The Last Song (5 page)

T
he tall trees obscured the sun. The howling of wild beasts made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Suddenly, the trees around me burst into flame. The fire encircled me. There was no escape. I cried for help. Suddenly – hoofbeats. Luis appeared astride a black steed. He galloped through the fire and drew in his reins. His horse reared on its hind legs. I held out my arms toward Luis. He laughed, whipped his animal, and then he was gone. The flames were coming closer and closer … I awoke covered in sweat.

I felt so weighed down by the events of the previous day that I couldn’t move. I was betrothed. Betrothed to a boy I detested. And I belonged to a people doomed to burn in hell for eternity because they didn’t believe in Jesus. Would I still go to heaven or would I have to share
their fate? I believed in the Lord Jesus with my whole being, and I attended mass regularly. Surely our Lord’s beloved mother would protect me and keep me safe.

With a heavy heart I climbed out of bed, walked to the corner of my room, and fell to my knees in front of a statue of the Virgin Mary. The blessed mother’s alabaster eyes looked on me with compassion. I prayed to the Virgin to help me, and to help Mama and Papa, too. I asked her to give us health and happiness. I prayed for eternal salvation.

Sofia came into the room. Her rough fingers began to smooth down my hair.

“Young mistress, why didn’t you ring for me?”

“I am praying to the Virgin.”

“It’s time to get dressed.” She helped me up from the floor. “I’ll get your clothes for you.” She began to pull garments out of the armoire. “I would have come up to your room sooner, but my lady wanted me to stay with the silversmith’s son while he was repairing her broken jewelry in the kitchen. Yussuf was busy with other tasks.”

“Repairing Mama’s jewelry?”

“Her ladyship says that the Jew is skillful. He proved it with the golden bird he made for your betrothal. He is still in the kitchen – working on a bracelet for your lady mother.”

Yonah, in my house. How I wanted to see him!

Sofia helped me put on a chemise and kirtle, and she slipped a gown over my head. Grumbling, she did up the hooks at the back. Next, she coiled my hair and pulled a coif over it. When she finally finished, she stepped back.

“There! You look lovely, young mistress,” she said. “I’ll tidy up while you pick the jewelry you want to wear today.”

She turned her back to me and bent over my bed to straighten the linens. I took my wooden jewelry chest out of the armoire. I always kept the box locked. I made sure that Sofia was still turned away before I stood on my tiptoes and reached into a vase that stood on top of the armoire. I found the key inside.

I unlocked the chest, took out the heavy gold chain my parents had given me for my confirmation, locked the chest, and put the key back in its hiding place. Sofia was still busy. I tugged the chain with all my might. It took several tries, but the clasp finally gave way.

“Oh no! Look what happened when I tried to close the clasp of this necklace. It broke.”

“What a pity. It’s such a beautiful chain. Give it to me.” She took it out of my hand. “The silversmith’s son is still downstairs. I’ll take it to him. He’ll repair it.”

“No! Bring the boy to me. This chain is one of my favorites. I want to ask him how he plans to fix it.”

She returned the gold chain to me and went to fetch Yonah. I pinched my cheeks and bit my lips to make them rosier. I sat down on a stool facing the door, careful to spread out my skirts.

Yonah bowed deeply. “My lady, your servant tells me that you have a broken necklace.”

Not with a blink did he let on that we knew each other.

“Yes, I do.” I kept my voice haughty. I turned to Sofia. “I just remembered … I forgot my fan on a bench in the rose garden. Fetch it for me.”

Sofia’s eyes darted to Yonah. I could see that she was reluctant to leave me alone with a young man.

“I’ll ask one of the kitchen maids,” she said. “I’ll be back in a moment.”

Yonah stepped closer. “How are you?”

“Better. I wanted to thank you for listening to me the other day.” I lowered my voice. “We must speak quickly. I broke the clasp on the necklace on purpose. I want to talk to you. Meet me by the orange tree tomorrow night, after sunset.”

I could feel the heat rising in my cheeks and couldn’t meet his eyes. I hoped that he didn’t think that I was too forward.

“I’ll be there!” he whispered.

There were footsteps outside my door.

“It won’t be difficult to repair the gold chain, my lady,” he said as Sofia returned.

I threw a dark cloak over my nightdress and tiptoed down the corridor. The house was so quiet that I could hear my own breathing. My feet were bare – I didn’t want to make any sound. As I passed the open door of the kitchen, I could see Sofia’s sleeping form in front of the fireplace. She turned restlessly on the pallet she used as her bed. I held my breath as her snores rose to a deafening crescendo, but she didn’t open her eyes.

The latches that secured the door rattled as loudly as cannons when I undid them with trembling fingers.

I slipped into the garden. The clouds had hidden the moon, and I had to run my fingers along the wall of the house to guide me as I made my way around it. Though I had walked it countless times, in the dark it seemed strange and new.

The fragrance of the oranges hanging from the boughs sweetened the air. A figure clad in dark clothing stepped out from behind the trunk of the tree, making me jump. A cloud danced away from the moon, revealing Yonah’s face.

“I was afraid that you wouldn’t come,” he whispered.

“I had to wait until everybody was asleep.”

He was standing so close that I could feel his breath on my face.

“Tell me about your betrothal,” he said.

We sat down on the ground under the heavy boughs and I recounted the events of the last few days. I even told him how the memory of Luis’s lips on my cheek sent a chill down my spine. The words tumbled out of my mouth. I could not stop them any more than I could have stopped the flow of a river. Then, I found myself repeating what Mama and Papa had told me. The minute the words escaped my lips I wished that I could take them back. My parents had made it very clear that their secret was not mine to share.

It was as if Yonah could read my mind. “Your secret is safe with me. I understand now why I felt as if I had always known you the minute my eyes fell upon your face. You are one of us.”

I swept away a tear. I was happy that the darkness covered my distress.

“I don’t know where I belong,” I said. “I have always believed in the Lord Jesus. Now … I don’t know what I am supposed to believe.”

“You belong to God’s chosen people. You are one
of us,” he repeated. “It is your duty to discover this. I will help you do it.”

I looked into his eyes. “How?”

“Do you know anything about being Jewish?”

I shook my head. “Nothing. You are the first person of the Jewish faith I have ever met. Your people keep apart.”

“We have no choice. But it wasn’t always so. My father told me that Jews, Christians, and Muslims lived peacefully side by side for centuries in our kingdom. We were good neighbors and all the children played together. We respected each other’s beliefs and traditions. All that has been wiped away during the last hundred years. The Christians became our masters. They made slaves of the Muslims. They converted some Jews to Christianity by the sword. The rest of us were forced into ghettos, called
Juderias
. We had no choice. We still don’t. We must still live in them.”

“I’ve seen Jews with red and white badges on the streets, but I have never spoken to one of your race.”

“
Our
race?”

I didn’t know how to reply. Was I really one of those Jews … reviled and hated by all and doomed to go to hell? How could that be? After all, I was Doña Isabel, the daughter of the queen’s favorite physician, respected and admired by everyone. “You are mistaken, Yonah. I
have nothing in common with your people!” I stood up and dusted off my skirts. “I must go.”

“Think about what I’ve told you,” he called after me. “I can help you to become one of us.”

I clamped my hands over my ears to shut out his voice, but I couldn’t shut out the thoughts crowding my head as I fumbled my way back to my chamber. I did want to learn about my family’s old religion, but if I did, would I be punished with eternal damnation for my curiosity? I couldn’t forget about the young woman and her baby marching to their deaths in the dreadful procession I’d witnessed. If the Inquisitors discovered my interest in the old ways, would I share the girl’s fate – or even worse?

Safe in my room, I dropped to my knees, as I always did when anything disturbed me. I prayed to the Virgin for guidance. I prayed for her to help me make the right decision.

The choice was taken out of my hands. Mama and Papa began to talk about the old religion, and they would not stop. It was as if the dam that had held water back finally broke, allowing it to gush out unchecked. My mother’s eyes were filled with joy and my father’s with pride when they spoke of their heritage. Their words
made their way into my heart. Whenever the panic and fear rose in me, I forced myself not to think about what could happen to us. I didn’t reveal my friendship with Yonah and how he, too, wanted to teach me the old ways. I wanted to tell them about him, but I was frightened that they would forbid me to see him. Not only was he a Jew, but he was also just a silversmith’s son. They would say that he was inferior to me in every way. I told myself that I didn’t care.

I was up late every night, my mind teeming with questions I couldn’t answer. Who was I? What did I believe? When exhaustion finally drove me to fitful sleep, I dreamed of church, of the familiar smell of incense that made me feel at home, of the dry taste of the host in my mouth when I took communion, and of the sharpness of the wine when I drank our savior’s blood. I imagined singing the hymns that made my heart soar during mass.

Five long days and nights passed before I came to a decision. I summoned Sofia to my room and ordered her to go to the Juderia. Her eyebrows rose, but she remained silent.

“I want you to find me Yonah, son of Natan Abenatar, the master silversmith, and tell him that I will meet him tonight in the same place where we met before.”

Her mouth fell open. “Young mistress, what are you saying? Surely you did not meet a young man – and, to make it worse, one of that cursed Jewish race – without taking me along with you? Your lady mother will have me flogged when she finds out what you have done!”

“She will never find out if neither you nor I tell her.”

Sofia walked to the door, dragging her feet.

“But, my lady, I’ve never been to the Juderia. What if the Jews kill me and use my blood to make their Easter bread?” She spat on the floor. “A pox on them!”

I threw my shoe at her. “Don’t talk like that! Be gone with you and do as you are told.”

From that day onward, Yonah and I met under the branches of the orange tree several times every week. On the days that we arranged to see each other, I waited and waited impatiently for night to fall. It wasn’t long before I couldn’t imagine life without him. How wrong I had been to believe that he was a simple servant. I discovered that not only was he a skilled craftsman who learned how to transform gold and silver into beautiful objects at his father’s knee, but that he was also a scholar. Every evening, he and his father studied the Torah, the Five Books of Moses in the Hebrew Bible. He told me of our ancestors. He spoke of Abraham, who was ready to sacrifice his son for the glory of God;
of Esther, who saved her people by marrying a king; and of Yonah, who was swallowed by a whale.

I asked him about his family.

“I have the best father in the world. He is patient and kind with never a harsh word for me. He is always ready to listen to my problems.”

His face was full of sadness.

“What’s the matter?”

He sighed. “The Lord took away my mama in childbirth five years ago, when I was eleven years old. Nor was my baby brother long for this world. I miss them so much. It’s only my papa and me now.”

My heart was so filled with pity that I did the unthinkable. I reached over and clasped his hands in mine.

“Isabel!”

He was as shocked as I was.

My fingers tightened. As I felt the warmth of his hand, the coursing of his blood, I began to feel a kinship that I had never felt before. We sat silently listening to the sounds of the night. A toad croaked. The grass rustled as a mouse scurried among the blades.

Sofia came for me while I was searching for the gold ribbon that Papa had given me. Mama had ordered
me to wear it in my hair. Luis was coming for dinner.

“I want him to see how pretty you are,” she said.

I didn’t bother answering her.

The ribbon wasn’t in the armoire or in the wooden chest at the foot of my bed.

“Young mistress, Doña Catarina is getting impatient,” Sofia said. “She asked me to tell you to come downstairs immediately. She is waiting for you in the dining hall, as is Don Enrique. Don Luis will be arriving very soon.”

“Tell my mother that I’ll be there in a minute.”

My maid left. I looked in my workbox, but the ribbon wasn’t there either, so I gave up. My parents did not like to be kept waiting. Nor did I want to make them angry.

I skipped down the staircase, two steps at a time, and ran straight into Luis.

“Whoa, my lady!” he said, grabbing me by the waist. His fingers lingered too long. “What’s your hurry?”

“My parents are waiting for me, my lord. And for you, too.”

I tried to pull away, but he wouldn’t let go.

“Where have you been, my pretty? I haven’t seen you for days.”

“I’ve been busy, my lord.”

“Then make yourself less busy. You must learn how to treat your master.”

He finally released me. How I wished that I could swipe the smirk off his lips. I curtsied and hurried away. I heard him chuckling as he followed me. I felt unclean.