Chapter 7

Upon their arrival in David’s extensive grounds and after greetings had been exchanged, Deborah—a tall, gaunt spinster of fifty or more—abruptly suggested to Hannah that they stroll in the garden and see what was left of the autumn flowers, though her crisp tone hinted that it was much too late in the season and that the idea had certainly not originated with herself.

This laconic invitation, so pointedly addressed to Hannah, confirmed Esther’s surmise that David had planned a private interview. His uneasy frown indicated that his forthright sister might have displayed a little more tact in this connivance; and Esther, unwilling to be thought too dumb to understand his annoyance, flashed a mischievous smile into his eyes. He accepted it with pursed lips and a shrug—and a slow, begrudged grin.

‘My sister Deborah,’ he drawled, ‘has always believed—with Aristotle—that a straight line is the shortest journey between two points.’

‘And the safest,’ added Esther, suddenly sober, as if renouncing all devious ways.

He searched her eyes to make sure of her sincerity, and smiled his appreciation of her evident decision to disarm. They had been slowly following the women at a widening distance. Now David cupped his hand lightly under her elbow and they angled off into the well-kept grove containing a wide variety of trees, most of which Esther had never seen. For something to say, she remarked that it seemed strange to find them growing here.

‘My father,’ replied David, ‘often travelled in foreign lands. He was greatly interested in trees. Not many of these are native to Galilee.’ He halted to give her time to look about, and asked, in a tone too craftily casual, ‘Do you recognize any of them—as of Idumea?’

She frowned impatiently.

‘I know nothing whatsoever about Idumea, sir!’ The unbridled asperity in her low-pitched voice reproached him for trying to trap her. Wasn’t he going to play the game fairly?

Somewhat taken aback by the girl’s irritation, David made the additional mistake of murmuring apologetically that he had been misinformed.

‘I thought you were an Idumean,’ he said.

‘You did not!’ exclaimed Esther hotly. Then, in a husky tone of entreaty, she asked, ‘Why can’t we be honest with each other? That’s why you asked me to come here, Master David. You hoped I might confide in you. You are making it difficult. I am much in need of your counsel—and your friendship…I am lonely—and lost.’

He pointed to a rustic seat beside the winding path and they sat down.