Eleanor Jong - Jezebel

‘The stars are just the same here as they are in Jerusalem. My favourite, Kesil the archer, his belt across his waist. And above him, Ayish the red star—’

‘We call that Baal’s star,’ murmured Jezebel, ‘though it is also the eye of the bull who thought my ancestor, the Princess Europa, so beautiful that he stole her away to be his lover.’

And finally Jehu looked down at her. ‘Is that what I must do? Steal you away?’ His head lowered towards her face and she smelled the sweet almond oil that made his hair glint in the lamplight. Their eyes met for a long moment but Jezebel could think of nothing but how it would be to kiss him, to feel all his body against hers. And then, at last, his face lowered and his mouth found hers, firm and full at first, then as he drew her into him, his fingers sliding beneath the folds of her dress, his lips parted and as he drank the breath right out of her, she knew she would give herself entirely up to him.

Jezebel measured the following days in two parts: the hours she was with Jehu and the hours of waiting. During the days she would catch sight of him now and then, through a balustrade, or from a window, as he accompanied her father, her brother, or other officials on various tours of the city or to meet persons of interest. But she could see from the way his face occasionally drifted from his companions that his mind was elsewhere.

With Beset’s help he came to her room each night after dark, and left before the sun rose, either climbing along the outside sea-facing wall, or sneaking through the corridors. He would joke about the boredom of the visit as they lay in each other’s arms, feeling the sea breeze trail its delicate fingers over their skin. And after they had sated their desire, they spoke of the future. He admitted that the diplomatic life was not for him, and longed to be away from the watchful eyes of his father and grandfather.

‘They’re never quite sure what my role is,’ he said one night. ‘I don’t even know where to stand half the time.’

‘It’s the same for me,’ said Jezebel. ‘My brother seems to think I interfere where a woman’s voice isn’t needed.’

They had other things in common. Both had lost their mothers – Jezebel’s had never recovered from a chest problem when she was ten, and Jehu’s had died in a difficult childbirth when he was three; the child hadn’t survived either. He could not even remember what his mother looked like.

They spoke of their love of riding, of the different breeds in Judah and Tyre. Jezebel suggested they could elope, steal two horses and gallop along the river road, and make camp in the mountain passes like soldiers, hunting food and cooking over a fire.

‘I think you’d make a good fighter,’ Jehu said.

‘What makes you say that?’

‘You like to be in control,’ he said.

Jezebel rolled on top of him, giggling, and pressed his arms above his head. A thin scar snaked across the top of his chest, white against his bronzed skin.

‘How did you get this?’ she asked, tracing it with her finger.

‘When I was twelve,’ he said. ‘I was running with a ceremonial sword from the smith to give to my brother Jehoram. I slipped.’

‘Where is Jehoram now?’ Jezebel asked.

‘My father left him in Jerusalem. He doesn’t travel well over long distances.’

‘That’s cryptic.’

‘My brother is clever,’ he said, ‘but he has never been strong.’

Jezebel sensed she was touching a nerve and changed the subject.

‘Did it hurt?’

‘Not as much as my wounded pride.’

Jezebel smiled and kissed the scar. ‘Boys are silly,’ she whispered, feeling Jehu’s manhood stir beneath her. ‘Always playing at soldiers.’

Jehu held his hand out to Jezebel as she stepped onto the royal galley, but she was far steadier on her feet than he was. He looked pale beneath that bronzed skin, and his hands were clammy against hers. Gone was the assured lover whose body she had enjoyed night after night in her chamber, the sleeping couch now so strongly scented with him that she thought she would never know other fragrances again. But here on the edge of the harbour, the west wind was sharp with salt, and Jezebel felt as though she had woken up from a deep sleep to find winter had turned to spring.

Certainly that was their reason for being on the galley, to open the water festival of Yam in gratitude for seeing the fleet through the harsh winter. She released Jehu’s hand quickly, so no one could mistake his courtesy for intimacy. The ceremonial redwood boat was in position beyond the harbour, piled high with the carcasses of all the boats that had foundered in the previous year. The whole pyre would be set ablaze as the sun set, but first there was the inspection of the merchant fleet by Ithbaal, raised up in the prow of his galley.

‘Why must it roll around so much?’ muttered Jehu as he stood beside Jezebel behind Ithbaal.

‘Because Yam breathes just as you do, only in the ebb and flow of the tide.’ Jezebel longed to reach out and steady Jehu, slide her arm around his waist, feel the muscles across his abdomen tauten at her touch.

She suspected that the cordiality between kingdoms remained only between herself and Jehu. There hadn’t been a banquet for almost a week and negotiations now only took place between lower level officials. Ithbaal had invited Jehu to the ceremony as a last gesture of faith, but he admitted to Jezebel he thought the son just as stubborn as his father and grandfather. They would not concede on the point of taxation of exports to pay for the military patrols on the King’s Highway, and there was nothing more to be done about it.

Earlier in the day, as the galley was rowed out, Jezebel felt torn. She wanted to tell her father that Jehu’s passion could be useful if it was properly directed. She was desperate to explain that Jehu was not blindly holding on to his family’s principles but could reason as thoughtfully as he could make love to her. But as she cast a subtle look at him, whose hands gripped the rail of the boat, she guessed nothing but an enforced declaration of marriage between them would bring the nations together.

‘It will be calmer in deeper water,’ she said as the vessel pushed past the first of the great trading boats, its prow carved into the rearing head of a sea serpent.

He didn’t answer. He stared wide-eyed across the water, his teeth gritted and jaw set.

‘Don’t be afraid,’ she murmured. ‘Yam won’t swallow you up when I’m with you. He wouldn’t dare.’

‘My people are meant to walk the earth, Your Highness,’ he said eventually, his voice more brittle than usual. ‘We fear the sea because, just as you say, it might swallow us up. Only our prophet Moses could control the sea, and even he didn’t sail upon it but parted it so that my ancestors could walk on the land beneath. Our priests tell me that we are a people destined to walk the land forever in search of a home.’

‘Then you will only ever walk in circles,’ said Ithbaal from the prow. ‘This is your opportunity to change that, to break with the narrow vision of your father and grandfather, to lead your nation forward to exceed the very history that still confines you. Do you have the courage to do so, or will you stand rigid on this deck forever, pretending that the wooden boards are a little piece of earth beneath you?’

‘Well said, Father,’ cried Balazar from the other side of Jezebel. But she could only exhale quietly and try not to look at Jehu. If that was not an exhortation to him to marry into the Tyrian royal family, then what was?

So it was with considerable joy late that evening after the festival that she watched Jehu walk alone from her father’s retiring room towards the guest wing in which the Judean delegation were staying. He didn’t look up at her window, but she couldn’t expect that he would. Appearances had to be maintained until the announcement was made. Besides, there were still two hours before Jehu would climb the tree outside her window in the dark and creep into her bed, and Jezebel was desperate to hear what her father had said to him. She was considering casually going down to her father’s chambers when Beset knocked on the open door and parted the inner curtains. She glanced quickly around the room, no doubt fearful that Jehu was also there, but kept her voice steady.