Paris: The Novel

candle. It is the custom. What is this to you?”
    “Because your daughter does not walk to Notre Dame. She walks to other places.”
    “Where does she walk?”
    “She can walk to Aquitaine for all I care! But she is walking with my son Aaron. That is why I am here.”
    Aaron. Her childhood friend. A stocky boy, some years older than Naomi. Nothing special. Jacob hadn’t given him a thought in years.
    So Naomi’s outburst had caused her to start seeing her Jewish childhood friends again. He could understand her doing so, but it was not wise, especially to be seen in the streets with the rabbi’s son. It could give rise to misinterpretation. He wondered what other Jews she might have seen, and what she might have said to them.
    “I did not know this. I will tell her she should not meet him anymore.” He almost reached out his hand to touch the rabbi’s arm, but decided not to, instead giving him what he hoped was a conciliatory smile. “I am sure Aaron is a good young man. But in our situation …” He shrugged sadly. “Their old friendship is no longer wise.”
    “You have not understood,” said the rabbi. “They want to get married.”
    “Married?”
    “Yes, Jacob ben Jacob. Married. Your daughter wants to return to the faith of her fathers. She wants to marry my son and be a Jew again.”
    Jacob gazed at him. Then he bowed his head.
    So. She had deceived him. Completely. For a moment it was like a blow to the pit of his stomach. He sagged forward.
    She had turned away from him. She was no longer his. Did her mother know? Had his whole family secretly deserted him? He took a deep breath.
    She was young. He must remember this. She might read and write, and think for herself, and show wisdom. But she was still young, and probably in love. He told himself this quickly, before the pain grew too great to bear.
    “You are sure of this?” he asked, without looking up.
    “Yes. My son has spoken to me.”
    “Such a thing is impossible.”
    “Of course it is impossible.”
    “Does she not realize that this would put her whole family in danger? My own conversion would be questioned.”
    “Your family?” The rabbi leaned forward, and began to speak, in a low voice that was intense with anger. “Less than thirty years ago, Jacob ben Jacob, a Christian in Brittany converted to Judaism. Such a thing isvery rare. We do not encourage it. But it happens. And when that convert died, he was buried as a Jew, in the Jewish cemetery. And do you know what the Inquisition did? They burned the rabbi at the stake. Because he let that man die a Jew, when he should have been buried in Christian, consecrated ground. Does this make sense? Not to me. But that is what they did.” He paused. “So what will happen to me and my family if the Inquisition says that we are stealing a Christian convert back to Judaism? Who can tell? But for taking your daughter’s soul into our evil clutches, they will probably burn me and my son as well. Our risk is not less than yours, Jacob. It is greater.”
    “What have you told your son?”
    “That I forbid him even to think of it.”
    “And what does he say?”
    “That he will marry no one else. I told him: ‘Then you will marry no one.’ ” The rabbi threw up his hands. “He thinks that they can go to live in another city where they are not known. Arrive there as a married couple. This is foolishness. I have told him no. But … I don’t know what they may do.”
    “You don’t think …?”
    “That there is a child on the way? No. Thank God. He says they have not … But we had better be careful. You must lock your daughter up, Jacob, to stop this madness.”
    “It is what I will do,” he said.

    He tried to reason with her first.
    “My child, do you think I do not understand?” he cried. “When you are in love, the skies open, you think you see angels. Everything seems possible. But there are darker forces at work in the world, and I am trying to protect you from them.”
    She listened to him. But when he asked her to promise never to see the young man again, she would not do it. And even if she had, he wasn’t sure he would have believed her.
    From that day, despite all her protests, Naomi was kept in the house. She could not even take her little brother for a walk. Jacob told her that she could come out with him, if she wished. But she refused, because she would not speak to him.
    Though he was under close watch himself, Aaron tried to see her, and three