Dazzle The Complete Unabridged Trilogy (4 page)

Senda's breasts now heaved with a painful sigh. She knew she was lucky to have managed to leave the house and come here. Only here in the forest clearing could she really be her
self. Only here could she breathe freely, without being stifled, without being physically and emotionally fettered in a match
not made in heaven. The forest gave her respite from the
arranged marriage she so despised. And most important, it
gave her the opportunity to steal the few precious hours of
love which made life worth living and kept the fire from dying
within her eyes.

Her extraordinary features sagged into a most unattractive
frown. 'Only me, Grandmother Goldie, and Schmarya,' she said aloud, voicing her misery to a pair of sparrows darting
through the trees. 'Why are we the only ones who know how
much I despise this marriage? Why?'

Neither the trees nor the birds could answer her question.
She fell silent, her frown deepening, remembering that day
last year when the
shadchen
and her family had arranged her
loveless union . . .

'She's not built for childbearing,' pronounced a woman's shrill
voice. 'You have only to look at her hips. Did any of you
notice how narrow they are?' There was a prolonged silence. 'You see!' the woman cried dramatically, smacking her hand resoundingly on her knee with the force of a gunshot. 'What
did I tell you? One look at her, and you can see that she'll
never give birth! And tell me, what good is a woman who
can't have children, eh? You tell me!' Her prognostication was punctuated by the sudden creak of her chair as she sat back in
triumph.

Senda felt Grandmother Goldie's gentle hand on her arm
and resisted the impulse to stick her head through the open
window to give Eva Boralevi a piece of her mind. Instead, she
peered cautiously around the edge of the window frame, her
face hidden from sight by the dark night and the curtain shift
ing in the breeze. Through the lace patterns she could see the kitchen of the Boralevi cottage. It was the main room, and it
was warmly lit by flickering oil lamps. The faces of all those
in the room were aglow with the yellow light. The Boralevi
family counsellors, six of them; the
shadchen,
the official
matchmaker who arranged marriages between families; the
Valvrojenskis, her own parents, who had been relatively sil
ent; and Uncle Chaim, her father's brother, and, his wife,
Aunt Sophie, who had debated vehemently, pointing out her
outstanding qualities, one by one, as the Boralevis had seized
upon every potential defect. In all, there were eleven people crowded in a semicircle on three-legged stools; only Rachel
and Eva Boralevi occupied chairs with backs.

The meeting had already lasted for over two hours, and the
debate had just begun to heat up. Now, with Eva Boralevi's
grim verdict on childbearing, the debate came to a temporary
standstill. Eva Boralevi was the local midwife, and no one
dared argue with her when it came to matters of giving birth. Nor did any family want to be saddled with a barren woman.

'I think,' the
shadchen
said hastily, sensing that the debate
had gotten totally out of hand, 'that it's time to take a break
and have a nice cup of hot tea.'

'So now we should stay to have tea?' Uncle Chaim growled.
'It's obvious that our Senda isn't good enough for the high-
and-mighty Boralevis.'

'Ssssh, ssssh!' Aunt Sophie hushed her husband quickly.
Then she smiled around the kitchen. 'Some tea would be very
nice.'

Senda felt Grandmother Goldie pulling her aside, away
from the window. She let herself be led around the corner,
out of earshot. 'I have to go back inside now,' Grandmother
Goldie told her. 'I left because I said I had to use the outhouse.
I can't stay out here with you forever.'

Senda nodded in the dark. 'But
...
I don't
want
to marry
Solomon!' she cried in a low voice. 'You know that, Grandmother Goldie. Meanwhile, they're tearing me to shreds in
there—dissecting me like a piece of meat! If they don't want me, why don't they just come out and say it and leave me in
peace?' The pale moonlight shone weakly on her miserable
features.

'It's not that, Sendale, and you know it. They do want
you—'

'But I don't want
them!'
Senda interrupted vehemently.
'Not Solomon or any of his family!' She sniffed noisily. 'I want
nothing to do with any of them!'

'Not
any
of them?' Grandmother Goldie asked shrewdly.

'Well, Schmarya, yes,' Senda admitted in a voice filled with
longing. 'But he's not like the rest of the Boralevis.' Suddenly her emotional dam broke and the words tumbled out of her
mouth. 'I love him, Grandmother Goldie! Oh, how I love
Schmarya. And he loves me too!'

'I know. I know,' the old woman whispered gently, 'but
Schmarya is out of the question. Your parents would never
allow you to marry him.'

Senda hung her head. 'I know,' she said miserably.

'And if you know what's good for you, you'll stay far away
from him.' Grandmother Goldie's voice grew harsher.
'Schmarya everyone tries to avoid like the plague, and with
good reason. Even his parents have washed their hands of him. He has dangerous ideas. You mark my words, one of
these days he will come to no good.'

Senda remained silent.

'Now, cheer up.' Grandmother Goldie smiled and took
Senda's chin in her hand, raising her granddaughter's head. 'And be very quiet so nobody hears you eavesdrop. When the
negotiations are winding up, hurry home. It's not seemly for
a young woman to be found eavesdropping. You know how
upset finding that out would make your mother.'

'Why should I care about her?' Senda asked, her low voice
none the less savage for its softness. 'Mama doesn't want
what's best for me.'

'Senda!' Grandmother Goldie hissed sharply. 'Your mother
loves you. That you know. She only wants what's best for you
and
the family. And it's up to you to do what's best for the
family too.' She paused, her voice growing gentler. 'Now, pull
the shawl tighter around you so you don't catch your death.'
She patted Senda's arm and almost reluctantly left her outside
while she went back into the cottage.

Senda retraced her steps to the kitchen window.

'You were certainly gone a long time,' Senda's mother com
plained to Grandmother Goldie when she returned to the Boralevis' kitchen. 'For a moment I thought we should have
to check on you. We were afraid the wolves had gotten to
you.'

'I should make excuses for my health?' the old woman snapped. 'If you should be so unfortunate to live as long as I
have, Esther, it's trouble you'll have with your bowels too.'

Esther Valvrojenski's jaw snapped audibly shut. Outside
the window, Senda couldn't help but grin. Grandmother
Goldie was the only person who wouldn't let her daughter get
the better of her.

'Here, I kept your tea warm for you.' Aunt Sophie handed
Grandmother Goldie a steaming glass filled with amber liquid. The old woman took it, popped a lump of sugar into her mouth
and took a sip of tea.

'It's good tea, no?' Senda's mother said gushingly. 'Mrs. Boralevi knows just how to brew it perfectly.'

'So now it takes special talent to brew tea?' Grandmother Goldie sniffed. The way the marriage negotiations were pro
ceeding, she couldn't see any reason to suck up to the
Boralevis. She chewed quickly on the sugar with the good
teeth on the right side of her mouth, swallowed the lumpy
granules, and put her cup down after the one sip and pushed it away. Now that she'd tasted the tea and the others had had
the chance to simmer down, it was time to get the negotiations
back on track.
'Nu,'
she said coolly, fixing the
shadchen
with
a hard gaze. 'Are we going to socialize all night or finish what's
begun? We've plenty of work awaiting us, and there are plenty
of families who'd give their eyeteeth for our Senda's dowry.'

The
shadchen
flashed Eva a stern warning look. It was clear
that the Boralevis had gone just a little too far; the
shadchen
could sense that Senda was slowly slipping out of the
Boralevis' grasp. Mention of the dowry did it: the Boralevis
might be more prominent socially, but the Valvrojenskis were
far better off financially. If things didn't proceed with more caution, then Senda, and therefore the dowry, would be for
ever lost to them.

'Dowry aside,' Aunt Sophie put in, smacking her lips, 'it's
like an angel our Senda cooks. Of course, she learned from
her mother and me. There's no better homemaker in all the
village than our Senda.'

Grandmother Goldie leapt into the melee. 'And wasn't
I
skinny? And didn't I have a fine daughter?' She thrust her
jutting chin at Esther. 'And didn't Esther have the fine
daughter we're now discussing? Who's to say that Senda cannot have children?' She glared at Eva Boralevi. 'You yourself
delivered Senda from hips as narrow as those you hint are
barren, or did you forget that?'

Eva suddenly looked nonplussed, and Rachel, Solomon's mother, took over for the Boralevis. 'But can Senda manage
household accounts?' she asked smoothly. 'A Talmudic
scholar is learned beyond belief, but a way to live in riches it's
not.'

'Senda knows how to manage things,' Esther Valvrojenski
put in quickly. 'Didn't I myself teach her?'

'But can Senda live on the good graces of many?' Rachel insisted. 'Or is she too proud? Like I said earlier, Solomon,
being a brilliant scholar, depends upon the entire village for
his livelihood.'