Читать книгу The Robber - Bertram Brooker - Страница 10

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Barabbas moved nearer the parapet, and Judas followed him. After their recent wrangling they wanted to make peace with each other. The two men rested their hands on the stone ledge and looked down into Meshech's yard. It lay at the foot of the hill, and the crooked mud walls straggled down to the rock-strewn bed of the valley.

Lost in memories, they fixed their gaze on the stone stairs and the jog in the wall where they had whispered together in their youth. In the yard the ghostly grey forms of sleeping camels lay huddled together, their legs doubled under them. Whenever one of the great beasts shook its head a sound of bells chimed faintly with a falling cadence. A lamp was burning in the house Barabbas had known as a prison. Someone passed between the lamp and the latticed window; Meshech perhaps, or his wife.

"Is Meshech living?" Barabbas asked, without turning his head.

"Yes," said Judas.

"And his wife?"

"Yes."

"More children?"

"Three since you left."

"You have not married, Judas?"

"I? No."

"Nor thought of it?"

"No. And you, you have not taken a wife?"

Barabbas swung his body sideways and sat on the parapet, overlooking the steps.

"In the desert, marriage is not as we know it. There is no betrothal, no wedding. The women are no more than servants all through Arabia. The men do only the herding and hunting, while the women pitch the tents and bake and weave. They milk the goats and camels. They live in the hareem ... two or three or more together ... in their own quarters, apart from the men."

Judas sat down on the stone ledge beside Barabbas.

"Did you buy any of these women?"

"I did."

"Where are they, now? What has become of them?"

"They have returned to the tent of their father as is the custom."

"Did you have no love for any of these women?"

"No, Judas. What do I know of love? I have no remembrance of my mother."

"I was thinking of a man's love for a woman, a wife."

Barabbas watched Judas's face closely. "Do you love a woman?"

"Can you imagine me in love, or a woman looking at me?" Judas spoke the words with difficulty.

"A woman has looked at you," said Barabbas, with certainty. "You curl your beard, now, like a bridegroom. And just now you admitted having told one other about your vision, a woman."

A sheepish look came into Judas's face. "A rare woman ... as my soul lives, unbelievably rare." He averted his eyes and his words came haltingly, "A woman I have known since childhood."

"She loves you?"

"Do not mock, Jeshua. Who would love me?"

"But you love her."

"As one loves a precious stone," said Judas, a note of hopelessness in his voice.

Barabbas puffed his cheeks and blew out a long breath. "Who is this priceless gem?"

"If you mock, Jeshua!..." Judas wrung his hands together, and his shoulders shook.

"I will not mock."

Judas jerked his head in the direction of the jog in the wall below them. "I told you, in the days when we used to sit there, of my boyhood, of how we lived then, on the estate of a prince, and the young prince, the son, was about my own age. As boys we played together. The young prince had no brothers, and I had none. His mother treated me as an adopted child. When they brought a tutor from Greece, I was given lessons, too."

"I remember," said Barabbas. "That was where you learned Greek. And there was a little girl."

"The young prince's sister, nearly ten years younger than we were. They went to live in Rome. They would have taken me with them for they regarded me as a son. But my father was a rigid Pharisee and Rome was an abomination in his eyes. He would not let me go, and he moved, then, into Jerusalem. I said good-bye to the young prince and his sister, never expecting to see them again."

"And now they have returned?"

"Two years ago. They live in Jerusalem, outside the wall, on the hill of Bezetha. They call it, now, the New City."

"You have seen them? They are your friends, still?"

"Yes," said Judas.

"And the little princess, what is her name?"

"Jerith."

"A lovely name."

"No name could be lovely enough for her."

"And her brother?"

"His name is Joseph. He has changed greatly. They were terribly bereaved. Two years ago when the family was returning from Rome, having fled there to seek safety from Archelaus, Joseph's wife and their parents were drowned. It is only lately that he has recovered from his loss. He rarely sees anyone but old friends. I am one of the very few he honours in this way. I go very often and he speaks to me as to a brother. If you had not come, I should have gone tonight. There was a meeting of the Sanhedrin today, and I was going to learn from him what the Council had decided."

"Is he a member of the Sanhedrin? A man so young?"

"Yes. He is the youngest."

"The youngest!" exclaimed Barabbas. "Then he is the man I have come to see."

"You! You have come to see him?"

"Is he not Prince Joseph of Arimathea?"

"Yes, but why have you come to see him?"

"John told me he would get me an audience with Herod Antipas."

"What? You have a message for the tetrarch?" cried Judas.

"Is that what they call him?"

"That is the Greek for his title. He is king only of Galilee and Perea."

"A quarter of a king," said Barabbas contemptuously.

"Do not say that loudly," Judas warned.

Barabbas grunted and stood up, stretching his arms wide. "If I had not come, you were going to see Prince Joseph tonight?"

"Yes," said Judas, jumping down from the parapet.

"Then you will save me the trouble of finding him."

"Yes, yes. They will welcome you because you are my friend. In our frequent talks I have told them about you, about our arguments down there on the wall. We have talked of Barabbas, too. It would astound them if they knew you had become, that you are, Barabbas. But we must keep that secret."

"In Jerusalem no one has seen me. Tell them who I am."

"Barabbas!... the robber!" Judas whispered, his voice shaking.

"Call me Jeshua, then, but let us go."