Chapter 3: Waiting

Miriam waited before moving, giving her mother a chance to get a good distance away. The morning light was growing fast. She wanted to be sure no one would connect her to the retreating woman if they saw her leaving the river's edge.

After checking to see that the basket was still caught in the rushes, she made her way out through the reeds. Seeing no one about, she climbed a small hill along the downstream bank, and then settled down beneath a palm tree to keep watch.

As Miriam fitted her back against the rough curve of the trunk, her attention was drawn to the luminous rim of the sun as it broke over the edge of the land. She wondered why it moved so quickly and appeared so large as it dawned into view. “I can actually see it move as it climbs up from the horizon and watch its color change from deep orange to brilliant yellow,” she wondered aloud. A flush of embarrassment washed across her face as Miriam realized she was talking to herself again. “It doesn't matter,” she said to the tree behind her, “no one listens to me anyway.”

Miriam reined in her curiosity. Thoughts like this would only start her daydreaming and then she would be asleep in the blink of an eye. Folding her arms across her chest, she pressed her back hard against the tree, determined to stay awake. She had to see what happened to her little brother. Her mother would never forgive her if she fell asleep.

Suddenly laughter rang out in the distance. Miriam looked downstream and noticed that on the other side of the river a procession was winding down the pathway to the water's edge. Four soldiers guarded a group of female servants, carrying bundles, who preceded a covered litter carried by four large Nubian slaves.

The servants immediately began preparing an area along the bank. They erected a bathing enclosure, and then a richly clad young woman stepped out from the curtained chair and made her way down to the water. Her sheer gown was of the finest linen.

Miriam guessed that she was either the wife of a rich man or a princess of the court. The entire party seemed happy about something, for their laughter and their joyful banter carried easily up to where she was sitting.

The group was only a short distance downstream from where her brother's basket was lodged, so close to him that Miriam was sure he would be seen. She decided to get close enough to hear their conversation so she could find out who they were. She cautiously made her way down to the edge of the river.

As her innate sense of adventure overcame her initial fear of being discovered, Miriam began to imagine herself a lioness stalking its prey, edging closer and closer to her objective. Because the drought had caused the water level to be exceptionally low, the river, at the place where she reached the water's edge, was only a stone's throw wide. Partially hidden by a growth of rushes, she was close enough to the boisterous party to easily hear what they were saying.

From the chatter of the servants she discovered it was Asati, one of Pharaoh's daughters, who had come to bathe. At this revelation Miriam's heart leapt to her throat, almost sending her headlong into the water. There was no doubt that her brother would be killed if he were found, since it was her grandfather's edict that condemned him.

Frantically looking about, she realized that a slight bend in the river upstream would shelter her from view and give her a chance to swim across. As quietly and discreetly as her sense of urgency would allow, she crept through the rushes toward her brother. No longer feeling like a huntress, instead she began to feel the bone-numbing fear of the hunted washing across her.

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