Chapter 2

“Who is this?” Mother demanded of me as I brought Mara with me into the house.

“This is my new concubine, Mara, Mother. Mara, this is my mother, Rachel. Mara is an Edomite, so I couldn’t wed her, but I could still buy her from her brother, Bozrah, as my concubine. She is a Jabeshite’s widow, as it happens. Tell me, any news of the haggling over Hannah’s dowry?” I asked Mother as I washed my hands and urged Mara to do so as well.

“Not well, since you must ask. Well, it’s good that you’re checking in on it. This is your betrothed of which we speak. You’re the one who’ll have to bed her. I am simply ... displeased at how they’re dragging their feet on a marriage that was arranged while your father was alive and well. What is the matter, no money left for the dowry? Did her father drink, gamble, and whore it all away?

“I must admit to being a little shocked that you now have an Edomite concubine, but in some ways, it’s good. It makes you less hard up and gives us more power over Hannah’s parents. I know what men are like, especially young men, and I also know that you’re eager to take her to bed.

“I’m no fool, my son. I wish that everyone felt that way about their betrothed, but you have to be careful not to let it give her too much power. She must always feel as if it could fall through at any time, so as to pressure her family to yield faster on the dowry,” Mother insisted.

“No, I believe that it is time to resolve this and I will. Excuse me, Mother. It’s high time that I took charge of this matter. It is my own marriage, after all. I will make Hannah mine and sooner rather than later. No more delays. No more games, manipulations, subterfuge, or anything of the sort. Now, help Mara adapt to life in our house, but be nice to her. She’s my concubine now, so she’s family, too,” I instructed Mother, asserting myself at last.

With that, I went to Hannah’s house to speak to her and her parents. I ignored the yet millionth stoning that I had seen all year on the way, even when someone tried to shove a stone into my hands. I dropped the stone and just kept walking to Hannah’s home, a much humbler one than mine. Uncle Amram and Aunt Deborah both greeted me with considerable anxiety, to say the least, while Hannah looked downcast for her part.

“Uncle, I wish you to level with me and do it quickly. Why have you kept delaying the wedding, postponing it, when it would be best for all of us for Hannah to be safely planted in my house, in my bed? Is it the dowry, because I can forgive the lack of dowry. I can let that slide. Is that all?” I demanded of my uncle.

“If only it were that ... I suppose that I would face the terrible news and break it to you. I just dreaded very much. Hannah ... isn’t a virgin. I don’t know how or when or where it was taken from her, but my daughter has played the harlot in my house. The trouble is that I still love her, she’s still my daughter, and I do not wish her to be stoned. Nor does Deborah.

“If you married her and discovered that she didn’t bleed as a maiden would, we would have to let you put her to death. We could never forgive you for that, even if it was within your rights as her husband. This would tear our family apart and you know it. That is why we keep delaying it. We have the dowry money, but we dreaded going through with this, because of her not being a maid,” Uncle Amram fought back tears, as did Aunt Deborah and Hannah herself.

“Then this is what I will do. I will forgive the dowry and let others think that this was indeed delayed over the money. Keep it. That way, no one knows the real reason, alright? Then I will marry Hannah, anyway, and never say a thing about the precious ‘tokens of maidenhood,’ okay? It matters not to me. I want Hannah as my bride. I was told for years that she was my betrothed and would be my wife ... and I will have her. After all, who else will take her now?

“Just understand that I bought an Edomite woman, a widow, off her brother as a concubine, so Hannah must accept this fact, just as I have accepted the fact that she is no maiden. She must not act jealous at all. Is that clear to each of you, especially you, Hannah? I am not a faithful man, never will be. That is just how I am. I hope that you three will show me the same kind of understanding as I will show Hannah,” I declared, causing Hannah in particular to lift her eyes and meet mine.