The Last Song (13 page)

“You are right, Don Enrique,” said the goldsmith. “We live in terrible times.”

“Don Enrique and Isabel are anusim,” Yonah said. “They honor our traditions.”

“Hush, boy!” his father said. He looked around the yard. “The walls have ears nowadays. Do you want your friends on the stake?”

“I must remind you, Master Abenatar, that Isabel is betrothed to Luis, the son of Alfonso de Carrera,” Papa said. “The de Carreras are Old Christians. I am determined that this marriage take place. A marriage with
the de Carrera heir will protect my daughter and her foolhardy ways from the Inquisition.”

“Please, Papa –” I started.

“Hush, child! You don’t know what is best for you.”

Yonah did not utter a single word. His silence made me furious.

“Why aren’t you standing up for me? Don’t you want to be with me?”

His face was pale. “I do want to be with you,” he said finally. “It breaks my heart to say it, but your father is right. We can never marry. You know that a Jew and a Christian can never be together. I deluded myself for a while, under the magic of that wretched orange tree. In the cold light of day, I see how wrong I was. We must not see each other again. You have to marry Luis. He will protect you from the Inquisition – and I can’t. I will have to leave Sefarad in a few weeks. I can never return.”

I grabbed his arm. “I will never see you again!”

He removed my fingers and left the courtyard.

C
HAPTER 12
 

I
was dreaming of Yonah when they came again. Yonah and I floated above an orange grove, holding hands. My little lark was flying ahead of us, leading the way with its beautiful song. My parents and Master Abenatar stood below, smiling and waving. Suddenly, the bird’s song died in its throat. The flapping of its wings became frantic – louder and louder.

There was banging in the house. I put on a robe and hurried down the stairs. The soldiers of the Inquisition were dragging my father into the night. I will never forget the gleam of moonlight on cold steel, the dreadful snarl on Santos’s face, or the agony in my father’s eyes as he tried to resist. I rushed up to Mama to console her. There was nothing to do but hold each other.

Once again, Mama spent her days locked in her chamber, praying.

I sat in my room, my memories my only companions. I couldn’t allow myself to think of what was happening to Papa. Instead, I thought of the garden, and of Yonah, and of how much I missed him. I thought about Brianda and her lively chatter. I hadn’t seen her for so long.

When I couldn’t distract myself any longer, my thoughts returned to Papa. I prayed to the good Lord to keep him safe and to send him home to us. We waited and waited, but this time God did not listen. Seven long days and nights passed and there was still no news of my father. I had to do something. Not knowing was worse than the worst news could possibly be.

Mama was sitting in the rose garden, her needlework lying untouched in her lap. She was so still that a bee buzzing around her mistook her for a flower and landed on her shoulder. I swatted it away.

She looked up, startled. Her voice was flat when she spoke. “We will never see your Papa again,” she said. “They’ll burn him alive.” Each quiet word was a dagger in my heart.

I knelt beside her and lay my hand on hers. “You mustn’t say that. We must do something to save him!”

She brushed away my hand. “What can we do?
What can we do? Everybody is afraid of the Inquisition. I am, too. Nobody dares to lift a finger to help us!”

I paused for a moment. I knew what had to be said, but it was still difficult to utter the words. “I’ll talk to Luis. Soon, I will be his wife. He’ll ask his father to help us. Don Alfonso is powerful. The Inquisition will listen to him. Isn’t that why you and Papa want me to marry Luis?”

“I can’t ask you to do that,” she said, standing up. She began to pace. “I told your father that we made a mistake. You detest the boy, and I don’t blame you. He is a graceless brute. I’ve long suspected that he may have informed on your father to the Inquisition.”

“I do, too, Mama. But if he wants to, he could help Papa.”

“I don’t want you to do that. I forbid you to ask him for help. You were right about him, Isabel. We did a terrible thing in promising you to him. And if he was the one who informed on Papa, we could be in more trouble by asking him for help.”

“That doesn’t matter now, Mama. If he asks his father, and Don Alonso agrees to intercede with the Inquisition on Papa’s behalf, the sacrifice of marrying him is well worth it. We have no choice. We must seek Luis’s help if we want to see Papa again.”

I wrote a note asking Luis to come to see me immediately, and then I rang for Yussuf. The Moor entered the dining hall with his head lowered and his eyes downcast. When he looked up, I saw that his eyes were red, as if he had been weeping.

“Young mistress, I wish that I could do something to help you free Don Enrique. He is the kindest of masters.” Tears pooled in his eyes.

I, too, felt like crying, but I told myself firmly that tears would not bring Papa home. I asked Yussuf to deliver the message to Luis’s lodgings. “Please tell Don Luis that I must talk to him.”

He fell to his knees. “Young mistress, forgive me if I am speaking out of turn, but there is something that I must say to you.” He wrung his hands.

“What is it?”

“Please don’t hold against me what I am about to tell you.”

“Of course I won’t.” I had to lean forward to hear him.

“Young mistress, be careful when you talk to Don Luis. He is no friend of yours or of your father’s.”

“Why do you say that, Yussuf?”

“I’ve seen him drinking with the Inquisition’s familiars.”

I motioned for him to stand up. “I know what you
are telling me is the truth. You have proven your loyalty to my family over and over again in the past, and you have done so again today.”

He struggled to his feet. “I would do anything to help Don Enrique.”

“Then you will ask Don Luis to come and see me. I have no choice. I must talk to him. Don’t worry. I’ll be careful.”

He bowed and left the room.

While he was gone, I patted my hair into place and pinched my cheeks to make them rosier. I sat down on a stool so that my blue velvet gown could be seen to full advantage. My hands were clasped together tightly to still their trembling as I plotted what I would say to Luis.

After an hour, Yussuf returned. He announced Luis, who swaggered into the room. I stood up and curtsied deeply.

“My lord …” I forced a smile.

“You wanted to see me?” He came closer and towered above me, scowling, his legs wide apart.

I took a deep breath. “I need your help. My papa …” I wiped my eyes. “If you would ask your respected father to intercede with the Inquisition on my father’s behalf, the Inquisitors might let my papa go.”

He stepped even closer and bent toward me.
I steeled myself not to flinch when I tasted his foul breath.

“So, my lady, you aren’t so high and mighty now that you need my help?”

I pressed my hand to my breast to still my racing heart. “My lord, I beseech you. Please help my father!”

“Why should I? The holy Inquisition must have good reasons for questioning him.”

“My papa is innocent.”

“Of course you would say that. I have some advice for you. You should be more careful of the company you keep and the things you hide in your room if you don’t want to join your father at the stake.”

I pretended that I couldn’t hear his mocking tone. I smiled and leaned toward him. “You should help me because we will marry soon,” I whispered, placing my fingers on his hand, which rested on his hip. I closed my eyes, waiting for his kiss.

He flicked his fingers against my cheek. “Marry?” he asked. “We’ll see about that!”

He turned on his heels and then he was gone.

I was becoming more frightened with each day that passed. I sought out Mama in her room. She was sitting in front of a pier glass. Her maid was brushing her hair
while another slave fanned her. She seemed to be in a trance. Her shoulders were slumped and her eyes were closed.

“I must speak to you, Mama.”

Slowly, she turned her head. “Yes?”

“Privately.”

She dismissed the servants with a motion of her hand. I closed the door, waited a minute, and then opened it again quickly. The corridor was empty.

“We must help Papa before he is tried and it’s too late.”

“What can we do? I would give my life to free your father.” She wiped her eyes.

“There is only one thing left. We must tell Fray Torquemada about the letter you found. If we tell the Grand Inquisitor about the letter, he’ll let Papa go. Torquemada doesn’t want anybody to know that he is a New Christian.”

“Think, girl! I told your father that he was wrong. If we threaten Torquemada, he’ll arrest us, too. That won’t help.” She pulled me so close that I could barely breathe, her arms wrapped around my middle as I stood before her. “I will not put your life in danger,” she cried. “Papa wouldn’t want me to.”

“There is no other way – ”

She let go of me and held up her hand. “I don’t
want to listen to you. There must be something else we can do.” She stood up and began to pace the room. She stopped in front of me. “We must go see Juana. She has always known about our Jewish ancestors, but she has never spoken of them to anyone. She’ll help us.”

“She won’t, Mama. She is a good Catholic. She thinks that we are condemned to hell. That’s why she speaks of the Grand Inquisitor with such admiration.”

“That doesn’t matter! Juana has been a sister to me. Our families have known each other forever. Juana is your godmother. Diego has great influence. She will make sure that he’ll help your father.”

She sounded so definite that I almost believed her.

She rang the bell and ordered Yussuf to get the litter ready.

“Faster, faster!” Mama called to the slaves carrying us on their shoulders.

They picked up speed as we bounced up and down, up and down, until my teeth chattered. I kept fanning myself, but my clothes were sticking to my body in the summer heat. The hair at the nape of my neck was wet, and I could feel perspiration running down between my shoulder blades. We were traveling so fast that Yussuf,
walking behind the litter, had to break into a trot to keep up with us. Before long, we arrived in front of Tia Juana’s house.

“My lady, do you want me to ring?” Yussuf asked.

“No! Help me out.”

Mama climbed out of the litter and ran up the steps to the heavy oak door. I followed her. We could hear muffled voices and footsteps through the open windows above us. Mama pulled the iron bell. The door did not open. She pounded on the door. It became quiet inside the house.

“Why aren’t they opening the door?” she asked. “Where could they be?”

The litter bearers began to whisper among themselves.

I walked down the steps and looked up at the windows. I thought that I saw a movement behind the curtains. “Let’s go home, Mama. Tia Juana won’t let us in.”

“That’s not possible.” Her face was flushed. She banged on the door with all her might. The house remained silent.

I took her arm. “We’re not doing any good by standing here.” I pulled her toward the litter.

“There must be some explanation. Juana would never refuse to receive us. We are like sisters,” she
repeated all the way home. “Where could Juana have gone without telling me?” She wiped her eyes. “I don’t understand why the servants didn’t answer the door. Something must be wrong.” She sighed. “What shall we do?”

“We will have to use great-grandmother’s letter.”

“And risk torture or worse? It’s out of the question.”

“We’ve tried everything else. We have no choice, Mama.”

“I’ll go to see your father. He’ll tell me what to do.”

“But how can we get permission to see him?”

“We can’t. Not from the Inquisition. But there is always another way. Somebody we can bribe.”

She was deep in thought the rest of our journey. When the bearers finally lowered the litter to the ground, Luis and his slave Habib were waiting for us in front of the villa. Habib was holding the reins of two horses and a mule packed with provisions.