Captive Heart (Truly Yours Digital Editions) (16 page)

She threw herself into his arms. “I have forgiven you long ago. Oh Cassius, I love you so much!”

He held her tightly, the warmth from his own body mingling with the coolness of hers. He wished that he could hold her like this forever. Reaching behind her, he pulled the blanket from the bunk close and wrapped it around her. She snuggled against the warmth, her teeth chattering with cold.

Sentinel whined, and Samah glanced down at him. Again, she could have sworn that the dog was smiling.

Samah and Cassius walked hand in hand up the hill in Sychar. Just beyond the bend lay her parents’ house. It had once belonged to her grandfather, but he had left it to his only daughter, her mother.

When they finally entered the courtyard in front of the house, a servant called to someone inside. The door opened slowly, and a woman emerged. Though she was small of stature, she stood straight and proud, her yellow tunic hanging gracefully to her feet. Her graying hair hung in a long braid down her back.

She looked first at the man in the Roman-style garb. Her puzzled expression then turned to the woman at his side. Hazel eyes so like those staring back at her widened in shock.

“Samah!” She stood unmoving, paralyzed with shock. “Dear Jehovah, can it be?”

“Mother.” With a cry, Samah threw herself into her mother’s arms and wept uncontrollably. Her mother’s eyes were lifted upwards, the tears flowing down her cheeks in a river of liquid joy.

“Oh, Jehovah, Jehovah! Thank you for your mercy!”

The door opened wider behind her. A man stepped forth, his frown resting on the Roman and then on the older woman. “Anna? What’s going on here?”

Samah lifted her swimming eyes from her mother’s breast and stared at him with trembling lips, unable to speak.

“Oh, Barak. Come see what Jehovah has sent home to us.”

Barak stood stunned. A small gurgle escaped his throat, and he reached forward, grabbing Samah into his arms.

Cassius stood nearby, glad that Samah had finally been reunited with her family. What amazed him most of all was the fact that Sentinel allowed the exchange. The dog sat at his feet watching the scene serenely, and Cassius could have sworn that there was a grin on the animal’s face.

Barak finally turned to Cassius, a question in his eyes. The two men studied each other thoroughly, and Cassius was impressed with the Jew’s girth and stature. Though his hair was graying, he was obviously in fine shape.

“Mother, Father, this is Cassius, the man that I wish to marry.”

Barak flashed his daughter a look that she had no trouble interpreting. Before Samah could say anything, her mother sent her father a speaking glance. Without words, she could read the messages passing from their eyes.

You were a Jew. I am a Samaritan.

That’s different.

How so?

He’s a Roman!

Samah ruthlessly interrupted this nonverbal exchange. “Cassius is a child of Christ.”

Her mother lifted a delicately shaped eyebrow.

See?

Her father sighed.
All right, I’ll give him a chance.

Reaching out to take Barak’s hand for support, Samah told her parents, “There is much I have to tell you. But first, I must tell you of Ramoth.”

For the next two hours, Samah sat and cried with her parents over the loss of their only son. She told them of Ramoth’s repentance at the end and his prediction of something happening to him.

Cassius sat next to her, uncomfortably aware that he was nothing more than an outsider. He allowed them their time of grief, knowing full well what it was to lose someone you loved.

There was a commotion in the atrium, and a man suddenly burst into the room. He was as tall as Barak, and of similar age and stature. His eyes quickly scanned the perimeter, coming to rest on Samah. They widened in surprise.

“It’s true,” he breathed slowly. “It’s really true.”

Samah came to her feet, running and throwing herself into his arms. “Uncle Adonijah!”

A woman followed him, her dark eyes lit with joy. She held out her arms, and Samah went to her. “Oh, Aunt Mara. I thought I would never see you again.”

Mara pulled back, her eyes full of tears. She brushed the tendrils of hair back from Samah’s face. “Oh, little one. It is so good to see you again.”

At the woman’s name, Cassius sat forward on his seat. So, this was the woman his Uncle Trajan—correction, his father—had loved for so many years. There was absolutely nothing spectacular about her, unless it would be the huge purple mark on her face.

A young girl about Samah’s age pushed her way past Mara. She was petite of frame, her long, dark hair coiled in a rope on her head. She was followed by a young man several years older. Cassius guessed him to be about his own age. Samah reached for both of them at the same time.

“Daniel! Miriam!”

They hugged, everyone laughing and crying at the same time. Finally, Samah turned to Cassius.

“Cassius, this is my family. My Uncle Adonijah, Aunt Mara, and my two cousins, Daniel and Miriam.”

Mara looked at Cassius oddly. “Have we met before?” she asked.

“I think not,” he denied. He wondered what his blood father would have to say if he could see the woman now. Did she still hold a place in his heart that his mother would never fill? He wondered if he should tell the woman that the seed she had planted so many years ago had borne fruit, but decided that things were better left as they were.

Samah found him some time later standing in the garden watching the sunset. The air grew cold as the sun descended, and Samah shivered.

Cassius pulled her close and wrapped her in his arms, and she snuggled against him, contented. He studied her seriously. “Do you think they will ever accept me?”

She smiled, tracing his lower lip with her finger. The look she gave him was so sultry, it took him by surprise. He could feel the adrenaline rushing through his body in response.

“Of course they will, just as Anticus accepted me.”

“You are easy to love,” he refuted.

“As are you.” Her husky voice twisted his insides.

“How long is a Jewish betrothal?”

She smiled at him coyly. “A year.”

He groaned, and she laughed. “Fortunately for you, I do not follow the traditions of my ancestors.” She reached up and kissed him lingeringly on the lips. His eyes darkened with emotion. “Ask me sometime,” she teased, “about my parents’ wedding.”

She looked past him and saw a lone figure stumbling up the path that led to the house. Frowning, she wondered who would be coming to her parents’ house this late in the evening.

As the figure drew closer, Samah’s eyes grew wide, and she shoved herself out of Cassius’s arms, running towards what Cassius could make out as the figure of a man.

Cassius heard Samah yell and saw the man grab for her. Terror and wrath gripped him so hard he could hardly breathe. Running, he pulled up short when he saw Samah crying in her brother’s arms. Tired and bedraggled, Ramoth grinned at him.

“I thought I might see you again.”

At Samah’s yell, the others rushed from the house. Sheer pandemonium broke out when they recognized Ramoth, and Cassius stood nearby smiling as he watched the whole scene play out over again. Holding his weeping mother close, Ramoth explained his delivery from the watery grave that had claimed so many of the people on the ship.

The joy of the reunited family warmed Cassius’s heart. When the others went inside, Samah returned to his side. She took his hand and stared at him with starry eyes filled with love.

“If not for you, Ramoth would not have found his own personal relationship with the Lord. He has always leaned on our parents’ faith, but it never satisfied. That’s why he was always so impetuous. He was looking for something and didn’t know where to find it.”

Cassius looked doubtful.

“It’s true. The apostle Paul said that all things work to-gether for the good of those who love the Lord. Everything that has happened has been to fulfill Jehovah’s own plan.”

She came into his arms again. “Oh, Cassius, don’t you see? Everything led us to each other, and you to the Lord. I don’t begrudge a single day, a single minute. I would do it all over again in a heartbeat.”

Cassius pulled her close, lowering his mouth to hers. Their kiss lingered, pulling them ever closer to each other until their hearts sang as one. At last, Cassius had come home.

Miriam cleared her throat, and they parted reluctantly. Samah’s cousin dimpled beguilingly at Cassius. At least one member of Samah’s family had no trouble accepting him.

“Father wanted me to tell you that your dog is missing,” she told them, never taking her eyes from Cassius.

Startled, both Samah and Cassius pushed past her and hurried inside. Though they searched for some time, they could find no sign of the animal. Cassius’s whistle pierced the night air over and over, but there was no response. Disheartened, they finally gave up.

“He went just as he came,” Cassius told her, and she could hear the hurt in his voice.

“Perhaps his job is finished,” she answered, her own heart breaking at thought of losing the dog. How mysterious that the animal should come and go in such a way.

Slowly they returned to the villa, aching for their loss, yet consoled in each other’s love.

Far off in the distance, a lonely howl rose to the night sky.

Darlene Mindrup is a full-time homemaker and homeschool teacher. A “radical feminist” turned “radical Christian,” Darlene lives in Arizona with her husband and two children. She believes “romance is for everyone, not just the young and beautiful.”

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