Hannah
By: MacKenzie Creations
Disclaimers: Highlander and it's characters belong to those who hold the copywrites, I'm just borrowing them to play for a while and I will put them back where I found them when I'm done. They will hopefully be happier. I also have used a couple of historical figures in this story. I think it will be obvious when you read it who they are.
Thanks: J, for challenging me to write a short story a week for the month of November 2013. Week 2
Hannah
Ruth and her husband were walking along the path when he suddenly stopped. He looked around. Ruth heard the cry of a baby and started to look around the path's edges for the child. She found a baby girl laying near some bushes and picked her up and wrapped her in her cloak. She took the child to her husband. "She's all alone. No one to take care of her. Can we keep her?"
He looked into the baby's blue eyes, and knew that under the correct circumstances, she would be like him one day. This small baby girl had grabbed his heart. He would do what he could to make sure that this child would grow old and die a natural death. He nodded his head. "Yes, we'll claim her as our own."
The smile on his wife's smile was well worth any trouble that may come from taking this child in as his daughter. They named her Hannah and moved from their tiny village to Hebron where no one knew them.
Hannah grew to be a beautiful young woman. At the age of twenty, she had caught the eye of David. David had come to Hebron hiding from King Saul. He approached Hannah's father, Adam, and asked if he could marry Hannah. Even though he didn't have to ask his daughter, he wanted to know her feelings on the subject. Hannah had fallen in love with David and was agreeable to the match. She begged her father to agree to it. He told David that he would agree to the marriage on one condition. Adam was to be her bodyguard. David agreed. There were only a few men who were under Adam's command that he would trust with his daughter's life and he was never far from her. However, he knew that he couldn't be in two places at once. He had to trust someone else with her safety at times. While in Hebron, David took more wives and then sent for his first wife. Adam quickly moved up in the ranks of the army and David asked him to be his personal bodyguard. Adam was soon a general and advisor to King David. When they defeated Saul and moved to the palace, Adam kept his duties as advisor and bodyguard to the King and his wives.
Hannah was walking the halls of the palace when she over heard the prophet Nathan talking to King David. David had been caught in sin and she would have not known about it if she didn't over hear it. She turned and went back to her room. She wasn't sure why she was so upset. She was his second wife. Everyone said that Mikel was his favorite wife. She was his first wife. She wasn't even his last wife. He had just married Bathsheba a few months ago. David had a total of 8 wives and several concubines. She knew that they all had born him children. All of King David wives had children by him except Mikel and her.
She also knew that David had banished Mikel from his bed because she disapproved of something that he did. She was even banished from the palace. David had set her up in a house on the grounds of the palace, but the home that she and the other wives shared with David was no longer the home of Mikel and the nephews that she had taken as her own sons. He had did everything to separate himself from her, except legally divorce her.
King David had wives and concubines who were willing, why would he take Bathsheba before he married her? Why would he then in turn have her husband killed? Hannah knew that the child that had been born had been conceived before David had married Bathsheba. She had thought that he had taken her as his wife to help her out, since her husband had been killed in battle. She couldn't fault her husband for that. It was after all her fault that Bathsheba's husband had been killed. If she hadn't talked King David into staying home this time, then he might have been able to prevent it. But she had a bad feeling this time and begged her King to stay home, just this once. He agreed. And now she found out that he had committed adultery and had the woman's husband's killed in battle.
Why did this hurt so much more than when she knew he was with one of the other wives or concubines? She didn't know. She didn't understand her feelings, she just knew what they were.
A week after the baby of Bathsheba and King David died, he summoned her to his room. She walked in humbly and meekly said, "You wanted to see, my lord?"
He immediately knew something was wrong. Hannah was the only wife who never called him by proper titles. Even Mikel had called him by his proper titles. Hannah had always called him David. He was not King David with her. With her, he was just a man. A man who had weaknesses and who could cry in front of her and she would comfort him and he would comfort her when she needed it. He had been the strong one ever since his child had died. He had comforted the child's mother and he now needed to be the one to be comforted while he grieved for a night.
"Hannah, what's wrong?"
Hannah looked down.
"Look at me, Hannah."
She looked up at her husband, the King of Isreal.
He tenderly touched her cheek, "Talk me, beloved."
"It's not my place."
"I'm making it your place."
Hannah shook her head. "I'll not say anything that will get me banished from your bed like Mikel."
"Like Mikel? Is that what this is about?"
"No, Sire."
Each formal title stung him like a slap in the face would. "Then tell me what I did to offend you and how I can fix it!"
"I don't want to be banished…"
"Mikel was banished because she condemned my worship of God. Has my worship of God offended you, Hannah?"
"No, Sire."
"Then you are safe. Tell me what has you so upset, my love."
"Your love? You call me beloved. But, yet you take a woman who is not your wife into your bed instead of one who is. I come to you with joy. And you go to a woman who is not your wife? And then you have her husband killed when you find out that she is pregnant? I'm not offended, Sire. I'm hurt. And I don't even understand why!"
David didn't know which was worse, offending Hannah or hurting her. He had the good grace to look ashamed. He didn't deny it, but he had to know, "How did you find out?"
"I walked by the room when the prophet Nathan confronted you. I didn't mean to eavesdrop…."
David wiped the tears from her cheeks, "No, I'm the one in the wrong here. I'm the one who sinned. God has forgiven me. I never thought that I would need to ask forgiveness from anyone else. I'm sorry. I never meant to hurt you. To tell you the truth, I'm not sure what came over me. I know I wasn't thinking of you or anyone else. I was just thinking of me. I'm sorry that my thoughtless actions have hurt you. Please, Hannah. Don't turn me out."
"Turn you out? I don't have a choice. You're the king."
"I'm your husband first and foremost. You're the only one that I can be just David with. Every one of my other wives and even the concubines, I'm their king first. Not with you, beloved. With you, I'm just David. And I need that. I need someone I can just be myself with, someone who won't think any less of me if they see cry or weak. You, Hannah, are the only one who can turn me out. You don't even need a reason. However, I would say that this is a very good reason to turn me out."
Hannah shook her head. "Abba told me that you gave me more freedom than the other wives. But, I never believed him."
"Believe it, Hannah. I do love you above all others."
"But, I haven't given you any children."
"That matters only the people of Israel. Not to me. I knew before I married I you that you couldn't have children."
"I know. Abba always told me that I would never have any children. He told me that they only reason that he had me was because he and mother found me."
"Yes, I know. He told me the whole story. It's amazing that he's 2000 years old. He's really the best soldier I have. And I'm not saying that just because he can't die."
"Unless his head comes separated from his body, like you did to Goliath."
They both smiled. "I know that I can't make this up to you. But are you willing to let me try?"
Hannah nodded her head yes. He pulled her into his arms and just took comfort in having her in his arms.