“Does my father know where I am?” she asked, her fear evident.
Lucius looked from one to the other and suddenly the conversation he had had with the old healer made perfect sense.
When he had first brought the man here, he was surprised to find that Levi knew the woman. She was from Bethany, as was Levi. She hadn’t traveled a great distance that night that now seemed so long ago, but in her condition it was amazing that she had gotten as far as she had.
It was Levi who had told him the woman’s name, and he hadn’t been surprised to see her in the condition she was in, though he refused to give Lucius any information other than her name. Now he knew why. Her fear of her father was palpable, which told Lucius who exactly was responsible for her condition. He had suspected as much.
Levi gently brushed the hair from her face, giving her a reassuring smile.
“No, Anna. I don’t believe so.”
She gave a relieved sigh. Brown eyes filled with trepidation settled on Lucius. “Who are you? Why am I here?”
“My name is Lucius. You are in my mother’s home in the Upper City of Jerusalem.”
Anna’s eyes widened in alarm. The Upper City was where the wealthy lived, Jew and Gentile alike.
“How...?”
Lucius answered her unspoken question. “As I told you. My men and I found you in the desert. I didn’t know what else to do, so I brought you to my mother.”
Her gaze quickly scanned the room.
“No, she is not here right now...”
He was interrupted by a soft, feminine voice. “Yes, I am.”
Lucius turned at his mother’s voice, his smile freezing in place at the strange look on Levi’s face. His mother and the old healer were staring at each other as though they were familiar with each other, Levi in obvious shock. Lucius opened his mouth to speak when his mother’s next words silenced him in surprise.
“Hello, Father.”
Chapter 3
Anna had no idea what was happening. The Roman, Lucius, sat frozen in shock as well as old Levi. The woman, who had to be Lucius’s mother, moved with grace and assurance into the room, although that assurance was not reflected on her face.
She was uncommonly beautiful, her Roman dress flowing about her ankles as she crossed the room. The yellow color of the saffron-dyed material reflected in the white of her hair that just touched her temple. It was obvious that she was the only one who understood the drama playing out around them.
“Leah!”
Levi’s voice was barely above a whisper. He shook his head slightly as though to chase away some figment of his imagination.
The Roman rose to his feet, his frowning look going from his mother to the old physician.
“What is this?”
Unlike Levi’s, Lucius’s voice thundered around the room.
Her own plight forgotten in the drama of the moment, Anna stared from one person to the other. She knew the story of the healer. His daughter had married a Gentile and had been cut off by her people. Unlike with niddui excommunication, she had the most severe herem pronounced against her, which excluded her from any Jewish gathering or association. Anna hadn’t been born when that happened, but she knew that Levi mourned the loss of his only daughter. And the same thing would happen to her if her father ever found out that she had become a follower of the Way.
Leah stepped forward and, while silencing her son with an upraised hand, her look never wavered from Levi. They stared at each other for several seconds before Leah’s attention turned to Anna.
“How are you, my dear? Are you feeling better?”
The men took their cue from her and turned to Anna, as well. She squirmed under their focused scrutiny. The Roman was looking at her as though she were to blame for the tension permeating the room.
“I...I...” What was she to say? How could she possibly answer that? The pain was still intense, so much so that it was hard to breathe, but at this moment, she would have given anything to be able to walk out of this house.
Levi spoke up. “It will be some time before she will be well. Her wounds are severe, as well as the broken ribs that I suspect.”
Leah turned to him, seemingly surprised that he had even spoken to her. Sudden tears formed in her eyes.
“Perhaps we could speak in the triclinium,” she suggested to him in a choked voice. Her edgy posture silently pleaded with him to agree.
Levi hesitated, but then jerked his head once in affirmation. Lucius’s mouth tightened into a thin line at their silent exchange. He turned to follow them from the room when his mother’s voice halted him.
“Please stay with Anna, Lucius. I prefer that she not be left alone.”
Lucius opened his mouth to speak but snapped it shut at his mother’s negative shake of the head. His lips tightened further, making him look so fierce that Anna felt her own heart start to thump with trepidation. She would hate to be the recipient of such a look. Yet, amazingly, he gave way and remained standing where he was.
He continued to stare at the door long after they had left the room. Anna felt as though she were in the middle of one of the Greek dramas the Hippodrome was so famous for.
Anna shifted position to relieve the pressure on her lower back, and Lucius turned to her with a look that suggested he had forgotten she was in the room. He lifted a brow in query and Anna wanted to sink through the cushions. He was certainly a formidable-looking man.
“I am sure that it would not harm me to be left alone,” she told him encouragingly. The look he gave her spoke volumes and dropped her into silence. He chose to ignore her statement.
“Is there something I can get for you? Do for you?” he asked absently, his look once again focusing on the closed portal.
Not if her life depended on it would she admit to such. She shook her head slightly, knowing that too much movement would send excruciating waves of pain through her head and sides.
He ignored her attempt to relieve him of duty and poured her a glass of water anyway. The green glass goblet was beautiful, a specialty found only in Jerusalem. Lucius’s mother must be wealthy indeed to afford such luxuries.
Lucius helped raise her slightly, wincing with her as she struggled against the pain. He held the glass to her lips, this time allowing her to get her fill of the thirst-slaking liquid.
She leaned back against the pillows, allowing her breath to slowly sigh from her in relief.
“Your father is responsible for this?”
Her eyes flew to his. There was a darkness in his gray eyes, giving them the look of molten silver, that sent a shiver of pure fear through her. How to answer that? And if she did would he then feel it his duty to return her to her father? Perhaps he was like most men and believed women to be nothing more than chattel.
As though he could read her thoughts, he told her softly, “Have no fear. I have no intention of returning you to your father.”
Anna relaxed somewhat, but continued to watch him warily. What exactly did his plans entail then?
“Why did he do it? What great sin had you committed to deserve such a beating?”
What great sin indeed? Her only sin had been in wanting to live! Anna dropped her lashes, her fingers twisting nervously together in her lap. “I refused to marry the man he chose for me.”
Lucius’s eyebrows flew up in surprise. He wasn’t quite sure what to say. He had assumed that the woman had done some minor infraction that an abusive father would have felt justified in meting punishment over. Refusing to marry, though, this was something much more serious. Marriages were arranged all the time among both Jew and Gentile. He had never heard of a woman refusing the partner her parents chose for her.
He felt sorry for the woman, but right now she was the least of his concerns. What he wanted more than anything at this momen
t was to march down the stairs, storm into the triclinium and demand an explanation. He had a grandfather! Why did his mother never tell him?
“You had a reason?” he asked the woman absently, catching her look.
Her soft brown eyes hardened into brown agate, her knuckles turning white where they clutched the silken sheets.
“He is an evil man!”
The intensity of her voice left him in no doubt of what she said. Surprisingly, he believed her. He wasn’t quite certain what to say to such a scathing comment. He decided to let it pass.
“You will be safe here,” he assured her, a slight smile briefly touching his lips.
For a moment, he lost himself in her liquid eyes. Tears shimmered across the surface, releasing one lone drop to slide slowly down her bruised cheek, and he wondered if she was in pain or if it was from some hurtful memory.
“I cannot stay here,” she whispered.
Thinking he understood, his anger was aroused. It had always been thus whenever he thought that his mother was being slighted. The anger had been a part of him for so long he wasn’t sure what he would be like without it.
“Because I am a Gentile? Or because my mother has been shunned by your people?”
She stared at him in shock. “Neither,” she told him, her voice holding censure. “I cannot stay because my father is certain to find out where I am and come for me. I need to get as far away as possible.”
His anger evaporated as quickly as it had come.
“You will be safe here,” he assured her again. “I doubt even your father would think of looking for you in the house of a Roman.”
“But if Levi tells him...”
“I will see that he does not,” he interrupted her.
He wasn’t exactly sure how he would arrange for the man’s silence, but he would find a way even if it meant arresting the old man for some trumped-up charge. Still, his words did nothing to reduce her anxiety. He could hardly blame her, knowing the atrocities his people had committed against hers. But then, such atrocities went both ways. His friend Gallus had been killed by an assassin only two weeks ago.
Anna was staring at him as though he were a lion about to pounce. And then it dawned on him. She was afraid of him. He crossed the room, pulled the stool that was next to the bed closer and sat down next to her. Her eyes widened at the action, at least the one that wasn’t swollen almost completely shut. What was there about those eyes? They were almost mesmerizing.
“Anna, you need have no fear of me. I will not harm you.” His voice had grown husky and he cleared it, trying to infuse his look with some kind of assertion. He had a feeling he failed miserably. She didn’t relax at his words. She studied him skeptically instead.
“I...I am not afraid of you.”
He barked a laugh at this pronouncement, making her jump slightly. He returned her skeptical look in full measure. She truly wasn’t much to look at, especially in her condition. Yet, there was something about her.
“Let us, for the sake of argument, say that I believe you,” he quipped. “Perhaps it would help you to know that I am rarely at this house. It belongs to my mother and I visit with her as much as I am able, but my duties take me elsewhere most of the time.”
Some of the tension eased from her, but her eyes still held doubt. He couldn’t think of a way to relieve her of her concern. She would just have to see for herself.
His mother entered the room and he jumped to his feet. He studied her face to see if there was any sign of stress. The tears were obvious and he felt his gut clench with anger. So help him, if her father had done anything to hurt her, he would see him hanging from a spear before the night was out. Instead, his mother’s face shone with joy. Brows drawing together, he looked beyond her to Levi entering the room behind her and saw the same joy radiating from his features.
“Lucius, I need to speak with you in the peristyle. My father will stay with Anna.”
“Please,” Anna interrupted. “Do not concern yourself with me.”
His mother merely lifted an eyebrow at him, motioning with her head. Lucius’s narrow-eyed look made the rounds of those in the room. This situation was out of his control, something he had never dealt well with. He was used to being in command, yet he felt like a ship without a rudder against the onslaught of events surrounding him.
He followed his mother out the door, throwing one last look of warning Levi’s way.
Anna watched them leave and the breath rushed out of her. She looked at Levi helplessly, her frustration evident in her voice.
“What am I to do?”
Levi shook his head slightly. “There’s not much you can do, Anna. You will not be fit to move from this room for some time.”
She stared at him in horror. “I cannot stay here! How is that possible? These people don’t know me.” One was a Roman, one an outcast Jew. Either one would not hesitate to cause her all kinds of problems if they knew she was a follower of Christ.
Levi settled on the stool that Lucius had vacated. He took Anna’s hand, squeezing it with a gentle strength that brought more tears to Anna’s eyes. Her mind told her to flee, but her body refused to obey. Levi would surely understand her position better than anyone and give her aid.
He patted her hand, his look suddenly intense.
“Anna, I have a question to ask you and I want you to be honest with me.”
She hesitated, her heart pounding with dread. She slowly nodded her head in acquiescence despite the pain it caused.
“Are you a follower of the Way?”
Pinpricks of ice shimmied across her entire body, leaving her cold. Why would he ask such a thing? Her mind couldn’t react fast enough to the thoughts flashing through it. How was she to answer? There was really no choice. She had to speak the truth even though her life hung in the balance. Her voice came out little more than a whisper.
“I am.”
The sun coming in the open balcony doorway settled on his craggy face, lighting his features as effectively as the joy she saw radiating from him.
“Praise the Lord!” he declared enthusiastically, squeezing her hand more heartily. “I had heard something to that effect when I attended the meetings of the believers, but I never saw you there, so I wasn’t certain.”
Stunned, Anna could only stare at him in openmouthed amazement. Levi was a believer? She shifted to rise but was reminded of her condition when pain brought her up short. She reluctantly settled back against the cushions.
“I...I couldn’t attend. My father...”
Levi nodded sympathetically. “I understand. It was he who beat you so badly?”
It was more a statement than a question, so Anna didn’t bother to answer him. He released her hand and rose to his feet.
“I asked you that question because I have something to share with you. The owner of this house is also a believer and she wishes you to find refuge here for as long as you need.”
“Your daughter is a follower of the Christ?” The surprises just kept coming. Her mind spun crazily with possibilities.
Anna would love to have been a cricket on the wall in the triclinium to hear the conversation between the two. So that was why they had both looked so full of joy when they entered the room.
Well she could remember when Levi had railed against the Romans and their intermarrying with Jews. His hatred had known no bounds. Now, she understood that anger more fully. He had lost his only child to such a marriage.
And now, he was willing to accept Leah back even though the Jewish community had shunned her. If other people knew, Levi would surely be shunned, as well, except in Bethany where many had become believers because of the man Lazarus. Only the Lord Jesus had the power to overcome such obstinate loathing among her people.
When Levi looked at her again, there was a twinkle in his
eye.
“I know you may find this hard to comprehend, but I believe the Lord used you to bring my daughter and me back together again.”
The pain that filled her body seemed to lessen at his words. If she had been the instrument used to bring father and daughter together again in the Lord, then everything she had gone through had been worth it.
“A word of warning, though,” Levi told her. “Her son is not a follower of the Way.”
Lucius followed his mother into the peristyle, the sounds of the trickling fountain of the garden doing nothing to soothe his sour mood as it had so many times in the past.
“What is going on, Mother?” he asked without preamble. “How could you send for a man who so ruthlessly cast you from his life?”
His mother seated herself on the stone bench nearest the marble fountain and motioned to the place beside her. Lucius ignored the entreaty, too restless to stay in one position. He began to pace, pushing a hand back through his dark hair in agitation.
A maid who was cleaning the tile walkways quickly gathered her supplies and left at his mother’s nod of the head.
Quiet settled in the garden except for the trickling water and the trilling of the songbirds attracted there by the coolness of the temperatures and the availability of water.
“Lucius, there are some things you need to know.”
He took a deep breath, knowing he wasn’t going to like what she was about to say.
“Go on,” he said, turning to her.
She pressed her lips inward against her teeth, taking her time about getting her thoughts in order before hitting him with the one he least expected.
“Lucius, I am a Christian.”
His eyes went wide with surprise, his mouth dropping open. Of all the things he had expected her to say, this was certainly not it.
“You can’t be serious!”
Leah sighed heavily. “I assure you, I am.”
“But...how?” Lucius stopped, not knowing what to say. How on this piece of downtrodden earth had she come to such a conclusion? He had heard much about this sect of Jews and nothing he had heard had been good. They caused problems wherever they went in the Empire. Fury poured through him, a fury made more dangerous by the fear for his mother.
Love's Pardon Page 3
