Angel Time (The Songs of the Seraphim 1)

She didn't wait for an answer, but embraced Meir, who kissed her in return, though he was pale with fear and clearly repelled by these proceedings.

Lady Margaret now stared at Rosa with the hardest eye and, turning to her daughter, whispered something to her.

At once the young girl went up to Rosa, even as Rosa hung on her mother's shoulder, and said, "But Lea, why did you send no message to us that you were to be baptized?"

"How could I?" asked Rosa through a continuing flood of tears. "What could I tell you? Surely you understand the heartbreak I brought to these my beloved parents by my decision? What could they do but send for the Earl's soldiers to take me to Paris, which they did, and there I joined my sister. But I would not have had it trumpeted about the Jewry that I had so betrayed my loving parents."

She went on in this same manner, crying so bitterly that the absence of familiar names wasn't noticed, and begging for all those to understand how she felt.

"Had not I seen the beautiful Christmas pageant," she said suddenly, treading a little close to danger when she did so, "I would not have understood why my sister, Rosa, converted. But I did see it, and I did come to understand, and as soon as I was well enough, I went to join her. Do you think I knew that anyone would accuse my mother and father of harming me?"

The young girl was now on the defensive.

"We thought you were dead, you must believe that," she said.

But before she could go on, Rosa demanded to know, "How could you have doubted the goodness of my mother and father? You who have been in our house, how could you think they would do harm to me?"

Lady Margaret and the young girl were both now shaking their heads, murmuring that they only did what they thought was right and mustn't be blamed for it.

So far so good. But Fr. Antoine now let his voice be heard loud enough to echo off the walls.

"This is a very grand show," he said, "but as we know full well, Fluria, daughter of Eli, who has come here this day, had twins, and twins have not come here together to exonerate her. How do we know that you are not Lea but in fact Rosa?"

Voices everywhere rose to emphasize his question.

Rosa didn't hesitate.

"Father," she said to the priest, "would my sister, a baptized Christian, come here to defend my parents if the life of her sister had been taken by them? Surely you must believe me. I am Lea. And I want only to return to my sister in Paris, along with my guardian, Earl Nigel."

"But how are we to know?" demanded the Bishop. "Were these twins not identical?" He motioned to Rosa to come closer.

The hall was filled with angry and contrary voices.

But nothing alarmed me as much as the way that Lady Margaret had stepped forward and was staring with narrow eyes at Rosa.

Rosa again told the Bishop that she would swear on the Bible that she was Lea. And now she wished that her sister had come, but she had never thought that her friends here would not believe her. Lady Margaret suddenly cried out, "No! This is not the same child. This is her double, but with a different heart and a different spirit."

I thought the crowd would riot. Angry cries came from all sides. The Bishop at once demanded, "Silence."

"Bring the Bible for this child to swear," said the Bishop, "and bring the sacred book of the Jews for the mother to swear that this is her daughter Lea."

At once, there were panicked glances exchanged between Rosa and her mother. And Rosa began to cry again and ran into her mother's arms. As for Fluria, she seemed exhausted from her imprisonment and weak and incapable of saying or doing anything.

The books were produced, though what the "sacred book of the Jews" was I couldn't have said.

And Meir and Fluria murmured the lies required of them.

As for Rosa, she took the huge leather-bound volume of the Bible, and immediately laid her hand on it. "I swear to you," she said, her voice muted and breaking with emotion, "by all I believe as a Christian, that I am Lea, born to Fluria, and the ward of Earl Nigel, come here to clear the name of my mother. And I want only to be allowed to leave this place, knowing that my Jewish parents are safe, and will pay no penalty for my defection."

"No," cried Lady Margaret. "Lea never spoke with such ease as that, never in her life. She was a mute compared to this one. I tell you, this child is deceiving us. She is party to the murder of her sister."

At this the Earl lost his temper. He shouted louder than anyone present except the Bishop.

"How dare you contradict my word?" he demanded. He glared at the Bishop. "And you, how dare you challenge me when I tell you that I am Christian guardian to both these girls who are being educated by my brother?"

Godwin stepped forward. "My Lord Bishop, please, do not let this go on any further. Restore these good Jews to their homes. Can you not imagine the pain of these parents who have seen their daughters take up the Christian faith? Much as I am honored to be their teacher, and to love them with a true Christian love, I cannot but feel compassion for the parents they've left behind."

A moment of silence fell except for the feverish murmurings of the crowd that seemed to move hither and thither through those assembled as if a game of whispering were being played.

It seemed everything hung now on Lady Margaret and what she might say.

But just as she was about to protest, throwing her finger out at Rosa, old Eli, Fluria's father, stepped forward and cried, "I demand to be heard." I thought Godwin would perish with apprehension. And Fluria collapsed on the breast of Meir.

But the old man commanded the silence of all. Indeed, he stepped up, with Rosa's guidance, until he stood facing Lady Margaret blindly with Rosa between them.

"Lady Margaret, latent friend of my daughter Fluria and her good husband, Meir, how dare you challenge a grandfather's wits and reason? This is my grandchild, and I would know her no matter how many doubles of her roamed this world. Do I want to embrace an apostate child? No, never, but she is Lea, and I would know her were there a thousand Rosas to fill this room and say otherwise. I know her voice. I know her as no one with sight could possibly know her. Are you to challenge my gray hairs, my wisdom, my honesty, my honor!" He at once reached out for Rosa, who went into his arms. He crushed Rosa to his shoulder. "Lea," he whispered. "Lea, my own."

"But I only wanted--," began Lady Margaret.

"Silence, I say," said Eli with an immense deep voice, as if he wanted everyone in the great room to hear it. "This is Lea. I, who have ruled the synagogues of the Jews all my life, avow it. I avow it. Yes, these daughters are apostates and must eventually be excommunicated from their fellow Jews and this is bitter, bitter to me, but even more bitter is the obstinacy of a Christian woman who is the very cause of this child's defection. Were it not for you she would never have left her pious parents!"