In the Field of Grace (20 page)

In a chipped cup, the best they had, Ruth served Boaz the wine he had sent them the night before. “I think you will find this tastes familiar,” she said. “We are serving you your own wine.”

“I’m glad I didn’t send the vinegar, then.”

Boaz reached to take the cup from her. Their fingers brushed. Awareness shot through Ruth like the streak of a wandering star in a dark night, so that she found it difficult to breathe. The cup hovered between them, half in his hand, half in hers. Neither remembered to let it go or claim it. Boaz’s gaze shifted to her face and lingered.

Ruth let go of the cup, and Boaz barely caught it in time before it spilled on the floor. “How clumsy of me,” he said, as he steadied the wobbling base. Shoving the cup to his mouth, he took a deep draft of his drink before setting it aside.

“I best leave. You need your rest.” He took two long strides to the door and was over the threshold and on the back of his horse so quickly, Ruth had no chance to follow him to the door.

“Well,” Naomi said, stretching the word. “I didn’t think the wine was that bad. What was his hurry, I wonder? You’d think he had a bee stuck under his tunic.”

Dinah tried to squat before a large clump of wheat and promptly
fell on her behind. She giggled and twirled two long stalks in the air. With a wobbly motion, she tried to rise and fell back again. The fall reduced her to more giggles.

Ruth straightened, shading her forehead, unable to believe her eyes. “Are you well, Dinah?”

“Wooonderful!” The stalks of wheat quivered through the air in a lazy, undulating wave.

“Dinah, perchance, have you been drinking?”

“Why? You waaant some?” Her head weaved as she smiled vacuously.

Ruth hissed out a loud breath. “Abel will dismiss you if he finds you like this. Come. We’ll sit in the shade until you are yourself.”

“I don’t want to go with you. You’re trying to steal Adin from me. He likes you better than he likes me.”

Ruth squatted near the girl. “That is not true.”

“What’s the use of denying it? I’ve seen you talking to him, and laughing and … and such.” She stuck a thin blade of straw between her teeth. “I care not. He’s stupid. You’re stupid.”

“Be that as it may, please believe me when I tell you that Adin has no interest in me, nor I in him. Now come with me before you are discovered. I need to take you where no one will observe us.”

“No.”

“You wish to lose your work with lord Boaz? Is that what you want?”

Dinah hung her head. “No. He is a good master.”

“Come then. I will help you.” Ruth placed her hand around Dinah’s waist and pulled up. They both staggered a few steps before coming to a stop. Dinah laughed uproariously.

“Please try to be silent. The rest of the women are looking our way.”

A few rows down, Hannah straightened. “Is everything well?”

“Yes. Dinah has just been in the heat too long. I am going to take her to the shade and fetch her some water.”

Fortunately, because everyone was wary of Dinah’s sharp tongue, no one else offered to help. Ruth pulled the young woman toward the shade of a wooden shelter in the far corner of the field. “Where did you find wine?”

“In a goatskin.”

“Yes, but where?”

“Behind that cart. Over there.” She pointed to Abel’s cart in the
distance and stumbled. Ruth had to catch her hard to prevent her from falling.

“That’s Abel’s aged wine. A gift from the master. How much did you drink?”

“Jussst a sip or two. What kind of Moabite are you? I thought you people were supposed to enjoy lively enter … enter … feasting.”

Perspiration trickled down Ruth’s sides as she tried to support Dinah, while hiding her erratic walk from curious eyes. For all Dinah’s giggling, this was a serious situation. Stealing and drunkenness would lead to instant dismissal. The shame of it would follow Dinah all the days of her life in Bethlehem. She would not be able to rise above it, or to secure more work. Her family was not so rich that they could afford an idle daughter.

“What possessed you to do this foolish thing?”

“You did. You and Adin and your sweet chatter, sneaking off to lonely spots in the field. Everyone says he wants you.” She shook a finger at Ruth. “You … You Moabite man thief.”

“Lord, give me patience. I told you, I have no designs on Adin.”

Weaving, bumping, and staggering with every step, they finally made it to the shelter. Ruth dropped the younger woman until she slumped, leaning against the wooden slats. “Stay here and do not move. Do you understand?”

Dinah pulled her veil back and scratched her curly, ebony hair. “I don’t feel well.” With a sudden lurch, she bent over and heaved the contents of her stomach onto the brown earth. Ruth winced at the sight.

“I’m going to fetch you water. Lean your head back and close your eyes. You’ll feel better.”

Dinah moaned, her giggles coming to an abrupt end. “I think I’m going to die.”

Ruth, who had seen her father recover from many such bouts, ignored that outburst and sprinted toward the water jugs, which were all the way on the opposite side of the field. By the time she returned, Dinah was moaning.

“Here now. Rinse your mouth and then drink this. You will soon feel better.”

“I hate aged wine.” The young woman’s skin had taken on a greenish hue.

“If we can hold the others at bay long enough for your head to clear, you can say you are sick and go home with no one the wiser.”

“I
am
sick.”

“What has come to pass?”

Abel!

R
uth turned and stood in one fluid motion, hoping to cover Dinah with her body. “Dinah is ill, I fear. Best she return home early today.”

“What ails the girl?” Abel’s voice was uncharacteristically dry, and unsympathetic.

“I am no physician. But it is clear that she is suffering.”

Abel went around Ruth and studied Dinah’s hunched over figure. “Go home, then. But you better be the first one here tomorrow and the last to leave.”

“Yes, my lord,” the girl mumbled.

“And Dinah? If I catch you
sick
again, I’m telling your father before I cast you out.” He lifted up a half-empty goatskin, which he had been holding behind him. “And I’m taking this out of your wages.”

“Thank you, my lord.”

“I’ll walk her home,” Ruth said, biting her lip.

“You want to lose half a day’s gleaning over her? She’s made your life a misery from the first day you came. Why would you want to help her?”

“She needs it. May I go?”

Abel shrugged. “I pay you no wages. You can come and go as you please.”

Halfway down the road that led them away from Boaz’s land, Ruth finally regained the strength for speech. “He knew you were drunk!”

The walk, the water, and even the purging of her stomach had done Dinah good. She was slowly recovering her wits. “And he knew it was
his
wine I had been drinking.”

The two women looked at each other and dissolved into helpless laughter.

“Why did he not punish you, do you think?”

“We were friends when we were young, Abel and Adin and I. We lived next door and played in the dirt together as infants. Abel taught me how to use a slingshot. He stopped his instruction when my aim grew better than his. He still recalls those days. For the sake of our old friendship, he covered my trespass.”

“You are blessed to have such friends.”

“Do you mean it when you say you have no design on Adin?”

“Nor he on me.”

“I almost want to believe you.”

Ruth chuckled. “You are a hard woman to convince.”

They were passing by a vineyard. Through the broad filigreed leaves, Ruth saw the flash of an orange pelt. “A fox,” she pointed.

“Where?”

“Under that stretch of vine, see?” The fox, sensing their presence, vanished deeper into the field until he disappeared from their sight. Ruth nudged Dinah in the ribs. “You know, Dinah, left unattended, those little foxes could ruin the vineyard. Are you listening?”

Dinah groaned. “I sense another lecture coming.”

“Just a mild one. Remember, it’s the little things in life that could wreck your happiness. Like little foxes. They don’t seem so powerful or threatening by themselves. But you let them loose, and they’ll destroy a vineyard. Don’t let that happen to your life, Dinah. Get rid of these little foxes in your heart. Your bitterness. Your despair. And whatever you believe about Adin and me, please do not
gorge yourself on wine again, especially someone else’s.”

Dinah vented a miserable moan. “I wouldn’t go near it with a long-handled scythe.”

Boaz listened to Abel’s story with raised eyebrows. “How much did she drink?”

Abel raised the goatskin he had brought along and showed him. “I had tasted half a cup, if not less. The rest is courtesy of Dinah.”

Boaz leaned against the cushion at his back. Abel had come to his home to keep this conversation private, and they sat in the large, airy chamber set aside for entertaining guests. “What has happened to her? She was a sensible girl. Now all I hear is complaint.”

“She never accepted Adin marrying another.”

“Everyone has bitterness, Abel. Who is exempt from suffering and loss in this life? What matters is that you make peace with what you are given, and with the Lord for allowing it.”

“Do you want me to dismiss her?” The young man’s mouth pulled down as if he had tasted a morsel of week-old fish.

“She can stay. If she slips one more time, mind, she is gone.”

“Agreed.”

“How did she make it home? She must have been in a bad state from what you have shown me.”

Abel bent a knee and leaned his arm against it. “Ruth took her.”

“Ruth?”

“First, she tried to help the girl hide her condition. If I had not kept my eye on Dinah after I suspected she had filched my wine, Ruth might have succeeded. Then, she walked her home.”

“Did you ask her to do that?”

“Of course not. I tried to dissuade her, in fact.” He shrugged. “She had her mind made up.”

Boaz rubbed the back of his neck where he could feel a crook coming on. “I thought you said Dinah had been taunting her. Why would she help?”

Abel threw his hands in the air. “I asked that same question. She said because Dinah needed the help. I tell you, my lord, Ruth either lacks sense or she is an exceptionally good woman. For myself, I would wager on the latter. A good woman, even if she is from Moab.”

Boaz did not need convincing. Making his tone casual, he asked, “Is Dinah resentful of Ruth because of Adin’s interest? Is he pursuing her?”

Abel shook his head. “I don’t know, my lord. He hasn’t said so to me. But they spend time together on occasion.”

Boaz forced his lips into a smile until his face felt like it would crack. Without his volition, he found himself softened by sympathy for Dinah. Her decision to drink herself into a stupor did not seem completely self-indulgent and childish anymore. In fact, if he were a few years younger, he might be tempted to join her.