Three Daughters: A Novel
Read Three Daughters: A Novel Online
Authors: Consuelo Saah Baehr
ALSO BY CONSUELO SAAH BAEHR
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(a novel of a woman on the edge)
Softgoods
(a novella of fashion and murder)
Nothing to Lose
(a fat girl urban romance)
Best Friends
(romantic suspense)
The Obesity Study
(short stories)
Report from the Heart: 24 Hours in the Life of a Mother
(non-fiction)
Thinner Thighs in Thirty Years
(a monologue)
(a Kindle single)
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Text copyright © 2014 Consuelo Saah Baehr
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
Published by Lake Union Publishing, Seattle
Amazon, the Amazon logo, and Lake Union Publishing are trademarks of
Amazon.com
, Inc., or its affiliates.
ISBN-13: 9781477826195
ISBN-10: 147782619X
Cover design by inkd
Library of Congress Control Number: 2014941654
In loving memory of my grandparents, Farida and Musa
Heartfelt thanks to Uncle Issa and to my beloved Aunt Mary and Aunt Julia.
CONTENTS
BOOK ONE: HEARTS HIDDEN AND HUMBLE
1. I’VE NEVER HEARD HER SAY A WORD.
3. A BOY CAME TO THE STAND TODAY.
7. I WILL HAVE TO CLOSE THE SHOP.
9. IF YOU WANT ME TO GO, JUST SAY SO.
12. WOULD YOU LIKE TO GO HOME, MATE?
14. THEY BEAT THE DRUMS FOR WAR.
15. MY POOR, POOR DARLING . . .
16. MIRIAM, WHAT ARE THESE PAPERS? THERE’S A DEED HERE.
BOOK TWO: HEARTS BURNING AND BRAVE
17. I WAS DIFFERENT, TOO, AS A CHILD, AND IT WAS MY MOTHER WHO MADE FUN OF ME.
18. THERE’S NOTHING WE CAN DO. WE CAN’T MAKE HER PETITE.
19. IS THERE SOME MAIDEN THERE THAT HAS YOUR HEART?
20. I KNOW WHAT HE SEES IN YOU.
22. I WISH YOU WOULD JUST RELAX AND BE YOURSELF.
23. YOU’RE IN LOVE WITH HIM, AREN’T YOU?
25. MISS NADIA SOON MARRY ENGLISHMAN.
26. I WAS AFRAID OF NEVER BEING LOVED BACK.
27. HIDE THE BABY. MARY THOMAS IS COMING UP THE HILL.
BOOK THREE: HEARTS WOUNDED AND WISE
30. IN THE MORNING, IN THE EVENING, AIN’T WE GOT FUN?
31. I’VE NEVER SLEPT WITH A STRANGE WOMAN BEFORE.
32. HOW DO YOU KNOW YOU CAN TRUST ME?
33. THERE IS A MAN WHO IS BOTH CULTURED AND ACCOMPLISHED . . . A DOCTOR.
34. MY SISTER IS MAKING A PARTY FOR ONE OF THE HALABYS, WHO’S COME FOR A VISIT FROM AMERICA.
35. YOU ROTTEN BASTARD! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?
36. HAS ANYONE HELPED YOU GET YOUR BEAHRENS? MY WHAT? YOUR BEAHRENS. HAS ANYONE SHOWN YOU AROUND?
38. I’D LIKE YOU TO BE EXCITED, TOO.
39. YOU MARRY AMERICANI? I’M SURPRISED.
41. YOUR WIFE WAS ADMITTED AS I CAME IN.
42. RASHID WANTS TO DO SOMETHING HURTFUL TO ME.
43. JAMES HENRY SHERIDAN SAAD, WILT THOU HAVE THIS WOMAN . . . ?
45. OH, SAMIR . . . YOU CAN’T THINK OF HER AS YOUR LITTLE BURDEN ANYMORE.
46. I HAVE MORE CHOICES IN AMERICA. I CAN MAKE A FULLER LIFE FOR MYSELF.
PROLOGUE
F
or four centuries, from 1517 until World War I, the Holy Land was part of Turkey’s vast Ottoman Empire and was governed—sometimes well, sometimes cruelly—from Constantinople.
Palestine, as the country was then known, hugged the shores of the Jordan River from Galilee to the Dead Sea, a land easily traversed in two days by horse, bordered on two sides by vast desert and on the other by the sea.
Hardly a house stood outside Jerusalem’s walls, whose seven gates were closed shortly after sunset by Turkish guards. In winter, rooms were warmed by little sheet-iron stoves burning olive wood. Cooking was done over charcoal. The food was mostly rice, cracked wheat, vegetables, chicken, and mutton.
The 1860s were watershed years. Jerusalem began to spread out beyond the Old City. Russia purchased ten acres northwest of Jaffa Gate and there arose a cathedral and a complex of hotels, offices, and a hospital to care for the Russian pilgrims who came by the thousands. In 1865, the telegraph bureau was installed in the Old City. Foreigners were permitted to own land and Jews began to build a suburb outside the old walls. By 1869, the road was laid from Jaffa to Jerusalem. The pasha’s wife gave weekly receptions attended by Christian women and ladies began wearing French toilettes.
Out of the beautiful Damascus Gate, Suleiman Street led to the Nablus Road, which led to the town of the same name located about thirty miles to the north. At the time, Nablus had the finest bazaar and was known for its fine soap and silverware.
In 1876, Abdul Hamid acceded to the Ottoman throne and it seemed he would be a progressive and democratic ruler. The Consular Postal System was completed and the first steam flour mill was operating in Palestine within the year. By 1892, a railroad line opened from Jaffa to Jerusalem. The locomotives came from America and the engineers and surveyors from Europe.
Just ten miles north of Jerusalem, on the pilgrim road to Nazareth, lay the Christian village of Tamleh. The vista showed enclosed courtyards approached by narrow dirt passageways and surrounded by several stone cottages joined together for safety. Safety was the first concern. Most of the inhabitants carried guns, swords, or daggers.
There were dunghills visible in the village and smoke from the bakery ovens and often—because there were no civic laws governing the slaughter of animals or the disposal of refuse—there were repulsive odors. Still, Tamleh was ten times more beautiful than the neighboring villages and its progress was swift. By 1900, the village had nine provisions shops, four shoemakers, two weaving rooms, four butchers, and a silversmith.
The villagers loved their orchards and wheat fields. They lovingly named each cut and crest in the road: this rise was “the bosom of pleasure,” that depression was “the valley of the dog.” As sacred as the land was loyalty to the family. Optimally, they married within the clan, and a cousin had first right—a right often exercised—to any girl relative and could take her off the horse on the way to the church to marry another.
Though sophisticated Jerusalem was only ten miles away, the peasants lived simply. They used the fireplace both to cook and keep warm. They used wood for fuel. For light, they laid a wick in a dish of olive oil. They stored their clothes in trunks. Baskets that they made were ready containers for food and household items and clay utensils that they also made were used for cooking and to hold food and water. The peasants drank sage and chamomile tea, coffee, milk, and wine but those who drank alcoholic drinks were ill considered. The women embroidered during every spare moment and the village was known for their fine handiwork. When the kaiser visited in 1869, he requested a sample.
The offspring of the five original settlers cooperated with each other in order to survive. They cleared the land, built terraces on the slopes and planted grain, groves of grapes, olives and figs. They raised domestic animals, especially sheep and goats. An acre of land yielded six bushels and a peasant needed fifty dollars yearly to support his family of six.
There were many denominational schools in the village, but the finest one was the elite Girls’ Training Home run by the Society of Friends. As early as 1889, the beautiful limestone building opened with fifteen privileged boarders. A companion building for the boys’ school was completed in 1914, a year when the Ottoman Empire was in turmoil. The lovely, airy structure had to be left to the fortunes of war. The dining room on the first floor was used as a stable for horses of the Turkish soldiers. The upper floors served as a hospital for the armed forces, first of the Central Powers—Germany, Austria, Turkey—and then, as tides changed, of England.
In the 1880s there was a craze of revivalism and waves of foreigners passed through Tamleh. They walked to the shrines on rutted roads, often sick and at the mercy of robbers. The largest number of pilgrims came from Russia, sometimes as many as ten thousand a season traveling overland through the Caucasus or in sailing ships across the Black Sea.
Tamleh wasn’t tropical like Jaffa. The higher altitude that dried the Mediterranean air also brought harsh wet winters. In November of 1881, it snowed continuously for two days. The flakes fell so rapidly that they obliterated the familiar night sky with its countless stars. The villagers lay shivering in their beds thinking of the packs of homeless dogs that would be exhumed from beneath the piles of snow. They had no idea they would also find a group of half-frozen Russian pilgrims, foolishly clothed, returning from the shrines of Nazareth. One of those Russians fell ill and remained for a time. Without ever knowing it, he caused a death and a birth and altered three women’s lives forever.
BOOK ONE
1882–1920
HEARTS HIDDEN AND HUMBLE