Daughter of Jerusalem Read Free Page A

mean or they act like I don’t exist.” I swallowed. “It’s horrible.”
    Daniel took my hand. “I’m your friend, Mary. Try to remember that when they upset you; you do have a friend in this house. And my sisters and cousins will come around eventually. They’re good girls at heart, truly.”
    I turned back to him. He was so handsome, with his warm red-brown eyes, chiseled nose, and neat ears.
    Without thinking, I blurted, “You were lucky you didn’t get your father’s ears.”
    He looked startled, and then he burst into laughter. I put my hand over my mouth and stared at him in dismay. “I didn’t mean to say that.”
    “I’m embarrassed to admit it, but I’ve had the same thought myself.” He was breathless with mirth.
    Lord Benjamin had huge ears. Sometimes, as we all sat in the courtyard in the evening, I would find myself staring at them. Aunt Leah had once leaned over to remind me that I wasn’t being very polite.
    “They’re enormous,” I said now with awe.
    “They are, aren’t they? My mother once told me large ears were a sign of God’s special blessing.”
    “I never knew that.”
    Daniel grinned. “She made it up. I’m sure of it.”
    We both laughed.
    After that day, Daniel made a point of seeking me out when he got home from school. Spending time with him made all the difference in the world to me. I was no longer alone in the hurly-burly of this big, confusing family. And he was right about the girls too. As time went by they did soften their attitudes, and I actually began to feel at home in Magdala.

Chapter Three

    I stood on a bench and surveyed the courtyard where I had brought the nine children in my custody to play. Like everything in the house, the courtyard was large, with three fig trees strategically placed to give the greatest amount of shade.
    I wasn’t looking for shade at the moment, however. I was enjoying the feel of the warm spring sunshine on my head and shoulders. I inhaled the soft air, relishing the scent of the almond blossoms the breeze carried from the garden. I could hear the faint hubbub of men on the shorefront haggling over the price of fish. Lord Benjamin was the biggest employer in the area; most of the fishermen in town sold their catches to him. Lord Benjamin once told me that their fish was sold as far away as Rome. I was very impressed.
    This would be my second spring in Galilee, and I was a very different person from the girl who had first arrived in Magdala. I was a real part of the family now, assured of my place and my status. Even my girl cousins had become my friends—with the exception of Rachel, who was just as nasty as ever.
    Sometimes I felt sorry for Rachel. Ruth had told me that nobody liked her because she was such a bully. Ruth and I had become veryclose, so now Rachel didn’t like Ruth either, even though Ruth was her sister.
It must be horrible to be a jealous person
, I thought, with the superiority of one who has never had that particularly spiteful feeling.
    I no longer missed Bethany. The previous spring, when we went into Jerusalem for Passover, I had spent a month in Bethany with my family, and I was glad when it was time to return to Galilee. I had wished I could bring Martha and Lazarus with me, but leaving them wasn’t as hard as it had been the first time.
    I thought of my little brother and sister as I stood on the bench surveying my charges, who were playing a throwing game with a ball I had made by winding cord. They became more and more noisy as the game went on, and I was just telling Amos to lower his voice when Daniel came strolling out of the house eating a slice of bread.
    I frowned at him. “You sneaked that from the kitchen.”
    He grinned. “Leah is such an easy mark.”
    “Daniel!” The cry went up from all nine of the children. “Play with us! Play with us!”
    Dinah came running up to me and grabbed my hand. “You too, Mary! You too!”
    Daniel finished his bread, and the two of us joined in the