Novela de Mi Id

“In Fear and Trembling”

Chapter Five

That night they were left alone in a large bedchamber. The carpet and the drapes were all in bright red; the ceiling was inscribed with angels. On the wall beside the bed was a tapestry depicting the Annunciation and the Wedding at Cana. He remembered learning about these events from the sexless ones when he was a child but he was not sure why they were deemed appropriate for a tapestry in this room. Behind the bed and above the headboard was a wooden cross upon which a hook-nosed figure clad in a loincloth was nailed. This figure, too, was familiar to him from his childhood teachings but it still made him uneasy to look at it -- perhaps because no such figure had ever been used to decorate his cell when he was growing up.

He and his bride were silent as they entered the room. The sexless one who had escorted them inside leered as it departed and made a gesture of farewell.

His bride was the first to sit upon the bed, her white dress clashing with the red blankets and bed curtains. She pulled aside the blankets; the sheets beneath were pure white. But of course, she thought. Then she gazed upward at the eyeless angels.

Behind her, she heard the sound of shuffling feet. Her groom cleared his throat. “I suppose it's time,” he said.

He started to undress.

“No, not here,” she said. “Turn your back first.”

“But we are man and wife,” he said.

“The angels are watching,” she said and then she pointed upward.

“But those are only painted figures.”

“But they have human eyes.”

She turned toward him. “You still don't understand, do you?”

He shook his head.

“The Church, your father -- they will have men and maids watching us. To see that we conform to the Holy Law.”

“Why is that a matter for them?” he said. “I was taught that it was a matter between us and God.”

She winced. “It is. But God does not always punish the ungodly; that is the Holy Church's role. And if the Holy Church did not do its part, we might soon fall into...” She paused. “...bestiality,” she weakly finished.

“I still don't understand.”

“The servants are watching us to see that we couple in the approved manner. For if we do not, we imperil our very souls and they will feel obliged to report us to men who will save us from ourselves -- at the cost of our very lives." She paused again. “Do you understand?”

He smiled. “No, I don't. What harm can the two of us do to the Mother Church in our marriage bed? Surely the ceremony has already proved us to be good Christians.”

“Perhaps. Perhaps not. Many a nonbeliever has called himself a Christian after the Reconquest yet still eschewed ham and pork. Some such folk even retained a separate set of dishes for Sabbath days. No, a good Christian must be Christian in all parts of his life -- and not just in public.”

“And the servants are here to see to that?”

“Yes, of course.”

He walked over to the wall, bowed to the crucifix, gently removed it from the wall and kissed it. Then he drove it upward into one of the angel's eyes. He heard a shriek of pain for his trouble.

“Bless this room and all in it,” he said, repeating words he had heard in his childhood, “For who knows what evil things lurk without?”

His bride's face contorted in fury. “You fool. You risk not only your life but mine with such blasphemy.”

“On the contrary, I am the Heir. You said so yourself. The one who shall someday rule this great kingdom. For me, there is no such thing as blasphemy.”

“You fool. Even a Prince of the Blood is not exempt from the stake.”

He smiled. “Tell me this. Did these men who watch us so closely care so much for my immortal soul all those years I was imprisoned?”

“That was different. You were born quite ill, or so the old folks said. Your father was not sure that you would survive.”

“So he locked me away from all mortal men and treated me like an animal -- just in case.” He smiled again.

He dropped the crucifix and walked toward the bed.

“What are you going to do to me?”

“That which a man usually does to his lawfully wedded wife.”

“But the servants...”

“Should get their own women.”

He started to undress her.

“No. Wait. I can do it. Please. Stand back.”

“You seem most frightened, my dear.”

“The tales I have heard the servants telling about you. About the encounter you had with the village girl. She said you were a sodomite.”

He laughed. “I'm afraid I don't know that word.”

“That you were a boy-lover. An eunuch. One who is incapable of physically making love to a woman like me.”

He smiled. “I know not what those first two parts mean, but I assure you that the third part is not true. And you will soon find out just how untrue it is.”

“Will I?”

He stared at her, his shirt half-unbuttoned.

“Certainly.”