Free Game of Queens by India Edghill Page A

whose youthful good looks were marred by ashes rubbed over his skin and hair, and the long tears through his fine linen tunic.
    â€œI’m Daniel. You must be why I’m here.”
    The man stared at him, then clutched at his arms. “Daniel? You’re Daniel, the wise man? Praise the Lord!”
    â€œYes. And you?”
    â€œCome, come quickly!” The man grasped Daniel’s garment, pulled as if to lead him in the direction Daniel already knew he must go. He went with the frantic man, moving swiftly through the streets as he heard why he had been sent here so suddenly.
    The desperate man was Joakim, a wealthy Jewish merchant whose most precious jewel was his wife. “My beloved wife—you must save her, Daniel, you must, these are lies, foul lies—never, never would she do such a thing—my perfect wife—”
    Susannah.
    Susannah, prized for her absolute virtue—and her absolute beauty. Noted for her piety and modesty, by her husband’s order she did not wear the all-concealing veil she herself would have chosen, but one that covered only her hair. A wife’s duty is to obey her husband, and Susannah’s husband enjoyed displaying his most valued possession: his beautiful and untouchable wife.…
    â€œNow that’s a really bad idea.” Daniel heard Arioch’s acid comment as clearly as if he stood beside him listening to Joakim’s tale. And Arioch would be right. Joakim’s a fool.
    Susannah, beauteous and perfectly formed as a pagan goddess. Hair black as deep midnight, skin as smooth and pale as cream, lips red as roses. Eyes violet as the sky at twilight. Susannah, full-breasted and slim-waisted, hips swelling in a perfect arch. Neither too tall nor too short: her hands slender and her feet small and high-arched …
    â€œPlease, Joakim, I don’t need to know all that,” Daniel said hastily. “Tell me what happened. ”
    â€œI’m sorry. I’m sorry. I just—you must help! The Lord put it into my mind to come to you, surely you can right this wrong and save my wife!”
    â€œI will try. We must have faith in the Lord, Joakim.”
    â€œI do. I do. This is my fault, mine—I was too proud. But Susannah—she is so beautiful, so pure, so devout. I gloried in that. Whenever a man asked, ‘Who can find a virtuous woman?’ I always thought, I can. Yes, I can. ” Joakim bowed his head and buried his face in his hands.
    Daniel sighed. “Now, tell me what has happened that your wife must be saved. What has she done?”
    â€œNothing! She has done nothing !”
    â€œSomeone did something, Joakim, or I would not have been sent here. What?”
    The story Joakim told didn’t exactly surprise Daniel, although it did disgust him. How could men do such things and live with themselves after? Two older men, respected elders, judges, of the Jewish community, had watched Susannah in the marketplace and coveted her.
    â€œThey spied upon her in her mikvah. I built one for her in our garden, so that she might purify herself in private. How could she know they would watch her in her most private moments? Unclothed, innocent of their vile gaze?”
    Daniel didn’t bother to ask how the two men had gained such a view of the virtuous wife. They probably climbed the wall, or even drilled a hole through it. What matters is that they can describe every mark on her body.
    Watching Susannah bathe incited even more lust in the two men. Knowing they had no chance of gaining her by any other means, one day they entered the garden while she was bathing and demanded she lie with them—or they would accuse her of adultery.
    â€œShe refused, placing her faith in God, and cried out for help.”
    But when the servants ran into the garden, her would-be rapists shouted that they had caught Susannah in the arms of a young man. The young man had fled, but they had prevented Susannah from doing so.