Presenting
Carlene Havel
and
Sharon Faucheux's
collaborated project
Daughter Of The King
Excerpt: Daughter of the King
Copyright © 2012 Carlene Havel
“And David said unto Saul, Who am I? and what is my life, or my father’s family in Israel
The morning after the announcement of Merab’s betrothal to David, Michal awoke feeling ill. Her head hurt, and she did not want to get out of bed. Merab was already up, dressed, and studying her reflection in the smooth depths of a highly-polished brass disk.
“I don’t feel good,” Michal said.
“Neither do I.” Merab sounded matter-of-fact. “But I will comport myself as befits a daughter of the king. So will you, little sister. We have no choice.”
Only then did Michal remember the events of the previous evening. She sighed and struggled to sit up, slowly becoming aware of something wet on her inner thighs. Throwing back the blankets, she stared in shock at the fresh bloodstain on the bedclothes. “I’ve started my bleeding at last!”
For a year, Michal fretted that she had no monthly flow of blood like the other girls her age. She worried she was abnormal. Would she never begin her periods? She feared she would never be able to bear children.
For some time, Merab went regularly to the women’s confinement room for her monthlies. Tirzah started last year.
Michal lay down again as a wave of nausea swept over her. She stared at the ceiling. She previously longed for this day to come. Now that it had arrived, there was no longer any reason to be a woman. Merab, not she, would be married to David.
The Palace’s unclean room was a dormitory where the women stayed to avoid contaminating others while their menstrual blood flowed. No man, not even the lowest slave, would dare to enter this place. The women spoke of it as an area of banishment. Nevertheless, Michal found the atmosphere relaxed, almost festive. Only a few women were there when she arrived. Michal recognized Tabitha, the baker’s helper, and Lobeth, one of Queen Ahinoam’s handmaids. They greeted Michal, and congratulated her on the beginning of her time as a woman.
Michal sank onto one of the soft cushions lining the walls, and covered her eyes with her hand. “Is the bleeding always this unpleasant?”
The other women chuckled.
“No,” Tabitha said. “Some months are worse than others. A few women always have a difficult time. Others hardly notice it.”
“The first day is usually the hardest. And the flow comes easier after you’ve had children,” Lobeth commented.
The women gave her a supply of the clean rags kept on hand to absorb menstrual blood. Tabitha explained that most of the women sat or lay on the rags, but also demonstrated how to swaddle oneself for walking. Michal found she felt all right as long as she reclined on a cushion, but sitting or standing brought on cramps.
“You are fortunate to have an older sister,” Tabitha observed. “I have only brothers. When my first time came along, I didn’t know what was happening. I thought I had some horrible disease and was about to die.”
“I was ignorant also,” Lobeth said. “But my mother explained this would enable me to get married and have children. That was all well and good, until I found out later that it happened every month. I understood I would bleed one time and then it would be over and done.”
Michal closed her eyes while the women chatted. She wondered what was happening in the rest of the palace with everyone scurrying to prepare for the grand wedding. Soon Merab would marry the only man Michal ever wanted. Would her sister be allowed to walk through the garden with their mother and have a chance meeting with David and King Saul? Michal wondered whether her nausea was because of the bleeding, or came from the thought of her sister someday bearing David’s child.
When Michal awoke from a nap later that afternoon, Lobeth offered her broth cooked with leeks and lentils. She began to feel somewhat better after eating and taking a little wine. Soon the confined group was joined by a young woman who played the tambourine and often danced to entertain King Saul’s guests. “Ladies,” she announced breathlessly, “the king has betrothed his eldest daughter to the magnificent warrior David.”
“Truly?” Lobeth gestured toward Michal. “See here, Princess Michal has joined us for her first bleeding.”
“Congratulations, my lady,” the dancer said.
“Thank you,” Michal said. The women’s concerned expressions told her they knew her feelings for David and sympathized with her breaking heart. “What good news this is concerning my sister,” she forced herself to say. “With her betrothed and my bleeding begun, my lord the king can now find a husband for me.” She shut her eyes and tried to sleep.
Lobeth, Tabitha, and the dancer moved to the far side of the room and spoke in low voices, but Michal’s keen hearing caught much of their conversation. They talked of how fortunate Merab was to get such a famous husband, and how she would always be glad she was David’s first and therefore most honored wife.
The dancer recounted the conversation between King Saul and David during dinner the night the engagement was announced. “David is a man of great humility. He reminded the king that he is not of noble birth. He said he was unworthy to be a royal son-in-law.”
“Perhaps that’s true,” Lobeth, a widow, observed. “I think he needs an experienced woman, one who could train him in the ways of pleasure.”
“And did you have anyone in mind? Yourself perhaps?” Tabitha tittered.
“I would be willing to sacrifice myself to provide such a comely young man an education.” Lobeth laughed. “Unless I miss my guess,” she went on, “David will be the father of many sons.”
The dancer giggled. “Let us hope he and Princess Merab have fine, healthy children, and all take their appearance from their father!”
Michal turned her face toward the wall. Merab had King Saul’s prominent nose and sharp features atop Ahinoam’s squat body. Michal had the opposite combination, their mother’s delicately beautiful face and the king’s tall, slender build. During the past year, Michal became increasingly aware of the way men reacted to her blossoming beauty. She wondered if David knew who she was or noticed the fairness of her face. Did he share her wish for the two of them to embrace? Did he ever long to come to her and do the secret thing that transpired between a husband and wife?
What difference could it make if he harbored such thoughts? He would marry Merab, according to the king’s wishes. Her sister would taste David’s full ruddy lips and comb her fingers lovingly through his thick curls. Merab, not she, would be the one to whom he would reveal the marriage secret.
Michal was not sure which emotion was stronger, her wish to die or her hatred for everyone around her.
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