The Gate of Heaven (41 page)

Quickly she intervened. “It was all a mistake, and it was my fault.”

“No indeed, the fault was mine,” Shechem said quickly. “I will ask your pardon, sir, and I will take my men away at once.” He turned and called, “Get that man on his camel. All of you prepare to leave.” Then he said to Dinah, “I am terribly sorry for all of this. I thought I was doing the right thing. I hope it won't interfere with your decision to visit my father's kingdom.”

“Of course not, Your Highness.”

Reuben did not relent. “I will inform my father of what has happened. I'm not at all sure that he will allow his daughter to make her visit.”

“I will send my apologies by an emissary,” Prince Shechem said quickly. He turned and moved to his camel. He mounted, and his battered guards follows suit. One of them had to be tied on his camel, and they rode off as quickly as they could manage.

Judah had been standing beside Reuben. Now he turned and ran back to Demetrius. “Poor old fellow. This was bad.”

“Yes, it was,” Demetrius said grimly.

Reuben was still furious. “Dinah, I'm going to ask Father not to let you to go. Look at what they did to Demetrius!” He went to the injured man on the ground. “Let me see,” he said.

“It's not so bad.” Demetrius tried to make light of his wounds.

By this time Dinah was heartily sick with shame. She knew she had brought it on, and now she went at once to Demetrius and said, “Let me see.” She saw his back bleeding from the cruel strikes of the cane and cried out, “Oh, that's terrible! Come to my tent. We must clean your back and put some ointment on it.”

“It's not necessary, mistress.”

“Of course it is. Come along.”

Dinah insisted, and Judah and Reuben accompanied the two to her tent. They watched as Dinah sat him down and scurried around finding water and cloths to wash his bloody wounds. Then she found a healing salve and began to apply it gently with her fingertips. “This ought to cool it off. It's what I put on my own cuts.”

“What in the world got into you?” Reuben demanded of his sister.

“Don't scold her,” Demetrius said.

“She
needs
a scolding—or better still, a whipping! I'm going to tell Father. I hope he keeps you home.”

As he left the tent, Rachel entered, and when she saw Demetrius's back, she shook her head, her lips grim. “What a terrible thing! I'm so sorry, Demetrius.”

“So am I,” Dinah said. Tears were in her eyes, and for once in her life she was ashamed of herself.

“You're the one who could use a caning,” Rachel said bitterly to Dinah.

Demetrius rose and shook his head. “It's all right. I've been hurt worse.” He gave Dinah one look and then turned and walked out of the tent.

“I hope your father will show a little reason and sense,” Rachel said. “You don't need to be around such a man as that Shechem. He's vicious.”

Dinah could not speak. She had been shocked by the scene that had exploded in her face, and now she knew her father was fully capable of forbidding her to go to the palace. “I didn't mean for it to happen,” she whispered.

“You never
mean
anything, but you must learn that you are a woman now and not a child.”

Jacob was furious when he heard of the incident. After Reuben explained what had happened, he went at once to Demetrius. He insisted on looking at his back and said, “You'll do no work for a while.”

“I'm all right,” Demetrius insisted. He was weary of the whole thing.

Jacob said, “You'll need to care for that back. I'll have Rachel see to it.” He left and immediately went to Dinah, speaking more harshly to her than he ever had in his life. Finally he said, “I'm afraid for you to visit such a man as that.”

“It really wasn't his fault,” Dinah pleaded.

“He's used to having his own way. I'll have to think about it. I'm not at all sure you should go.”

As Jacob left her tent, Dinah drew a deep breath. She was still trembling over the incident. The sight of Demetrius's back cut so badly had shocked her. She had seen slaves beaten before, but somehow this was different.

“Demetrius…?”

Demetrius had been watching the sunset outside of camp where he could be alone to enjoy the evening quiet. He turned to find Dinah, who had come so silently he had not heard her approach.

“Good evening,” he said quietly. “A beautiful sunset.”

“Yes, it is.” Dinah tried to find the words she had prepared and finally stammered, “Demetrius, do…do you hate me?”

Demetrius turned and saw the pain in her eyes. “Of course I don't hate you,” he said. “One can't hate a child.” He smiled and shook his head. “It's not as bad as all that.”

“Yes, it is. I feel terrible about it. I would have never done such a thing myself.”

“It's all right. Don't worry about it.”

Dinah did not know what else to say. He was looking at her in a strange way, and she laughed tremulously. “I'm always doing the wrong thing.”

“Not always. This isn't the wrong thing. I wager it's been a long time since you asked someone to pardon you.”

“Yes, it has. I know I'm spoiled rotten. And so is Joseph. We're a pair, the two of us.”

“I can understand that. He's the son of the Beloved Wife. Jacob loves Rachel very much. Anyone can see that. As for you, a man always loves his daughters—and as you are Jacob's only daughter, he must especially love you. My father was that way about my sister.”

“Was he really?”

“Oh yes. It used to infuriate me. She could get anything she wanted out of him. It reminds me of someone I know.”

Dinah suddenly felt better. She had seen glimpses of gentleness in this man, and now she knew it was his true nature. Any other man would have been furious with her and hated her forever after being so humiliated as the result of her foolishness.

“You saved my life from that bull and now I reward you by getting you badly beaten.”

“It wasn't really your fault. It was Prince Shechem's doing.”

“I know. He was wrong, and he's sorry.”

“I'm not sure about that, and I'm not sure you should go visit him either.”

“Oh, Demetrius, I get so
bored
out here! It can't hurt anything. I'll make a little visit. I'll see the people of the palace. You'll be there, and Amasa. Tersa is going with me too, so nothing can happen.”

Demetrius saw no sense in arguing. Dinah might be sorry for what had happened, but she still had a stubborn will.

“Well, you'll have your own way, I suppose.”

And then Dinah did something she would not have dreamed of doing before all this had happened. The sight of Demetrius being beaten had done something to her ideas about him. As she had watched the cane cut into his flesh, it almost felt as if she were the one being whipped. Now she put out her hand and laid it flat on his chest. She felt the muscles there and the warmth of his body. She looked up boldly, and her face was flushed. “I'm so sorry that I've caused you all this trouble. Can you ever forgive me for being such a spoiled girl?”

Demetrius was surprised at the sincerity he saw in her eyes. He covered her hand with his own and pressed it against his chest. “Of course I can. That's the good thing, I suppose, about being a beautiful woman. You can always get your own way.”

“Do…do you really think I'm beautiful?”

Demetrius kept his hand over hers. He reached out and touched her cheek, feeling the smoothness of it. “You know you are,” he whispered. “If you lived in my homeland, Minoa, and I saw you there at a festival singing and dancing, I would do exactly what Prince Shechem did. I would come to you at once—as would every other young man in Minoa, and I'd have to fight them off. Does that please you?”

Dinah was extremely conscious of his hand over hers and even more so of his hand on her cheek. His hands were rough but strong and gentle at the same time. She looked up into his eyes and felt the goodness and strength of Demetrius. “Yes, it does,” she whispered. Suddenly she did not trust her own impulses. She found herself wishing he would kiss her again, but that would never do! She drew back, and he released her at once. “Good night, Demetrius. Thank you for your forgiveness.”

“Good night, Dinah,” he said. He used her first name without the title of “mistress”—and somehow this gave a warm intimacy to the moment. Dinah turned and walked away, leaving Demetrius standing there.

He watched her go and then laughed shortly to himself. “What am I doing? Falling in love with that spoiled child? I can't believe I'm behaving like a love-sick calf!” He tried to put his attention on the sunset, but he kept remembering the faint fragrance of her perfume and the smoothness of her cheek. “Here, stop this,” he said, striking his forehead. “Don't be a fool. She would drive a man crazy inside of a month!”

Much of Dinah's pleasure as she traveled toward the palace was diminished by Demetrius's attitude. She had bidden good-bye to her father and mother and taken her place in the wagon drawn by two donkeys, the back filled with clothing and other necessities. Tersa, a sturdy young woman whom Jacob and Leah trusted for her common sense, sat beside her.

At first Dinah had been excited, but all day long she kept glancing at Demetrius, who walked alongside the wagon. His face was set, and she knew he was displeased with her decision to proceed with the visit. He had brought with him not only Amasa, a rather fierce man who was an expert in all sorts of fighting, but also Tascar and Moack to strengthen the guard. These two followed along behind, and for most of the journey their voices had been raised in arguments. They were close friends and argued about everything under the sun.

Tersa was a good woman but no company at all for Dinah. She was in her midthirties, had buried two husbands, and was likely to take a third when the opportunity arose. She was completely without imagination but was a practical soul who could see to Dinah's comfort and serve as a chaperone inside the palace walls.

They had stopped at noon and had eaten a meal of cold meats and bread, washed down by sour wine. Demetrius had stayed with the men, but now he came to Dinah and asked, “Are you sure you want to go through with this?”

“You mustn't be angry with Shechem. He's really not what you think,” she insisted.

Demetrius did not answer. He gave her an odd look, shook his head in disbelief, and then turned to go back and speak to the men.

Dinah was troubled by Demetrius's attitude, but she put it behind her as they approached the city, which was called Shechem in honor of the prince.

Shechem was not a large place, but it was very old. It was composed of a ring wall of unmortared blocks of stone, which enclosed two cities—one in the southwest and one in the northwest. The upper one in the northwest stood on an artificial mound and consisted almost entirely of the palace of King Hamor and a massive temple dedicated to Baal.

These two structures were the first things that met Dinah's eyes as they entered a valley and approached the gate. Dinah studied the inhabitants of the lower city and was disappointed to see it was hardly more than a village. The inhabitants seemed dull and slow-moving, but she hoped for better things inside the palace.

As they passed through a bazaar, the peddlers called out their wares, begging them to stop and bargain, but Dinah paid them no heed. She was looking at the gate, which was highly ornamented with carved wood and had heavy brass hinges and handles.

The gates opened, and they were met by no less than Prince Shechem himself, who had evidently been informed of their coming. As soon as the wagon stopped, he ran to hold up his hands. Smiling, he helped her to the ground and said, “Our palace is honored by your presence, mistress. Come, and I will show you to your quarters myself.”

“Thank you, Your Highness.”