change before you go to see him. Achish must not see you like that. He’ll be furious.’

      I doubt that, thought Delilah, turning her back on Ariadnh, and following the servant past the Israelite men into the house. But by the door to Achish’s study, the young man gripped her arm. His fingers were warm and strong against her skin and she didn’t pull away, even though he was standing too close to her.

      ‘What are you doing?’

      ‘Don’t you recognise me?’

      Delilah frowned and looked him over. Dark curls smoothed down, sharply angled jaw, large eyes black as the night—

      ‘Joshua? Is it really you? It’s been—’

      ‘Three summers,’ he grinned. ‘Achish – master – has had me working at the port.’

      Had it been so long? Delilah remembered the days when Joshua, Ekron and she would play together among the vines.

      ‘I didn’t recognise you without straw in your hair and a barrow of horse muck at your feet.’

      He wore a spotless white tunic and a wide leather belt as part of his house servant’s uniform. The last time she’d seen him was as a skinny youth, half-naked in the stables, clad only in the knee-length Egyptian shorts the stable boys found comfortable for their labours, the rest of him strung with whatever ropes and leathers were required to tack up the horses. Something of Ariadnh’s remarks to Hemin yesterday about the mysteries of a man’s body came flooding back to mind, and she instinctively took a step back.

      ‘I’m not the only one who cleans up well,’ he said.

      She blushed, then remembered the summons. ‘I shouldn’t keep Achish waiting.’

      ‘He doesn’t want to see you.’

      ‘What?’

      ‘I made it up. I – well, I thought you needed rescuing.’

      Delilah was touched to see his cheeks burn beneath those glorious dark lashes. ‘I’m a lady of the house now. I should have you flogged for such insolence.’

      ‘But you won’t, will you?’ said Joshua, widening his eyes in mock alarm. ‘I heard Ariadnh and Hemin moaning about you and it seemed so unfair to make you change your dress. It’s not your fault if you’re prettier than—’

      Before she knew what she was doing, Delilah had stood on her tiptoes and kissed him, full and soft on the mouth. She lingered for a moment, close enough to feel his breath still on her lips, then rocked back, lowering her gaze. But he didn’t move and eventually she looked up to find him smiling back at her, lips slightly parted.

      The smile fell away. She was aware of someone approaching.

      ‘Don’t you have serving duties?’ said Ekron to Joshua, slipping his hand onto Delilah’s arm. ‘Come along, they’re about to start, Delilah. What were you doing out here, anyway?’

      Delilah steered him back towards the courtyard, and pulled his arm close into hers. ‘I was avoiding Ariadnh. She was very rude about my dress.’

      ‘Never mind. This is Hemin’s day, and she’ll be nervous about it.’

      ‘You really do sound like Lord Phicol, Ekron. You have to do something about that, or you’ll turn into a stuffy elder of the community before you’ve reached twenty.’

      As they walked together, her mind returned to Joshua. Her mother definitely wouldn’t approve, but Delilah was already wondering how she might find a few moments alone with the servant. Ekron could be terribly tiresome, and Hemin’s friends managed to look right through her whenever they met.

      She came around the corner and stopped dead, stifling a gasp. In the courtyard, the guests were quiet, and all focused on the man who stood in the centre. He was quite simply the biggest man Delilah had ever seen. Surely the biggest in the known world. Her first thought was of the giants whom the gods had fought before people existed at all. Even his shadow, which stretched along the ground and almost touched Delilah’s feet, seemed solid. He might not have been twice the size of his followers, but Delilah found herself mentally measuring her body against his, handspan for handspan. And down his back, as beautifully dressed as her own tresses, were seven braids of hair, held together by bands. The tresses seemed almost golden as the sun fell on them, then a rich polished ochre as he passed through the shade. It ought to be funny, she felt, this man with a woman’s hair, but the urge to laugh was tempered by a grudging respect. He must have been growing it since boyhood. Even though the braids were oiled and smooth, they looked like seven ropes that had been tied to his head in case he ever needed to be controlled.

      He surveyed the gathered guests, and for a moment his gaze settled heavily on hers. Those eyes – they were the deepest blue, like the cornflowers that grew in the rough edges of the vineyard. He must have been in his late twenties at the most, and yet her mother spoke of him as some kind of venerated leader. Delilah forgot her manners and stared back for as long as she was able. Then she glanced downwards, sure he’d somehow read her mind. Ekron tugged on her arm and with her attention still firmly fixed on the floor she followed him into the courtyard to take a seat so the betrothal could begin. Well, he certainly lived up to his reputation, at least in terms of description. He wasn’t handsome in the same way as Joshua, but with his broad forehead and СКАЧАТЬ