Chapter 26 #2
“I don’t know exactly, but from what Jacques discovered, Richard’s family has Crusader origins.
His ancestors were in the Crusades, can you imagine?
And apparently, some branch of the family actually settled here.
Sometime in the thirteenth century, one of them bought this property here, and it passed from one generation to the next for all those years.
It’s crazy—the Mamluk sultanate, the Ottomans, the British Mandate, the State of Israel—and the estate kept being passed down within the family.
An actual Crusader property in the midst of our respectable Atlit—can you believe it? ”
I needed a few seconds to collect myself and speak without giving away my disproportionate enthusiasm.
“Do you have any idea what the family was called?” I permitted myself a voice of healthy curiosity.
“Diblin, de Ibelin, something like that. Their name changed over time, of course; some of the heiresses married new husbands, and none of them even lived on the property most of the time, but they must have had some kind of power of attorney that also got passed down, and the wording in the land registry was preserved and updated. It’s crazy, the documents that Jacques found.
I took pictures of some of his scans—want to see them? ”
“Later,” I said, trying to maintain a steady voice. “Let’s eat dinner first.”
I chopped vegetables and put out cheese, imagining Jean going and buying a property not far from our spring, where he thought my house was.
Maybe he built (or would build?) a little hut there?
So that if I came for a visit, we would have some privacy?
The thought both moved me and made me sad.
Could he be sitting there, waiting for me to drop by and visit?
Would he continue to come here all his life?
I shook it off and focused on our dinner.
There would be time to think about all this.
Lily ate well at dinner, not demanding something else in place of everything I gave her, and just chewed and swallowed and listened to the two of us.
We tried not to make a big deal of it so as not to break the magic, but every so often we nudged each other lightly under the table and winked with satisfaction.
After dinner, Halimi gave us our gifts. He spoiled Lily with sweets from duty-free, a bronze statuette of Artemis, and a sheath that precisely fit the sword that Richard had given her the last time.
Lily raced to strap on the sword, and the sheath hung funny because the belt was still big on her.
I thought that he would bring me a shawl, something beautiful he found in one of the flea markets that he liked to wander around in when he was abroad, but he surprised me once more.
Inside a red rectangular velvet box, very similar to the one in which he gave me the necklace with the Ibelin coin, lay another necklace with a worn, polished coin.
“What is this?” I asked with faint fear. His eyebrows rose.
“It’s a Phoenician coin, from right around this area. I found it in some antique coin stall at the market in Paris. I thought of starting you a collection of ancient coins because you loved that Crusader one so much,” he said, a little uncertain.
“It’s lovely,” I replied and kissed him on the forehead. “And a really sweet idea.” His face shone, and his old Cheshire cat smile appeared again. I realized I had missed that smile for a long time.
My finger lingered over the quick dial for Libby for a long time, but I did not dare call. I could not forget how she had shunned me when I decided to go back to Halimi. Still, I told myself, there’s a limit to how much yearning one person can maintain. In the end, I sent a text: “Miss you.”
The reply came at once: “Why aren’t you writing on WhatsApp? What are you, my grandmother?”
I grinned and meant to call, but she beat me to it.
“So, how’s exile, Dita?” Libby asked after we both muttered vague apologies. Libby confessed that she missed me like crazy and hinted that she would even suffer Halimi’s presence for the sake of a visit to the new place.
“Truth is, it’s pretty great here,” I said. “If you want an escape from the frenzy of the city, you are always welcome for a weekend of swimming, lounging, smoking, and gossiping.”
“Listen,” she said, “I can’t not see Lily any longer. Does she miss me?” We agreed that she would come the following Friday.
I spent the rest of the morning making phone calls.
I also called my mother-in-law—I wanted to thank her for the gift that she sent me from Paris via Halimi.
It was a beautiful copy of the Roman de la Rose, the romantic bestseller from the Middle Ages, handcrafted by master restorers of the time, which must have cost a lot of money.
I did not know how to thank her properly for the magnificent gift, so I laughed and said that if we fell on hard times, I could always sell it to some enchanted collector. Simone giggled and then grew serious.
“So, how are you these days, my dear? Soli isn’t driving you too crazy?” she asked quietly.
“No, not at all,” I replied, my heart brimming. It’s not every mother-in-law who would talk like that about her son. “He’s amazing. Brought me another ancient coin from Paris. Phoenician, this time.” I said, trying to lighten the conversation.
“Another coin, ah?” Simone said in French.
“Yes, because I so love the coin that you found at the beach. The Ibelin coin,” I said meaningfully. “Tell me,” I added, my heart pounding. “Who found it that day, you or Saul?”