“You are not a young woman, but you do not rest. You scheme and arrange and move people around like pieces on a chessboard, here only to do your bidding”
While the servants are stacking the crystalware and removing the tablecloths, Eliyahu lingers. Although it is late, this gnaws at him; he has been thinking it through for days. He sits quietly, until a cluster of women servants rise, and he glimpses the great lady among them.
Then he calls across the room. “Honorable lady?”
She turns.
“Honorable lady. If I am to travel to Jerusalem, who will care for the sheep?”
She laughs. “The sheep.”
“Yes. The sheep.”
“Anyone can take care of sheep.”
He shakes his head. “That is not true. There are six ewes sick. The malady may spread to the rest of the flock. I check each of them every morning. The brightness of their eyes, any liquid oozing from their mouths, the sturdiness of their legs. Some I feed by hand. I protect them from wolves, and I study the pasture, to make sure there are no wild grasses that may be poisonous.”
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