A Reluctant Queen (16 page)
The courtyard below was filled with servants unloading the carts that had carried the household goods. Voices shouted in Aramaic as chairs and tables were wrestled off the carts and piled on men’s backs to be brought into the palace. The scent of male sweat drifted to the king’s nostrils.
They all knew he was on the balcony, of course, but they were following protocol and not looking at him. He bounced on his toes once again. He felt like whistling.
Above the noise from the courtyard, he heard the sound of a door opening. Ahasuerus turned his head and saw that his wife had come out onto the balcony next to his. In the Ecbatana palace the king’s room was on the same side of the &7 building as the queen’s room, separated only by his bath. As Ahasuerus watched, Esther reached her arms over her head, rose up on her toes, and stretched upward toward the clear blue sky.
She should not be out here without her veil,
he thought. But no one was looking and he understood her delight in the fresh air. “Getting the stiffness out?” he said.
Her heels came back to earth and her head whipped around. “My lord! I did not see you there. You startled me.”
He rested his hands upon the railing closest to her. “So, do you like Ecbatana, Esther?”
She moved to the railing directly opposite his. “Everything is wonderful. I have never seen such a sky!”
His lungs expanded as he drew in more of the crisp, clear air. He felt a little drunk, although he had only water with his midday meal.
Esther said, “It is so beautiful that it makes me dizzy.”
He looked at the face that was some fifteen feet away from his. Seen in the merciless light of the afternoon sun, her skin looked even more warmly colored than usual, and the rosy tint of her cheeks had definitely spread to the bridge of her nose. He said, “Is that sunburn I see on your nose?”
She looked like a child caught with her hand in the honey pot. “I have been sitting in the front of the cart, my lord. It was too suffocating to stay inside all the time.”
Persians did not find sunburn beautiful, and he was a &7 quintessential Persian. But on Esther, he found that the sunburn was charming. The adrenaline of finally being at Ecbatana was pumping through his blood. He gazed at his wife and his exuberance suddenly found a focus point.
“I’m coming to see you,” he said.
He went down the corridor to his wife’s room and pushed open the door. The only other people in the room were her eunuch and serving girl. Esther was standing on the balcony, looking at him through the open door. He said to the servants, “You may go.”
The two turned, prostrated themselves, then backed slowly out of the room.
He joined his wife on the balcony, lifting a hand to trace his forefinger along her sunburned nose. But Esther was looking at the door that had closed behind her servants. Her eyes lifted to his and she said a little indignantly, “What are you doing, my lord? What on earth will Hathach and Luara think?”
He bent to say softly in her ear, “They will think that I am going to make love to my wife.”
Her lips parted and she gazed at him, not speaking.
He put his hand on her hip and gave her a gentle push. “Inside,” he said.
She went before him into the bedroom. He opened the balcony doors wider so that the room would be filled with the clean mountain air. When he turned again it was to find her standing by the bed, watching him. Her eyes were huge and black.
He crossed the room to stand before her. He put his hands on her shoulders. “Say my name,” he commanded.
“Ahasuerus,” she whispered.
He smiled.
When Luara was allowed back into Esther’s room, she acted as if nothing unusual had happened. She quietly went about remaking the bed, and when she had finished she said to Esther, “Would you like me to do your hair for you, my lady?”
Esther flushed. Ahasuerus had insisted that she unbraid her hair and Esther had only had time to tie it back after she had dressed herself.
“Yes, that would be helpful,” she replied in a low voice.
Luara picked up a comb and went to work. After a while she said, “You know, my lady, you and the king
are
married.”
Esther turned and looked up into her maid’s shrewd blue eyes. Her own face relaxed into a smile. “Muran would say I am being silly. It is just . . . everyone knew what we were doing.”
“My lady. The king comes to your room almost every night. Do you think we believe he comes to talk to you?”
Actually
, Esther thought,
we do talk
. After. She found the talking almost as nice as the other thing.
“It will be good for him to be here for the summer,” she said. “He carries many burdens.”
Luara agreed. “Yes, he does. You must be one of the few people around him who doesn’t want something from him. You are good for him, my lady. And”—her lips twitched in a small smile—“I think he is good for you.”
Esther thought again about that conversation with Luara later in the evening, as she lay in her solitary bed. There was a drinking party tonight to celebrate their arrival in Ecbatana, and she knew it would run very late and Ahasuerus would not be coming to her room.
Say my name
, he had commanded her. She wondered how many people there were in this world who could call him by his name. Not too many, she suspected.
When she was with him, she was happy. The spell of his physical presence chased away all the worry and fear and doubt and uncertainty and guilt that besieged her at other times— that were besieging her now. What was she doing here? She knew that Haman was close to Ahasuerus, but she never saw or spoke to Haman. Ahasuerus never mentioned the situation in Palestine to her, and she didn’t see how she could bring it up in any way that would seem remotely natural.
Be our voice to the king
. That is what Mordecai and the Jewish elders had commanded her. According to her uncle, that was what God had commanded her.
It was unfortunate that no one had ever told her exactly how she was to accomplish this desirable goal.
T
he king had a fever.
“Anyone who gets soaking wet looking at horses, then doesn’t have the sense to change his clothes before he rides in a race is asking to be sick,” Esther told him.
Ahasuerus lay in bed propped up against two dark-blue silk cushions. Esther was standing beside him, looking exasperated and trying not to show how worried she was. The king’s face was flushed with fever and his eyes were too bright. Haman, the other person in the room, had closed the doors to the balcony.
“Keep those balcony doors open,” Ahasuerus ordered, his normal voice a little raspy from a sore throat. “I want to look at the sky.”
“You have a fever, my lord,” Haman protested. “Cold air is not good for you.”
The fever flush in the king’s cheeks seemed to deepen. “I said to open the doors.”
“My lord.” Haman’s slurred Babylonian accent was gentle. “Please be sensible.”
Ahasuerus scowled.
Esther understood how much fresh air meant to Ahasuerus and said to Haman, “Perhaps we could open one of the doors. If the king remains under the blankets he will be warm enough.”
Haman shot her an annoyed look.
There came a knock upon the door.
Haman said, “That will be my wife’s Egyptian physician, my lord.” He came back to Ahasuerus, leaving the doors firmly shut behind him. “He has a remedy for fevers that never fails.”
Ahasuerus was starting to get angry. “I don’t want any foul-tasting medicines, Haman. I want you to open the doors and leave me alone.”
Esther gazed down into the haggard, fretful face of her husband. Even ill, he was still beautiful. “I will open the doors, my lord, if you will see the doctor,” Esther said gently.
Ahasuerus clenched his fist and pounded it once into the mattress. Esther thought that his helplessness was angering him more than the idea of seeing a doctor. She put her hand on his forehead and smoothed back his tumbled hair. “Your hand feels so cool,” Ahasuerus said.
“And your head feels so hot,” she returned. “Please, my lord, won’t you see the doctor?”
There was the sound of voices at the door and both Haman and Esther waited. “Oh, all right,” Ahasuerus grumbled.
Haman went to the door and came back with a small, dark man who was carefully carrying a goblet of chased silver. “If you will drink this, my lord King, you will feel very much better,” the doctor said.
Ahasuerus started to push himself up in the bed. Haman went to help him and the king motioned him away. The doctor put the goblet into the king’s reluctant hand.
Esther started as loud voices sounded in the hallway, then the door flew open and a man almost tumbled in. “Ahasuerus!” he shouted. “Don’t drink that potion!”
It was Xerxes.
Esther’s blood froze in her veins.
“Why not?” the king said. He sounded merely curious.
“Someone told me this doctor might have been bribed to poison you.” Xerxes was breathing quickly, Esther saw, as if he had been running hard.
Ahasuerus’ face went perfectly still. The little doctor was white with terror. “Who is supposed to have bribed him?” the king asked.
Xerxes pointed to Haman. “This treacherous Palestinian.”
Esther reached out to grab the goblet from Ahasuerus’ hands, but he was too quick for her. Horrified, she watched as he tilted the goblet back and drained it.
“I knew it would taste terrible,” he said.
Esther’s hand was still on the king’s forearm, and he let her take the empty cup from him. She could hardly hold it, her hand was shaking so badly.
Xerxes was staring at his brother, his nostrils pinched tight beneath the haughty arch of his nose. “Are you mad? I told you the drink might be poisoned!”
Ahasuerus’ eyes glittered fever bright as he said to Xerxes, “The most important judgments a man makes in his life are his judgments about whom he can trust. Think about your so-called friends, Xerxes. Are they followers of the Truth? Or of the Lie?” There was a tense pause while the two brothers stared at each other. “There was nothing wrong with the drink,” Ahasuerus said. “Who told you it was poisoned?”
There was a white line around Xerxes’ mouth. He looked furious. “It doesn’t matter,” he said, turned on his heel, and stalked out of the room.
Esther looked at the doctor. “Is it really all right?”
The doctor was still as white as bleached linen. “Yes, my lady,” he croaked. “It is good medicine. It will help the king.”
Ahasuerus’ early temper seemed to have abated with the drink. He took Esther’s shaking hand into a reassuring grip and said humorously to Haman, “The lengths some people will go to just to get me to take some medicine.”
The Edomite’s golden brown eyes were bright with tears as he regarded the king. He said huskily, “Thank you, my lord. Please try to get some sleep. You will feel better when you awaken.”
“I will go to sleep after you open the doors.”
“Yes, my lord.” Haman did as he was asked and came back to the bed.
Esther pulled the covers up over Ahasuerus’ shoulders and tucked them in so he would be warm. He closed his eyes. She looked over at Haman and caught him gazing at the king, his expression unguarded.