Page 50 of Margins of Love
“Let us draw the shield.” Rachel slipped a piece of paper out of the pile in front of Sammy and drew a large circle.
Sammy’s look of astonishment made her chuckle.
“Homer described it in the Illiad, so tell me the layers.” Rachel pointed at the lines.
Sammy began to read as his sister drew the details on the sketch of the shield.
As he read, his little eyes regained their twinkle.
She drew the earth, sky, and sea, the sun, the moon, and the constellations on the outer rim of the circle, followed by some stick figures that were—
“What are they doing?” Sammy asked, slanting his head to the side for a better look.
“They are in love, and it is a wedding. And there is a city here and a legal trial here.” Rachel said dreamily, fully aware of her rudimentary sketch. A pang of pain flashed as she thought about how to draw a wedding. Her own was looming like a raincloud.
“I can draw the army!” Sammy had caught some of her enthusiasm, and she slid the paper over to him.
“There should be a field and a harvest, vineyards, sheep, cattle, and the ocean.” As Sammy waved her away, his voice trailed off, engrossed in his newly found passion for illustrating Achilles’ Shield.
Pleased with Sammy’s newfound energy, Rachel turned to her book in hand. Her dreamy eyes were ready to reread one of Fave’s Greek myths, marked with a piece of paper. In that story, Perseus was struck by love-at-first-sight with Andromeda and saved her from a sea monster conjured by Poseidon. Their love had been immortalized in the stars. Rachel sighed at the thought of the romance and imagined how Fave had kissed her. Kisses sweeter and brighter than the sky clouded her senses.
CHAPTER34
“If she is Jewish, I can marry her,” Fave said to Arnold again and again on the hired hack on the way home.
“I thought there would be more time. I thought she was compromised… I thought Carol told everyone”—Fave choked on his words—“I thought I’d have a chance if she’s Jewish?”
Arnold nodded his support, but he could not say anything to lessen Fave’s pain. They kept their voices to low whispers so that the coachman could not hear. Nobody must know that they were Jewish, especially not the big-mouthed London coachmen. But Rachel… Fave could barely wrap his mind around the revelation.
“She is not marrying me, but she is marrying soon,” Fave said. “Why did she not come to me?”
“Does she know?” Arnold asked.
“No.” Fave put his head in his hands. “Do you think she saw me?”
“She certainly saw you,” Arnold said.
“But she did not come to me,” Fave added, questioning the events of a split second over and over in his mind.
“She… ehm... she is preparing for her wedding,” Arnold stated the obvious, but maybe Fave had to hear it.
“I have to do something!” Fave looked at Arnold as if he’d had an epiphany.
Arnold hopped over and squeezed onto the seat next to Fave, putting his arm around his cousin just so that Fave would not be alone.
As soon asthey stepped into the house, Fave roared, “Moooootheeeerrr!”
He slammed his gloves on the side table and sped up the stairs into her bedroom. “Moootheeer!”
He found her in her bedroom fawning over something with ruffles. Lizzie sat beside her.
“Feivel Pearler, whatever could be the meaning of such an outburst?” Eve asked.
Lizzie dropped her hairbrush when she saw Fave’s expression.
“I must speak with you,” Fave said. “I need your help.”
Eve’s posture straightened, but she had the most loving and softest gaze. “My darling, anything. You cannot imagine what it means to me that my grown son…”
