Lappidoth rang the bell from the tower in the city gate, then took the steps two at a time and ran all the way home. “He is coming!” he called to merchants and neighbors he passed along the way. “The bridegroom is coming for my daughter!”
He reached the courtyard of his home, his breath coming fast. “Deborah! Talya!” His daughters-in-law emerged from the house to the courtyard, scrambling after his grandchildren.
“She is sitting on the dais in the house,” Libi said, smiling into his eyes. Such beautiful girls were his daughters-in-law, but none could match the beauty of his little girl. A catch in his spirit brought a sudden lump to his throat. Talya. She no longer belonged to him but to Barak, whose entourage of men and singing women could be heard even now coming from the direction of the city gate.
“Deborah!” He hurried into the house, searching, but it took only a moment for his eyes to grow wide at the splendor his sitting room had become. Talya sat decked in a striped, multicolored robe, her hair covered in a filmy veil bordered about her head with a garland of fragrant rose of Sharon. Ten maids and cousins, including Yiskah, stood around her all chattering and laughing.
Deborah appeared at his side. “He is coming?”
Lappidoth looked into his wife’s dark, anxious eyes. “Yes. Can you not hear him?”
The chatter ceased, and all of the girls seemed to lean toward the door as one.
Talya gasped and raised a hand to her throat. “He is truly coming for me?”
Lappidoth looked at his daughter, his own voice catching in that moment. How could he let her go, this child who had eased so much of the burden he felt when he seemed incapable of pleasing Deborah? And yet, he saw the moisture, the wild excitement, bubbling just beneath the surface. She loved Barak, and she could not wait for the moment of his knock upon their door.
He felt Deborah’s touch on his arm. “It is a good match,” she said, smiling at him.
He nodded. Of course it was. “Yes.”
The sound of the bridegroom drew closer, the songs louder. The maids surrounding Talya started to flutter like the wings of a butterfly, releasing anxious giggles here and there. And then, all at once, sound ceased. Barak knocked on the outer door.
Lappidoth’s palms grew damp as he turned to open the door to this man, his new son-in-law. The man who would take his daughter away to be with him where he lived. Away from the home he and Deborah had built for her all of her life. The home where he had watched her grow from infant to mature woman. What would he do without her?
He sensed Deborah’s presence beside him as he opened the door to Barak. “I have come to claim my bride,” Barak said, his voice booming in the small sitting room.
Lappidoth stepped aside to let him pass, watching as he walked to the dais where Talya waited and knelt at her feet. Barak took Talya’s hand and kissed it. At that same moment, Deborah slipped her hand in his.
“I love you, Lappidoth,” she said softly, leaning close to his ear, while Barak spoke words of promise to Talya and laid gifts at her feet.
Lappidoth turned, facing her, the words heady and unfamiliar in the same moment. He touched her cheek. “What did you say?” Surely his mind was playing tricks on him on this day of such monumental change for them all.
She stood on tiptoe, for he had always towered over her, and kissed him lightly on the lips, her touch lingering longer than he expected. “I love you,” she whispered. She placed her free hand on his chest and leaned closer. “On this day of all days, and from this day forward, I wanted you to know.”
He looked at her, unable to pull his gaze away from the vulnerable warmth in her eyes. Voices erupted around them, the men and women surrounding Barak filled the room, and singing ensued. Talya and Barak sat side by side on the dais while neighbors and family members, well-wishers, came to present them with gifts to start their new life.
But Lappidoth suddenly had eyes for only one woman. The woman who had captured his imagination from that first day he had seen her at the well and watched her at the village wine treadings. The woman who had given birth to his three children and held his heart captive for as long as he could remember. The woman he had always known was chosen of God to do great things—things he was meant to help her do well by teaching her the law and all he knew. The woman whom he would love with all of his heart and would live with the rest of his life.
Deborah.