Mary of Nazareth Read Online Free

asked.
    â€œLeaving. I don’t suppose you want me to go out through your father’s precious house. I’d rather leave the way I came.”
    â€œBarabbas, wait!”
    They were both wrong and both right, Miriam knew. So did Barabbas. That was what made him angry.
    She went close enough to him to put her hand on his arm. He shuddered as if she had stung him.
    â€œWhere do you live?” she asked.
    â€œNot here.”
    What an irritating habit that was, of never answering questions directly! All part of being a thief, she supposed.
    â€œI know you don’t live here, or I would have seen you before.”
    â€œIn Sepphoris…”
    A sizable town, an hour and a half’s walk to the north. You had to go through a dense forest to get there. No one would ever dare venture into it at night.
    â€œDon’t be silly,” she said gently. “You can’t go back now.” She took off her woolen shawl and handed it to him. “You can sleep in the hiding place…Leave the trapdoor open. That way, you won’t suffocate. And if you put this shawl around you, you won’t feel too cold.”
    His only response was to shrug and look away. But he did not refuse the shawl, and he abandoned his attempt to escape over the wall of the terrace.
    â€œTomorrow,” Miriam said, with a smile in her voice, “as early as I can, I’ll bring you some bread and milk. But when it gets light, it’s best if you close the trapdoor. Sometimes, my father comes up here as soon as he rises.”

    B Y dawn, a thin, cold rain was falling, and everything felt damp. Unseen and unheard by anyone in the house, Miriam took a little pot of milk and a hunk of bread from her mother’s reserves, and climbed to the terrace.
    The trapdoor was closed. The wood glistened with rain. Making sure that no one could see her, she pulled on the plank. The panel tipped just enough to show her that the hiding place was empty inside. Barabbas was gone.
    He had not been gone for long. She could still feel his warmth in the woolen shawl, which he had left behind, carefully folded. So carefully that Miriam smiled. It was as if he had left her a sign. A sign of gratitude, perhaps.
    Miriam was not surprised that Barabbas had vanished like this, without waiting for her. It went well with the image she had of him. Restless, foolhardy, unable to settle. Besides, it was raining, and he must have been afraid of being seen by the people of Nazareth. If anyone had discovered him in the village, they would have been sure to connect him with the young men who were being hunted by Herod’s mercenaries and might have been tempted to take revenge on him for the fear they had felt.
    All the same, as she closed the trapdoor again, Miriam could not help feeling slightly disappointed. She would have liked to see Barabbas again, to talk to him at greater length, to see his face in the full light of day.
    It was highly unlikely their paths would ever cross again. Barabbas would most likely want to avoid Nazareth in the future.
    She turned away to go back down to the house, and as she did so she shivered. The cold, the rain, her fear and anger—it all came together within her at the same time. In turning, she had caught sight of the three wooden crosses that stood on the hill overlooking the village, and although she was accustomed to the sight by now, it never failed to arouse a sense of horror.
    Six months earlier, Herod’s mercenaries had hanged three men there, three “thieves” captured in the area. By now, the three corpses were nothing but shriveled, putrefied, shapeless masses half-eaten by birds.
    That was what awaited Barabbas if he got caught. It was also what justified his rebellion.

PART ONE

    THE YEAR 6 B.C.

CHAPTER 1
    T HE torpor of early morning was shattered by the cries of children.
    â€œThey’re here! They’re here!”
    In his workshop, Joachim was already at work. He exchanged