The French kingdom, 1248
From the chapel, the bells rang for Compline.
It's my wedding night, and I'm desperately alone in a vast unfamiliar fortress. Tables have been set up outside under the torchlights, and the feast went on late. Everyone happily danced together, and I was a blushing bride on my attractive husband's arm.
I hardly know him.
He's a lord, a knight. Me, I'm only a commoner, or almost.
He's not here.
Nervously, I'm fiddling with my splendid nightgown in a fine and delicate fabric, a gift from my husband's family. I have never owned anything so luxurious and expensive because I'm only a Jewish merchant's daughter.
I'm so afraid.
No doubt my husband will not come.
No doubt he hates our wedding!
But he didn't say a word not to upset his father.
I'm rotating and flippling a beautiful gold ring around my finger. All my nerves became like ropes, stretching again and again.
At the risk of breaking!
Where is he? Perhaps he stayed to pray in the chapel.
No! He isn't a praying type.
The flames were dancing in the fireplace when the priest blessed this room. Now the fire is almost out, and so is the candle.
I got up to light one again.
The bed appears to be surrounded by mischievous elves. They seem to be laughing at me, at my pretty nightgown.
Bad elves!
Martha, my grandmother, would have enjoyed seeing me marry if she were still alive. But I can't imagine her here, so far from Jerusalem.
Many bad, evil elves don't stop dancing madly around me, like fugitives will-o'-the-wisp looking real.
Damn! Am I going nuts?
What happened to him? Could he be dead?
Have some horrible brigands broken into the fortress? It's plausible with the large wine quantities my father-in-law had distributed to all castle guards for the wedding.
I stare at the bedroom door with suspicion. It's hidden behind a thick hanging so that anything could happen.
Horrible brigands! Inside the fortress!
My husband isn't a coward, far from it. At least thirty rascals must have attacked him, or perhaps fifty.
My goodness! What can I do?
He may be already dead.
But a violent fight would have been noisy. I would have heard the clash of swords and some screams as well.
Well, he's still not here.
Never mind! I will stay in this bed till cockcrow, as a good wife.
I don't see the elves anymore.
The candle died, and it was the only one.
The fire just went out, too.
Where are you, my sweet husband? Are you running through a thick forest?
Soon the night will end, and time will continue its march inexorably.
Since that first day when I saw you in a dark hallway!
YOU ARE READING
The Wolf and the Snake (English version)
Historical FictionIn 1099, a mysterious child of noble origin was taken in by Jews who had fled the Crusaders' arrival in front of Jerusalem. Years later, Ada, the descendant of this child, travels through Palestine with her father. He's a merchant and knows medicin...
