Love Inspired Historical March 2014 Bundle: Winning Over the Wrangler\Wolf Creek Homecoming\A Bride for the Baron\The Guardian's Promise (89 page)

Chapter Thirty-Three

H
er hands curled beneath her chin, and he longed to twine his fingers within hers. The warmth of her smile as she lay sleeping spread to the beating of his pulse, causing it to hitch momentarily. His fingers hovered over the length of her arm, wishing he could touch her just as he had done several times since he'd found her unharmed outside—the scrapes and bruises marring her skin. Her fleshly imperfections had never mattered to him. They'd only made her more beautiful, especially when she carried her weight with her chores, never once complaining.

The corners of his mouth lifted. Her only complaints came when he insisted on helping her.

“You realize if you insist on a guilt offering before you marry her, you'll be parted.” Jesse's low whisper stormed into his thoughts.

“Yes. I know. I do not wish to leave her even for a moment.” He ran his fingers through her tresses. “However, I vowed to return her to her father's house. And I will do so.”

“Then return her. With the rising of the sun we will part. When I take Elam to Jerusalem, I will send word to have your possessions prepared for departure.”

“My thanks, brother.”

“What of your house, Ari?”

He twisted his lips in thought. “It is our grandmother's home. I cannot very well move her. Besides, if she did not leave when
Abba
moved to Manna, she will not move now.” He looked at his brother. “I give it to you.”

Jesse laughed. “Is this your way of relinquishing
Savta
to me, as well? You bestow a great honor upon me, and a great responsibility.”

“It is not as if I have taken care of her these past years, brother. From what I have been told you have done well keeping our grandmother. It will be no different except you have the privilege of a home to call your own. A place where your kin may visit when they enter Jerusalem.”

“You are certain?” Jesse asked.

Ari looked down upon the woman who firmly held his heart and smiled. “More than certain, Jesse. My life would be nothing without her by my side. I cannot ask her to leave her father when he has no sons.”

“Caleb will be proud to call you son, Ariel.”

“As I will be proud to call him
Abba.
” He'd miss his own father, but there was always room for another man after God's own heart within his own.

“Manna will not be the same without you.”

Ari looked at his brother with confusion and moved away from Mira lest he wake her from her peaceful slumber. He sat beside his brother and reclined against the cave wall. “Jesse, I will now have the freedom to travel to and from Manna at will. Of course, there will be seasons when I must stay at Caleb's, but my visits will be more frequent than when I resided in Jerusalem.”

Jesse twisted his lips. “I'm not sure that is a good thing for me. Our grandmothers and mother will fuss over you when you come, ignoring my needs,” he said with a smile. “And they will do even more so once you have a wife at your side.”

He glanced at his beloved's face so soft and serene in sleep. “Soon, you will have a wife of your own.”

“It is not likely I'll find a wife in the near future. I have had the choicest of the lot from Manna and yet none have caught my eye. I have had the same result with my ventures into Hebron and Jerusalem.”

“Certainly someone has caught your eye,” Ari reassured.

“Many have caught my eye, but none have caught the attentions of my heart.”

Ari thought of the woman who slept nearby. Had he known from the beginning that he loved her? “It may take more than a moment's notice.”

“This, my brother, I know.” Jesse looked at Mira, his eyes held an emotion Ari knew all too well. “There is beauty, and there is beauty, I want the kind of beauty that is rooted deeper than the flesh. Deeper than the calculating eye. Deeper than what they think I may offer. I do not want a woman who wishes to increase her position by marriage, Ari. I want one who loves me, as Sh'mira loves you.”

Ari blinked in surprise. “You think she loves me?”

“Is it not obvious to you?”

“Most assuredly, yet a part of me believes it is nothing more than a young girl's foolish desire to have a handsome face to husband,” Ari teased his brother. He would never assume Mira to be as shallow.

“If that were the case, she would have fallen out of her foolish desire for you once she laid eyes on me.”

Ari bit back the rumble of laughter and smiled. “The sky is beginning to lighten,” Jesse said.

Ari lifted his eyes and looked beyond the mouth of the cave. Although the midnight sky spread across the horizon, grays and pale blues began to illuminate the earth. “Then it is time for us to part, my brother.”

He woke Mira as Jesse nudged their uncle. He unbound his feet and pulled him to stand. “May God go with you, Ariel.”

“My thanks, Jesse. May God guide your steps, as well. If the Lord wills it I will see you in a day or so.”

After hours on horseback, they rode into her father's village and his heart filled with gladness for Mira as they were met with cries of jubilation. He halted the horse outside of the stone walls. One of her cousins ran up and held his hand out, his silent offering asked to take the horse's lead.

“You will take good care of him for me,” he said with a smile as he handed the lead to the eagerly awaiting child. Dismounting, he lifted Mira from the back of the horse. She braced her palms against his chest as if he was going to set her down, but he'd seen the condition of her feet. Even now his muscles tensed with anger at the abuse his uncle had inflicted. An urge to race back to Jerusalem fired his blood. He needed to know his uncle met justice.

“Shh,” he murmured when she pushed against him. He readjusted his hold and cradled her in his arms as he carried her beneath the arch of her home.

“Sh'mira, my daughter,” her mother squealed. “What has happened to you, child?”

“Nothing,
Ima.
”

“Then why does Ari carry you so?” Her mother eyed him, deep concern and disapproval etched in the lines of her brow.

“Allow me to sit Mira down. I will explain all soon enough.”

Ari followed her mother into the inner courtyard and waited for her to roll out a mat. He bent his knees, and her arms flew around his neck. The softness of her fingers against his nape sent an awareness of her through his soul. He desired to pull her closer, to meld her into him. Instead, he sat the other half of his whole upon the woven wool mat and slid his arms from beneath her knees.

His gaze bored into hers. The words he had yet to say stuck like honey to his tongue. Words bursting from his heart. Words he could not yet speak.

He regretted leaving her for any length of time. If it weren't for his conscience, he'd stay. However, he could not ask for her father's blessing without seeking first his forgiveness, and then providing the highest of guilt offerings on the altar at the temple.

He brushed the tips of his fingers through her tresses. The veil around his neck burned through his tunic. Any promises he thought to convey by draping her with the silk left him when he recalled its soiled condition. He knew she'd understand the gesture, as would her parents, yet he could not bring himself to pull the veil from around his neck and cover her hair.

Hope welled in his breast as she touched the blue cloth, humbling him, filling his heart with joy. It was as if she understood the vibration deep inside him. And although his mother had placed the same veil upon her head, giving her blessing to their union, his act would mean more. The covering would depict a promise to her. A promise to her father.

He wrapped his fingers around hers, giving them a gentle squeeze. Ari hoped his touch would reassure her, that it would dispel any doubts she might have. That she would feel the intensity of his love for her, even if he had not spoken the words.

Ari released her hand and rose. A shadow flickered in her eyes. Her disappointment hit him in the gut.
Lord, help her understand.
Her eyes pooled with tears and he near lost his resolve.

“Sh'mira, my child, it is glad I am to see you with my own eyes, daughter.” Ari turned as Caleb wobbled from his chamber, leaning heavily on his staff. Ari had never seen him so weak. Was this his doing? The sight before him cemented his resolve to return to Jerusalem.

“And I you,
Abba,
” she said with a quiver in her voice.

“Caleb, I have returned your daughter as promised.”

“My thanks, Ariel.” Caleb's all-knowing gaze squinted beneath the afternoon sun. “Is all well?”

How should he answer? How could he answer? When Caleb's daughter sat on a rug with battered feet and tears in her eyes. “May I have a word with you,
ladonee?
”

“Yes, of course. But there is no need to call me master. Come, my son.” Caleb pulled back the curtain and motioned with his arm that they should enter his chamber for privacy. With a heavy heart, and the knowledge that Mira watched his back, Ari followed her father.

He waited until Caleb settled himself on the edge of his bed before he knelt beside him. “Caleb,” he began. “I seek your forgiveness for the wrongs I have committed against you and yours.”

“What nonsense is this, Ariel? You have been nothing but the humblest of servants.”

“No,
ladonee.
It was a deception.”

Caleb laid the palm of his hand on Ari's shoulder. “My son, Tama told me all I needed to know. Your guise may have been deceiving, but trust an old man when he says, character such as yours, character that I've watched carefully, as a shepherd his sheep, over the years can be nothing but genuine.”

“My thanks, Caleb. My sins have brought harm to your family.”

“I do not know what sins you speak of. It is naught to me, but between you and our Creator.”

“Just the same, I would return to Jerusalem and lift up my guilt offering.”

“If that is what you must do, then you must.”

Ari kissed Caleb's knuckles. “My thanks,
ladonee.
” He stood to his feet and prayed Caleb would not broach the subject of the contracts.

“Ariel,” Caleb called just as he was about to leave. “You are a free man. Remember you have no master but God.”

He dropped his gaze to his feet and nodded. “Yes, of course.”

He slipped through the curtain, his gaze immediately going to where he had left Mira. The woven mat was bare. He looked around the courtyard, and for the first time in his memory, it was devoid of people. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he walked to where the young boy had tied his horse.

As much as he wished to say his goodbyes and blessings, if all went well, he'd return before the setting of the sun.

* * *

Rubiel yanked on her ankle. “You are such a child, Mira,” she chastised.

“Forgive me. It is not a pleasant sensation having my open wounds scrubbed clean.”

“It is necessary, lest you wish to gain an infection,” her mother chided.

“I know,
Ima.
” She turned her gaze to the blue sky, hating each moment she had been confined to her room. Even the simple chores requiring only the use of her hands had been banned from her. Since her mother and sister had duties to attend they often left Mira to her thoughts, which often drifted to Ari and his absence.

“Daughter, you must not draw into yourself.”

She shook off the haze of loneliness creeping into her soul and looked at her mother as she passed between the fabric covering the entryway.

“You think of Ariel,” Rubiel said. “Sh'mira, you should not hold out hope of his return.” Her sister's eyes flitted to Mira's lap where her fingers were folded. “You are nothing but a farmer's daughter.”

The words Rubiel left unsaid cut deep. Her sister believed Ariel was too good for her. “Ari does not consider such things, Ruby.”

“Can you be certain?”

“As certain as I am that you sit washing my feet,” Mira bit. But her confidence wavered like the shifting of sand. And although Ari had made no vows, there had been hope in his eyes when he departed. A hope branded upon her heart. However, he had left without a promised return. His lack of shalom shoved aside her hopes, cementing doubt.

“My apologies. It is not in your character to behave solemnly.”

Mira crossed her arms over her chest, hoping to keep her heart from being ripped to shreds. If she accepted Ruby's words as truth, she would have to accept the increasing pain within her heart. She would have to accept that Ari's hopes had been dispelled by the reality of who he was.

“If he were coming back, he would have accepted
Abba'
s offer.”

Mira snapped her gaze to her sister. “Offer? What offer?”

“I do not wish to distress you further, Sh'mira, yet I can see it does you no good to remain idle. Perhaps if you understood the fullness—”

“The fullness of what?” Ari had entered their family under the guise of a bond servant. Had there been more to his deception?

“
Abba
gave Ariel all that was promised under the law when he freed him.”

“This is not unusual.”

“No, it is not, Sh'mira,” Ruby agreed as she wrapped her foot in a clean cloth. “Yet, Ari did not take one kernel. He did not take one grape, nor a seed. He took nothing.”

Mira smiled, even as she felt tears prick the corner of her eyes. “Ari is an honorable man. He would not take what he felt did not belong to him.”

“It was his right by the law.” Ruby tied the length of linen in a knot and sat back on her heels. She pressed her palms against her thighs and looked directly at Mira. “That is not all. I heard
Abba
say he offered you as Ari's bride.”

Mira's breath caught in her throat as the
fullness
of Ruby's words slapped her in the face. Her gaze fell to the brightly woven mat surrounding her, reminding her of the veil Ari's mother had draped over her head, the very veil Ari had worn around his neck when he had returned her to her father's house. She bit down on her lip to keep it from quivering.