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toward me, and every time Esther saw me, she glared as if I were a snake in her bosom. Rachel kept trying to find out what I had done to make Esther so angry. Daniel and I were able to see each other only at supper, where we were placed at opposite ends of the table.
    On the second day of the week, the women of the household went into town to do the shopping. The open-air marketplace in Magdalawas much larger than one might expect for a town of a thousand people. It was Magdala’s location on the lake road that made us an easy stopping place for the merchants traveling north to Caesarea Philippi and Damascus, south to Jerusalem, west to Sepphoris and to Caesarea, on the coast of the Great Sea, and sometimes even all the way into Egypt. We never knew what we might see when we went to market.
    This particular market day was bright and sunny, and all the women of our family joined the buzzing, gossiping crowd as they flitted from stall to stall. Ruth and I slipped away from Aunt Leah as she was bargaining for some newly harvested flax. We were standing in front of a stall near the synagogue wall, admiring pretty earrings a merchant from Sepphoris was selling, when Daniel appeared at my elbow.
    I gave him a surprised look. He was supposed to be studying in the synagogue.
    He put his mouth close to my ear. “I told the rabbi I needed some fresh air. We must talk, Mary.”
    We looked at each other, and then, at the same moment, we turned our eyes to Ruth.
    She sighed. “All right. What do you want me to do?”
    Daniel said, “Keep out of the sight of my mother and yours. That way they’ll believe that Mary is still with you. We won’t be long, Ruth. I promise.”
    Ruth looked at me, and I mouthed the word
please
. She glanced over her shoulder to see if Esther or Miriam was around and then said, “All right. I’ll sit in the shade of the synagogue porch. Come and get me when you’re ready.”
    She moved off into the crowd, and I pulled my veil far down over my forehead to hide my face. Daniel said to the jewelry merchant, “Can we use the tent behind your stall for a few minutes?”
    The big man looked at the two of us and shook his head. “It would be sinful of me to allow such a thing. You two are clearly unwed. It would be wrong of me to assist in your sinful behavior.”
    Daniel reached out, and I saw that he had a shekel in his hand. It disappeared quickly into the merchant’s robes, and he gestured for us to enter into the small canvas enclosure.
    I followed Daniel through the opening in the canvas. The odor inside was stifling—male sweat mingled with rotten fish. The miserable place held a sleeping mat, an empty wineskin, a half-eaten loaf of bread, and an uncovered bowl of olives that had attracted a swarm of flies. My nose wrinkled, and I instinctively took a step back.
    Daniel said, “I’m sorry I had to bring you in here, Mary, but I couldn’t think of any other way for us to be alone. My mother is watching me as a lioness watches a threatened cub. I think what happened with Samuel has made her afraid that you and I are more to each other than the brother and sister she always thought we were.”
    I tried to ignore the smell and put an urgent hand on his sleeve. “Ruth told me that your father expects to get a big bride price for me! She said that two men have already asked for me for their sons!”
    I felt his arm go rigid under my fingers. His expression was grim. “That’s what I’ve been afraid of.”
    I shook his arm. “Listen. I might have a solution for us. If I go back to Bethany and live with my father again, Lord Benjamin won’t be able to arrange my marriage. That will be for my own father to do. I’ll explain to my father about us, and I’m sure he will let me wait for you to finish your studies. It’s prestigious to be a Temple scribe. My father would be proud to have someone like that in his family. I know he would.”
    A thin line appeared between Daniel’s black brows. “What