Blurb
Decoration of Faith talks about their love, their faith and their quest for a child. After all they went through, God decorated their faith by giving them, Samuel.
Link https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079WGNNGG
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CHAPTER 1
A bray of laughter filtered out from an inner room to the outer court where Elkanah sat, his ear tilted unconsciously towards the direction of the laughter. Out of the cacophony of laughing voices, one ringed out distinctly. The abandonment of the laughter and the bell-like tinkling quality caught his attention. It rang with joy and must have come from a free-spirited maiden.
Obviously, only a maiden with a good heart and uncluttered spirit could easily produce such pleasant sounding laughter.
Elkanah wondered if the maiden who produced such resonant laughter would be pleasant to the eyes as her voice was pleasant to the ears. He strained his ears to pick out the voice from the chatting voices coming out of the room.
He would love to see the maiden with such a rich voice and sweet laughter, but as tradition goes, he wasn't sure it would be possible soon. He knew his friend Hezron had three younger sisters; he had met two on his previous visit. The third and the eldest went to visit her mother’s sister then.
Having met with the other two, it would be reasonable to conclude the voice belonged to the unknown sister, but then he couldn’t be too sure; there might be some friends with them. So engrossed was he in his musing he failed to hear Hezron speak to him. A poke in the rib jarred him into consciousness.
“Hi champ, where are you?” Hezron's eyes twinkled with amusement.
Elkanah blinked and smiled obligingly at his friend. “My mind is on food.” The lie came effortlessly out of his mouth.
Hezron’s smile broadened. “Like I knew, I was asking if we will stay for dinner and sneak back to camp in the night.” He arched his brow.
Elkanah smiled mischievously. Hezron took it as a yes.
“If we get caught, we dig trench tomorrow,” Hezron said, an equally mischievous grin on his face.
“No, they won’t catch us; Kaba and Boaz are on night watch, we will enter through either of their posts,” Elkanah informed him.
“That’s good news, so dinner is a settled issue, then.”
“Sure.” They exchanged a high five.
Hezron looked at his mother, who was watching them, her knitting suspended. “Ma, how about fixing a feast for us poor starved soldiers of the people?” he smiled ruefully at his mother.
Ma Miriam beamed. “Indeed, it’s going to be a feast, my soldiers eat as ferocious as a lion. At times I wonder if it is only berries and wild honey they feed you in camp.”
“Berries and wild honey,” Elkanah repeated thoughtfully. “In fact Ma, you’re right. That is the appropriate name to call what they give us in camp as food. No wonder, after eating, I look for the food in my stomach.”
Ma Miriam laughed. Of all Hezron’s friends he brought home from time to time, she liked Elkanah more, right from the first day he came home with her son. He was a cheerful and friendly lad with a good sense of humour.
She took her knitting and left. It meant they would have an early dinner, so the boys would get back to camp on time.
Just then Hezron’s father came in from the field. “Welcome, Pa.” The boys stood up to greet Pa Zorah.
“My boys, how is the camp?” He beamed at them. “Fine, sir.” They answered together.
“Are you home on break or passing through on an errand?”
They exchanged brief glances.
“Actually, Pa, we came for a quick visit, maybe an hour or two, then we will be on our way back,” Hezron answered, avoiding his father’s stare.
“Did you come with the camp commandant’s permission?”
“Not quite, sir,” Elkanah answered.
Hezron butted in. “The thing is, there has been peace and inactivity in the camp for one week now and everybody is told to relax and have a bit of fun.”
Elkanah smiled. Trust Hezron to come up with a perfect answer.
“Hmm, I see.” He eyed the boys shrewdly. He knew his son as a restless lad; it wasn’t out of character he chose to come home over spending the day in camp in idleness. “Where are your sisters?”
“In their room, they don’t know I’m around yet. We came in a few minutes ago. But I will see them before dinnertime.”
“You’re staying for dinner, then?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Your mother, where is she? Is she aware?”
“Yes, sir, she went towards the kitchen.”
“In that case, the servants are bringing in the grapes from the field, we started harvesting today. Two of you should go to the garner and see to it that the fruits are packed well. I want to go and wash up before I meet the ladies.”
“No problem, sir, we will go right away.” They turned and left.
